New Thoughts (4/16/07-5/4/07)
One of the things that seems to be lost on us at most times is that the kingdom is already present here and now. While we await a future in which the kingdom is present in the fullness of purity, that does not mean that the kingdom has not yet come. Consider the prayer by which Jesus taught His disciples: Thy kingdom come, He prayed (Mt 6:10). He then parallels that with the express desire that God’s will be done on this earth as it is already in heaven. Reading this prayer, it seems that He is urging the quickened timetable leading to some future arrival of the kingdom. I wonder, though, if we haven’t punctuated that passage incorrectly. Certainly the coming of the kingdom and the doing of His will are parallel thoughts. As such, it seems reasonable to think that the clause ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ might be applied to both. In that light, it becomes not a matter of the kingdom coming at all, but a matter of the perfection of that kingdom. It is not the beginning that is yearned for, for the beginning has long since been established. It is the culmination, the end of the age of which He speaks in explaining this parable to us.
Look at that explanation. The angels come not to prepare a place for the kingdom, but to remove from the kingdom that is already there all that has no business there. This is the whole point of the parable. The wheat and the tares have coexisted in the field, but that field already belonged to the farmer. The farmer’s enemies have done what they can to bring harm to him through his own labors. Those tares could easily go undetected by a less diligent farmer. They look so much like the wheat that until they are full grown and too deeply entwined into the good growth they cannot really be distinguished.
Isn’t that a picture of the life we live, though? To many observers, it would not be particularly clear who is the Christian and who the reprobate. Oh, to be sure there are many examples of both that are quite evident. This one who we read of this morning, having taken upon himself to calmly go through his school shooting total strangers before taking his own life is clearly a reprobate. Such behavior would be impossible to one who observed God’s Law even at its most literal. The commandment “thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13) is enough, even without Jesus’ explanation of its full significance, to prevent such behavior in His followers.
Likewise, there are those whose lives have been so consistently exemplary of what it means to take up one’s cross and follow this Jesus that no doubt can remain as to their honest and earnest faith. This is perhaps most true of those who have already finished their race, and thereby been removed from further temptation.
However, for the most part, those we see day by day defy such easy categorizations. There are plenty of true believers whose actions on any given day might give us cause to wonder. There are plenty more whose daily actions might not even give us reason to suspect what is yet a deep and abiding faith in them. At the same time, if we are honest about it, we can point out unbelievers – even vehement unbelievers – who do more by way of displaying Christ-like behavior than we do. The wheat and the tares are simply not all that distinguishable until the full fruit of their natures is made evident. There’s a reason that the angels are charged with that task of the harvest rather than those who serve Jesus as the Church. It takes better eyes than ours to discern the nature of that which is growing in the fields.
This might lead one to seek a time at which the kingdom of God was established here on the earth. If it is already here, when did it begin? Was it a kingdom established at the rise of Jesus into ministry? At His birth, perhaps? After all, John was sent to prepare the way for the King to enter His kingdom. Ah, but that alone should tell us the kingdom was already there! Indeed, there will be other parables in which Jesus will draw from the political scene of His own day to paint a picture of the King returning to a kingdom already His by right, but which has rejected their rightful king.
The kingdom is already here. The kingdom has always been here. So long as there has been a creation it has been the rightful domain of God. He made it. It is His by right. The potter has right over the clay. Certainly the Creator has right over creation. In Adam, He sowed good seed in His field of creation. In the serpent, the enemy came to sow tares through those fields, seeking to destroy the good that God had done, and thereby to bring down God who had done it. But, God is far wiser than this enemy who is, after all, a created being, and likewise finally subject to the Creator, however rebellious he is. The presence of this usurper, who by trickery has gained a claim to the rule of this world, is still but a usurper. When the True King arrives, He must either destroy that King or restore to Him His throne. Therein lies the point of the cross. It was that usurper’s final chance to destroy the King, and he failed. In that moment, his stolen throne was forfeit. But, through it all, the kingdom was still there, and it was still the demesnes of the King.
