February 25, 2025 • 9 mins
In this episode, we dive deep into the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds, as told in Matthew 13. Join us as we explore the meaning behind this powerful story, where Jesus teaches about the kingdom of heaven and the ultimate separation of the righteous (the wheat) from the unrighteous (the weeds) at the end of time. The conversation reflects on the nature of faith, the challenges of identifying true believers, and the importance of focusing on being the "wheat" rather than hunting for the "weeds." We discuss why this parable, though often overlooked, carries a timely and relevant message about vigilance, grace, and trust in God's ultimate judgment. Tune in for insightful reflections and an honest conversation about living as true followers of Christ in a world filled with distractions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:30):
Grab your Bibles open to Matthew chapter 13. You can
hear Laura doing it. Do it louder so we can
really hear it. No. Nobody tells Laura what to do.
And nobody puts baby.
S2 (00:42):
I'm gonna rip my pages.
S1 (00:43):
Matthew 1324 to 43. It's a series of parables from
the Lord Jesus. In this case, yesterday, Lauren said, we
gotta talk about the parable of the weeds. And I
was like, oh yeah, the parable, the parable of the weeds.
Is that the spreading the seeds on the rocky? No
it's not. So let's go through this and we'll see
(01:07):
what we can pull from it.
S3 (01:07):
That's the one I assumed it was when you said that.
S1 (01:10):
Okay. It's not just me. No. So I can't get
any consternation. Look from the ladies on the team.
S4 (01:16):
I know I thought the same thing. Did you. Did
they mean the parable of the sower?
S1 (01:20):
No. The parable of the weeds. I had forgotten about
this one. Isn't this fun about the Bible? When you
pick it up, sometimes you go. When did that get
in there? I didn't know he told us that one.
So here it is. Uh, Jesus told them another parable.
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed
good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping,
his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat.
S3 (01:40):
And.
S1 (01:40):
Went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then
the weeds also appeared. The owner's servant came to him
and said, sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field?
Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this,
he replied. The servants asked him, do you want us
to go pull them up? No, he answered, because while
(02:05):
you are pulling the weeds you may uproot the wheat
with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At
that time I will tell the harvesters. First collect the
weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned. Then
gather the wheat and bring it into my barn. And
then he moves on to the parable of the mustard seed.
(02:26):
Why do you think we don't hear about that one much?
S3 (02:29):
I remember it as soon as you start reading it,
but it's not. It's not as popular. It's shorter.
S4 (02:39):
I feel like most of his parables are much longer. Yeah,
and they tell a whole complete story. And like the.
S1 (02:45):
Good Samaritan does.
S4 (02:45):
Yes. Or the prodigal son? Yeah.
S1 (02:48):
Great story. Beginning middle, end. You know. Uh, and yet,
I don't know if I said parable, the parable of
the mustard seed. That's even shorter than the one I
just read. Yeah.
S4 (02:57):
That's true.
S1 (02:57):
But we're like, oh, yeah, mustard seed, small seed. There
you go. Big tree at the end.
S4 (03:04):
This one's a little, I think harder. It's hard. Like
there's less stuff for us to feel good about in
this one. Right.
S1 (03:11):
And there's a part of it that's a little surprising. Like,
as I'm reading through it. Honest reaction. I'm like the servants. Like, hey,
we should go get these things out of here. No, wait. What?
Leave them there. I was a little surprised by that.
Am I crazy? No. Seems like good advice. And he's like, no,
leave it there. Now, um, any of you trained at
(03:35):
Moody Bible Institute? Any of you?
S2 (03:36):
Yes I will.
S1 (03:37):
Oh, you. Lauren. Yeah. Like, what do you like, just
first blush. How do we look at parables? Do you
remember your lessons on that from Moody? Like, how do
we read through parables?
S2 (03:49):
I mean, obviously, there's a deeper meaning to the parables.
S1 (03:52):
It's not about growing wheat.
