Anglican Morning Devotion for 31 October 2021 Anno Domini
A ministry of the Anglican Orthodox Communion of Churches Worldwide
“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24-30; all scripture quoted is from the King James Verison)
Our Lord provides a very stark contrast between two sowers – the first, the Son of Man; the second, the devil. Every good and perfect gift from Eden until today has been sown by our Lord Jesus Christ from the Father of Lights. (see James 1:17) Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Word, the very Word from 1st Genesis to 22nd Revelations. All righteousness is by virtue that proceeds from Him as sown in the hearts of men and women.
John the Baptist, and all the prophets of old, have prepared the soil (hearts) for reception of the good seed of the Sower after a divine silence of more than four hundred years from Malachi to the coming of the Lord. The soil had laid fallow for those years of silence and darkness; but such soil will yield a greater harvest once the good seed falls from the Sower’s hand. Unfortunately, the briar and weeds of sin need no cultivation and, therefore, the heart of man is mingled already with the bad seeds of sin ere the devil ever sows anew.
The Lord sows His Seed during the hours of Light, openly and profusely. He is the Great Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2) and we are beneficiaries of that Source: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:4-8)
The Sower of the Good Seed sows in the field of His own possession, yet, even there, the enemy seeks always to intrude and infiltrate just as before at Eden.
Now, we turn to view the Sower of Tares. Not only do the tares not produce any fruit whatsoever, they also crowd out the fruitful stalks of nourishing wheat. The fruit of the devil produces no good thing but creates chaos and destruction wherever his seeds are sown. He is a liar and the father of lies. His lies began at Eden when he misquoted Scripture and finally flatly denied Scripture. He still is busy doing so.
The Sower of Tares is the Enemy, or devil. He sows in fields to which he does not own title, but always another’s field. He does not concern himself with uncultivated fields since his seed already flourish there, but in the fields where he has not labored in preparing the ground.
The Sower of the Good Seed sows in the open and has no purpose of concealment; however, the Enemy chooses his best hour as the hour of darkness while men sleep. The field is the Church itself. Men cannot forever go without sleep and the opportune time for sleep is during the night when good works are less commonly efficacious. The Church sleeps during the hours of darkness which come upon it with the regularity of the ages, so, it must work vigorously while the light of day remains to compensate for the evil works that prosper in darkness.
The sowing season for the Church is now. The produce of the land has failed due to the profusion of tares in our field. We have overslept the morning hours while evil has run rampant in our land. It is high time that we stop compromising with the Enemy bearing harmful seeds and stand strong as men and women with moral backbone against his malicious work in our Church. We cannot extract the tares from among the wheat, but we at least are able to strengthen the healthy wheat stalks with an abundance of the Water of Life and the nourishing fertilizer of the Bread of Heaven. Failing to do so will render our church and our land worse than a wilderness. “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” In the end, it is the work of the Lord to separate the wheat from the tares. Let us busy ourselves in nurturing the good for that day.
