Matthew 13: 24 – 30

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

Jesus is warning all of us that the enemy of the kingdom works only during the time we are asleep. As Christians, the Lord is urging us to be alert always. Just before Jesus was betrayed in the garden of Gethsemane, He chided his close disciples saying, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation’ (Luke 22:46). When the hour of crisis came, Jesus stridently offered Himself to do God’s will but the disciples fled from the scene.

Jesus taught through this parable that the kingdom of heaven is a perfected place where only the good exist but in the earthly kingdom both the good and the bad co-exist. It is only in the last days that the sons of the kingdom will be separated from the sons of the evil one.

How does the reaper differentiate the wheat from the weed since both look alike?

At harvest time the wheat which has the grain, because of its weight would bow down before the reaper while the weed would stand stiff.

Let us continue to sow into the kingdom of God keeping a watch over the enemy’s intrusion, knowing that the weeds grow much faster than the wheat.  

Thought for the day: In every effort of ours we should not feel discouraged when we see the tares because the enemy is sneakily at work.