S2 (03:53):
It's not about growing wheat. Oftentimes, um, at first blush,
it's not we're not usually the good part of the parable.
We're usually he's trying to shine a light on the
bad part, like.
S1 (04:06):
I'm the farmer.
S2 (04:06):
Right. Or something. Yeah, he's the farmer.
S1 (04:08):
Yeah. I'd be like, well, I of course I would
do counterintuitive with my farming techniques.
S2 (04:13):
Yes, exactly.
S1 (04:15):
So we're more in this story, probably the servants or
the weeds in the story.
S4 (04:21):
We might be where the weeds.
S2 (04:22):
Where the wheat in the story. The wheat. Um, but.
S4 (04:25):
I think we could be the servants, depending on your
approach to, you know, weeds in life.
S2 (04:32):
I think I think the story is saying this or
the farmer is God and he's sowing a field which
is the world. The wheat is the kingdom of God,
the people of God, and the weeds are those who
are not. Those are unbelievers. And when the end of
the world comes, when the time comes, the fire like
(04:52):
it talks about, he is going to take up those
the wheat that is us and harvest us, whereas the
weeds will be sent to the fire.
S4 (05:03):
But he's allowing us to come up along with the weeds. Right.
Until that time. Right?
S1 (05:07):
And now, in Bible to Life, it's a website from Moody.
There's a little bit of a twist, I think, that
I'm anxious to hear what you guys think of this.
One of the takeaways or applications from this parable, the
person says, is if the devil is mixing his people
in among true Christians, then we should be on alert
to that fact. he said we should be on guard
not to be taken in, and we should not be
(05:29):
surprised if the devil's people show up in strange places
or eventually show their true colors by abandoning Christianity entirely. Yeah.
S2 (05:36):
What did they call him? The person that sowed the enemy.
S4 (05:40):
Is that what it was called? Yeah, that's what that
translation said. Yeah.
S2 (05:42):
So they're the ones sowing, you know, mixing it in
the enemy.
S1 (05:47):
And then this person reminds us that Paul says with
a warning that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light,
and that it's no surprise if his servants also disguise
themselves as servants of righteousness. And so, as in, there
actually could be people among us in our churches that
are weeds.
S2 (06:04):
Yeah, I think we get a lot of warnings about
this in Scripture.
S1 (06:07):
It's kind of scary though.
S2 (06:08):
It is scary.
S4 (06:09):
I mean, statistically speaking, your your church probably has several weeds.
S1 (06:14):
How do you find them?
S2 (06:16):
I'm not certain that you need to go looking.
S4 (06:20):
You just keep being a wheat. And maybe. I mean,
I know this is not biologically correct, but maybe the
weeds will turn into wheat.
S1 (06:28):
Or they'll eventually be exposed for who they are. Um,
and yet I feel like our gut reactions would be more.
Let's get them.
S2 (06:35):
Yeah, I.
S4 (06:36):
Want to pull it.
S2 (06:37):
Out. Like the parable says. Go get the.
S1 (06:38):
Go get the weeds. Get them, get them out.
S4 (06:40):
Yeah. I feel like in our American culture, we could
absolutely be the servant in this parable. Um.
S1 (06:45):
And yet it's almost counterintuitive, right? God's like, no, no,
just leave them there, but be on alert. Um, to me,
it reminds me of wolves in sheep's clothing and of
the people who cried out and said, oh, I did
stuff for you. He's like, no, you never knew me.
S2 (06:59):
Yeah. And then there will. There will come a time
that we're separated and you'll see that the weeds are
going to be separated, and that the angels of the
Lord are going to come take the wheat, those who
are found in Christ. But that may just not be
something we see in this lifetime.
S1 (07:15):
Uh, the person also said that the old proverb is
true when you look for the devil, don't forget to
look in the pulpit.
S5 (07:23):
Oh.
S2 (07:24):
It is scary.
S1 (07:25):
Ouch.
