The mystery of the kingdom of heaven is about a family kingdom (Med.#15), one that comes and grows in this world. In the earlier ‘parable of the sower’, recorded by three gospel writers, the seed sown by a farmer represents God's Word; and the various kinds of soils represent individual human hearts and their response to the Word. But in ‘the parable of the Father's kingdom’, the ‘good seed’ sown by ‘the Son of Man’ is us—the sons [Gr. huioi] (and daughters) of the kingdom! And the ‘field’ represents the whole created world, so that after a season of growth it is the world that is transformed (into Jesus' kingdom), not just individual hearts. Notice also that this happens even before the darnel plants (weeds) are removed.

Because Jesus’ kingdom is also identified as our Father's kingdom in this parable, it tells us important things: about the Father's purpose for us, about his character, and about his ways. First, we see that the Father's purpose for us now, in this world, is to be his sons [Gr. huioi] and daughters—to be like the One who 'sowed' us, the 'Son [Gr. huios] of Man. And his ultimate goal is that we will 'shine like the sun', so that all creation will see us revealed in our glory with Jesus (Med.#5). Peter, James and John were given a momentary glimpse of this on the mountain when Jesus' face shone like the sun, and Moses and Elijah appeared in ‘glorious splendor’ with him (Lk.9:30-31, Med.#84). This is how our Father feels about us. If we are to grow to maturity in righteous character, we need to believe in his purpose for us.

Second, this parable shows us that we need to trust in our Father's righteous character if we are to become like him (Med.#12). Even though the world still belongs to him (in the parable, the field belongs to the farmer), he has an enemy who is active in his world. And it is the devil, not our Father, who 'plants' lawless people and things that cause offense right next to us in this world. These ‘sons of the evil one’ can even be people who profess to believe in Jesus (Med.#64), even leaders of God’s people (Med.#78). If we are to grow to maturity, we need to trust our Father's character—that he does not plant evil people in our lives or tempt us to sin.

But isn't it ultimately God who 'allows' us to be tempted, like when the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Med.#26)? Yes, but this has to do with our Father's ways in helping us grow to maturity. So, thirdly, we learn that when our Father allows the devil to plant offensive people and things close to us—and even leave them there for some time, he is wanting us to become mature like he is mature (Med.#12). Many Christians, however, are like the servants in the parable. They think God should be like an all-controlling Master and always act immediately, forcibly and powerfully against such evil! When he doesn't do so, they doubt his sovereignty. Or they invent explanations that a particular evil is part of the Master's loving plan, or is the fault of the one suffering. They rarely try to understand their Father's methods and purposes, because they see themselves as only servants or little children who don't expect to have such things shared with them.

As a father of emerging adult children, I learned that it was not wise to always exercise my parental ‘sovereignty’. I could actually harm my teenagers by rescuing them or protecting them from all difficult situations. Jesus came to reveal that God is first and foremost a Father who is working to reconcile prodigal sons and daughters and then train them as adults. He is merciful and patient with all human beings because he wants them to repent and live (2 Pet.3:7-9, Med.#88), and bringing judgment right away can prevent this from ever happening. As his adult sons and daughters, we are to consider 'opposition' and 'hardships' as part of our Father's training (Med.#33). It is through making right choices in such situations that we become more and more like our Father—with the help of his Spirit. And this is what transforms the world. 'Sonship' in this parable is not about physical descent or about ‘adoption’. The ‘sons of the evil one’ are not called the devil’s sons because they are genetically descended from him or adopted by him, but because these people are like him in persistently choosing to do evil and to encourage others to sin. Similarly, the true sons and daughters of the God are those who continually choose to do their Father’s will (Med.#16, Med.#11 & Med.#64).

Some of the evil we experience might come from the temporary lapse of a Christian brother or sister. Learning to love like our Father does involves learning to 'endure all things', but as his adult sons and daughters we also have a responsibility to challenge and admonish brothers and sisters who fall into sin. But we must learn to do so in a spirit of gentleness with the purpose of restoration, remembering that we too are vulnerable to the temptations (Gal.6:1) caused by the evil one.

[i] The whole Scripture Passage is taken from J.K. Mellis, The Good News of the Messiah by the Four Witnesses, pp.82-84,86.