Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’
I was tasked by the wife to clean out the van for a weekend trip this last Friday. You parents know how this goes. You get two great big enormous black garbage bags, a re-breather mask, and gloves for the fight. Then you open the garage door to let as much light in as possible and hope that you can do the task in under an hour, including vacuuming. As I was cleaning however it came to me that if Jesus had come today He'd likely use this as a parable.
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who took two large bags to clean his van. Into the first one went the goldfish crackers, the granola bar wrappers, and the McDonalds cups. Into the second went the clothes, the children toys, and the books. The first bag he put into the trash. The second he carried into the house to sort and keep. So it will be on the day of judgment--God will gather the valuable ones to Himself, and cast the worthless things away from Him.
The genius of the words of Jesus lie in just how ordinary and common place they are. The normal course of life brings them right to us.
Lord save me from the dumpster.
No comments:
Post a Comment