S3 (07:26):
Wow.
S1 (07:27):
Yeah. And okay, so it is a scary parable. It
is scary. I like ones that are nice with a
happy ending. But also I like a son running to
his father's arms. Come on. Where's that one? I love
that one. And I think.
S2 (07:37):
We sometimes have the tendency to say we want to
look around. We want to find the people in our congregation.
It makes us nervous about our fellow Christians, our fellow
brothers and.
S1 (07:47):
Sisters, and we want to know who's saved and who's not.
We're on high.
S2 (07:49):
Alert, looking around for who it could be. And that's
he says, don't do that.
S1 (07:55):
I wish people could have seen your you did a
visual of antennas. Yeah.
S4 (07:59):
Right.
S1 (07:59):
Is that what they were?
S4 (08:00):
That was cute, Lauren.
S1 (08:00):
She had her antennas up, like looking around for things. Yes. Uh,
and I like the way you put it, too, Daria. Like,
just you worry about being wheat.
S4 (08:10):
Mhm.
S1 (08:11):
Like you're not the Salvation Police know that this is
going to happen and that they're their true colors will
eventually be revealed. But you be a light for Christ. Okay,
I can do that. It was a little nervous, though,
for a.
S2 (08:26):
Minute, but I want to go try to find all
the people who are being rude.
S1 (08:30):
Yeah, this is like the, uh, the self-proclaimed, uh, center
police on social media. Like, this is everyone's favorite. Oh,
not saved that guy. Oh, look at him. Oh. Not saved.
Caught him.
S4 (08:44):
Why are they so gleeful about that? If you see
someone and you genuinely suspect they're not saved, shouldn't that
make you sad.
S1 (08:50):
And compassionate at the same time?
S4 (08:52):
It's almost like, uh, like you said, like gotcha. Like, no, no,
not not gotcha. Let's go have a conversation.
S1 (08:59):
It's like Lawrence got him. Make you.
S4 (09:00):
Sad.
S1 (09:01):
Got him. Not safe. No. And Jesus is saying, here,
don't do that. Stop that. You be wheat. And, yeah,
we ought to grieve over that. We ought to grieve
over that. Okay, okay. I feel a bit better. Thanks
for that. So glad you graduated from Moody. And that
we have a friend like Daria with all of her
wisdom and insight.
Grab your Bibles open to Matthew chapter 13. You can
hear Laura doing it. Do it louder so we can
really hear it. No. Nobody tells Laura what to do.
And nobody puts baby.
S2 (00:42):
I'm gonna rip my pages.
S1 (00:43):
Matthew 1324 to 43. It's a series of parables from
the Lord Jesus. In this case, yesterday, Lauren said, we
gotta talk about the parable of the weeds. And I
was like, oh yeah, the parable, the parable of the weeds.
Is that the spreading the seeds on the rocky? No
it's not. So let's go through this and we'll see
(01:07):
what we can pull from it.
S3 (01:07):
That's the one I assumed it was when you said that.
S1 (01:10):
Okay. It's not just me. No. So I can't get
any consternation. Look from the ladies on the team.
S4 (01:16):
I know I thought the same thing. Did you. Did
they mean the parable of the sower?
S1 (01:20):
No. The parable of the weeds. I had forgotten about
this one. Isn't this fun about the Bible? When you
pick it up, sometimes you go. When did that get
in there? I didn't know he told us that one.
So here it is. Uh, Jesus told them another parable.
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed
good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping,
his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat.
S3 (01:40):
And.
S1 (01:40):
Went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then
the weeds also appeared. The owner's servant came to him
and said, sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field?
Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this,
he replied. The servants asked him, do you want us
to go pull them up? No, he answered, because while
(02:05):
you are pulling the weeds you may uproot the wheat
with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At
that time I will tell the harvesters. First collect the
weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned. Then
gather the wheat and bring it into my barn. And
then he moves on to the parable of the mustard seed.
