A Biblical Theology of Weeds

Yes, you read the title correctly; your eyes are not playing tricks on you.  Sometimes, the minuscule, pointless, and most aggravating things in this life have spiritual value.  Really, any part of God’s creation has immense value to us, whether we consider it significant or insignificant.  For example, consider the vast heaven above us.  We consider the exploration and discovery of the universe as highly significant and extremely complex. Yet, Psalm 19 reduces those heavens to a canvas of simplicity in the first verse, “The heavens declare the glory of God…”. I hear the objectors speaking up: God’s creation of the universe is not even worthy of being placed in a conversation about weeds, let alone being compared to a trivial weed of the garden variety.  The only problem with this objection is that many don’t dig deep enough (pun intended) into the origins of a weed to discover its spiritual value.  Have you ever considered how closely connected sin is to weeds?  

The garden weed appears early in the Genesis narrative at one of the most significant moments in human history: the fall of humanity into sin. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and ate from the tree, mankind was infected with a sin nature that is inherited by every person born into this world.  According to the Genesis account, the results of sin entering the human race are four-fold: physical death, a cursed earth, pain in childbirth, and expulsion from the Garden of Eden.  The second consequence, cursed earth, is significant for our present discussion.  Genesis 3:17-18 explains further, “…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…”.   Before sin entered the human race, gardening seemed to have effortlessly produced all kinds of food that mankind could eat, but after sin entered the picture, thorns and thistles created problems for mankind’s ability to grow food to eat.  Jesus explains the metaphor well in the Parable of the Sower: “Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them” (Matthew 13:7).  It’s not my intent to explore the scientific etymology and nuances of thorns and thistles, for our purposes thorns and thistles will be grouped into the simple category of weeds.  Thus, in the Parable of the Sower, weeds choked the seeds so they could not grow.  Again, have you considered how closely connected sin is to weeds?  Let me make some practical comparisons between weeds and sin that might uncover truths we don’t readily consider when discussing this perennial pest. Don’t worry; you do not need to be a gardener to see the value of these comparisons.
 
Weeds remind us of our sin nature.

I’m often reminded of this when I am on my hands and knees, bent over a garden bed, trying to pull up that stubborn weed.  If I’ve been doing this for a bit of time, I find myself pointlessly muttering under my breath, “Thanks, Adam; if you had just stayed in your place and were content with the endless bounty of what God provided in paradise, then I wouldn’t be knee-deep in a garden bed trying to uproot a stubborn weed that seems to have burrowed its way to the other side of the earth.” (Okay, maybe those oddly specific words are not what I actually mumble in the heat of the moment).  Read my theological rant once more, did you notice the keyword?  If you said content, then you can help me pull weeds next time, and we can dream up other theological-minded tirades as we labor together on our hands and knees.  Anyone?  It was worth a try.  Returning to the point at hand, Scripture reminds us in numerous places to be content with what God has given us. Satan hooked Adam and Eve with the tempting thought that what God had provided for them was not enough.  Think about that for a moment.  Adam and Eve were perfect, lived in paradise, and had unfettered access and fellowship with God, and they still chose to disobey God.  Be warned, believer!  Don’t be fooled by the crafty lie that God is not enough. Satan has been proclaiming this lie since the Garden of Eden but, the truth is, God is enough!  And to demonstrate that reality beyond a shadow of a doubt, God sacrificed His Son for our sins so that we can become joint heirs with Christ (Galatians 4:17).  Being a joint heir with Christ means that as God’s adopted children, we will share in the inheritance of Jesus; what belongs to Him will also belong to us.  We have no reason to gripe, complain, whine, envy, or desire more because we have all we need in Christ! (Ephesians 1:7-14).

Weeds need to be pulled out by the root.

This fundamental truth regarding gardening is often passed on from the older generation to the younger one.  If the weed is not pulled out from the root, it will grow back.  This is a clear picture of the nature of sin.  If sin is not uprooted from its source, then it will come back time and time again.  But this sin-uprooting process is a challenging one.  It can often take some time to locate the source of the sin, like when you must dig deep to find the weed’s root.  Or, maybe the sin has been growing for a while and has become an ugly, monstrous weed with deep roots.  This will require a lot of work to uproot.  Furthermore, even when you can uproot a weed, sometimes remnants of the root are left behind in the soil, which can lay dormant for years.  Nearly all weeds can regrow from only a small amount of root left in the soil.  It is important to remember that even when we successfully uproot particular sins, those sins can still regrow.  However, don’t let that discourage you; the more sin uprooted from our lives, the more space we will have to root ourselves in Christ (Colossians 2:6-7).  Don’t you want to give Christ as much space in your spiritual life as possible?  Are there some weeds that need to be uprooted so Christ can have more of you?  

Weeds are relentless.

There are a few things that still fascinate me as a gardener.  Watching a seed miraculously begin to grow into a plant is at the top of the list, but the relentless growing power of a weed is right behind it.  How does a weed grow between centimeter-like cracks in a sidewalk or directly through that black landscape cloth that you painfully installed to prevent weeds?  However, it’s not just the strength of the weed; it’s the quick growth and unusual places that make it invasive.   This is a good reminder that sin can lurk around any corner, be under any rock, and take the normal route, but it can also take the strange route, the less traveled road, or the place you least expected.  This reminds me of what Paul said in Romans chapter 7.  He is explaining the struggle with sin, how, at one moment, he is ready to do what is right, and at the very next moment, he is at sin’s door.  This constant, relentless battle is not for the faint of heart.  Why? Because every day when we wake up and set our feet on the ground, we are at war with the enemy.  Sin, the enemy, is relentless and will do whatever it takes to cut you down.  Thank God for Jesus, Who is “our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble” (Psalm 46:1).  I like the way the NIV chose to use the phrase “an ever-present help” because it reminds me of God’s omnipresence.  In the daily battle between sin and righteousness, we are not alone; God is present with us on every battlefield, in every skirmish, and in every encounter.  Trust me on this one: He is more persistent in helping us than the enemy is in taking us down.

