PARABLES OF JESUS CHRIST
PARABLE OF THE WEEDS
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 13:24-30, MATTHEW 13:36-43
SEPTEMBER 5, 1982
The motto of Spain used to be “Non Plus Ultra,” meaning “nothing beyond.” But when Christopher Columbus discovered North America, discovered that there was something across the ocean, the Spanish changed their coins. They struck off the “ non” and they simply printed “plus ultra”: “more beyond.” When our Lord Jesus Christ arose from the dead, came back from the dead resurrected and alive, He forever struck off the “non” and proclaimed to the world “plus ultra”: “more beyond.” There is more beyond this life and there is more beyond the grave. In the Parable of the Weeds of the Field, our Lord Jesus gives us three teachings, three messages regarding what lies beyond this life and what lies beyond the grave.
First of all, He tells us that beyond this life there will come a final separation, a separation of the righteous from the unrighteous, a separation of the believing from the unbelieving. Even as at harvest time the weeds are separated from the wheat, so shall it be at the close of the age.
In 1912, outside the offices of the White Star Shipping Line, two lists were posted. This was in Liverpool, England. The Titanic had just sunk. On one bulletin board was listed the names of the lost and on the other bulletin board was listed the names of the saved. That’s how it will be at the close of the age. There will be a separation of the lost and the saved. This is portrayed many ways in the scriptures. In the 25th chapter of the book of Matthew, our Lord Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes from heaven in power and great glory and all of His angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne and before Him will be gathered all the nations and He will separate them one from the other as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come O blessed of My Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world for I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me to drink. I was naked and you clothed Me. I was sick and in prison and you visited Me.’ And they shall say to Him, ‘When, Lord? When were You hungry and we gave You to eat or thirsty and we gave You to drink or naked and we clothed You or sick and in prison and we visited You?’ He shall say to them, ‘Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, My brethren, you have done it unto Me.’
“But He shall say to those on His left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you workers of inequity, into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels because I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me not to drink. I was naked and you did not clothe Me. I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ And they shall say to Him, ‘When, Lord? When were You hungry or thirsty or naked or sick or in prison and we did not do these things?’ And He will say to them, ‘Insofar as you have not done it unto the least of these, you have not done it unto Me.”‘
A final separation of the righteous and the unrighteous. Jesus says, “Truly, truly I say to you. The hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and all who hear will live for even as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself and has given Him authority to execute judgement because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming when all who are in the tomb shall hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgement.”
And so there will be this final separation of the just and the unjust, of the righteous and the unrighteous, but we who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of life should not fear this coming separation because it is promised in God’s word that we will be counted with the righteous through Christ. Because of Him, we will be counted with the righteous. Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, whoever receives My words and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into judgement but has already passed out of death into life.”
John wrote to the Christians in Asia, and he said, “I write to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” The Bible says that God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son and whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. The scriptures affirm that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. Really there are only two types of people in this world. There are those who believe and there are those who do not believe. Ultimately there will come a separation.
Many years ago, a minister named George Truett was doing a funeral for a little 6-year-old girl. She had died of an incurable disease. Only three weeks before her death, she’d asked Jesus Christ to come into her life and to be her Lord and her Savior. Her mother was a Christian. Her father was not a believer. He was an atheist. After Dr. Truett gave the message at the funeral, he was standing at the head of the casket. It was an open casket. The family came by. He saw the mother bend down and kiss the little girl’s forehead. The mother had tears in her eyes. He heard her say, “I know you’re with Jesus. Good night. I’ll see you in the morning.” Dr. Truett said when the father came through, the father’s fists were clenched. He had bitterness on his face. He reached down and he grabbed his daughter’s lifeless arm and he said, “Farewell forever.” Two kinds of people. One person had faith. The other person had no faith.
