Earlier, Jesus went out of the house He was staying at and sat by the lake. There, Jesus told the crowd a series of parables describing the kingdom of heaven: A parable about a sower, a parable about weeds, a parable about a mustard seed and a parable about leaven. “Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.””
Parables have many forms. In the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven, Jesus likened the kingdom of heaven to two common things that everyone knew about. Plants and leaven do what they do largely unnoticed, growing silently and steadily. As a straightforward metaphor, these parables can be understood by simply musing on the characteristics and action of the subject. There is a lot in that to learn, because these are not mere parables, but divine parables. They come from God Himself. So they can teach us much, even if they are relatively simple.
Other parables – like the parable of the sower and the parable of the weeds – are much more than straightforward metaphor. They involve a person, and a person is much more than a sum of characteristics or bundled capacity for action. A person always has intention, and motive is something you cannot impute.
There are only two ways to truly know the intention of a person. They can tell you, or God can tell you. To do anything else is to assume their intention, which will likely result in some degree of misstep, if not full out error. Additionally, both the parable of the sower and the parable of the weeds involve much more than a single item. To that point the disciples must be given credit, because they ask Christ to explain the parables in both accounts.
Jesus had explained the parable of the sower to the disciples during a natural pause in His teaching earlier. The disciples now ask to understand the parable of the weeds. That parable had a sower (or owner of the field), a field, good seed, weeds, an enemy, a harvest and harvesters.
It is tempting to conclude that the one sowing the seed is a human missionary or evangelist. After all, that is how the parable of the sower was interpreted. Or to consider that weeds in the parable stand for the difficulties and cares of life – as in the previous parable. Or to think that the harvest is an individual salvation, or that the harvesters are pastors or others who lead people to Christ. But all these things are human conclusions – they are our own interpretation of the Word of God based on what we’ve read to date. To jump to our own conclusions is to defer to our frame of reference (past history), which colors how we see and understand all we take in.
But the best interpretation of Scripture does not come from our own frame of reference. It was God’s Word, not ours. So without exception, the best thing to do is ask God about it.
The true wisdom for which we have to ask God does not consist in manifold and great knowledge, but in that which enables us to discern between good and bad, right and wrong, sin and duty, truth and falsehood, so as not to be misled in judging either of other’s actions or of our own
George Barlow
APPLICATION: Intentionality
It is common human behaviour to jump to conclusions. It is holy behaviour to pause and seek God’s input first.