25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.
Don’t you just love it when someone purposefully tries to ruin your hard work! It is one thing when they ruin your work in a way that is immediately noticeable. You can correct it immediately and move on. But if they sabotage it in a way that doesn’t show up for weeks or months, that really stinks. Then it is much more difficult to extricate the sabotage from the project. Jesus speaks in this parable about Satan planting weed seed in a freshly planted field. The introduction of Zizania seed into a crop can be deadly. It looks very much like wheat when it is small, but requires great amounts of water to survive. Often called wild rice, it grows in very moist soils, or even in marshes. Of course Jesus is not speaking of gardening here. He is speaking about the introduction of false teaching and those who follow the false teaching. It can be very subtle at the beginning. Those looking on often can’t tell who is really a Jesus-follower and who is a follower of someone or something else. It is only over a long time that the differences become evident. As I have dealt with people entering into adult relationships there is a tendency to move too quickly. The problem is that anyone can keep up an act for a period of time. That is how child molesters work their way into a single mom’s home. They keep up the act until trust in built, and then their true character comes out. We have the tendency to keep up the act when we start a new job, putting the best foot forward. But then over time the fake boot falls off and people get to see the real you. Having a consistent character, a character that accurately reflects the Lord, starts with good seed. It is only when the Lord starts the process in our lives that His seed will grow and product the crop He desires.
The Arnold Journey 