Sunbeams and Unicorn farts

24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. 26 But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. 27 The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Jesus was very countercultural. He was Jewish. Israel was under Roman occupation. Talk about a lot of rules!!

We have a lot of rules today too. Government rules, cultural rules, society rules. Not to mention Christian behavior rules! Trying to understand what Jesus came to do is like teaching a toddler how to talk quietly in public. :)

The Jewish faith was about behavior and obedience. If they did what God told them to do, He would bless them. If they didn't, He allowed surrounding nations to subdue them. On one hand it was a reward culture, on the other hand a punishment culture.

Life with Jesus is totally different, but we can't assume that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are disparate Gods. He is the same. God wanted us to see that we can't do things our way to get to Him because no one can be holy in themselves.

Before Jesus, life was about rules and obedience. With Jesus, life is about relationship and growth. We can't please God by following rules; we please Him by going after His heart. When we follow His heart, the right fruit grows automatically.

The Church has a really hard time with this. We struggle with weakness, with sin and failure. As if the blood of Jesus is supposed to make us magically better, and afterwards its just sunbeams and unicorn farts. ;) The blood of Jesus satisfies the tragedy of Adam's sin and makes it possible to have relationship with God as He originally intended. But it doesn't make you think perfectly or act perfectly.

Our primary responsibility is to love God and love each other. Most of us have no idea what that looks like. We think it's about doing the right things, serving, saying kind things, and confronting sin. It really isn't. It's about learning to lean close to Him, and then do what we see Him doing and say what we see Him saying. Like Jesus.

I grew up in a family and a church culture that was hyper afraid of encouragement. Don't praise too much…you don't want so and so to get a big head! As if the automatic fruit of encouragement was pride.

I believe that pride is our solution for not knowing who and Whose we are. We are desperate for identity, desperate for praise, desperate to find out we are special. Encouragement, or prophecy, is pulling out the gold in each person. We are all made in His image. None of us are alike. What voice do we want each other to be hearing, the one that tells them they are amazing because of who and Whose they are, or the Enemy's voice?

The Enemy communicates two lies. You are not good enough no matter how much you try, or, if you try hard enough you can be good enough. Neither is what God says about us.

It's time for the lovers of Jesus to start loving. Speak the good you see in others. Throw a party! Be God's cheerleader! People are desperate to hear His voice.

I posted the parable of the wheat and the tares because this is what Jesus is talking about. Criticism and rules before being rooted in His love will just stunt growth or uproot a person entirely. The Holy Spirit really is the best Teacher, and we can't be afraid that encouragement will excuse sin. Just love, and He will begin pruning when the heart is established in Him. :D