The Parable of the Weeds Explained

The Parable of the Weeds Explained
Matthew 13.36-43

I have on my desk a photograph of a sunset. The sun is going down over one of my favourite countryside scenes, lighting up the sky above and silhouetting, on the skyline, hills I have loved since boyhood. The sun is mostly behind a cloud in the photograph; but it is doing its best to break through. If I look hard at it I find it dazzling, even though it’s low in the sky, partially clouded, and in any case only a photograph.

Now imagine the sun in the Middle East, on the average day for most of the year. It isn’t just dazzling in that sort of way; it’s quite terrifying. When it comes up in the morning it can feel truly threatening. People hide from it, finding shady corners, wearing protective hats and veils. When Jesus spoke of people shining like the sun in the kingdom of their father, that’s the kind of effect he had in mind, not just an attractive glow on the horizon...

Taken from Matthew for Everyone – by Tom Wright