We live together in this world. Weeds and wheat. The believing and the unbelieving. We are bound together. We are mixed. But a day will come when there will be a separation, a separation of the believing and the unbelieving and that will produce two different destinies. The second message that is in the Parable of the Weeds of the Field concerns one of those destinies. Some people, at that separation, will go into eternal ruin. Some people in this world are walking a pathway that leads to hell. I don’t think any minister has a more difficult subject to speak to than the subject of hell. Nevertheless, this message is true, and it needs to be spoken.
About seven years ago, I was doing a Bible study for policemen in the metropolitan Denver area. One policeman, who happened to be Chief of Police in one of the cities in this area, came to me afterwards and he told me how he was once in a patrol car with a fellow officer. They were out at the city dump. Suddenly their patrol car was flooded with light. He and the other officer got out of the car. They looked up and he says they saw this great craft, larger than a football field, oval in shape, hovering over the dump with lights coming down. He said that he and the other officer just stood there. They were speechless. They don’t know how long they stood there, perhaps a few minutes. Suddenly the craft began to move laterally in the sky and then, like a falling star except in reverse, it just shot heavenward and was gone.
Now, I’ve never seen a UFO and it’s very hard to know what to make of stories like that, isn’t it? It doesn’t sound like a visual distortion of some natural phenomena. Some people believe that there are extraterrestrials, intergalactic travelers or extragalactic travelers who have journeyed to this earth. Some theologians believe that UFOs have to do with the fallen angelic realm since Satan is called the prince of the power of the air and since those angels who fell are said to be chained in the nether gloom of darkness. The Greek words for darkness and nether gloom, “skophos” and “zophos,” sometimes refer to the darkness of space. But I think it’s fascinating to contemplate the possibility that some extraterrestrials that lived a lifetime away, on the other side of the galaxy, would travel their whole life through, journey their whole life through at the speed of light, only to arrive at a city dump. And yet, you know, there are a lot of people in this world who are doing just that. They journey their whole life through only to arrive at a city dump because that’s what the Bible calls hell.
Jesus called hell “Gehenna.” Gehenna was the name that was given to the Valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem. The Valley of Hinnom in years past had been used for the worship of heathen deities. It had been used even for human sacrifices and the bones of the dead were still in the valley. But in Jesus’ time, the people in the city poured their garbage down into the Valley of Hinnom and the fires burned 24 hours a day consuming that garbage. It was not a pleasant picture. That’s what Jesus said hell is like.
There are many portraits of hell in the Bible. Sometimes it is referred to as a furnace of fire as in the parable that we have today. Sometimes it is called a lake of fire and brimstone, a place where men weep and gnash their teeth. It is not a pleasant place. But we must understand that God does not want anyone to go to hell. The Bible says that He is not willing or wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. In the scriptures, God says “I take delight in the death of no one.” You see, He is a God of love. He has no desire for people to suffer eternal torment.
God is not willing or wishing that any should perish. This is illustrated in a story that Dwight L. Moody loved to tell. It’s a story about a swan and a crane. It seems as though the crane was in a miry swamp looking for snails. Just an ugly pool of water. Suddenly this beautiful swan descended from heaven, a white beautiful swan, and landed on the banks of that miry swamp. The crane looked over and saw the swan and said, “Who are you?” That beautiful creature said, “I’m a swan.” The crane said, “Well, where are you from?” The swan said, “Well, I’m from heaven.” The crane said, “Heaven? Where’s that?” The swan began to describe the beauty of heaven, the streets of gold, the celestial palaces, paradise, a place of love, a place of light. But, you see, the crane wasn’t interested at all. The crane said, “Well, are there any snails there?” The swan said, “No.” The crane said, “Well, who wants it then?” and went back to the business of looking for more snails. The swan ascended and went into heaven.
