IKON Student Ministry

For a yankee like myself who grew up in Detroit and Philadelphia for the first 16 years of my life, I really didn’t know the strength of the sun down south. I had a lot of extended family who lived in the south and still do. My family and I would ususally drive down south for vacation to Birmingham, Atlanta, or Nashville in the summertime. My first ever trip to the Gulf Coast was to Panama City Beach when I was like 6. But other than these brief excursions into the hot sun in the south, I remained a pale farmer-tanned sun- starved yankee. It wasn’t till I moved down to McMinnville, TN as a senior in high school that I got my first serious southern sunburn. I was pick’n weeds out on my high school baseball field shirtless in July. Needless to say, I got a righteous taste of the southern sun that lasted a week.

Likewise, in Matthew 13, we find another example of a righteous sunburn. Like the Parable of the Net in week 1, we find ourselves standing on the beach of the Sea of Galilee listening to Jesus teach us from a boat in the cove. This time, Jesus is telling us what is usually called The Parable of the Weeds, or Wheat, or Tares (Matt 13:24-30). And like the Parable of the Net, both teach us about what will happen at the second coming of Christ. But instead of a net, Jesus uses the another common Jewish image of judgment: the harvest. It is one of the few parables that Jesus actually explains what he meant. The disciples asked him later that evening in the house to explain his intended meaning (Matt 13:36-43).

The parable goes like this:

• He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said,  ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers,  Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Jesus’ explanation is as follows:

• Then he left the crowds and went into  the house. And his disciples came to him, saying,  “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is  the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are  the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.  The harvest is  the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds  are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at  the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all  causes of sin and  all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place  there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then  the righteous will shine like the sun  in the kingdom of their Father.  He who has ears, let him hear.

So in the parable the man = the Son of Man, the field = the world, the good seed = sons of the kingdom, the weeds = sons of the evil one, the enemy = the devil, the harvest = the end of the age, the servants = angels, the furnace = hell, and the barn = heaven.

In this parable faithful Christians are portrayed as wheat that produce fruit and await the harvest. Wheat was the staple grain in the Ancient Near East next to barley. It is mentioned only 12x in the New Testament (Mt 3.12, 13.25,29,30; Lk 3.17, 16.7, 22.31, Jn 12.24, Acts 27.38, 1 Cor 15.37, Rev 6.6, 18.13). But in Israel wheat is planted in the fall after the rains come, lies in the ground during winter, then is harvested in the spring or early summer depending upon one’s elevation. The wheat of Israel is what is called “winter wheat.”

And when one starts talking about wheat and its harvest, the Feast of Weeks immediately comes to mind. This feast, otherwise known to us as Pentecost, was celebrated 7 complete weeks, or 50 days, after Passover. It was one of the great feasts of Israel that included a mass pilgrimmage to and celebration in Jerusalem. It just so happens that this was the specific time in which God decided to start the church (and thus the harvest) with the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, but here it is used as a picture of the end.

So Jesus, as the Son of Man (cf Daniel), sows his good seed to produce faithful followers. But the enemy, Satan, sows his own seed to produce people that will hopefully ruin the wheat and thus the harvest. The weeds that come up in the wheat are recognized to be darnel (Lolium temulentum), a weedy rye grass with poisonous seeds which looks much like wheat in its early stages of growth. When the weeds are recognized for what they really are, it is too late to rip them out of the ground. Their root systems become intertwined with the wheat. And unless you want to kill the wheat and ruin the harvest, you wait till the harvest to deal with the weeds and save the wheat.

This is what God is doing. He is being patient. He wants to produce as much wheat as possible, or save as many people as possible. So he waits. As Peter tells us, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise  as some count slowness, but  is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but  that all should reach repentance” (2 Pt 3:9). He waits for as many wheat stalks to form heads, or literally bear fruit, for that is the true mark of a faithful disciple. He waits for as many weeds as possible to become wheat. Then when it is time to harvest, the weeds will be ripped up by his angels and thrown into the furnace, while the wheat is gathered next and placed in the barn by the angels.

This is what John the Baptist said would be the mission of Jesus before he began his ministry. He said, “ “I baptize you with water  for repentance, but  he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you  with the Holy Spirit and  fire. His  winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and  gather his wheat into the barn,  but the chaff he will burn with  unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:11-12; cf Lk 3:17). Here again the image of wheat and its harvest is used as a final judgment metaphor. And the shocking aspect for the hearers, once again like in the parable of the Net, is the fact that Israel herself is the field which has weeds in it and will be judged- and not just the Gentile nations.