Whenever I consider this, I always find myself thinking back to the old tale of Robin Hood. Here was an earthbound example of exactly what has been playing out in the heavens. The good king has gone off to battle elsewhere, leaving his kingdom in the hands of a delegated authority. But, as his absence grows longer, those to whom he has entrusted that kingdom have begun to grow rather fond of their temporary power. Indeed, they have grown so fond as to begin working not for the good of the kingdom, but for the preservation of their own position in the kingdom. This can only lead to corruption, for there will always be those under them who still remain loyal to the rightful lord of the land. Such as these, the usurpers label outlaws. But, there comes that scene at the end when King Richard returns. Immediately, those who have been willing to bear the brand of outlaw as they opposed the usurper’s corrupt authority subject themselves once more to their rightful lord. In truth, they have never ceased being subject to him. They have simply recognized the lie of those who, although put in place by his authority have long since abandoned any claim to his authority by their abuses.
This does, in its way, describe the devil as we see him portrayed in Scripture. He was, after all, an angel of heaven. In his prime, he was a coworker with Michael and Gabriel. He had a certain authority delegated to him by God, just as those two do. But, rebellion entered the kingdom in him, and spread like a cancer about him until he and his compatriots had to be cast out of the heavens. He had exceeded the authority that was vested in him, and as such, has lost all true authority. The credentials by which he continues to govern in the earth are stolen and falsified credentials. Because he cannot tolerate any inspection of those bona fides, his reign is brutal, totalitarian. But, his seat in the place of power on the earth does not legitimize his claim. The kingdom still belongs to the King, and the King will return to take back what is His. Therein lies the prayer “Thy kingdom come … on earth as it is in heaven.”
Notice the conclusion of the parable: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom”. Every dark grain of sin, for the tares bare a black grain in contrast the white of the wheat, has been removed from the field. All that remains is that white grain of the pure wheat. White is, after all, the color of purity and holiness. “Your sins, though scarlet, will be made whiter than snow”, proclaims the prophet (Isa 1:18). Every weed of rebellion, every least growth of temptation to sin, will be removed from the midst of God’s people in that moment. It is the arrival of that time in the kingdom beyond which there shall be no more crying and no more dying. Sin and its accompanying effects will have been done away with once for all. Is it any wonder that the Spirit and the bride say, “Come, Lord Jesus! Maranatha!”
What is, or ought to be, the most amazing thing to be found in this explanation of the parable is the fact that Jesus says there will be those left after the weeding who are righteous. If it is true that there is not even one who is found to be righteous (Ro 3:10), then who is this that stands in the fields at the end, shining like the sun? Apart from the completed work of the Christ, of course the field would be a vast waste when the angels had finished their work. As I have already noted, even we who are saved and declared sons of the kingdom are all but indistinguishable from those who are not. The greatest saint amongst us can still not proclaim that he has put an end to sin in himself (1Jn 1:10). Any such claim would be an accusation against the God of Truth, who cannot lie, proclaiming Him a liar. Yet, here we have God Incarnate saying that there is something righteous left in the field. Does He then proclaim Himself a liar? Of course not.
There is something about the righteousness of the wheat, then, that is quite apart from itself. That which makes the wheat righteous is not its lifelong avoidance of sin, but rather that there has been a full, legal pardon. The wages of sin are death (Ro 6:23), but God has given us the free gift of eternal life. He has done this in Christ Jesus our Lord; specifically, through the death of the Christ on the Cross. Here was the sole individual in all of human history who had truly lived in righteousness all His days. Here was the one man born of a woman who could make that claim in truthfulness, and upon Him, the only sinless One, was laid the burden of all the sins, past, present and future, of every man and woman throughout history whom God in His sovereign purpose had determined to pardon. In the agony of the cross, which for Him was amplified beyond measure by those moments of separation from the otherwise eternal communion He held with the Father, the due penalty for all that huge burden of sin was paid in full.
It is this fact and this fact alone which accounts for the wheat that remains to be harvested. In this matter of salvation, there has been no act of man’s free will. He has not willed himself saved, and attained to this state of pardon by his own effort. No, it is by the free gift of God, which is what we speak of as His grace, that you or I are saved. We are saved through a faith which is likewise a gift given, not a wage earned, and this is specifically so that none came come to Him boasting of their works and how much they deserve their entrance into the kingdom of heaven (Eph 2:8-9). There is no wisp of free will in that. It has been God’s doing start to finish, and it ever shall be.
