PENECOST
8
July
22-24, 2023
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Matthew 13:24-30. 36-43 (EHV)
“WHAT DO YOU DO
WITH ALL THE WEEDS?”
1.
Live
with them.
2.
Live
differently than them.
3.
Live
without them.
It’s a familiar problem for
Wisconsinites. Weeds. You know how it goes. You plant your garden or put your
flowers in after Mother’s Day so you are safe from frost. Everything is nice
and neat. You tend the garden early on and then get the chance go on vacation.
You come back. Weeds! Everywhere. You didn’t plant them. You do want them gone.
Options. Pull them by hand. A lot of work. Spray Roundup or use a homemade
flamethrower. Effective but collateral damage. What do you do with the weeds?
Jesus uses that all too common picture to teach us some lessons we need for our
spiritual life. We are in a section of the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus tells
7 parables to teach about life as a believer. Three deal with the growth of
God’s kingdom in a believer’s heart. Four deal with how God’s kingdom works in
the world. This is one of those.
Matthew 13:24-30,
36-43 (EHV) “He presented
another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good
seed in his field. 25But while people were sleeping, his enemy came
and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26When the plants
sprouted and produced heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. 27The
servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in
your field? Where did the weeds come from?’ 28He said to them, ‘An
enemy did this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather up
the weeds?’ 29‘No,’ he answered, ‘because when you gather up the
weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them. 30Let both grow
together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers,
“First, gather up the weeds, bind them in bundles, and burn them. Then, gather
the wheat into my barn….36Then Jesus sent the people away and went
into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable
of the weeds in the field.” 37He answered them, “The one who sows
the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world. The good
seeds are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the Evil One. 39The
enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The
reapers are angels. 40Therefore, just as the
weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the
world. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will pull
out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and those who continue to break
the law. 42The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous
will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to
hear, let him hear.”
This parable is not hard to understand
since Jesus plainly explains it to us. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has
sprinkled this world with believers, the sons of the kingdom. His enemy and
ours, the Devil, has worked very hard to fill this world with unbelievers. It
is important to take note that if you are not a believer in Jesus then you are
a son of the Evil one for the worst form of evil is to reject the kindness and
love of God in punishing His Son for sins instead of the sinners. There is no
middle ground. There are weeds and wheat. At the same time it is not always
easy to tell a believer apart from an unbeliever. Here is a picture of what
Jesus’ disciples thought of listening to the parable. Very hard to tell apart
until they start bearing fruit. Sometimes weeds can look like wheat. And
sometimes wheat can look like weeds. Sometimes believers can look and act like
unbelievers and unbelievers can look and act like believers. Weeds and wheat.
What do you do with all the weeds?
Three things Jesus’ parable teaches
us. One. Live with them. Jesus’ parable exposes the idolatry that lives in our
hearts. We really have a hard time letting God be God. We inwardly give our approval
when He does things the way we want and when He doesn’t? We chafe. We question.
We feel disappointment. Specifically this parable exposes how our impatience
with God’s timing is idolatry. “God, didn’t you want a perfect world, or at
least just one with all believers in it? Look at all the weeds. Why do you put
up with them? They make our life more difficult. When are you going to do
something about them? Or maybe we should.” At least the angel harvesters had
the divine decency to ask permission of God. Should we go pull them up? Should
we get rid of all the unbelievers? But why does God want us living with the
unbelievers? Why does He let them remain? Why is He so patient with them? He
doesn’t want to lose anyone who will be saved. Some people are weeds and will
remain weeds. They have confirmed themselves in their evil rejection of God.
Some people who look like weeds now, maybe choosing lifestyles that are
detestable to God, will repent and be saved. God doesn’t want to lose them. Not
too long ago I was having a conversation with someone you connected me to by
handing out one of my pastor trading cards. This person asked a question that
has really had me thinking. “When we get to heaven do you think we will be more
surprised about who is there that we thought would not be or who isn’t there
that we thought would be?” At Jesus’ time everyone thought the Pharisees and
the teachers of the law would be in heaven but they are not. They thought the
tax collectors and ‘sinners” were beyond redemption but they weren’t. Some
believed and were saved. Makes you think. What do we do with the weeds? Live
with them. It is the Father’s will.
Live differently from them. That too
is our Father’s will. After all we are wheat and not weeds. When a man sows
good seed he does so with the expectation there will be a harvest. When God
grants the gift of faith He expects there will be fruits of faith. While on the
outside you may not be able to tell a believer and an unbeliever apart just by
looking at them they are different. Faith in Christ brings repentance along
with it. Repentance is a change of heart on the inside that brings changes on
the outside. Believers want what Jesus wants. Believers want to please Him in
their thoughts words and actions. So as we continue to live with the weeds we
can’t just be upset by them and complain about what they are doing. We have to
check ourselves. Are we living differently than the weeds? God has us right
where He wants us so that by actions and then words we can draw unbelievers to
Him. For that to happen our way of talking, handling problems, dealing with
people needs to be markedly different than the unbelievers. What do you do with
all the weeds? Live differently than them.
And then finally live without them.
Listen again to the end of Jesus’ explanation. 40Therefore, just
as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of
the world. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will
pull out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and those who continue to
break the law. 42The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the
righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has
ears to hear, let him hear.” Despite the way that many Americans
like to try to create God in their own image and so paint God as some smiling
senile doting grandfather who never gets upset or punishes anyone God is a God
of justice as well as grace and mercy. He has decreed that those who reject Him
as the one true God and specifically these days, those who reject His Son Jesus
as Savior, there is one eternal fate. Hell. Described here as a fiery furnace
where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is Good News! Why? It’s
there to help us with our impatience. It’s there to keep us from vengeful
thoughts. It’s there to stop us from trying to step into God’s shoes. Let the
weeds be weeds until God says it’s time to take care of them. And He will take
care of them.
A world without weeds! Can you imagine
coming home from a vacation and finding no weeds in your gardens? Nothing
messing up your pretty rows? Nothing choking out your pretty flowers? That day
is coming. There are no weeds of any kind in heaven. Until that time it is best
for the wheat to be more concerned about how we are doing our job, than how God
is doing His. Amen.
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