It is at the end of Jesus’ explanation in which he describes the harvested and saved wheat in the barn as the “righteous [who] will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (cf Dan 12:3).  If we think the southern sun is bad, the sun in the Middle East is terrifying! People hide from it. And this isn’t indicating an attractive glow, but a fierce quality. It is communicating the kind of glory we will enjoy for eternity. And when I say glory I mean prestige and status. We are important to God, that’s why he waits for us. We will reflect his image perfectly once again when Christ returns in a body that will be radiantly resurrected and transformed like a kernel of wheat (1 Cor 15:37). The way the sun stands out at the beach, is the way God will have us stand out in honor having honored him in our lives. Just watch out that you don’t get burned.

The Epistle of Diognetus is part of the collection known as the Apostolic Fathers, the earliest Christian writings after the New Testament documents. Diognetus is unique from the other AF because it is the only one which is an apology, a defense of the Christian faith. Therefore, it is addressed not to insiders but to outsiders. Being this genre, it could more properly be placed among the second century Greek apologists such as Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, et al (see Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers in English, 3rd ed., pg 289).

The author, who is unknown, begins the letter by reciting 3 key questions of the Christian faith proposed by outsiders that he will answer in his 12 chapters. The first question includes, ”specifically, what God they believe in and how they worship him, so that they all disregard the world and despise death…(1:1).” The author describes how faith in the Christian God causes Christians to “despise death” (καὶ θανάτου καταφρονοῦσι). Pagans apparently thought this to be a strange trait of the Christian faith to the point that the author had to speak up and write an explanation.

In fact, the author begins and ends his letter with the theme of despising death. In chapter 10 (the last 2 chapters are considered to be an addition from a different document onto the manuscript), the author says,  ”…then you will condemn the deceit and the error of the world, when you realize what is the true life in heaven, when you despise the apparent death here on earth, when you fear the real death, which is reserved for those who will be condemned to the eternal fire that will punish to the very end those delivered to it…” (ὅταν τοῦ δοκοῦντος ἐνθάδε θανάτου καταφρονήσῃς; 10:7). The author states that once you understand the true God and become a Christian you will despise death like the rest of the believers. So, 1) what caused the pagans to not understand this idea of death, 2) what did the author mean by despising death, and 3) do we believers today understand death more like the outsiders the author was writing to or more like the author’s conception?

Perhaps these questions can be answered by looking once more at the use of the idea of “immortality” in the letter (2x). First, in chapter 6 the author offers an analogy between the relationship of the soul and body, with the Christian and the world: “what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world” (6:1). It is later on in this chapter that the soul is mentioned to be immortal. Here is the chapter in its entirety.

• To sum up all in one word–what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world. The invisible soul is guarded by the visible body, and Christians are known indeed to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul, and wars against it, though itself suffering no injury, because it is prevented from enjoying pleasures; the world also hates the Christians, though in nowise injured, because they abjure pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and [loves also] the members; Christians likewise love those that hate them. The soul is imprisoned in the body, yet preserves that very body; and Christians are confined in the world as in a prison, and yet they are the preservers of the world. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians dwell as sojourners in corruptible [bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens. The soul, when but ill-provided with food and drink, becomes better; in like manner, the Christians, though subjected day by day to punishment, increase the more in number. God has assigned them this illustrious position, which it were unlawful for them to forsake.

Whereas the initial object of this article was for the use of  ”immortality” to help us understand “despising death,” the opposite just may be the case in this instance. It is important to remember the audience and occassion/context that this writer was writing to/in. This Greek apologist was having to use language, terminology, and concepts understandable to his readers so that his points could be understood by those particular people. This caution should help us from coming to several conclusions too quickly, such as a Christian dualistic understanding of the soul/body and heaven. But as western Christians this most likely is our initial reaction and understanding of the authors words. Does he consider the “imprisoned” soul to be only what matters, and the body only something to be discarded and disdained like his pagan Greek readers believed? Does the author really believe that the goal of Christianity is “to go to heaven when I die,” and therefore believe that the unimportant creation is to be destroyed and the locale of heaven to be some ethereal and immaterial realm in the clouds like his pagan readers believed?

