Most, if not all of us, like to live with the comforting thought that
good things happen to good people and bad things, to bad people. In the Israel
of Jesus’ time, where there was no strong concept of heaven, that is how people
thought. The idea seems reasonable; until we turn it around, that is. As soon
as we start saying, “Good things have happened to so-and-so, therefore he must
be good,” and vice-versa, the whole idea of good-to-good and bad-to bad falls
apart. In the world in which we really live, bad things often happen to good
people and good things to bad people. In the later books of the Old Testament
this idea is already appearing, for example Job, where a just and good man
suffers all kinds of terrible calamities and desperately searches for an
answer.
Today’s parable of the wheat and the weeds offers us an answer to this.
The landowner will not pull up the weeds in case he also uproots some wheat
plants with it. He will wait until the harvest, when the difference has become
obvious. In the case of human beings, God will not uproot the wicked man before
his time, since until each draws his final breath, there is always the hope he
will repent and turn back to God. In the case of humans, this means that if a
person dies unrepentant, he has thrown away the lifelong chance for redemption
that God has placed before him. Jesus tells us, regarding this dilemma we have,
that God “causes his rain to fall on good and bad alike.”
It is not what we have, but what we do with it, that determines our
eternal future; with or without God. There are thus two very important,
God-given tasks for us as we live our daily lives; to see to it that we remain
close to God, and to pray and work for the salvation of those who are far off from
him.
Fr Phillip.
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