Weed pulling must be a daily task.

If you have a garden, flower bed, or landscaping around your home, you know the potential havoc that weeds can cause if left unchecked.  I applaud those of you, myself not included here, who check your garden and landscaping for weeds daily!  You take the adage, “growing like a weed,” very seriously because you have experienced the infamous overnight wonder: no weeds as you pillow your head at night to a colony of weeds when you wake.  Of course, I’m being a little dramatic, but science tells us that in the right conditions, a weed can grow 3” in only 24 hours.  In that perfect environment, weed pulling would be monotonous, not to mention keeping your grass cut.  It can be disheartening when you’ve done all that work and have no time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.  For me, I enlist the help of my chickens in weed pulling, but they need to be closely watched because they like to eat other things, too.  Back to my point: the daily task of weed pulling comes under the umbrella of discipline.  It takes discipline and hard work to keep all those potential weeds from overgrowing your beautifully manicured space; as soon as you see a weed growing, whether a new one is starting to grow or an old one, you would be wise to deal with it swiftly.  

Have you noticed the parallel to sin yet?  When sin rears its ugly head, you must deal with it swiftly.  Confess it and ask for forgiveness (1 John 1:9).  Sadly, we sometimes look at that weed (sin) that’s been growing for a while and decide to procrastinate. You think, I’ll deal with that later, or I’m not ready yet, or maybe you feel overwhelmed because it’s out of control, or you are simply uncertain about how to deal with it effectively.  Every believer needs reminding that when you let that sin grow and take root, it will only become a bigger problem later, and it will be much harder to uproot down the road.  Did you know that perennial weeds lay dormant in your soil during winter and sprout back up in spring?  So, if you don’t find them and uproot them when you see them in the spring, then they return to the soil for the next season.  Every believer needs to get into the habit (or discipline) of spending some time each day weed-pulling in his or her spiritual life.  

Weeds can choke out other plants.

Plants are preferable, but weeds are not.  Plants are beautiful, but weeds are mostly not.  Plants provide vegetables and things we can eat, but eating weeds is not advisable.  A whole industry is dedicated to cultivating the growth of good plants (crops) and preventing weeds from choking out those crops.  Whether it is weed-killer or weed-block fabric, many things have been developed to prevent weeds from growing at all.  Weeds are also notorious for stealing the nutrients and moisture in the soil around them, not to mention they compete with crops for sunlight.  This means the flowers and plants around them will not grow to their full potential, and your harvest season will not be maximized when weeds are nearby.  Weeds are also very good at crowding your plants and flowers, hogging the space where your plants and flowers could be flourishing.  Also, weeds can be notorious for providing a free bug hotel while those pests are plotting how they will munch on your unsuspecting plants and flowers.

The simple point I’m trying to make is that sin, like weeds, can easily choke out your spiritual growth.  Maybe you’re frustrated because you’re not growing in your spiritual life, even though you’ve been doing all the “right” things like daily Bible reading, prayer, loving others, worshipping at church each Sunday, serving in a ministry, connecting to a small group, spreading the good news of Jesus.  Might I suggest that some weeds are preventing your growth?  Every person’s spiritual life and growth is between God and that person. However, there is a cause-and-effect relationship here, a sowing and reaping effect.  You might have lots of spiritual fruit and growth, but if weeds are present, they will prevent you from reaching your full potential.  Yet, it does not have to be this way!  Maybe today needs to be inspection day.  You might not see the weeds upon a first pass through the garden; it might take a second, third, or fourth pass until you see those well-hidden weeds.  Once you find those weeds, snuff them out before they steal any more valuable nutrients you need to strengthen your spiritual life.    

Weeds are weeds.

That’s not a typo.  No matter how beautiful weeds are, they are still weeds.  This time of year, you might see some plants starting to sprout that look like they have potential, so you let them grow a bit more.  Something about their form makes you hesitate to classify them as weeds.  However, time will always reveal the truth that weeds are weeds.  Weeds can be deceptive and fool the garden experts; sin is the same way.  Poison hemlock is historically considered one of the most toxic plants; it’s a biennial weed prevalent in pastures, swamp areas, ditches, and stream banks.  However, did you know that the poison hemlock is related to the carrot family?  When it starts to grow, the tops look like carrots!  Just like weeds, sin can be very deceptive.  It might not look very harmful when it’s small and just sprouting, and it might not look so bad compared to all the other ugly sins, but don’t be so easily fooled believer.  If it were not for Jesus, who became a man, sin would have a 100% success rate in deceiving every person who walks the face of the earth.  Sin comes in all forms, shapes, and sizes; it loves to partner with the culture of our world in deceiving even the most righteous among us.

At this point, you might be feeling very discouraged, realizing this weed-pulling business is going to be a lifelong endeavor.  I won’t sugarcoat it, weeding out sin is a lifelong job.  The good news is that we have help.  Let me make one more analogy, which might sound hokey to some, but just hear me out.  We have a master Gardener to help us along the way; you know Him as the Holy Spirit, and we have a divine field guide called the Word of God.  The Holy Spirit reminds us each day, through His convicting power, that we need to do some weed-pulling.  And if we’ve learned anything, every day is a good day to do weed-pulling.   When we are uncertain which plants are weeds, we can open the Scriptures to identify them with complete clarity. With these two resources, we can uproot all the weeds that might prevent us from growing deeper into Christ.