Actually, I feel I want to comment on this again! this insight into the parables is ironically encouraging for me personally, as it explains the reality of what I see and have seen my whole life - we do see SOME good seeds take root, but we also see choking weeds that seem to dominate and they have the biggest, loudest voices and visual presence. Social media and self-promotion has made all this worse in the last couple of decades. It’s suffocating. I am weirdly encouraged by Jesus’ pessimistic message! It is because it explains it. It explains my experience and helps me anchor my hope in the right things. It is good insight to for how I can exist in the church and mentally it will help I think, as so often I sit amongst the people of god in utter confusion and it exhausts me. I feel with this insight, this reality check and warning from Jesus which has greatly encouraged me, like I can have a go again at mixing with Christian community, instead of sitting in isolation ruminating inwardly on why I struggle amongst what is supposed to be a reflection of the kingdom of heaven.
It also explains why I feel the church is often an illusion rather than real. But the good news is some of it is real, it just gets drowned out by the tares which by nature will always be louder and relentless. I have always felt there is a hiddenness about the true Jesus and even the way he teaches by using parables suggests there is strangely a hiddenness about Jesus. God in tangible plain sight, but hidden somehow.
I love the comment on our mistake to think Jesus was an evangelist in the converting crowds sense - I think this is true, he wasn’t. He healed people, they consumed what he had to offer, took the freebie but then most of them seemed to get up and move on, which is why Jesus dismissed the crowds, or ended up just left with a few people trying to digest the hard teachings.
Thanks for these insights. Priceless. Will now move on to part 3😊
🤩 OMG wow this is brilliant. this makes so much sense, has cleared my mind, lightened my load. Phew!
Have had a long break from attending a Christian community but I am about to try to venture back in… this sense of accepting that Jesus taught us there would be weeds and tares, good fish and bad fish is a real stress remover for me… hard to explain the relief I feel. What I want to say to this post is ‘yes! And amen!’ This explains it! It explains the church. It explains my church life - this is what it will always be until the judgement comes, as we move through towards the full eschatological process. Wow! Jesus always knew and knows now… he was actually prophesying it! He was showing us what to expect and yes it is pessimistic, but actually it is mind blowing, liberating to be told this by Jesus!
I think in terms of the reality of the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven on the earth…we are still to ask for it, as Jesus taught us this too, but in his wisdom he has given us insight into how to guard our hearts and minds in the process, we mustn’t be surprised if we don’t see much of the Kingdom of god! It manages expectations. But we do have the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of what IS ti come!
I commented in Part 1 about the gap between what we can know about the historical Jesus and what the storytelling texts tell us. I am more interested in what we can learn from those sacred stories. In the gospels we have a small remainder of the stories that were told about Jesus over several generations in a number of different socio-religious communities. We also have the stories alleged to have been told by Jesus.
Sacred stories are not about historical fact. Such storytellers craft puzzles for their audiences. They take things from the common daily life of those people and twist them in surprising ways, in order to evoke a sensation of uncertainty and seeking in their listeners. The stories do not give answers. They raise irresolvable questions that entice their hearers to stretch beyond what they have assumed to be true of spiritual life.
Anyone in Jesus’ audiences would have known that no real sower would scatter seed so carelessly. What puzzle is Jesus throwing at us? A few hints.
The image of the seeds which fail to bear fruit is not a mysterious or pessimistic secret. It’s a straightforward description of what we all know human society is like. Look at what is happening in America now. Empirical facts and compassionate pleas alike fall on deaf ears.
Yet people themselves are not the seeds. They are the ground that receives seeds. And God’s grace is unlimited by the preparedness of people to receive it. God’s supply of seeds is unlimited. Even the worst of us is continuously showered with seeds that can come to life in us. God never stops sowing in any of our hearts. And, to borrow from another parable, each seed is like the mustard seed. Whenever we receive even one seed, our whole being begins to change.
As for Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares, the instruction of the sower to his slaves (his disciples?) is clear. Do not try to discern who is a weed and who will bear fruit in this field. Your job is to care for and nurture all the plants throughout their lives. You are not the harvesters.
Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is already growing in our midst. Our ministry is to care for everyone, discerning what each one needs most in order to grow spiritually. And to trust that the harvest will be bountiful.
A footnote: In the natural creation, what human beings call “weeds” are the plants they did not intend to cultivate for their own use and profit. Yet weeds are merely nature’s seeds growing in human fields. How dare we call them evil? They are essential to the whole working out of creation. We may not know how. We may not believe this. Yet it is only our business to care for what grows in our fields.
These are hard sayings. God have mercy, Christ have mercy.
