letting go of control and learning from everyone
I think church people get nervous when they read this:
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”
And I think they have avoided truly understanding this:
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.
The first suggests that there are those people who may not ascribe to all of what Jesus teaches, but if they are doing what is good then they should be left alone… or even encouraged and learned from?
The second is even more vague. Jesus speaks of a farm that has weeds and wheat growing up together and suggests that we don’t pull the weeds, but let them grow together.
In both cases I believe control is the main issue. Jesus seems to want us to trust and release control. It is not our job to sort another persons motivation, but we should address our own.
It is not our job to remove the bad from the good (from our perspective), because we may remove some good in the process. And it’s pretty ego-centric to think that you know what is good and what is bad.
So what can we do?
We stop controlling. We learn how to be free. We trust. We have faith. We learn from everyone.
I think we have miss-read this passage:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
To test and approve we cannot conform. In order to not conform, we have to have be transformed. In order to be transformed, we need a renewed mind.
Let me translate: In order to be able to allow weeds and wheat grow together (learn from everyone) we need to see life as God sees it, not feel the need to control it. In order to not control we need to be able to observe ourselves and move forward in faith. In order to be move forward we need to rethink our whole self-centered outlook on life.
It all begins by addressing your ego.
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”
The more your ego has control in your life, the more you need to control, and the further away you are from truly learning from everyone.
Tags: discipleship, ego, faith, formation, learning from everyone, Luke, Matthew, Romans
[...] I posted some thoughts on this on blog here. [...]
Not sure how you make the leap from “allowing” the wheat and weeds to grow to harvest time when they will be properly separated by the creator – to a complete open accepting “learning from everyone” how to have a renewed mind in order to be transformed. Are the passages challenges to our judgmental attitudes? but the word “control” – help me make the leap.
Urbanpilgrim,
Firstly, is that “we” do not separate, but the creator does. So our desire to label who is right and who is wrong or more simply, “who we can learn from” does not seem to be our job. Yet, we should be able to point out the good and move in that direction. The problem lies when we think we are supposed to point out the “bad” which never seems to be our job, in fact I believe Jesus spoke of planks in our eyes to prove a point. Our desire to point out the bad is part of our sinful nature or ego.
Therefore, for us to point out good and walk in that direction we have to have a renewed mind, otherwise we won’t be able to point out good (know gods will).
Learning from everyone, extends from the fact that if we are to point out good, which we can do by being connected to Jesus we need to address our desire to be “right” or point out wrongs due to our ego. Once we can do that we can begin to enter all situations with an open mind, and learn from everyone.
Kyle
I like the discussion and appreciate your work on this issue. The text on the plank maybe a good text to add for the teaching. It goes at the point of our judgments and ego .
The planter of the weeds is the Evil One and therefore the learning from “everyone” becomes a question mark to me. My understanding is the passage points us to look at the harvest. The “fruit” of the plant. The two crops look very similar in nature. As a matter of fact some would say that a visual inspection of the two types of plants defined as wheat and tares could be visually indistinguishable. But at harvest the result can be seen. Therefore to take out the tares before the fruit is seen could result in taking out some wheat. Also we may take out some wheat whose roots are so intertwined with the tares that we kill wheat. Is the subject here truth, principle, teaching or people. In my mind it seems to be discussing inclusion vs. exclusion of people not learning. Is your teaching that if we do not learn from everyone we are not being inclusive but rather exclusive?
Walking into each situation with an open mind toward people having faced its own planks and splinters and treats others with grace does not have to mean we will or should learn from them but it might mean we can learn from everyone without it being an issue of control.
Is that where you are going? I am sorry I am a little slow.
I agree with the renewed mind which comes from a transformed relationship with Jesus and submission to Him. I believe He is most clearly revealed in the pages of scripture being lived out in the lives of people that are so submitted, forgiven and restored to wholeness or are in that process.
I am definitely acknowledging that there is an evil that exists, but it is my premise that the church takes a lot of time pointing out the evil (not always accurately), and less time acknowledging the good. To me, this is a control issue. It is the need to be right and to know who is in and who is out. Instead of making people the in or out group, we should make the wheat or weeds. But again, instead of focusing on the weeds, I believe that the wheat should be celebrated and the weeds will work themselves out in the end, as the creator does his work.
I believe the fact that the wheat and weeds look identical is a perfect example of people. Whether the people contain weeds and wheat within (deeds), or whether the weeds or wheat are the people themselves is irrelevant to the fact that we (as humans) are not to separate them. If then, we cannot separate, we must seek the kingdom within each person, or deed. therefore, we must learn or see the kingdom within everyone. Even the fact that all people are made in the image of God, leads to me to believe that weeds and wheat are within all, and therefore all have something to bring to the table as a child or God, although the problem is that what they bring is not always good. So learning (which i think you were getting at at the end) is not a matter or a lecture, or a book series, but as a life. Every person has something good in them (via God) that makes them have something for us to learn from.
Am i making sense? This is really helping me flesh out this thought.
Kyle
I am not sure. I think and I mean I think so often in an effort to be tolerant and accepting we focus on the wrong side of the question. Could Jesus be calling his disciples back to focus upon their relationship with him and upon the kingdom instead about trying to define others position in order to exclude them from the inner circle? I guess the thing I question is the premise that there is always something in every deed or life that will guide me closer to true Kingdom living. Dignity and respect is demanded for every person because we are all created in the image of God. God is God and I am not and therefore I need to admit my judgment is twisted up in my broken humanity. So the place that I need to go to define right, wrong, truth or wisdom is the person of Jesus not the weeds inside that twist my thinking or the weeds that surround my life with mulitple options about Him. He is the one that must interpret my life experience and not my experience or that of others that must interpret Him. Thus the question – How do we know Him?
I believe that if someone is created in the image of god they deserve more than just dignity and respect, but that would get us off the topic at hand.
I think at the end of the day I am 2 or 3 steps past you. You seem to be concerned with how we see good (or who informs us of right and wrong) and I am saying that we need to be able to see and approve right in others. I am going to get to the “informing” part, but that’s assumed at this point.
When you began speaking of who defines our experience I started to wonder if maybe we were talking from 2 different sides of the same coin.
That is not new for people to be ahead of me… Just check the review mirror and see If I am still coming.
Well said, Kyle.
Jesus’ words of “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you” have been troublesome to me – one who’s been actively involved in teaching, pastoring and discipling for over two decades. I have enjoyed your take on this.
Blessings …