By Dennis Pollock
In Matthew, we read of a time when the disciples came to Jesus and said to Him, “Do you not know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” Something Jesus had said in His teaching had caused offense to these Bible scholars, and many of them had decided they would no longer listen to Him. The disciples were concerned about losing a portion of their congregation and anxiously asked the Master about it.
We need to see that the Biblical meaning of “offended” and our current definition of this term differ significantly. Today, when someone says they were offended, they often mean that their feelings were hurt. You spoke critically of their hairstyle, or you mentioned it seemed like they had gained a lot of weight, and they were offended – their feelings were hurt over what you said.
But biblically, the term “offended” means to be caused to fall away from God or Christ. Jesus said that “he who offends one of these little ones (children), it would be better for him that a millstone was tied around his neck, and he were tossed into the sea, rather than offend a child. He was not talking about hurting a child’s feelings; He was talking about hurting a child so deeply that he or she would turn away from God.
So, the disciples were concerned that Jesus had said some things that had the effect of turning the Pharisees away. Jesus seems less concerned in this case than His disciples about this and replies: “Every plant which My Heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” And then He says some very powerful words: “Let them alone.” In other words, don’t be overly upset over this or go trying to win them back – let them go. And he calls these Bible scholars and Bible teachers “blind leaders of the blind.”
This idea of people being “plants which the Heavenly Father has not planted” is very powerful and profound. These Pharisees, at least for a time, gave every impression of being true followers and disciples of Jesus. They came to His meetings, listened to His teachings, and debated over the meaning of His words. They were, in effect, a part of Jesus’ congregation in those days. But Jesus did not see it that way. He saw them as “unplanted plants” – people never truly joined to Him by the Father. And now they had been uprooted. They had heard something they did not like, or perhaps that made no sense to them, and now, off they go! They were done with Jesus.
The disciples were upset. They liked the large crowds and were eager to reach all of Israel. The idea that a whole group of followers were now deserting Him (and them) upset them. They warned Jesus about this problem, but Jesus, instead of being worried about this, simply says, in effect, “Let them go. The Father never planted them in the first place.”
Today, the Pharisees have disappeared as a group, but there are no doubt men and women with the same “Pharisee spirit” that the Pharisees of old manifested. They are highly religious, but they are not true disciples of Jesus and have little love for people. Like their ancient ancestors, they strain out gnats and swallow camels.
What is a plant that the Father has not planted? This represents people who are fascinated by religion but without God’s life in them. They can be seen in many churches. They are a religious people; they attend church services and religious meetings, but they have never been born again and have no tenderness toward God and Jesus. Nor do they show much love for or tolerance of other members. They may be strong on doctrine and theological correctness but are very weak in love. Eventually, they will usually find some reason to be offended, and they will be gone. They may wander from church to church, never truly satisfied with any church or movement of God.
It is difficult for me to identify with people who are highly religious but still Christless, possessing a fascination with religion, but being unrooted plants with no experiential knowledge of Jesus. Before I knew Jesus, I had almost no interest in Christianity. I had zero interest in the Bible, church, Christian television programs, sermons, or anything related to Christianity. And once I gave my heart to Jesus at the age of nineteen, I did a complete 180. Suddenly, I was very much interested in all the things that before had been meaningless to me. So, the idea of being highly religious but possessing no spiritual life seems strange, but according to Jesus, there are people like this, and there have always been such people – unplanted plants, tares living among the wheat.
Such people are just naturally religious. Religion is a strong part of their DNA. If they lived in a Muslim nation, they would be fundamental, observant Muslims. If they lived in India, they would be very strict Hindus; however, because they grew up in a Christian community, they are, or at least they appear to be, very strong Christians. Their only problem is that they do not really know Jesus at all.
The apostle John speaks of a similar people, writing: “They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would not have gone out from us.” The very fact that they had somehow been offended and had left the fellowship of the believers was evidence that they had never been a part of the church in the first place. Like the Pharisees of whom Jesus spoke, had been plants which the Heavenly Father had not planted.
These unplanted plants are, to coin a phrase, “easily offendable.” It doesn’t take much to turn them away from church. An insensitive remark, a sermon from the pastor they don’t fully agree with, the music is too loud or too old-fashioned, the pastor didn’t greet me last Sunday, or the pastor’s wife isn’t friendly enough… It could be any one of a thousand things, but it is enough for them, and soon they are gone–gone from church, gone from Bible study, and sometimes gone from even the pretense of Christianity.
We sometimes will say that such people backslid, but in many cases, they never really “front-slid.” You cannot back off from an experience you never had. You cannot fall away from Christ when you never knew Him in the first place. We should not be surprised when unplanted plants dry up and are blown away by the first wind that hits them. They are just doing what unplanted plants will always do. There is a huge difference between an oak tree and a tumbleweed, between a believer firmly planted in Jesus and established in Him by the Holy Spirit, and a pseudo-believer who was never really planted.
Until now, the idea of unplanted plants seems negative, but there is a positive side to this concept. It is true that the plants the Father has not planted will be uprooted, but the reverse is true as well – every plant that the Father HAS planted will never be uprooted. As faithful plants who are the work of God’s hands, they will abide in Jesus throughout their youth, their middle age, and their later years. And a seventy-year-old plant of the Father can be just as green, just as healthy, and often even more fruitful than a twenty-year-old plant.
The ultimate evidence that a man or woman is truly a planting of the Father is this: Are you still walking with Jesus and fellowshipping with His people ten years after your initial planting, twenty years, even fifty years later? Are you still abiding in God’s word? Are you still praying? Are you still in faith? In your old age, can you say, with the apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith?” (2 Timothy 4:7).
