Week 3: Matthew 13

As I was reading in Matthew 13 this week I was struck by verse 25. It is in the parable of the wheat and the tares and the verse reads: "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way." When I heard this parable as a child I always pictured someone not weeding their garden and so eventually the weeds took over but when I read this verse this week I realized the tares are more deliberate than that. The man's enemy intentionally came to the land and planted tares in the field with the intent to do harm. Later, in verse 39, we are told that the enemy in this parable is the devil and he is doing everything in his power to make sure we are not successful. It takes more than just weeding to make sure tares don't appear, we have to be constantly keeping watch to ensure tares don't get planted. I know in my own life I often get distracted and make it far to easy for Satan to sneak in and plant tares but if we try just a little harder we can limit his influence in our lives.