Jenga, anyone?

Over the last, I don't know how many months, but a few months, we've been talking about parables in youth group. We do a different parable every week it seems. Sometimes we do them in groups. Basically we have been talking about parables and what they tell us about God. The question of the week almost always is what does this tell us about God?

This week we read Matthew 13:24-30,36-43, which is The Parable of the Weeds and The Parable of the Weeds Explained. Now I'm gonna give you part of the explanation, but if you want the whole thing, you're gonna have to go read Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 for yourself.

He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angles. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." Matthew 13:37-43

Ok so that's the explanation. Now our pastor yesterday asked us to describe what Jesus explained in our own words. There were several arguments as there always are between the usual people, but it keeps the discussion going.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like...

Jenga! You know the game?

I was hardly listening to the arguments yesterday. I was actually really thinking about what the explanation meant. And then the game Jenga popped into my head.

For those that don't know what Jenga is, I'll explain to the best of my ability. It's a game where you have these blocks that are stacked up and you are trying to remove the blocks from the stack without collapsing the structure. If you pull the wrong block, you'll cause the whole thing to tumble and then you lose.

I guess I should probably explain a little more before getting into my Jenga analogy. We were talking about why God hasn't struck down the bad people of this world already. You know if He did, I think everyone would be dead. We all do bad things sometimes in our lives. We're all born with original sin.

Jesus explains that at the end of the time, the weeds will be pulled. But this won't happen until the harvest because if the weeds are pulled too soon, the wheat may come up with them.

Bad people can become good people. You don't have to agree with that, but it's how I see it. We have good and evil in this world. It's your choice to follow what you want to follow. Some good people turn evil and some bad people turn good.

Now you might understand a little more with where Jenga is coming from. If you pull a certain block from the structure too soon, you may cause the whole thing to tumble. If you pull the weeds too soon, you might pull the good stuff with it.

If you don't give a person a chance now, you may never know what good they have. In the end, those that have come to the Lord will be saved and unfortunately those who either turned away or never got a chance will be burned.

I don't know about you, but I think we need to give everyone a chance because I don't think God wants all those people to be burned. And who wants to spend eternity in a burning underground place that doesn't serve breakfast?