I thought there was a thread already posted about the wheat and weeds. I searched for it but could not find it. So, here we go again. (Oh yeah, there's a song about that.)

In the last few days, I have been taking care of a neighbor’s property. It was overgrown with weeds and needed the weeds to be removed. My other neighbors asked me why I should bother. “Let him take care of it himself.” I replied that I was doing it out of kindness because the owner was away. I also stated that it was also becoming an eyesore and would attract the wrong kind of people. They are known as squatters. And, in my area, there are those who look for abandoned houses to sell and use drugs. So, I also have those reasons for cleaning it up. Plus, a bad looking property devalues the other properties around it. My wife also asked me why I was doing the work. She said, “You can’t continue doing this all summer!” I replied, “I can do it as long as it takes.”

One other good thing for me is; I get to think and reason about the illustrations that Jesus used in teaching the crowds. The disciples asked Jesus, “Why is it you speak to them by the use of illustrations?” His answer was, “To YOU it is granted to understand the sacred secrets of the kingdom of the heavens, but to those people it is not granted.” “For the heart of this people has grown unreceptive, and with their ears they have heard without response, and they have shut their eyes; that they might never see with their eyes and hear with their ears and get the sense of it with their hearts and turn back, and I heal them.” (Mt 13 NWT)

Although Jesus was speaking to the crowds of his day as “this people”, it also applies to the people of today. As I cleaned up the weeds, it reminded me of what Jesus said in his illustration in Matthew 13:24-30. When asked if they should uproot the weeds, he said, “No; that by no chance, while collecting the weeds, YOU uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the harvest season I will tell the reapers, First collect the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up,b then go to gathering the wheat into my storehouse.” (Mt 13”28-30 NWT)

One thing you will learn when uprooting weeds is that you need to get all the roots also. If you snap them off at ground level, they will regrow. The difference between weeds and the good grain is that weeds will grow anywhere there is some sort of soil. They also don’t need much water to survive. But, when water is available, they will soak it up and concentrate it in the root ball. This deprives the good plants of their needed water supply.

When looking at the answer Jesus gives about the harvest, we can notice from his answer that there are a lot of weeds in this system of things. They claim to be wheat, but they are weeds sucking up all the good things and denying the sons of the kingdom the good things. They cause nothing but trouble for those seeking righteousness. Like weeds, you can find them everywhere there is least resistance.

Jesus concluded with, “Did YOU get the sense of all these things?” They said to him: “Yes. Then he said to them: “That being the case, every public instructor, when taught respecting the kingdom of the heavens, is like a man, a householder, who brings out of his treasure store things new and old.”
(Mt 13:51-52 NWT)

Are WE to be considered “public instructors”?

The actual Greek word is grammateus (gram-mat-yooce') = scribe, according to Strong’s:
1. a clerk, scribe, esp. a public servant, secretary, recorder, whose office and influence differed in different states.
2. in the Bible, a man learned in the Mosaic law and in the sacred writings, an interpreter, teacher. Scribes examined the more difficult and subtle questions of the law; added to the Mosaic law decisions of various kinds thought to elucidate its meaning and scope, and did this to the detriment of religion. Since the advice of men skilled in the law was needed in the examination in the causes and the solution of the difficult questions, they were enrolled in the Sanhedrin; and are mentioned in connection with the priests and elders of the people. See a Bible Dictionary for more information on the scribes.
3. a religious teacher: so instructed that from his learning and ability to teach advantage may redound to the kingdom of heaven