Bible Study Moment

Tim is part of Open Table Christian Church in the Nashville area. It is a small church without a paid minister, so different members take turns preaching. This past week Tim gave the message on Matthew 13:24-30 and 13:36-43, the parable of the wheat and weeds, and Jesus explaining the parable to the disciples.

Tim said that he has learned that there is a plant that so closely resembles the wheat plant that people were known to sabotage a rival’s field with this weed. So verse 28, “An enemy has done this” is actually something that sounded normal to the original audience.

Tim also pointed out what Jesus says in the explanation; angels are the workers in the field, we are the wheat (verse 38). And then, that is a stretch to think that a wheat plant can tell if the plants around it are real wheat plants, or this weed. Yet if we look at church history, going back to at least 1 Corinthians 1, that is exactly what many Christians have done, trying to weed out the non-believers, leading to divisions in this “body of Christ” that Jesus prayed would be one even as he and God the Father are one.

 

Mark Phillips