7/20/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Gospel reading for this week is the parable which Jesus describes possibly in more detail than any of the other parables. God plants his people in the world. They are good seed and they grow and mature to produce more good seed. What, then, is the problem?
Satan has planted weeds in this world. To the casual eye, they may look just like the good plants. The workers in God’s kingdom are inclined to make sharp distinctions, to separate the weeds from the good grain, to get rid of all those who don’t seem to conform.
God has a different plan. He knows that we will not identify Satan’s plants adequately. We would cause harm to some of God’s people. We would fail to pull all the weeds. In the end, then, the merciful and gracious thing God does is to wait for the end. In the last day, he will do the sorting himself. No harm will come to his people. Those who are Satan’s, who do not believe Jesus, will be culled out and will go to their destruction. Only God can tell the difference. We may make some educated guesses. But it is God who can actually identify our hearts correctly.
What hope do we have, then? We cannot always identify God’s grace in others. However, we can ask ourselves. Do we trust Jesus? Do we know that he is the only one who forgives our sin? Do we know that his forgiveness is for us? Then we are his people. Individually we can have great hope and confidence. We trust in the Lord and we can know that he is our redeemer.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Gospel reading for this week is the parable which Jesus describes possibly in more detail than any of the other parables. God plants his people in the world. They are good seed and they grow and mature to produce more good seed. What, then, is the problem?
Satan has planted weeds in this world. To the casual eye, they may look just like the good plants. The workers in God’s kingdom are inclined to make sharp distinctions, to separate the weeds from the good grain, to get rid of all those who don’t seem to conform.
God has a different plan. He knows that we will not identify Satan’s plants adequately. We would cause harm to some of God’s people. We would fail to pull all the weeds. In the end, then, the merciful and gracious thing God does is to wait for the end. In the last day, he will do the sorting himself. No harm will come to his people. Those who are Satan’s, who do not believe Jesus, will be culled out and will go to their destruction. Only God can tell the difference. We may make some educated guesses. But it is God who can actually identify our hearts correctly.
What hope do we have, then? We cannot always identify God’s grace in others. However, we can ask ourselves. Do we trust Jesus? Do we know that he is the only one who forgives our sin? Do we know that his forgiveness is for us? Then we are his people. Individually we can have great hope and confidence. We trust in the Lord and we can know that he is our redeemer.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
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