The second and final use of immortality in the letter doesn’t help us out too much in answering these alarming and doctrinally important questions. The first again goes like this, “The soul, which is immortal, lives in a mortal dwelling; similarly Christians live as strangers amid perishable things, while waiting for the imperishable in heaven” (ἀθάνατος ἡ ψυχὴ ἐν θνητῷ σκηνώματι κατοικεῖ· 6:8). Second, in describing Jesus’ ransoming sacrifice on the cross, he states that  “the immortal [was ransomed] for the mortal” (τὸν ἄφθαρτον ὑπέρ τῶν θνητῶν. 9:2). So, the author describes both the soul and the resurrected Jesus as immortal.

For brevity’s sake, let me make a few concluding comments. The inclusio of “despising death” in the letter keeps us from drawing dualistic conclusions about eternal life: resurrection and heaven. Death is an intruder into God’s good creation. That’s why it is called an enemy and is specifically stated to be defeated by Christ and his resurrection plus the general resurrection to come. Jesus is immortal, the only one who is immortal right now. But Scripture teaches that he is the model of our immortality and that the Spirit will raise us up like he raised Jesus up. This is why we should despise death as Christians, because it is the opposite of life. You cannot have eternal life if you are only a soul. Resurrection is the bringing of life back to people by joining their bodies back with their souls. Only by this is eternal life possible. In Christianity, the body is just as important as the soul because God made both, sin corrupted both, and God saves both. Man may consist of a duality of body and soul, but man is a unity of body and soul. Man is only man when the two are joined as God intended since his creation. We despise death because it is the opposite of God’s good intention, the opposite of creation, the opposite of salvation, the opposite of resurrection. Immortality awaits all faithful believers experienced as resurrected persons living in God’s resurrected creation.

The letter’s theology has not been suspected of unorthodox teachings by scholars concerning the topics of immortality, heaven, or salvation. It has been considered orthodox since it was deciminated in the 2nd century AD. And the theme of despising death from beginning to end should guide our understanding of the authors words, especially in chapter 6, which helps guard against interpreting his words dualistically.

Check out the full text online at CCEL:

Greek text (http://www.ccel.org/l/lake/fathers/diognetus.htm)

English text (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/richardson/fathers.x.i.ii.html)

I was sitting down watching Sesame Street with Chance Monday morning when his favorite segment, Elmo’s world, came on. That days theme for Elmo just so happened to be the beach! And during that beach-themed segment The Count showed up sitting in the sand trying to count the grains. It didn’t show him starting at 1, but rather 53 billiion something. I don’t know, all I know is that The Count gave up counting! He got up and walked away. The Count could not count all the grains of sand. He had met his match and it was sand! Not in all my years have I ever seen such a travesty as The Count giving up counting! Maybe that’s why they’re phasing out his character…who knows?

What The Count did show Chance and I that morning is perhaps the same reaction some people had to the wisdom of Solomon. As the sand cannot be counted, neither could the widsom of Solomon be matched by any other person before or after him. If sand is The Count’s match, Solomon is sand’s match. Scripture has this to say about Solomon’s wisdom,

• And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

Scripture compares Solomon’s wisdom to the grains of sand at the beach. He spoke 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs about all kinds of things from nature. And in the book of Proverbs, which is attributed to Solomon, we find his sandy wisdom teaching us a lesson using sand. Proverbs 27:3 says,

• Stone is heavy and sand a burden, but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.
• Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?

This is the only place besides 2x in Job where sand is mentioned in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Here, the weight of sand is used to compare with a fool’s behavior: anger, cruelty, fury, or simply jealousy. In Job, he compares his present misery and anguish he is experiencing as heavier than all the sand on every beach; which he believed God to have caused (6:3). His present situation being something far different than his long life he had imagined as “grains of sand” (Job 29:18). But both Solomon and Job use sand, or the weight of sand, as an illustration of the consequences of questionable behavior: behavior that cannot be endured. It is a metaphor taken from real life where sand was collected, carried, and used in such things as the building of homes (see Koptak, NIV Application Commentary). We experienced something like this at HUT last summer by helping build a sand bag home.

The question then is, how do we live wisely and thereby not act foolishly to the point that we become a load of sand on someone’s head? The answer begins in the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builder at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the only place in the New Testament where we find sandy wisdom,

• Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matt 7:24-27).

