From the Rectors Desk

Over the last few Sundays in our Lectionary, Matthew has been illustrating parables through his gospel around things that resonate with his environment and the audience where Christ lived to depict His life, mission and teachings in the redemptive work of His salvation to those willing to listen and receive His message of hope. To bring his points home, Matthew in this passage uses different parables where Jesus alluded to various scenarios to educate His audience about what really matters in His teachings. 

This Sunday, the question that might possibly arouse our curiosity in The parable of the weeds could as well be, in the midst of the good seeds planted, "How did the weeds get in the field?"  You might also be wondering, in spite of your hard labour in taking care of your plants or grass in the lawns, how could you still have a few weeds 'encroaching' in the midst of your well nurtured soil? Does this sound familiar to you? And at the same time too frustrating, right? In this passage, the Master planted good seeds, but one morning, the servants woke up (like you and me) and said, “Master, where did these weeds come from?” And Jesus answered in verse 25: “...But while everybody was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away."

“While everybody was asleep...” Honestly speaking sleep is not always sin; after all God wants us to rest (Cf. Matthew 11:28 - "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest").  Jesus too slept and rested (Mark 4:38; John 4:6). But from our Scriptural context in this passage, spiritual sleep is dangerous. In 2026, what does “sleep” look like for the church? We pray 2 minutes before service but for several hours we spend time on mundane things. We’re too tired for the church service, too tired for the time at the altar but not too tired to watch Netflix for several hours. The truth is, Jesus never promised us a life full of bed of roses. But the moment we become self-sufficient in our faith journey, the evil one creeps in! And as messengers of the Word in the world, when we get too busy with many activities but not guarding the gate, with faith oriented programs to spark something worthwhile such as spiritual revival, the evil one stealthily takes charge when no discernment is thoughtfully considered. The enemy is patient to attack; and he doesn’t attack when we’re awake and armed. He does attack when we let our guards down. The enemy of our soul waits until everybody is asleep. When the church sleeps, we get sown with various kinds of faith-offences. When the church sleeps, nations get sown with undignified human corruption. When the church sleeps, our heart gets sown with weeds like bitterness and comparison 'at night' "while everybody was asleep" (Matthew 13:25). The bad news is that weeds look like wheat when they’re young in their growing stage. Fake grace looks like real grace. Fake success looks like a blessing. That’s why it can’t be uprooted too quickly until it's fully grown. On one hand, the goal of the weed is to choke the wheat. On the other hand, the enemy’s goal is to make us ashamed of our life, our calling, our identity, even our God.  "While everybody was asleep," the weed of compromise or doubt could creep in, meaning we can say within our heart, “God is love so sin is okay.” Then weed could gradually creep in, meaning using God’s name for personal  glory and clout is okay. Then the weed of division can creep in, meaning, tribalism/racism amongst us, politics, and offence in the church don't look like they matter. And every weed of distraction seems we’re busy but it doesn't show that we're fruitful. But hear me: God sees what was sown at night. Nothing is hidden from Him.

When the servants saw the weeds, they said, “Master, should we pull them up now?” And the Master says something shocking in verse 29: “No. Lest while you gather the weeds you also uproot the wheat with them.” This is God’s strategy for the 21st Century Church who doesn't want us to panic. But be patient. Our God is not in a rush. Our human nature wants to uproot unwanted weeds immediately they are sighted. But God wants the wheat to mature. Premature judgment destroys the innocent. My word of encouragement to you is, "DON’T FIGHT THE WEEDS. WATER WHEAT." Thus, we're enjoined to stop spending all our energy exposing what’s wrong or judging ourselves. We're encouraged to spend our energy growing what’s right - doing good work; faith work.  Pray, wait and walk with integrity of heart. 

At the end of it all our God will judge justly. Our job is not to play God in our communion with Him and with one another. And verse 43 gives us hope: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The world is full of weeds, but God is raising wheat (His children) that will SHINE forever be His voice of hope. God is calling us to wake up; get back to prayer, Word, and discernment. God is calling us to grow and to water our wheat this week. One act of integrity, one act of forgiveness could make a difference and wait trusting God with the harvest. The enemy sowed at night. But with our act of faith, our God is the God of the morning.

With every blessing,