Weeds in the Wheat

THE WEEDS AND THE WHEAT
MATTHEW 13:24-30, 36-43

24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
In the name of Jesus:
Last spring I fancied myself to be a gardener. I spent time working in the yard as a way to try to get more activity in my life. I told Luann that I was going to finally mulch the front yard after a couple of years of neglect. She reminded me that I needed to pull the weeds BEFROE I mulched, that I would have to get the weeds at the roots in order to get them all.
I was apprehensive in pulling the weeds because a few years ago I made a grave error in judgment. It was in the middle of the summer, and Luann asked the boys and I to pull the weeds in the front flower bed. I dutifully did so, but in my throughness, I pulled up both the weeds and the flowers. When I showed my handiwork to my beloved, she gently instructed me as to the error of my ways. She asked:”Don’t you know a weed from a flower?” The obvious answer to that was no, but I had to stand up for myself so I said something like” They all look alike to me.” The moral of this true story is this, you don’t want to pull the flowers AND the weeds, just the weeds.
In our parable for today, Jesus talks about the Kingdom of heaven, it is God’s Kingdom which comes from heaven and in the end, its subjects will be in heaven. Jesus is talking about His kingdom of grace here on earth, the Church. In explaining what His Church is like, Jesus uses terms such as weeds and wheat.
Jesus begins by comparing it to a man who sows seed in the field. Jesus is that Man, He plants the Word and faith when and where He pleases. But in the night His enemy, Satan, sowed weeds among the good seed and then left the field. The point here is that the enemy, Satan, works in such a way so as to not draw attention to his evil work. His work is such that it is very difficult to distinguish between the weeds from the true wheat. Satan leaves the field because he doesn’t want others to know that he was there.
The wheat bore grain, and at the same time weeds appeared. Satan was so crafty that when the wheat appeared, and the weeds at the same time, the workers in the field were distressed. The workers went to their Master and asked what happened? Didn’t you sow good seed, yes He did, so how did the weeds appear? How is it that the field has phony wheat? They didn’t take matters into their own hands, but they consulted their Master so that they would do what He wanted.
The Master Jesus, knew what happened, because He is all knowing. He knew though no one else knew. So the workers asked, should we then pull up the phoney wheat? They left it entirely up to Him, because they didn’t know what to do. His answer is simple, no, don’t pull up the weeds with the wheat because doing that would harm the wheat. The Master didn’t want His workers to be rash, but rather He wanted both to grow so that AT THE PROPER TIME DEEMED SO BY THE MASTER, the harvest would take place, in its proper order. The Owner of the Field, Jesus, is in complete control. He placed a value on the wheat that was to be stored. And so, the harvesters were to collect the weeds and bundle them to be burned, but gather the wheat to bring it for storage and safe keeping.
What we have here in our text is a picture of God’s Church on earth. How have we become members of that Church? Not because of anything that we have done! We are not God’s people because of who we are, we are not made God’s people because of what we do. All of the things that we might base a right relationship with God upon God declares to be woefully inadequate. The Bible says that each and everyone of us are spiritually dead and depraved. We have nothing in us to move us to love God. We have no power to come to God. So God comes to us.
Not many of us like to hear a crying baby. A baby in distress. Why? Not just because of the sound that the baby makes, but because the baby is so helpless. That is our state before God. We are helpless. We cry to God for help because we have not power to help ourselves. And God is merciful. He hears our cry for mercy. He helps in time of need. We are helpless to come to God so God comes to us in Christ. We can not ascend to God so He descends to us in Christ, becoming like sinners in every way yet without sin. He makes you a member of His family, His Church, by a sheer gift of His grace. You are a member of His Church because it is His gift. It is free, undeserved and unmerited. Not one of us by our own reason or strength can come to believe in God so God comes to us. In Water and the Word, God comes. Jesus uses water and the Word in Baptism to wash us of our sinfulness, He plants the seeds of the Gospel in our hearts and He waters and feeds that faith through the reception of His Word and Supper. Planted by Christ in this place we are fed by Christ, growing up into the full maturity of Christ so that we might give thanks to God for His gifts by living our lives in thanks to Him who has given us all things. God builds His Church upon Christ and feeds it with His Word and even the gates of Hell can not over power it!