The point Jesus we getting at was basically for the people to put their faith in him as the Messiah, the Son of God. One is truly wise who puts their faith and builds their life upon the rock, or Jesus (cf. Matt 16:13-20). However, one is foolish who continues to put their faith in the unstable house that was currently being “built on rock” (i.e. the temple in Jerusalem) which was really sand. This is the beginning of wisdom: putting your faith/fear in God (cf. Prov 1:7). For, if sand’s match was Solomon, Jesus was Solomon’s. For, Jesus was in fact Wisdom incarnate. The one who gave Solomon all of his wisdom which he prayed for to God. But now, “someone greater than Solomon [and his wisdom] is here” (Matt 12:42). Wisdom Himself.

As believing in and loving Jesus is a wise move in life, so is loving others as yourself (Mk 12:28-34). Paul often encourages us as Christians to walk and live wisely and explains that in his letters (Eph 5:15; Col 4:5), but I would like to look at what James has to say about wisdom to conclude the article.

• Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do…Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness (James 1:2-8; 3:13-18).

Like Solomon asked God for wisdom and received, James encourages us to do the same. Then, unlike Solomon, use that wisdom consistently and faithfully for good on mission. For we must never forget that it is God who gives us, ”a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict” (Lk 21:15).  We must become fools before we can become wise in Christ (1 Cor 3:18; 4:10). Then the Spirit of Wisdom and His word will make us “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:15; Eph 1:17; Col 1:9; Is 11:1-3). We will not ruin relationships with envy, selfishness, or jealousy and thereby become a load of sand on others heads with “demonic and worldly wisdom” (cf. 1 Cor 2:1-7). Rather, we will be “full of the Spirit and wisdom” and serve God and others with purity, love, peace, consideration, submissiveness, mercy, impartiality, and humility (cf Acts 6:3, 10). A wisdom that cannot be counted like the sand on the beach.

Growing up in the land –locked Midwest, I didn’t have much exposure to the sandy beaches of the east and west coasts. The closest coast I experienced was along Lake Eerie, but I don’t remember any sand. Sure, Michigan had the Great Bear sand dunes and other beaches along Lake Michigan, but they were still an entire day’s drive from Detroit. We did have a wave pool in Gibraltar, but still, no sand.

However, I do remember an hourglass filled with sand in our family room. I used to take it down from the shelf and play with it. When we moved to Pennsylvania, our backyard had a huge Ash tree, behind which lay a large pile of leftover sand from the brick patio construction of the previous owners. I used to take my Ninja turtles and other actions figures and play with them in that sand. From these two early experiences sand came to mean not only time but something you play in/with. In fact, I just got the opportunity to play in the sand at Del Mar Beach with my son Chance over the holidays. And every time we go to Double Churches Park we play and slide into the sand that surrounds its playground area. Sand is fun to play in/with.

Turning to the Bible we see that the scriptures don’t play much with sand. There are only 29 references to it in the Old Testament and New Testament combined. That’s 24 references in the OT and only 5 references in the NT. Of those 29 about 24 refer to sand that is on the beach. And the majority of these references are symbolic of a vast number of people or things which cannot be counted just like the sand at the shore.

Psalm 139 is such an example. This psalm talks about how God loves to play in the sand. Ps 139:17-18 says, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.” This song implores that God knows all of our thoughts (v2, 23). Then in the middle of the medley it compares the sand on the beach to all the innumerable thoughts God has for each one of us (v17-18). The song invites us to play in the sand with God.

But how do we play in the sand with God? How do we count the thoughts God has for just me specifically? How do we even know what God is thinking? For God declares through Isaiah, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways…For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (55:8-9). Similarly Paul declares, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways” (Rom 11:33)!

The answer lies in what Paul reveals to us in 1 Corinthians 2,

• But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”-  these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.  The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:9-16).

God loves to play in the sand. He loves to give us His attention and do what’s best for us. The psalmist proclaims once more, “How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep” (Ps 92:5). Again, “You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told” (Ps 40:5).

But God also invites us to play in the sand with him by giving us his Spirit. He invites us to think about ourselves, others, and Himself as He would and act on those righteous thoughts. And it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to show that kind of love and attention. The Spirit gives us the mind of Christ. The Spirit knows the thoughts of God and transforms our hearts as we lay them down to have our thoughts become his thoughts. May our thoughts for God and others be as the sand on the beach the next time we sink our toes in to the grains.