A strange little story but it kind of illustrates what some people are like. They really prefer snails to heaven. Some people prefer sin to righteousness. They prefer darkness to light. Some people do not really want to go to heaven. This is a difficult thing because, you see, God has given us a precious gift. He’s given us a gift of freedom. We can choose our own destiny. We can choose to be united with Jesus Christ forever in the presence of His kingdom or we can choose to be eternally separated from Jesus Christ. The choice is ours, but God wants us to know, through the scriptures, that in His presence is “fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
You know the thought of total separation from the Living God is a horrible thought. Nobody on this earth has ever experienced total separation from the Living God because God surrounds this world with His love and with His light and by the presence of His Spirit. Hell is a place of total separation from God. The Bible describes it as “exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.” It is a place of great anger and wrath and rage, a place of disillusionment. It’s a place of emptiness, purposelessness. There is no love there because, you see, God is not there.
God has given us this choice. We can choose heaven, or we can choose separation from God, or we can choose hell. This is illustrated so beautifully I think by C.S. Lewis in his book called, “The Great Divorce.” Also, in his seven books called, “The Chronicles of Narnia.” The seventh book in the Chronicles—you may have read these—is called “The Last Battle.” In that book, C.S. Lewis describes how the animals of Narnia that represent the people of this world are brought before Asian, the great lion of God, who represents Christ. As these animals are brought before Asian, one by one, some of them look in his face and they love him. They long to be with him and to serve him forever. They pass on his right into a beautiful land. But others look into Asian’s face, and they hate him. They are afraid of him, and they hate him. They view him as a threat, you see, to their own sovereignty and they pass by on the other side, eternally separated from his presence.
This is what we are told in the Parable of the Weeds of the Field, that there will come this separation and that for some, it will result in a destiny of eternal ruin by their own choice.
There’s a third and final message in the Parable of the Weeds of the Field and that concerns another destiny. It concerns the destiny of the righteous. It concerns the destiny of those who are going to heaven and into the presence of God. In this parable, Jesus describes the believing as “those who will shine forth forever like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” And so, we have this statement that as believers we are heading towards the presence of God and towards heaven. It’s hard for us on the basis of a scripture to know fully what heaven is like. We get glimpses of heaven in the scriptures.
The Apostle Paul tells us, in fact he wrote to the Christians in Corinth, and he told them that “Fourteen years earlier, he had been taken up into the third heaven, taken up into the presence of God. He said that he saw things there, he heard things there that he was not allowed to utter or speak. They could not be shared to this world.” But heaven is like that. It is so amazing that words, earthly words, cannot describe it. There is a Greek word for heaven and a Hebrew word. The Greek word is “ouranoy” and the Hebrew word is “hashimiam.”
The Bible envisions three heavens. The first heaven is the atmosphere of the earth, the birds of the ouranoy that Jesus spoke of. That is the first heaven. And then in the Bible, the second heaven is the cosmos, the galactic systems, the stars and the planets. The scriptures say that “Jesus did found the earth in the beginning and the heavens, the ouranoy, are the works of His hands.” That’s the second heaven. But there’s a third heaven and the Bible speaks of it as the “heaven beyond the heavens,” the dwelling place of God. It was to that heaven that the Apostle Paul went when he ascended into the third heaven. The beauty of that heaven we cannot begin to fathom or comprehend but we get glimpses of it. Sometimes in the scriptures, this heaven is called paradise, the word “paradisio” which the Greeks borrowed from the Persians. It referred to a park or garden and heaven is like that. It’s like a beautiful park where nature has been restored. It’s described in the 11th chapter of Isaiah and all throughout the major and minor prophets of scripture, a beautiful paradise. a garden, a park. I’m sure that the highest waterfall, the greenest meadow, the bluest lake on this earth, pales when compared to the beauty and the splendor of the paradise that is to come.
But sometimes heaven is also referred to as a celestial city, a city to be inhabited by the saints. John, the apostle of our Lord Jesus, received a vision of that city. John said, “In the Spirit, I was taken away to a great high mountain where He showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of the heavens from God, having the glory of God.” John said, “He who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls.
