A parable is a story with a moral lesson. At times Jesus spoke in parables to engage the minds of his audience. He wanted to ensure that people did not go to sleep during his sermons. He was an effective teacher. Very often he would explain the parables for everyone to understand, yet still others listened but could not understand the meanings of the parables. We still find that in our religious circles today. Simple teachings, interpretations and meanings are being misinterpreted. People are coming up with their own interpretations of Jesus’ teachings, sometimes with grave consequences to Christianity itself.
sundayword BY PROSPER TINGINI
Jesus spoke publicly very often, yet of those who listened a few understood. Even this very moment in time, his teachings are sometimes misunderstood and misinterpreted. In Matthew 13:18-22, He spoke, “Hear then the parable of the sower, when any one hears the word of the Kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away (stumbles). As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another 60, and in another 30”.
I go to church regularly and am at times astounded at the level of ignorance of meanings to scriptures as exhibited by some of the priests or preachers. Despite Jesus Christ himself explaining the meanings, some preachers abandon the correct message to give one way out of line. I then begin to wonder who the sower is then, in this instance. The man of the cloth has spent up to six years training to be a priest or pastor yet misses the vital meanings to some of the scriptures and spreads falsehoods to the gathered congregation. This has disastrous implications. Maybe the problem lies with the theological colleges from which such priests/pastors train.
In Matthew 13: 24-30, Jesus Christ spoke of the parable of the weeds; “The Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while 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 householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this’. 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 to gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn’”.
Despite Jesus Christ having explained the meaning of the above parable, in his own words, one priest preaching to us explained that the parable meant that it was time for us to repent, time for us to be born again, time for us to accept Jesus as the Lord and so forth. Really? It was obvious the priest did not properly understand the parable itself, yet he was preaching about it to thousands of people gathered to listen to him. He was misrepresenting Jesus Christ. I felt pity for the gathered congregation.
Now let’s look at how Jesus Christ interpreted his parable (Matthew 13: 36-43); His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field”. He answered, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed means 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 close of the age (end of time), and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close 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 evil dowers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He, who has ears, let him hear”. Is there a better and more straight-forward explanation than this? Why take the simple explanation of Jesus as if it were another parable? Can’t we just take what Jesus spoke as the truth? Indeed, let those who have ears hear and those with eyes see.
The most important factor to note about the above parable are the weeds. The gospel should be centred around the weeds, and what they represent. Literally, a weed is a plant that is growing where it is not desired. In this instance, it was deliberately planted in the field, in stealth, by the enemy. Moreso, it was most certainly disguised to look like the original plant, to look like the real thing. There is this crop called rapoko (or rukweza in Shona). For some reason, you would always find a look-alike crop growing among the genuine crop and very difficult to distinguish from the real one at the early stages. It is only when the crops begin to bear seeds that you notice the difference. The real crops produce fist-like bunches of big and rounded-up seeds as opposed to the fake ones which produce worthless seedless chaff trying to imitate the real thing. Our society if full of these weeds who are there to hoodwink the people.
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Religion is the biggest playground of the human weeds. Some people pretend to be vociferous children of God on the surface, self-proclaimed prophets for that matter, yet their aim is to fool the general public for their own purposes. Jesus warns us of such people. At the end of the day, at the end of time, such people will be flushed out by God and the actual corn will be separated from the chaff. It will be glory to the good and damnation to the bad.
Prosper Tingini would like to invite interested individuals, well-wishers, church organisations, donors and people from all walks of life to assist or form partnerships in establishing training centres across the country for pastors and priests. These training centres would be interdenominational (non-aligned). Those interested can phone or WhatsApp on 0771 260 195 or email: [email protected])