Amen!
Actually, I feel I want to comment on this again! this insight into the parables is ironically encouraging for me personally, as it explains the reality of what I see and have seen my whole life - we do see SOME good seeds take root, but we also see choking weeds that seem to dominate and they have the biggest, loudest voices and visual presence. Social media and self-promotion has made all this worse in the last couple of decades. It’s suffocating. I am weirdly encouraged by Jesus’ pessimistic message! It is because it explains it. It explains my experience and helps me anchor my hope in the right things. It is good insight to for how I can exist in the church and mentally it will help I think, as so often I sit amongst the people of god in utter confusion and it exhausts me. I feel with this insight, this reality check and warning from Jesus which has greatly encouraged me, like I can have a go again at mixing with Christian community, instead of sitting in isolation ruminating inwardly on why I struggle amongst what is supposed to be a reflection of the kingdom of heaven.
It also explains why I feel the church is often an illusion rather than real. But the good news is some of it is real, it just gets drowned out by the tares which by nature will always be louder and relentless. I have always felt there is a hiddenness about the true Jesus and even the way he teaches by using parables suggests there is strangely a hiddenness about Jesus. God in tangible plain sight, but hidden somehow.
I love the comment on our mistake to think Jesus was an evangelist in the converting crowds sense - I think this is true, he wasn’t. He healed people, they consumed what he had to offer, took the freebie but then most of them seemed to get up and move on, which is why Jesus dismissed the crowds, or ended up just left with a few people trying to digest the hard teachings.
Thanks for these insights. Priceless. Will now move on to part 3😊
🤩 OMG wow this is brilliant. this makes so much sense, has cleared my mind, lightened my load. Phew!
Have had a long break from attending a Christian community but I am about to try to venture back in… this sense of accepting that Jesus taught us there would be weeds and tares, good fish and bad fish is a real stress remover for me… hard to explain the relief I feel. What I want to say to this post is ‘yes! And amen!’ This explains it! It explains the church. It explains my church life - this is what it will always be until the judgement comes, as we move through towards the full eschatological process. Wow! Jesus always knew and knows now… he was actually prophesying it! He was showing us what to expect and yes it is pessimistic, but actually it is mind blowing, liberating to be told this by Jesus!
I think in terms of the reality of the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven on the earth…we are still to ask for it, as Jesus taught us this too, but in his wisdom he has given us insight into how to guard our hearts and minds in the process, we mustn’t be surprised if we don’t see much of the Kingdom of god! It manages expectations. But we do have the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of what IS ti come!
I commented in Part 1 about the gap between what we can know about the historical Jesus and what the storytelling texts tell us. I am more interested in what we can learn from those sacred stories. In the gospels we have a small remainder of the stories that were told about Jesus over several generations in a number of different socio-religious communities. We also have the stories alleged to have been told by Jesus.
Sacred stories are not about historical fact. Such storytellers craft puzzles for their audiences. They take things from the common daily life of those people and twist them in surprising ways, in order to evoke a sensation of uncertainty and seeking in their listeners. The stories do not give answers. They raise irresolvable questions that entice their hearers to stretch beyond what they have assumed to be true of spiritual life.
Anyone in Jesus’ audiences would have known that no real sower would scatter seed so carelessly. What puzzle is Jesus throwing at us? A few hints.
The image of the seeds which fail to bear fruit is not a mysterious or pessimistic secret. It’s a straightforward description of what we all know human society is like. Look at what is happening in America now. Empirical facts and compassionate pleas alike fall on deaf ears.
Yet people themselves are not the seeds. They are the ground that receives seeds. And God’s grace is unlimited by the preparedness of people to receive it. God’s supply of seeds is unlimited. Even the worst of us is continuously showered with seeds that can come to life in us. God never stops sowing in any of our hearts. And, to borrow from another parable, each seed is like the mustard seed. Whenever we receive even one seed, our whole being begins to change.
As for Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares, the instruction of the sower to his slaves (his disciples?) is clear. Do not try to discern who is a weed and who will bear fruit in this field. Your job is to care for and nurture all the plants throughout their lives. You are not the harvesters.
Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is already growing in our midst. Our ministry is to care for everyone, discerning what each one needs most in order to grow spiritually. And to trust that the harvest will be bountiful.
A footnote: In the natural creation, what human beings call “weeds” are the plants they did not intend to cultivate for their own use and profit. Yet weeds are merely nature’s seeds growing in human fields. How dare we call them evil? They are essential to the whole working out of creation. We may not know how. We may not believe this. Yet it is only our business to care for what grows in our fields.