Matthew 13:24-30 February 5, 2017 A+D
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our text for this morning is the Gospel reading where Jesus tells the parable of the weeds among wheat focusing on verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine:
“’An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Apparently, even in the 1800’s, there was a problem of a jealous farmer sneaking into his neighbor’s field by night and sowing tares among the wheat. The penalty for doing this and getting caught is severe. Tares are a type of weed that, when it’s sprouting, looks just like the good grain. A farmer can tell them apart, just like a shepherd knows which are his sheep.
The parable of the wheat and the weeds is one of the few parables that Jesus proceeds to explain to His disciples. The field is the world, the sower of good seed is Jesus, and those in the kingdom are the wheat. It is the devil that sows the weeds. The harvest isn’t until Jesus comes again in judgment, and it is He that will separate the wheat from the weeds.
There are over 300,000 species of plants in the world, and of those, there are over 8,000 types of weeds. That’s how many tricks and deceptions the devil has for us every day! The devil is always trying to steal sheep from the Good Shepherd. He throws those little weed seeds into the field when he thinks no one is looking. He’s been sowing dissent among us from the beginning when he asked: “Did God really say?” Luther said, “Where God builds a church, the devil wants to have a chapel or a tavern.” Wherever the Word of God is rightly proclaimed and His sacraments administered faithfully according to His institution, the devil lurks to corrupt it and get us to follow an easier path.
A weed will seemingly grow anywhere. It doesn’t take much soil, or water, or light. You can poison it, but that kills whatever is growing around it, too. You can pull it up by the roots, but that just leaves a big empty hole to fill in – and if you didn’t get it all, including the seeds, it just comes back. It is way easier to be a weed than to be wheat.
Jesus tells us of the weeds, “No, my children, leave them be. If you pull them up, you might hurt the good grain – YOU! My other children! Leave them be!” You see, those weeds growing up along side of us? Jesus calls them “the sons of the evil one” because they remain dead in their sin. But Christ has so much mercy, that He allows them time to become wheat. That is grace. In our Old Testament reading this morning, God declares “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but [pleasure] that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Ezekiel continues: “turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die?” Why die, when you have the opportunity to live? What great mercy God shows us!
It is not up to us to turn anyone away that we think is not living the lifestyle we think is appropriate of a Christian to live. And it is certainly not appropriate to think of ourselves as a model of virtue and judge others accordingly. We are all beggars before God. We cannot tell the wheat from the weeds. We’re not even good at recognizing that we are weeds ourselves! Ezekiel goes on: “And you, son of man” (notice that Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man): “and you son of man, say to your people, the righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses… though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered.” The wheat can become a weed as simply as that. One minute you’re doing right, and the next minute, well… not so much.
What in the world are we to do? Do you want to be a weed? No! We want to be wheat. But so often we’re like the Pharisee that prays out loud “Thank you, God, that I’m not like that poor sinner over there!” That’s the patting ourselves on the back self-righteousness that gets us nowhere. We are weeds! We trust in our own righteousness all the time. And all that time, we think we’re wheat. And in our back patting, we hurt our neighbor who is actually wheat, or a weed struggling to be wheat, just like us. Again – what are we to do? St. Paul wrote to the Colossians “put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other... Beyond all these things, put on LOVE, which is the perfect bond of unity.”
The good news is, God has so much mercy and grace that He forgives you when you succumb to temptations. When we struggle and lose focus, when we start to worry about things that don’t really matter, but we want to have our way anyway, God speaks His words of absolution to you. He gifts you with repentance. There is the grace of God. St. Peter said in Acts 11, referring to those who have received the Holy Spirit and those that had yet to receive Him: “Who am I to stand in God’s way? Well then, God has granted repentance to them also; the repentance that leads to life!” God in His mercy gives those weeds time to become wheat – when ever that time may be before He calls His children home. He gives you time. He gifts you with repentance and forgiveness. When you think you’re doing all right and life hits you with a curveball, and suddenly you are hurting, wondering what did I do to deserve this? Why is this happening to me? I’m trying to do what is right! But, man, I’m just not making it. Maybe I am just a weed...” Do not despair. Jesus is here for you, right now. When you look around the world, surrounded by weeds trying to choke you out, call on God for strength. The world and all the things that are closing in, trying to make you wilt in despair that God isn’t listening and you begin to doubt when you turn on the news and see things that make you bow your head and cry, or even scream out in anger – stop! Hear those sweet words again: God has granted you repentance that leads to life. Jesus has forgiven you. He is the farmer that waters and feeds you. If you are willing, He drives a pole into the ground wherever and whenever you call on Him, and He supports you with it so you may bask in His light and stand tall. He feeds you His Word and his holy Sacraments. We are forgiven weeds.
God tells us that “He who has done what is just and right...shall surely live” and therein lies our answer and our hope. Only One has done what is just and right. Jesus did it all, and He did it for us because we can’t. Jesus covers us with a blanket of grace that was woven on the cross. It is the cross of Christ that is the pole that holds us up. When the harvest comes, the weeds will be separated from the wheat. When the Judge looks at your rap sheet, none of the sins you have committed will be remembered, because to God you look like wheat. The Father will see only the “just and right works” of His Son, not our feeble, failed attempts at making ourselves right with God. When that great day comes, we will sing the song of the harvest home-going. Because of God’s grace for the sake of Christ Jesus, we have comfort, we have strength! We have others He has placed in our lives to care for us, pray for us, and aid us in the struggle among all these weeds. And he gives you the gifts to be there in the lives of those who draw strength and comfort from your light, as you do the same for them. Look around you! How awesome is our God! How blessed we are that He has given us one another! How very very blessed we are to be His children! Brothers and sisters living together in the grace of God able to love one another because He first loved us, and sent His Son into the field to give these poor weeds His eternal love and salvation. We are indeed forgiven weeds. We are Wheat!
+ In the Name of Jesus, Amen. +