That said, there is something in the nature of righteousness that makes a place for our own will. To be righteous is, of course, to be right. It is to live life in full accord with the law. What does this mean? It means we don’t quibble about those earthly laws that are laid down for our benefit, even if they seem to us a meaningless inconvenience. There is only one ground left open to us by which we might justifiably set aside earthly law, and that is when such earthly law contradicts the higher Law of God. It is in obedience to that higher Law that real righteousness is found, but part of that higher obedience is accepting the lower obedience. The authority of the earthly legislation is, after all, an authority delegated from on high. The Lord of lords determines who shall hold earthly power, and He alone determines their days in the place of power. Whether we like those in authority or not, whether they support our Christian agenda or not, they are still operating in an authority handed to them by the Ultimate Authority. That authority, as we see in Saul, holds even when the delegate has himself broken with the Authority he represents. It is the office and not the man in whom that authority is vested, and man’s abuse of that office will be dealt with by Him to whom alone the right of vengeance belongs.
So, we have a definition, at least in part, of what this righteousness of the wheat means. It is a matter of our obedience to God’s Law in every respect and, given the impossibility of such obedience in our present, fallen state, it is also a matter of the atoning, substitutionary penalty paid by our Holy Advocate, the Lamb of God. Like the scapegoat of Temple ritual, He has taken upon Himself the penalty of our failure, our shortcomings and our most blatant transgressions, and taken them outside the camp. So, what part is left to us? If sin is so inevitable, and its penalty already paid, why should we concern ourselves with it at all?
Here, as I see it, is where the free will of man comes into play. What we have seen so far as regards our righteousness has been outside of our own control. Everything has been done to us by God’s own choosing and quite probably without any express desire on our part that it be done. We’re just not that bright. However, there is this about righteousness: if our obedience has come about solely by coercion, solely because we are compelled to obedience be it by threat or by reward, there is no righteousness in it. The slave who follows his master because the chain connecting one to the other allows no alternative has done nothing praiseworthy in following. The man who drives the speed limit because there is an officer driving alongside him in the next lane who is likewise driving the speed limit has done nothing praiseworthy. His heeding of the law has come only by fear of the law’s penalty and the reasonable certainty that to break the law now would instantly bring that penalty. Remove the officer from that scene and what shall he do? Remove the chains from the slave and what shall he do? Will the driver continue at the speed limit, or immediately speed up? If it’s Massachusetts, odds are he never slowed down to begin with. Will the slave continue to follow in obedience to his master?
This is man’s part in the matter of righteousness. Righteousness is not found in the things we do when we know (or feel) we must. It’s not found in the things we do while people have their eyes on us, or when we are certain to be caught should we do otherwise. Righteousness is found in those actions, those character decisions that we make of our own will. It is found when we choose to do right even when we see no obvious benefit to doing so and no threat of harm should we not. It is the choice of the will to do what is just, no matter the cost, no matter the place, no matter the circumstance. That is what defines the righteousness of a man. It is, of course, an imperfect thing. Again, there is none who will be found thus righteous every moment of every day in this life. But, what is the will? What is the overall course set by the will of man? Will he really take the salvation that Christ has purchased at such high price, and find in it an excuse not to worry about his actions any longer? It cannot be! We will surely join with Paul in shouting, “Far be it from me!” Those who can take the Cross so lightly have not taken it at all. They are yet under the curse of the Law, yet responsible for the full cost of their sins, for clearly the gift of Christ is not upon them. They are tares whose fruit is still ripening for the day of harvest.
Turning to those who came with their questions, I just want to reiterate that we should not think poorly of them for having done so. It is not that they were too dim to understand these simple lessons. First, the lessons are not so simple as they seem to us. We study them with the benefit of hindsight. We read their delivery with an established understanding of the explanation that came later. We also have the benefit of studying them piecemeal over however long a period we might like. The disciples, on the other hand, heard them fresh, without any a priori knowledge of the meaning. They heard them one after another, as Jesus delivered them, limiting the time for reflection. They were also disciples, not just members of the audience. They quite likely had some degree of responsibility, or at least felt they did, to deal with certain matters of logistics during this event. In short, there were any number of quite valid reasons why they might not fully understand what had been taught. Given that, it was a wise move on their part to come ask for further information from the Teacher.
