(This passage is also referenced in Luke 13:18-21 and Mark 4:30-32)

These stories are brilliant pictures of the way that evil can spreads through life. The first time I read this I thought that it would take a pretty vindictive person to weeds into a crop. But when I was in my late teens I got a summer job on a farm where I was employed to do just what the first story talks about. I was sent out just before harvest and instructed to pull up all the wild oats or ‘rogues’ as my employer called them. I learned that this is nasty weed has the capacity to spread significant distances if it’s left unchecked. The seeds have a small tail attached to them that curls up in the heat of the day which quite literally springs open catapulting them up to 20 feet through the air. The result is that if the seeds are allowed to germinate the next season’s crop is filled with another unintentional crop of useless rogues.

The parallels are very clear. Jesus was talking about the evil that works its way in amongst the ranks of those who have committed themselves to God – the church. The warning is to be on your guard against attacks from our old enemy Satan. He loves to get in amongst a group of believers and cause all manner of disagreements, dissentions, misinterpretation, gossip, slander, enviousness, fracture, separation…. you get the picture. But there’s something else too! We have to keep a careful check on what we let into our individual lives. Even small things can cause us a lot of trouble if we don’t root them out. When does the occasional glass of wine become a habit or watching certain types of movie on television become an addiction to pornography? When does missing a Sunday service once in a while become a habit of attending once in a while? How many times do we put ourselves ahead of God or others before we start thinking that we’re more important than anyone else? How often do we excuse our use of bad language before it becomes an acceptable part of who we are? How often do we neglect the needs of the homeless or needy in favour of the things we want for ourselves before we start thinking that those people should really sort themselves out? The sowing of weed seeds is a nasty and vindictive business against which we should all be on our guard.

***

Dear Lord, help me to see the things my enemy is getting up to and to be on my guard at all times. Amen.