September 2025: Farmer Jesus

Happy Harvest! For me, September is always the beginning of the Harvest season. It certainly is when we start experiencing the joys of Fall and the cooler weather that we all (or at least I) know and love.

Jesus is frequently pointing people to harvest themes throughout the Gospels. There are many well-known parables about fields and harvest, and several lesser-known ones as well. One definition of parable that I like is “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” Since so many people in the time of Jesus had experiences with farms and harvest, it makes sense that Jesus would use farms so frequently as he sought to convey God’s complex truth to people.

One of the strangest parables with this agricultural air is the parable of The Wheat and the Tares. A field is found to be full of good wheat but is scattered with weeds as well. The farmer tells the workers not to pull out the weeds, so that all the wheat might survive until the harvest. The worry of the farmer is that in pulling out the weeds, wheat would be sacrificed as well.

This is not meant to be farming advice, but rather a look into God’s plans for his creation. You might wonder why God doesn’t pull out the “weed eater” to punish those that are evil in the world but allows evil to prosper. Jesus is telling us that God, in his nature as slow to anger and abounding in mercy, allows evil people to prosper in the hope that who have true faith would be at the “final harvest” when he returns. The farmer warns that tearing up the weeds could harm the wheat. In the same way, God in his wisdom has decided that patience and mercy hold the day until his return.

I said on Sunday “sometimes Jesus says things that we wish he didn’t.” This is one of those times. You may have thought to yourself, “Why hasn’t God punished that evil person for their wickedness?” That is a great moment to remember that in our sinfulness we do evil as well. Just as God has had mercy on us in forgiveness, we pray the same will be for those who do evil today, that at that final harvest they would be counted among those who rely on Jesus’ words for their salvation.

Scripture also says that “vengeance belongs to the Lord.” We know that the Lord is long-suffering but not forever-suffering. At that final harvest, we know that all that has been wrong will be made right, whether that means the final and total removal of sin and its effects from our lives, or the punishment for those that have not repented. Until that day, we trust God’s judgement as a “farmer” with ways and plans far above our own.

Blessings on your September and the move back into the school-time schedule