But sadly, very really, Satan is alive in our midst. Satan likes to mimic God to steer people away from Him. Satan likes to plant weeds among the wheat. There was a saying that Luther liked to use that went like this (you have heard me use it with regularity): “Where God builds His Church, the devil builds a chapel next door.” And Luther liked to also tell this story, a wive’s tale, to illustrate the same point. In olden days, when God formed man out of the clod of the earth and breathed into him the breathe of life so that man became a living being, and the devil, seeking to emulate God, also took a lump of earth in order to form man out of it, but instead it turned into a toad.
It is a cute story but Luther told it to make his point, namely, that the devil is forever and a day always trying to mimic God, and the devil will do so even by trying to appear to clothe himself with the things of God so as to appear to be like God. It has happened since the Temptation and Fall in the Garden and it continues even today. Yes, sadly, even today there are weeds in the wheat. There are hypocrites mixed in with the Church. When people say that the Church is filled with hypocrites, well, they are right. We are all hypocrites at some point in our lives, for we are all sinful people. But there are among God’s chosen people those who appear to be Christian but they are not. The devil is alive and well and will even use the appearance of Christianity to deceive and strike at Christ Himself. We see it today when the Bible says that Baptism saves, but some people who are Christians will say that Baptism is really just plain water. Or when in the Lord’s Supper Jesus invites us to take and eat and drink His true body and blood, yet others say that the Lord’s Supper is just a routine people follow, only bread and wine and nothing more. How many times have we heard from the Lord Himself that Christians are not to condemn one another, and yet there are those in the Church who are quick to condemn.
Jesus warns us in this parable to be careful not to attribute these sinful attributes to the Church, but rather we must call a spade a spade and give credit where credit is due. God plants His Church and yet Satan plants his own seeds on unbelief, discord and strife in the Church as well. The devil likes nothing more than the sow weeds among the wheat and there is no one else that he would wish to trouble than Christian people. The devil labors day and night to cause strife and disunity in the Church.. Where, then, in the world is our hope and help?
Dear friend, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. God calls each of us to turn from sin, Satan, and death and to trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness and life. Repent and believe in Christ. Remember that in your Baptism God has claimed you to be His own and you belong to Him. Stay vigilant in your daily walk with Jesus for Satan prowls like a lion seeking to devour you. Pay attention to what the Word says! Listen to Jesus! We are not called to judge, but to believe. Christ is to judge, and He will on the last day. On that day He will separate the weeds from the wheat. On that Day the angels at Jesus’ command will gather His children to be with Him forever, and those who are not, those who have not repented and not believed in Christ, they will be consigned to Hell.
But until that time, God calls us to work in His field. Work while it is day for soon Jesus will come again. Jesus gives us the seed of His Gospel to sow that seed in and among our family and friends, to be the face and voice of Christ to those who do not know Jesus that by God’s power many more will believe. God’s will is this, He wants all to be saved and to come to know and believe in Jesus.
It is a grim fact, stressed throughout Scripture, that the devil and his agents do their most nefarious work in the visible Christian Church, not outside it.. As Christians we need to repent daily. Jesus has conquered Satan, sin, and even death. Christians are not to resort to violence against those who do not believe, like Islam does. We aren’t called by Christ to use the sword, but rather we are empowered by Jesus to love others so that we might show the power of Christ’s love.
Jesus says: He who has ears to ear, let him hear! Heed Christ’s words, don’t neglect or turn a deaf ear to Him. Repent of your sins and trust in Christ. Show love to those in the Church, for this is of Christ. We are not called to separate the sinners from the saints, for we are all sinners! Christ came for sinners! He came to save sinners. He calls us to live for Christ and to share His love with sinners now, before He comes again when it will be too late. Instead of seeking to pull the weeds out from the wheat Jesus calls us to love. For in His kingdom here on earth there will be weeds among the wheat. May God gives us repentance and faith in Christ that we might be genuine wheat at all times and seek to do His will.
May God grant it in Jesus’ name.
Amen