August 6, 2017 Matthew 13:24-30

Pentecost 9

Whether you are growing grass in your yard, vegetables in your garden or fields of corn or soybeans, there’s nothing like seeing your lawn and plants growing to maturity and reaping the benefits in the end. But it’s also can be frustrating. No matter how carefully you select your seed, fertilize and baby those tender plants, from the moment they hit the soil they are entering a battlefield. Weeds pop up unannounced from nowhere, hearty and eager to take over. If you don’t think it’s a war, just walk into the lawn & garden department of any department store and you’ll find an arsenal of weed killers with ominous-sounding names that promise to help keep the weed population under control. Or you can just pull them up by the roots with your bare hands,

This week Jesus tells another parable about a farmer, but this time the seed stands for people and the field stands for the whole world. There are two kinds of seed- good plants and weeds- just as there are two kinds of people- those who believe in Jesus as their Savior and those who do not. God knows about the weeds that grow in his garden and he has a way of dealing with them. But God’s method of weed control is different from what we might expect. Let’s study this parable to see how Jesus describes God’s weed control method DURING THE GROWING SEASON – the time of grace He’s given to the world – and AT THE HARVEST – the day when He brings all creation to an end.

1. During the growing season

You’ll never hear a gardener say, “Don’t be concerned about the weeds. Just let them grow together with the good plants.” You know what weeds can do. Weeds pose a threat to the good plants. They compete for the same soil, water, nutrients. They can stunt the plants you want to have grow and flourish.

The farmer in this parable was faced with such a predicament. He was dealt a great injustice. After he’d worked hard to carefully plant his field with only the choice seed, during the night, when everyone was asleep, a heartless enemy sneaked in and sowed worthless seeds in among the good seed. In Greek the word used for this weed is zizanium. Today there’s a type of wild rice that goes by that name, but it grows in wet areas and not in the dry Middle East. Many think that it’s referring to darnel, a type of rye-grass that grows all over Syria and Palestine. It looks almost identical to wheat until the heads begin to form but it isn’t edible.

Jesus explains that God’s Kingdom on earth, everyone who believes in Jesus as their Savior from sin, is like a field of choice seeds. But the field is also infested with weeds. How did that happen? The weeds stand for the “sons of the evil one”, unbelievers in the world. Satan has spitefully entered God’s field and sown it with his own seed. His intentions are clear. He hates God. God’s kingdom is a thorn in his side and he uses everything at his disposal to destroy it. Through people whom he holds in unbelief the devil weaves his way into the day-to-day workings of society, education, family relationships, government and even into the workings of the visible church. God’s good plants – the true believers in Jesus as Savior – are surrounded. Faith is under attack. The world tempts Christians and some fall. It makes sense to just pull out the weeds.

In my former congregation there was a man who would get up every morning during the summer, sit at his kitchen table and, as he drank his cup of coffee, would scan his back yard looking for dandelions. He called it “weed patrol”. If he spotted a dandelion or other unwanted plant, he’d go out with his weed tool and dig it out. Down through the ages believers often have thought that God put Christians on earth to be weed exterminators. James & John wanted Jesus to totally eradicate any city that turned him away. “Call down fire from heaven and burn ‘em up.” The Crusades, Inquisition, etc. were attempts to rid the world of weeds. The Salem witch hunts in our own nation’s past tortured and burned alive many women and some men as followers of Satan, even if they confessed faith in Jesus. They thought they were doing a service to God, but they were playing right into Satan’s hand.

Jesus tells us, “Let both grow together.” We are not here to pull the weeds out of his field. We are here be his wheat and to proclaim his truth by what we say and by how we live. “You must no longer live like the Gentiles (i.e. unbelievers) do.” (Ephesians 4:17) “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11) God can certainly take care of the weed problem himself. Once he used the Flood to completely rid the world of every unbeliever, leaving only a few believers, 8 in all. God pulled up the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding area by the roots and obliterated them. Under Joshua God used his own people to invade the weed patch of Canaan and clean it out so he could plant them there without the threat of godless religions leading them back to unbelief. Once he even exposed two hypocrites in the early church in Jerusalem, Ananias & his wife, Sapphira, who fell dead at Peter’s feet.

But that isn’t God’s usual method of weed control. Believer and unbeliever live side by side in this world and the Lord uses it for his glory and for our good. It makes no difference to Him if Satan or anyone else opposes Him. He knows every plan and move of every unbeliever in the world, including the hypocrites in the visible church. He knows every political decision and action that tries to hinder his Church. He knows all the godless philosophies that are taught in secular universities, the lies of every false prophet, and the powerful influences that tug at the hearts and minds of children. He is God and He will have His church on earth. The Church not only continues to exist – by God’s power and glory it continues to grow and flourish in the midst of a wicked world.

So we aren’t here to wring our hands over the evil in the world. Jesus has it under control. We are here to keep planting wheat by sharing the good news about Jesus. As long as he permits this planet to spin, he causes “his sun to rise on the evil and the good” and sends his “rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” because “The LORD is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish”- NOT EVEN THE WEEDS THAT CAUSE SO MUCH TROUBLE IN HIS WORLD AND IN HIS CHURCH- “but everyone to come to repentance.” Jesus died to provide forgiveness of sins and eternal life for all people. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Don’t ever think that the work you do in or for your church, whatever it is, is routine or unimportant. God is using you and the message you share to save others!

God also knows how to keep us as his own in the midst of the weeds. He makes our faith strong and growing through the power of his Word. He teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation” and assures us that “God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can endure; but when you are tempted, he will provide a way out, so that you can stand up under it.” He encourages us to “not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” He teaches us to watch out for our fellow believers and warn them if they are falling back into sin. “If someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently…. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1,2) He urges us to “Cast all your anxieties upon him, for he cares for you.” For soon enough it will be harvest day, the Last Day.

2. At the harvest

Jesus explained, “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 13:40-43)

One day the Lord will make the separation between believer and unbeliever clear to everyone. A terrible eternal future awaits the devil and all who follow him in unbelief. No matter how much a person thinks he is getting away with in this life, God always has the last say. Everyone who rejects Jesus and the terrible suffering he endured for their sins will reap destruction for their unbelief in the fires of hell forever. All the missed opportunities they had to hear God’s Word from all the Christians who lived among them on earth will haunt them for eternity.

But those who continue to grow in God’s Word and stay close to Jesus it will see the end of all the temptations and trouble and tears and sadness of life in a sin-infected world. No matter how much a believer must endure for his/her faith in this life, God always has the last say. Jesus will gather his people to himself and bring us to his glorious home in heaven where “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Jesus “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:21)

What we hear in part with our ears today we will one day see fully with our own eyes. Until then, this is the growing season and we are “a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” (Isaiah 61:3) May the Lord use each of us to show others what it means to know Jesus so they may know him, too. Amen.