Parable of the Weeds
Scripture: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field…” Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
Many years ago a man named Scott Peck wrote a book titled People of the Lie. It was in reading this book that I first began to understand that there is such a thing as evil in the world. That may seem like a strange thing to say. But what you need to know is that I’ve always been interested in understanding why people do the things they do. And as I would seek to understand, I usually found lots of reasons for people’s behaviour that couldn’t simply be defined as evil. I was also raised in fairly stable, sheltered family in which evil wasn’t obviously present. Then I read a particular story in People of the Lie, and I was convinced that evil is real and that some things can only be understood and named as evil.
This summer, as the stories of murdered children disposed of in unmarked graves across our country have become impossible to deny or ignore, I am again reminded that evil is a reality that stalks our world. And I ask how God could allow it. I ask why God has not yet rid our world of evil. I ask what I, a follower of Jesus, am supposed to do in the face of such evil.
On Sunday, we’re going to hear again from Ken Foo, who will be speaking on the Parable of the Weeds from Matthew 13. It’s a parable that invites us to consider the reality of evil and to ask the kinds of questions I just asked. It’s a parable that gives us a big picture view of things, but sadly, doesn’t answer all the hard questions for us. But what it does do is remind us of at least one important truth: while evil is very real and very present in this world at this time, such will not always be the case. There will come a day when Jesus will return and His kingdom will be fully realized and evil will be no more. There will come a day of judgment when everything that is wrong in our world will be destroyed. In the meantime, the question with which we are faced is this: How do we deal with evil until Jesus comes. On Sunday, we’ll be invited to think about that question and hopefully come up with some answers.
As you prepare for Sunday, perhaps spend some time considering how you make sense of the reality of evil in our world. What do you understand to be the right response of Christians given the reality of evil in world? How confident are you in God’s sovereignty over all things, including evil?