The city lies four square, its length the same as its breadth. He measured the city with His rod. Twelve thousand stadia, that is to say, 1,500 miles, its length, breadth, and height all equal. He also measured its walls,144 cubits by a man’s measure. The walls of the city were built of jasper and the city was made of gold, clear as glass.
The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The streets of the city were made of pure gold, transparent as glass. I saw no temple in the city for its temple was the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine upon it for the glory of God was its light and its lamp was the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it. The gates of the city shall be open by day and there shall be no night. They shall bring into it the glory and honor of the nations but nothing unclean shall enter into it nor he who practices abomination or falsehood but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Many showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God into the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer shall anything be cursed, for the Lord God shall be in it and His servants shall worship Him. They shall see His face and He shall write His name on their foreheads. Night shall be no more, and they shall reign and rule forever and ever.”
Beautiful, lofty language describing a celestial city to come. Some Christian theologians see here symbolic language describing the future glory and majesty of the church, the body of Christ. I think there is some truth to that but there’s also a deeper portrait here, a portrait of a literal city whose builder and maker is God. Then sometimes in the scriptures, heaven is described as the cosmos. The scriptures speak of a new heaven and a new earth which God will create for the saints. It will encompass the galactic systems because God will rule and reign everywhere through His children.
John said, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.” He went on to say, “I heard a great voice from the throne saying ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men, and they shall dwell with Him.’ God Himself shall be with them and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death will be no more. Neither will there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. He who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new. Write this for these words are trustworthy and true.’ He said to me, ‘It is finished. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. He who conquers will have his heritage and I will be his God and He shall be My Son.”‘
We look forward to a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no sickness, no pain, no death. The prophet Isaiah spoke years ago, and He said, “Behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth shall not be remembered or brought to mind, and you shall rejoice and be glad in that which I create.” The Apostle Peter said that “We look forward to a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells.”
And so, we have this portrait in scripture of heaven as a cosmic picture of a new heavens and a new earth encompassing the galactic systems. We have a picture of a celestial city. We have a picture of paradise.
You know in the Old Testament age, the children of God used to come from throughout the holy land, throughout the land of Palestine, throughout the chosen land. They would come to the holy city on special occasions for special celebrations. For special feasts, they would come into the holy city Jerusalem. It may be that that’s what eternity will be like that we will be gathered as the saints from throughout the new heavens and the new earth into that celestial city for special celebrations. We don’t really know. That’s certainly speculation but this we do know. Heaven is an incomprehensibly beautiful place. It’s not just sitting around on a cloud playing a harp or singing in a choir. It’s meaningful and it’s purposive and it’s beautiful and it encompasses all things.
Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions or dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also.”
And so, we have this message in the Parable of the Weeds of the Field that after this life, beyond this life, there will come an ultimate separation and that separation will produce two destinies. For some it will produce eternity in the presence of God, eternal blessing. And for others, it will produce eternal ruin. But the great thing about the Parable of the Weeds of the Field is that we know that God is able to change weeds into wheat. God is able to change unbelievers into believers.
Bishop McCabe was an Episcopalian minister. One day he got off a bus. He said goodbye to the bus driver and then he said, “I hope to see you again soon. If not in this life, then perhaps certainly in heaven.” Well, the bishop didn’t think anything about it because that’s the way he spoke to everybody. But later that night there was a knock on his door, and it was the bus driver. The bus driver had tears in his eyes. He said, “You know, I got to thinking about what you said today. If you’re going to see me in heaven, something is going to have to change.” He came into the bishop’s house and he accepted Christ as His Lord and Savior. Weeds to wheat. In that moment, he changed his eternal destiny.
You see, that’s possible for all of us. If you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as the Lord and the Savior of your life, you could do that even now. You can say with me, “Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I want to live for you. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me. Make me a child of God.” If you say those words, He will come into your heart and give you an eternity with Him, a beautiful future in heaven. Shall we look to the Lord with a word of prayer?