Do you want to become popular in your neighborhood? Then start growing tomatoes. Everyone likes the garden-grown tomatoes that you have to offer them. Even Mr. Grumpy soften a little when you hand him a fresh tomato.
And to think that all this good began with a few little insignificant seeds. These little “nothings” have the power to generate peace and fellowship to an entire neighborhood.
Today Jesus surprises us once again when he explains the parable of the wheat and weeds to his disciples (Matthew 13:36-43).
“Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He said in reply, ‘He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.”
Isn’t it amazing how simple Jesus’ explanation is? A class of kindergartners could get it. The story is one of Jesus versus the Devil. Both are like farmers sowing seeds. From Jesus’s seed emerge children of God’s Kingdom. So, let’s get a show of hands, “Who wants to be the good seed?” All hand raised.
Seeds have great power as I mentioned in the opening example. If a tiny tomato seed can feed and unite a neighborhood, think of what the “seed” that Jesus-in-me can accomplish.
One of the first seeds God put on earth was father Abraham. Imagine the joy he has now as he looks upon the world and sees his millions of descendants. And what about Jesus? Consider the abundance of fruit that continues to come through him.
In his letter to the Ephesians St. Paul got carried away in prayer and wrote:
“Glory be to him whose power at work in us can accomplish infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).
We forget sometimes that the power planted in us at baptism is the very Holy Spirit of God—the same Spirit that filled and led Jesus. St. Paul tried to awaken the potential that exists in those who had been touched by Jesus. When a person is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, that person begins to accomplish the kind of works that Jesus did. That one person has enough prayer power to undo the works of the devil. Isn’t this what Mary tells us when she reminds us to be faithful in praying the rosary daily?
Keeping this in mind we can understand why the prince of darkness wants to work on the self esteem of Christians. He uses lies to attack our identity, so that we will keep what God gave us inside ourselves and not use it to destroy his kingdom.
Jesus tells us the end of the wheat-versus-weeds story.
“The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age… (angels) will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
Any volunteers to be a “bad seed?” Hell is real, and Jesus did not hold back in telling us about it. Even if the Kingdom of darkness seems to be getting an upper hand, at harvest time only the good seeds will make it.
Today let’s learn from the tomato seed. Though we seem insignificant and powerless, we are seeds that are changing the world.
