I took a class in college called “Contemporary Theology”. We all called it “Contemptible Theology.” I found it really irritating. We would read the works of famous theologians and comment about what they said and have discussions about what they said. I didn’t fit well into that setting because I kept trying to address the topic at hand by saying something like, “But the Bible says … “

See, what was happening—in the stuff we were reading—was that a hundred years ago, a theologian would propose some bit of doctrine. For example, let’s say someone proposed that there really isn’t a trinity because the Holy Spirit is subordinate to God and Jesus and not on any kind of footing with them—let alone equal footing. Then, some other theologian would come back with a paper about how the Spirit was too part of the trinity, and might even have Scripture to back it up. Eventually, some poor suckers in a small college in Dallas are stuck with reading a “theologian” who was responding to someone else’s response, but no one was just pulling out a Bible and asking, “What does the Bible say about this?”

So I really hated that class. On the one hand, in the years since, I have come to see how a lot of these so-called theologians have affected popular thought (even within the churches). It’s how we get wacky ideas (like “the Bible never says anything about homosexuals”) to even some very good ideas (like “we should welcome everyone, regardless of their skin color”). Still, I want to keep asking, “What does the Bible say?”

What does the Bible say?

The parables are a good place to ask such a question because Jesus isn’t giving us what we might call “concrete thought” here. He’s telling stories. And he’s not even telling far-out tales, just simple stories about farming and families and other things we can understand. So we read them and ask ourselves, “Why did he tell this parable? And why has it been kept for 2000 years and held sacred?”

Matthew 13:24-30
He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

“In a parable, an image is borrowed from the visible world and is accompanied by a truth from the invisible or spiritual.” Lockyer, p. 17

We all do this. We tell one story to explain something else. I’m not feeling too well one morning. My nose isn’t running and my throat isn’t sore and I don’t have either leg in a cast. Still, I say to my friend, “I just feel like someone let all the air out of my tires.” Now, I don’t physically have tires, but my friend nods because my statement—which, on the one hand, could be pretty nutty—explains how I feel to him. I’ve made a vague discomfort understandable.

“Analogies from the natural world are arguments, and may be called as witnesses, the world of Nature being throughout a witness for the world of spirit, proceeding from the same hand, growing from the same root, and being constituted for the same end.” – Archbishop Trench in Notes on the Parables

Parables Help Us Grasp the Incomprehensible

This world we live in was created by the same God who created and lives in heaven. In fact, the writer of Hebrews tells us that the things of this earth are just copies of the things of real earth. Jesus tells parables to explain to us things we otherwise wouldn’t have any reference for.

Ezekiel 1:4-10
As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. (ESV)

Did you notice that Ezekiel said they had human likeness? But then he describes them and that doesn’t sound very human-like to me! I think the things of heaven are just about indescribable to us mortals (mortals now, I should amend), so Ezekiel and the Revelator are grasping for puny words that will even barely capture grand concepts.

Jesus, however, has a much better command of language than even Ezekiel and John, and as the Creator he has a frame of reference that no one else shares. So he takes a grand concept and explains it in terms you and I can understand.

One purpose of Parables is to make known mysteries by comparison with things already known. Imagine you were to go back in time three hundred years and you wanted to explain a stealth bomber to someone you met back then. What would you say? It flies like a bird? It has wings? You’re trying to put a completely unfamiliar concept into terms your listener can understand.

We do this when we try to explain the gospel message to a friend who isn’t familiar with all the Bible stories. Maybe we borrow the great line from John Newton, “I was lost but now I’m found; was blind but now I see.” The friend may start asking, “How were you lost?” Or, “Did you have eye surgery?” That gives you a chance to explain what you mean—and you may still have to tell some more parables to get the idea across.

Herbert Lockyer, who wrote an excellent book called All the Parables in the Bible writes, “A perfect portrait has no parts that do not contribute to the general effect.” Jesus didn’t waste any words with these parables. Even so, the parables themselves are just parts of the larger portrait: the story of God’s love for us!

Still, there’s something else to be remembered along these lines: “All the Bible is for us, but it is not all about us.” –Dr. Graham Scroggie

Jesus told many parables. And we call all learn from all of them. But some of them are going to grab me more than they grab you—and vice-versa. And some of them are going to grab you a year from now more than they do now.

So, still, we read and ask,

“What do I learn from this?”

Sometimes it may be a personal application, but sometimes it may be something we need to learn so that we can help someone else.
Now, let’s look at Jesus’s own interpretation of the parable we read a few minutes ago.

Matthew 13:36-43
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." (ESV)

Compare this with the parable we read last week of the sower. Is this parable all about good soil? If that’s the case, then it would seem that this parable is about the church. About how, even amongst God’s family, we have some weeds.

Wait a minute. What does the Bible say? Specifically, what does Jesus say? This is his field. That makes it sound like the church, right?
But, Jesus later identifies it as “the world”. So it’s probably not just the church.

Psalm 24:1
The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, (ESV)

Here, “the sower” is Jesus only. In that last parable, we were sowers, too. But this story follows the head man. He has people working for him, but all the responsibility is ultimately his.

Then, the enemy (diabolos) sowed in a field that was not his. Did you get that? The field was not his! This earth, while it seems to be under Satan’s thrall, is not his. It was created by God and he still owns the title deed. The outcome for this field is determined by the owner. [Hint: that’s really good news!!]

Satan’s method, though, is opposition by imitation.

Something to ask yourself: “children of the kingdom” and “children of the wicked one”. Which one am I?

“As one bought with a price and born of His Spirit, and a new creation in Him and an heir of eternal life, He expects you to bear fruit in the corner of the field of this world, in which he sowed you.” –Lockyer, pg 182

What do I DO with this?

• Ask, “Am I wheat in the kingdom of God or am I a weed in the service of the enemy?”

• Ask yourself, “Are there weeds I need to let God clear out of my own life?”

• “How can I help people around me be vibrant, productive wheat?”

“The more the Lord has of our heart, the less the devil will have.” Lockyer, pg 184