(02:26):
Why do you think we don't hear about that one much?
S3 (02:29):
I remember it as soon as you start reading it,
but it's not. It's not as popular. It's shorter.
S4 (02:39):
I feel like most of his parables are much longer. Yeah,
and they tell a whole complete story. And like the.
S1 (02:45):
Good Samaritan does.
S4 (02:45):
Yes. Or the prodigal son? Yeah.
S1 (02:48):
Great story. Beginning middle, end. You know. Uh, and yet,
I don't know if I said parable, the parable of
the mustard seed. That's even shorter than the one I
just read. Yeah.
S4 (02:57):
That's true.
S1 (02:57):
But we're like, oh, yeah, mustard seed, small seed. There
you go. Big tree at the end.
S4 (03:04):
This one's a little, I think harder. It's hard. Like
there's less stuff for us to feel good about in
this one. Right.
S1 (03:11):
And there's a part of it that's a little surprising. Like,
as I'm reading through it. Honest reaction. I'm like the servants. Like, hey,
we should go get these things out of here. No, wait. What?
Leave them there. I was a little surprised by that.
Am I crazy? No. Seems like good advice. And he's like, no,
leave it there. Now, um, any of you trained at
(03:35):
Moody Bible Institute? Any of you?
S2 (03:36):
Yes I will.
S1 (03:37):
Oh, you. Lauren. Yeah. Like, what do you like, just
first blush. How do we look at parables? Do you
remember your lessons on that from Moody? Like, how do
we read through parables?
S2 (03:49):
I mean, obviously, there's a deeper meaning to the parables.
S1 (03:52):
It's not about growing wheat.
S2 (03:53):
It's not about growing wheat. Oftentimes, um, at first blush,
it's not we're not usually the good part of the parable.
We're usually he's trying to shine a light on the
bad part, like.
S1 (04:06):
I'm the farmer.
S2 (04:06):
Right. Or something. Yeah, he's the farmer.
S1 (04:08):
Yeah. I'd be like, well, I of course I would
do counterintuitive with my farming techniques.
S2 (04:13):
Yes, exactly.
S1 (04:15):
So we're more in this story, probably the servants or
the weeds in the story.
S4 (04:21):
We might be where the weeds.
S2 (04:22):
Where the wheat in the story. The wheat. Um, but.
S4 (04:25):
I think we could be the servants, depending on your
approach to, you know, weeds in life.
S2 (04:32):
I think I think the story is saying this or
the farmer is God and he's sowing a field which
is the world. The wheat is the kingdom of God,
the people of God, and the weeds are those who
are not. Those are unbelievers. And when the end of
the world comes, when the time comes, the fire like
(04:52):
it talks about, he is going to take up those
the wheat that is us and harvest us, whereas the
weeds will be sent to the fire.
S4 (05:03):
But he's allowing us to come up along with the weeds. Right.
Until that time. Right?
S1 (05:07):
And now, in Bible to Life, it's a website from Moody.
There's a little bit of a twist, I think, that
I'm anxious to hear what you guys think of this.
One of the takeaways or applications from this parable, the
person says, is if the devil is mixing his people
in among true Christians, then we should be on alert
to that fact. he said we should be on guard
not to be taken in, and we should not be
(05:29):
surprised if the devil's people show up in strange places
or eventually show their true colors by abandoning Christianity entirely. Yeah.
S2 (05:36):
What did they call him? The person that sowed the enemy.
S4 (05:40):
Is that what it was called? Yeah, that's what that
translation said. Yeah.
S2 (05:42):
So they're the ones sowing, you know, mixing it in
the enemy.
S1 (05:47):
And then this person reminds us that Paul says with
a warning that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light,
and that it's no surprise if his servants also disguise
themselves as servants of righteousness. And so, as in, there
actually could be people among us in our churches that
are weeds.
S2 (06:04):
Yeah, I think we get a lot of warnings about
this in Scripture.
