24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
SUPPLIES: all these are optional: plant with weed, coloring sheet of flowers--write on petals or grass blades: "Sharing", "Being selfish", "Caring", "Helping", "Being Mean", etc. (You can make this three dimensional so that the 'weeds' can be pulled out.
MESSAGE: Good Morning!
You might remember that last week we talked about planting seeds. Do any of you have gardens at home? What kinds of things grow in your gardens? Do you ever get any plants you didn't expect? We call those weeds, don't we. What do we do with weeds? That's right, sometimes we pull them. But other times, they grow so close to the plant that we can't pull them up without pulling out the good plant (you can show this if you've brought one.) Jesus even told us about a man who had a field like this. He had a bunch of plants growing, some of the plants were the plants he wanted and some of them were weeds. I don't think Jesus was telling us about how to plant our gardens, I think he was telling us about our hearts. Maybe you can help me think of which things Jesus wants us to grow in our hearts and which ones he wants us to weed out. How about sharing? Should we "grow" that or "weed" it out? What about 'being selfish--not letting anyone else play with our toys'? How about being helpful? How about 'yelling or calling names'? You all did a good job--see we know what we should 'grow' and what we should 'weed out', but it can be awfully hard to always do the right thing, right? Most of us have a mix--sometimes we're good at sharing and other times we're selfish Jesus wants to help us weed out the things like selfishness, so that our hearts can grow more love. Take this picture home with you and have a grownup help you think about what kinds of things we should grow in our lives and which ones we should 'weed' out.
Let's say a prayer about this:
Dear God,
Thank you for loving us even when our hearts have lots of weeds. Help us grow more love for you and for others every day. Amen.
Very helpful, simple, and clear cut. Thanks, just what I needed for my Children's Story.
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