“The field is the world…” Matthew 13:38

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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.

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As such, the parable of the wheat and the tares provides a pattern for history that allows us to see the events of our lives and the world the way Jesus sees them, indeed, the way He is working them out from His throne at the right hand of God. Why did Jesus tell this parable? Certainly He had in mind that His followers would take up this paradigm, discern their place within it, pursue the course marked out by Christ Himself, and comport themselves at all times with a view to realizing the promise contained in this parable to the fullest possible extent.

But while this is a very familiar, and doubtless much loved parable, the evidence of our contemporary world, and of the Church in that world, is that the Christian community either doesn’t understand this parable or has decided not to conduct their lives according to its teaching. In the thrall of an incomplete gospel and an eschatology of entrenchment, the contemporary Church is, in many ways, giving up history and the world to powers and worldviews that would wither and crumble if exposed to the true Gospel and Christian worldview implied in this parable.

Believers today need to ask themselves seriously: What template, what pattern of history guides me each day as I go forth in Jesus’ Name in whatever I do? Either we are living according to the vision and teaching of the parable of the wheat and the tares, or we are living at cross-purposes with the cosmic plan of Christ. There’s literally no middle ground.

And many Christians, content in a gospel no bigger than their own sense of wellbeing, and a worldview admixed with secular thought and worldly ways, have no idea that they are actually impeding the very objectives Jesus has set for His Church in this time before His coming. Could that be you? Are you trapped in a false view of history, an incomplete understanding of the Gospel, and a worldview so infected with materialism and pragmatism, that you can’t even recognize the larger, truer, and more glorious vision of what Jesus Christ is actually doing in the world?

Start your own ViewPoint discussion group. This week’s series is available in a free downloadable format, suitable for personal or group study. Download the series, " Pattern of History."

For more information on this topic, get the book, The Parables of Jesus, by David Wenham, from our online store. Or read the article, “The Rest of the Gospel,” by Regis Nicoll.