In our own lives, we have quite likely known times when we did not wish to ask a question because we feared appearing ignorant. So, rather than risk the appearance, we as much as ensured the reality. It is pride that keeps us from asking after what we need to know. It is pride that fears appearances, that cannot tolerate any such affront to self image. Indeed, it is pride that is so caught up in image in the first place. Wisdom is far more concerned with the reality. That is so much a part of the message of the Bible, the training God gives His children. Beauty is fleeting, but righteous character is jewelry bedecking God’s child. Man looks on appearances, but God sees the heart. We might well add to that, if it is not to be found directly, that man is concerned about what people will think, but the proper concern is with what God will think.
The disciples were of a sort who were not so easily embarrassed by a lack of great knowledge. They were simple folk from simple surroundings. Had they been challenged on strength of arm or endurance, they might have found cause for pride to rear up, but on matters such as this, what embarrassment was it to them to confess their lack of understanding? Besides, they knew Jesus well enough by now to know He would not jeer at them for coming to Him. Oh, there might be a brief aside, but He would hardly begrudge them a lesson. So, they came. Whatever pride may have whispered in their ears, they came. They were far more concerned with really, truly knowing what the Teacher was teaching than with appearing to be in the know.
Here is a lesson for any who would stand up as teachers in the Church. However well versed we may be, however well studied, there will come a question that is beyond our understanding to answer. There will always be some matter that God has reserved to Himself. The question becomes, how do we respond when faced with such a question? Do we acknowledge our limits, or do we foist off whatever answer comes to mind at the moment? The correct answer is, in this case, quite obvious. However, I’m not looking for the correct answer. I’m looking for the honest answer. I know my own tendencies too well. I need constant reminding that far greater thinkers than I have willingly, even gladly confessed that there are things God has not opted to reveal to them. There are those points at which God says, ‘far enough,’ and it is the act of a fool to continue pursuit any further. If He is not willing to answer the question, then to pretend we have the answer anyway is to abuse the authority He has vested in the office of teacher of His children.
If, as teachers, we are faced with such a question, we must be resolved to respond to it properly. And, lest any think themselves excluded from this concern saying that they do not serve as teachers in the body, be reminded that every parent serves as teacher to their children. Every friend has some degree of responsibility to teach their friends. We are all of us teachers to some degree and in some circumstance. We all need to fill that role with honesty and integrity. If there is that which we cannot answer, let us be resolved to freely confess our ignorance on the matter. Let us then be resolved to do as we see the disciples doing here, come to the Teacher with that question that He may teach us. If He gives answer, then this answer we shall in turn give to those we have been entrusted to instruct. If He withholds answer we must, like those greater men who have preceded us, accept the right of God to keep His own counsel as He wills. His ways are beyond our ways, and His thoughts beyond our thoughts. If it is His assessment that these matters are too wonderful for us, we are evil children to insist on knowing anyway. Yet, He remains the God who promises that if we seek we shall find. He is still the One who has sent another Counselor, who will bring us into the knowledge of all that we need to know of the kingdom to which we belong.
Turning to the image of those weeds who are to be pulled from God’s kingdom, one is almost inevitably referred to the explanation He gave of the thorny soil, where weeds of worry and weeds of riches choked out the good produce of the Word (Mt 13:22). If I am right in thinking that these two explanations came one after the other, then I am sure the connection was there for the disciples as well. I must confess that, as I was looking at that verse once again it raised concerns in my heart. For, it seems to me that those thorns and weeds are the greatest danger to my own faith, and I suspect to the Church at large in this day and age. For myself, I know too well how easily I can get caught up in the cares and worries of life. Even as I come to study this morning I have to work to set aside concerns about what I’ll need to do at the office today, concerns about the CD, about family, about time being taken up by various activities this weekend – in short: all the cares of this life. But, Jesus teaches us not to be anxious about these things and instead, to seek first the kingdom of God, knowing that He will take care of the rest (Mt 6:31-33). Oh! Thank God that He included that message in His Gospel!
