Sunday 23 July 2017

Psalm: Psalm 139

Background

The kingdom of heaven is like … God's kingdom is like … The mansows good seed in his ground, he does the right thing, but thenweeds appear. You would think there would be no weeds in God'skingdom, but it is not so straightforward. Bad things happen and itis very hard to sort out the good from the bad.

Of course, we are sometimes tricked because things or people arenot what they first seem. Some weeds are very easy to identify,while others have the knack of blending in. This parable refers toa particular weed, bearded darnel, not weeds in general. Darnel isslightly poisonous. It causes dizziness, sickness and is narcoticin its effects, even a small amount has an unpleasant and bittertaste. When it first grew, darnel so closely resembled wheat thatit was impossible to distinguish between them. When both had headedout it was easy to do so, but by that time their roots were sointertwined that the darnel could not be weeded out without tearingthe wheat out too. Both must be left to grow together until harvestthen it had to be separated laboriously by hand, a job often doneby the women. They picked out the darnel which was similar in shapeand size to wheat, but slate grey in colour. All this would havebeen obvious to Jesus first followers, and it formed a very strongimage of the difficulty in separating the bad from the good in thislife, the "children of the evil one" (v. 38) are not instantlyrecognisable. But in the end, the Father will separate the goodwheat from the poisonous.

Even when we try to sow the good, the bad still mysteriouslyhappens. While God will have the final say, here and now things aresometimes mixed and confusing. We have to make the best of it andtry not to allow the good to be strangled out by the bad. In theannoying situation the farmer's aim is to protect the good.

To Ponder

• What is the darnel in your life? Are there habits, ways oftalking or priorities that look good on the outside, but are reallypoisonous and damaging?

• In what ways should we nurture the good, rather than rush todamaging judgement?