Election Stressin’?

As with most elections, I’m sure there are disappointed folks out there from every camp.

It’s inevitable. No matter how hard we pray, we don’t get every candidate we hope for. When the dust settles, we find some “wrong’uns” have either taken or kept their place in power.

All we want is for every governmental bureau and division and agency to have its rubbish cleaned out so only the pure in heart can rule. Isn’t that a worthy goal?

So why does it appear God has not heard us? Was the power of evil too great? Did we not plead hard enough—believe big enough—for victory?

And what now? Should we be praying for the downfall or removal of anyone we don’t think should be holding their position?

Maybe not.

The Story of a “Dirty” Field

Jesus told a story in Matthew 13:24–30 of a farmer planting good seed in his field. During the night, “his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.” Noticing the growth of noxious weeds in the pasture, his servants asked if they should go through and rip out all the tares by hand. “No,” their master said, “lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.” Each plant in the field, in other words, had its roots thoroughly entangled with the roots of its neighbors. Good plant or bad, one could not be uprooted without endangering others.

It might be satisfying to dream of government staffed by none but perfect employees. Men and women whose ears are always open to Lord and who obey him flawlessly. But honestly, if the church isn’t yet led by such paragons of virtue, why do we expect to see it in the secular realm?

Besides, how would we recognize such people if they appeared? We tend to judge people’s qualifications for office by their political stance on one or two issues. Worse still, we often assume political position alone determines who is tare and who is wheat in the field of government.

In truth, only God can distinguish good seed from bad.

Our urge for perfection, our desire for order, our drive for purity, often lead us to expect a weedless field to be the sign God has heard us. Yet, the farmer in Jesus’ parable didn’t seem in a hurry to cleanse the pasture.

Knowing a bit about tares and wheat helps us understand why.

The Difference Between Tares and Wheat

Most sources agree the biblical tares equate to the poisonous darnel plant known to contaminate wheat fields in the Middle East. Its scientific name is Lolium temulentum and was sometimes called “false wheat.” True wheat comes from a different genus called Triticum. Their names may not be alike, but when these two grass plants grow side by side, they’re practically indistinguishable.

Until they mature.

The seed heads of ripening wheat turn a rich golden brown while darnel seeds darken to black, Wheat kernels grow in clusters running parallel to their stems, but the seed heads of the tares twist as they grow until they turn perpendicular to their stalks. These factors separate the two visually, but it’s the third difference making tares easy to harvest without pulling them by the roots.

Wheat produces such a heavy load of seed that their stalks begin to bow as harvest time nears. Not so for the tares. Darnel’s blackened heads stay upright and proud, making them an easy target for a high-skimming sickle.¹ With the unwanted grain removed, the reapers could move through the field a second time. Sweeping their blades low, they could reap the bowing wheat, gathering a pure harvest.

No wonder Jesus’ story ends with the farmer saying, “Let both grow together until the harvest and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Hope in God

We don’t really need to fuss about election results. If we’ve done what we could, voted as wisely as we were able, we can trust God with the results. There’s no need to fume about who was left standing or pray for their destruction or removal. Even if we had PHDs in tare identification, these are people whose lives are interlaced with others too numerous to count. Plucking them might damage good wheat planted near them.

Psalm 23:5 says God prepares his table before us in the presence of our enemies, not in their absence. If we’re to sit down and eat we need a stomach untroubled by stress. At peace with God’s timing, trusting him with results, we pray for all those in authority (not just those we prefer). We lift them up, not tear them down, either in conversation or in prayer so they can fulfill God’s purpose as they govern and we can “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence” (1 Timothy 2:2).

God’s arm isn’t shortened just because the person we think was wrong for the job got into office. He is Lord of the Harvest, after all, and there’s no tare big enough to frustrate his plans.

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1. https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/eafrinet/weeds/key/weeds/Media/Html/Lolium_temulentum_(Darnel_Ryegrass).htm