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Here is a most important point, and one easy to overlook. Many believers have a kind of deistic view of Jesus and what He’s up to in the world today. He has finished His course, run His race, ascended into heaven, and now He sits back and watches the action unfold, looking out over the events of history to see if anyone will believe the Good News and allow themselves to be born again. The picture that Jesus presents in the parable of the wheat and the tares is much different. Here the Lord is actively present in the world, sowing “the good seed” into the whole field of the world. How does He do that? Through His Spirit in the Church, by the witness of transformed lives and the proclamation of transforming grace and truth. Here Jesus embodies the mission of the Church and the purpose of His Spirit in giving His people power to be witnesses for Him (Acts 1:8).
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The first thing we must understand about the parable of the wheat and the tares is that it is not about individual Christian life. That will be hard processing for many contemporary believers, for whom the salvation of Jesus is no bigger than their next crisis or concern. Jesus points to the focus of this most significant parable in His opening words: “The kingdom of God…” This is a parable about a reality larger than all our lives, a realitywhich Jesus came to “bring near”, into the very flow of history in which we live each day. That reality is the Kingdom of God, which Jesus administers from the right hand of the Father (Ps. 110), is characterized by righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17), is commended to all the followers of Christ as their first priority in life (Rom. 14:18; Matt. 6:33), and which is so powerful and compelling that it gathers up even non-Kingdom members in its awesome pull and sway (Matt. 13:47-50).
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Does one’s outlook on history matter? That is, does our understanding of the nature and flow of history make a difference in how we live? Consider a few typical responses of people reflecting on their own place in history: “My life is out of control!” “I just can’t seem to get a break!” “I don’t know what’s happening here or where it’s all going.” “How should I know? I couldn’t tell you what I’m going to be doing next week, must less a year from now.”
Many people tend to live like pin balls; at some point they were shot into the game of life, and now they are wholly controlled by whatever wall or post or bumper they happen to crash into in any situation. They careen through life, trying to rack up as big a score as possible, at all times keeping an eye on the hole at the bottom of the game board, hoping someone will be on the flippers to keep them in the game of life a little longer. No sense of direction, little control over circumstances and events, and only the meagerest of results to show for their efforts.
This is not the way Jesus intends that His people should live. In fact, Jesus went to great lengths to sketch out the course of history, so that we could understand what’s going on around us, where it’s all headed, and how we should comport ourselves in the meantime. The parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43) is in many ways Jesus’ most significant Word of instruction. It takes into its scope the whole world and all its people.
For example, it outlines the course of history from Jesus’ own day to the day of judgment. It explains why evil and strife persist all over the world. It emphasizes the proper way to think about the world and the course of history. And it suggests how we, as Jesus’ followers, should be investing our time, talents, and energies until He returns.
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”…But some men joined him and believed… Acts 17:32, 34
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Bringing up Jesus and the resurrection was no “gotcha” here. Paul had been talking about the Gospel in all his conversations, so he was always up front about what he believed and why it mattered so much. By the time he came back to the Gospel in his presentation at the Areopagus, it triggered a series of responses, each of which we can expect in our own witness as well. Jesus Christ is the Rock of offense, the Stone of stumbling for those who insist that they can make their own way in life apart from trusting in God. So we shouldn’t be surprised that, as we continue to insist on the necessity of repentance and faith in order to be forgiven and born again, many will make light of our message.
“Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’” Acts 17:28
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Paul continued to press his point that no god worth his salt could be reduced to an image, housed in a temple or kiosk, or in any way be dependent upon men. That would be a strange way of thinking about the gods we seek to placate and manipulate to our advantage, wouldn’t it? If they’re so puny and helpless, how can they possibly be worthy or our devotion? We can imagine the light going on in a few heads out there in the audience: “Well, I never thought about it like that.” But then, before the Athenians could begin to voice an objection or a defense – “That’s just your opinion!”, for example – Paul plunked down two philosophical trump cards designed to strengthen his line of argument. Quoting from two Greek poets, he bolstered his own view of God, and of the strangeness of the Athenians’ view, by insisting that God is vaster and more powerful than ever to require the services of men.
Paul’s message, indirectly, is this: It’s silly, if you think about it, to consider that we might, by our many different works, earn favor with gods who don’t really need us. And to reinforce that notion in familiar terms, Paul found two allies among the enemy camp, two of their own philosophers, who had said essentially the same thing. The very thinkers the Athenians admired, to whom they looked for wisdom on all matters of life and faith, agreed with Paul. Now if our gods don’t need us, yet they require all these various duties from us, then we are little more than their slaves. We have no freedom but must live our lives in abject fear and groveling, daily devoting ourselves to satisfying the petty demands of fickle deities who may or may not accept our offerings and oblations and grant us the favor we seek. Does that make sense? Is this the way a proud, free people ought to act? The really strange truth, Paul was trying to show, lay in the views of those who dedicate so much of their time and attention fussing about over deities that don’t need them but delight in bullying them around for their own pleasure.
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything…”
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The fact is, all the people we might talk with about the Gospel have a worldview, and every worldview is grounded in a series of faith convictions. That is, people believe things about the world, themselves, and how they ought to live, which they can’t prove but have to take on “good faith.” People think, talk, and act the way they do because, in their heart of hearts, they believe this is what’s in their best interest. They probably wouldn’t try to foist their views on you; but that just suggests that their views aren’t all that certain and reliable. Urging others to embrace your ultimate convictions in life, after all, isn’t like yelling, “Your house is on fire!” And they don’t want you to foist your views on them. After all, each of us has to reach our own convictions about the way things ought to be, without undue pressure from others.
Or so, at least, most people believe. The Greeks in Athens didn’t have to be persuaded of this; they knew all about believing and trusting and trying to line up your life with your convictions. Paul’s foray out onto the bridge of religion, which he had entered with affirmation, may have been a little easier than ours – given the disenchantment of our age – but it was no different.