See, when I think about how susceptible I am to the distracting influence of these weeds, and then I look at this passage and read how God is going to destroy those weeds from His garden, my first reaction is concern. There is valid cause for concern in seeing those weeds around my faith in God, but it ought not to be concern that I, too, shall be amongst those He marks for destruction. No, no matter how thick the weeds grow, they cannot make the wheat into weeds. My concern need not be over being counted a weed. My concern should rightfully be on the condition of my soil. My concern should be that, having recognized how thickly those weeds are growing, that I put some effort into tending the garden of my life, pulling out those weeds by prayer and faith. If my life is growing weeds so freely, it is a sign that the soil of life is not getting the nutrients it needs. I need to apply more of the fertilizing agent of the Word, even as Greg was teaching last Sunday.
It’s spring, and of course many people are looking at their lawns, thinking how to make them green and weed-free for the year. Such as these, if they see signs of weed incursion, will select a specific fertilizing mixture to apply to their yard, such as will nourish the grass, but kill the weeds. In a spiritual sense, this is one aspect of how we should be using God’s Word. It is a fertilizer designed most carefully to give greatest benefit and nourishment to the faith within us, while at the same time causing sin and temptation to whither and die. In those times when care and worry distract, I need to rush back to Matthew 6, and read again how Jesus dealt with anxiousness. I don’t particularly need to slap myself about with reminders of how anxiousness and fear are sins. I have enough sins to keep busy with without adding to my load. No, what I need in those moments is to be reminded once again of Truth, and to be turned back to my proper focal point. Seek first the kingdom. Let your concern be to care for those things that are God’s concern. Let your priority be to draw closer to God, to hear Him more clearly and pursue Him more fully.
Work is work. It is the present means by which God has chosen to provide, and as God’s choice, it deserves our best effort. Whatever you do, the Scriptures remind us, do it as unto the Lord. That does not mean that we should devote ourselves to the workplace. That does not mean that the concerns of the company should outweigh every other consideration. It means only that we should give our honest best to the task of earning the wages we are paid. It means we should be as worthy of our employer’s trust as we seek to be in the home and in the church. But, it must be kept in its proper perspective, seen through the corrective lens of the kingdom.
So, too, our ministries, the things we do (or convince ourselves we are doing) for God and His kingdom. These, too, can grow so large in our sight that we no longer see His kingdom, only our ministry. Such things ought not to be, but we know they are. If we are wise, we recognize that we are no less susceptible to the problem as the worst televangelist. The moment it becomes about our ministry rather than God’s kingdom, the weeds have begun to win. It’s time to once more apply a liberal dose of the Word to ourselves.
Again, our danger is not that we may become weeds and therefore be destroyed by the harvesters. Our danger is that we may do so little about the weeds all around us that we succeed in killing ourselves off by starvation before ever the harvesters can come. Our danger is that we will allow the fruit which is God’s rightful expectation of our lives to whither and die by our neglect. It is one thing to know that we are saved by God’s grace. It is another to take that salvation for granted. Weeds, thorny soil, these are signs that we have indeed been taking God for granted, and it’s time to turn our eyes back to Him, to confess once again our great and desperate need for His presence and His voice. It’s time to recognize that we have wandered far from the fold, and listen carefully for the Shepherd’s voice calling us back. Oh! May we find once again the safety of His fields before it’s too late!
Lord, I thank You for the warning. I thank You as well for the assurance, the reminder that weeds cannot make the wheat anything other than wheat. It is not in their power to change the nature of the man You have rebirthed. Yet, I know I must ask Your forgiveness this morning for allowing so many weeds to crop up around me. How I have been distracted by my own choosing! How I have been leaving You aside and pursuing my own way. So, once more this morning I come to You. I come and I seek as best I can to submit myself to Your will and Your direction. Though I will once more go to work today, let me look at it as Your field rather than as my employment. Let me not be frustrated by things that transpire, but see them instead as opportunities for Your grace to rain down. Help me, my God, to get some weeding done today.
Dispensationalism (4/22/07-5/4/07)