S1 (06:07):
It's kind of scary though.
S2 (06:08):
It is scary.
S4 (06:09):
I mean, statistically speaking, your your church probably has several weeds.
S1 (06:14):
How do you find them?
S2 (06:16):
I'm not certain that you need to go looking.
S4 (06:20):
You just keep being a wheat. And maybe. I mean,
I know this is not biologically correct, but maybe the
weeds will turn into wheat.
S1 (06:28):
Or they'll eventually be exposed for who they are. Um,
and yet I feel like our gut reactions would be more.
Let's get them.
S2 (06:35):
Yeah, I.
S4 (06:36):
Want to pull it.
S2 (06:37):
Out. Like the parable says. Go get the.
S1 (06:38):
Go get the weeds. Get them, get them out.
S4 (06:40):
Yeah. I feel like in our American culture, we could
absolutely be the servant in this parable. Um.
S1 (06:45):
And yet it's almost counterintuitive, right? God's like, no, no,
just leave them there, but be on alert. Um, to me,
it reminds me of wolves in sheep's clothing and of
the people who cried out and said, oh, I did
stuff for you. He's like, no, you never knew me.
S2 (06:59):
Yeah. And then there will. There will come a time
that we're separated and you'll see that the weeds are
going to be separated, and that the angels of the
Lord are going to come take the wheat, those who
are found in Christ. But that may just not be
something we see in this lifetime.
S1 (07:15):
Uh, the person also said that the old proverb is
true when you look for the devil, don't forget to
look in the pulpit.
S5 (07:23):
Oh.
S2 (07:24):
It is scary.
S1 (07:25):
Ouch.
S3 (07:26):
Wow.
S1 (07:27):
Yeah. And okay, so it is a scary parable. It
is scary. I like ones that are nice with a
happy ending. But also I like a son running to
his father's arms. Come on. Where's that one? I love
that one. And I think.
S2 (07:37):
We sometimes have the tendency to say we want to
look around. We want to find the people in our congregation.
It makes us nervous about our fellow Christians, our fellow
brothers and.
S1 (07:47):
Sisters, and we want to know who's saved and who's not.
We're on high.
S2 (07:49):
Alert, looking around for who it could be. And that's
he says, don't do that.
S1 (07:55):
I wish people could have seen your you did a
visual of antennas. Yeah.
S4 (07:59):
Right.
S1 (07:59):
Is that what they were?
S4 (08:00):
That was cute, Lauren.
S1 (08:00):
She had her antennas up, like looking around for things. Yes. Uh,
and I like the way you put it, too, Daria. Like,
just you worry about being wheat.
S4 (08:10):
Mhm.
S1 (08:11):
Like you're not the Salvation Police know that this is
going to happen and that they're their true colors will
eventually be revealed. But you be a light for Christ. Okay,
I can do that. It was a little nervous, though,
for a.
S2 (08:26):
Minute, but I want to go try to find all
the people who are being rude.
S1 (08:30):
Yeah, this is like the, uh, the self-proclaimed, uh, center
police on social media. Like, this is everyone's favorite. Oh,
not saved that guy. Oh, look at him. Oh. Not saved.
Caught him.
S4 (08:44):
Why are they so gleeful about that? If you see
someone and you genuinely suspect they're not saved, shouldn't that
make you sad.
S1 (08:50):
And compassionate at the same time?
S4 (08:52):
It's almost like, uh, like you said, like gotcha. Like, no, no,
not not gotcha. Let's go have a conversation.
S1 (08:59):
It's like Lawrence got him. Make you.
S4 (09:00):
Sad.
S1 (09:01):
Got him. Not safe. No. And Jesus is saying, here,
don't do that. Stop that. You be wheat. And, yeah,
we ought to grieve over that. We ought to grieve
over that. Okay, okay. I feel a bit better. Thanks
for that. So glad you graduated from Moody. And that
we have a friend like Daria with all of her
wisdom and insight.
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