<p>13:25&nbsp;<em>But while his men slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away</em>- The sense of &quot;while&quot; is supplied by the translators. It could just as well mean that&nbsp;<em>when</em>&nbsp;men slept- after the death of the apostles? And yet the Lord commands His followers&nbsp;<em>not</em>&nbsp;to sleep, and Paul in 1 Thess. 5 repeats this. The implication could be that the sowing of the weeds was avoidable if the Lord's workers had been more attentive. Jesus so understands human weakness. But let's try to enter into the sense of shame and hurt which He must feel at our apathy; the shame is similar to the shame of the farmer who has tares growing in his field. Everyone sees it's the result of his workers sleeping instead of keeping the night watch as they should have done (Mt. 13:25). The Lord foresaw this; He saw that the ultimate harvest wouldn't be a good one. Even some that looked like &quot;good seed&quot; would be rejected (Mt. 8:12 cp. 13:38). Yet in this same context, Christ speaks of how the believer starts off as a tiny mustard seed, but in the Kingdom grows into a tree which will shelter others (Mt. 13:32). He saw&nbsp;<em>how</em>&nbsp;small are our spiritual beginnings compared to our position in the Kingdom. The least in the Kingdom will be spiritually greater than John the Baptist was in his mortal life (Mt. 11:11). &nbsp;The false teachers &ldquo;crept in&rdquo; just as a serpent creeps (Jude 4). The same group may have been in Christ&rsquo;s mind in His parable of the tares being sown in the field of the (Jewish) world by the Devil,&nbsp;<em>secretly</em>&nbsp;(cp. &ldquo;false [Jewish] brethren unawares brought in&rdquo;, Gal. 2:4&ndash;6). In the parable of the sower, &ldquo;the Devil&rdquo; is defined as the enemy of Christ the sower / preacher of the Gospel &ndash; and His enemies initially were the Jews. These were the &ldquo;tares&rdquo; sown amongst the wheat which Christ had sowed, &ldquo;things that offend&rdquo; &ndash; and Paul warns of the Judaizers who caused&nbsp;<em>offences&nbsp;</em>and schisms to wreck the ecclesia (Rom. 16:17; 14:13; Mt.13:38,39,25,41). This is all confirmed by Jesus in Mt. 15:12&ndash;13 describing the Pharisees as plants &ldquo;which My Heavenly Father hath not planted&rdquo; which were to be rooted up at the judgment.</p>
<p>Mark&rsquo;s record speaks as if the&nbsp;<em>sower Himself</em>&nbsp;slept. The humility of the Lord Jesus is a reflection of the humility of God His Father. He spoke of Himself as the sower, who sleeps (in His death) and then works night and day (His present Heavenly labour for us) so that the seed should bring forth fruit- &quot;He knows not how&quot; (Mk. 4:27, with allusion to Ecc. 11:1,5,6). Despite all things having been revealed unto Him, and the Spirit immeasurably given to Him, He had the spiritual and intellectual humility to openly recognize that our spiritual growth and ultimate salvation is a mystery to Him. It was the Father alone who gave the increase. &nbsp;He forgot things at times, didn't understand absolutely everything (e.g. the date of His return, or the mystery of spiritual growth, Mk. 4:27), made a mistake when working as a carpenter, cut His finger. But He was never frustrated with Himself; He was happy being human, comfortable with His humanity.</p>