Humility and the Parables

On Sunday we read the parable of the weeds from Matthew 13 and it occurred to me that we have the wrong perspective on that parable most of the time. We think we can know the difference between the wheat and the weeds and we put ourselves into the role of the servants in the parable and make our judgments accordingly.

There is a significant problem with that perspective on the parable. When Jesus gives its explanation he tells who the servants are and they aren't us. The servants, according to Jesus, are the angels. We think we are able to judge the difference between the wheat and the weeds but that isn't the way Jesus explains the parable, in fact, we are only either wheat or weeds in the parable.

Most of the time when I hear that parable preached it seems that the preacher forgets to read the explanation which doesn't call for us to make those judgments at all. For some of my life people would definitely have decided that I was not likely to be wheat and I am thankful that the harvest was delayed. We need to be careful about judgment, we don't know what God may be up to in someone's life and we need to have the humility to keep our judgments to ourselves until God is done.