We come now to the parable of the Wheat and Weeds. In the context Matthew sets for us there are several parables in Matthew 13. He also included a quote from the Psalms that told why Jesus talked in Parables.

“The more your story requires the hearers to think, the better your story is.” Considering this quote from a recent book on story-theory, Jesus’ stories have been occupying people’s minds for a couple thousand years. We often think that the meaning of a parable is set and often easy to understand. Yet, looking back over the history of this parable, it has said many different things in many different contexts. From the church’s experience in the world, the Rabbis used it to tell of Israel among the gentiles, St. Augustine used it to restrain church discipline, to the question of how do we know who in our church are true believers are just some of the ideations of this parable throughout the years.

That is why parables are so fascinating, God is still speaking to us through them after all these years. And even with Jesus’ interpretation of this parable that follows, there is still much that we are required to think about and allow God to speak to us.

Pastor Greg