Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43 * July 13, 2008
* Pentecost 9 *
Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
Last week we considered the parable Jesus told about the Sower, the seeds, and the different kind of ground the seeds fell upon. We mentioned that through this parable Jesus was issuing each of us a call to examine ourselves and our own hearts. In essence, He pressed this single question upon each of us: Where do you stand in relation to Me?
Today Jesus speaks to us in another parable. He uses similar images and to a degree presses the same question, but He goes a step farther. Jesus addresses an issue that often poses a stumbling block for those outside Christianity and is sometimes seen as problematic even by those within.
The issue, put in the form of a question, is this: If God is in control and this world is His, how do we explain the existence of people and activities not in conformity with His Word and will? Furthermore, how are we as Christians to function in such a world? It is on these and other generally related
REALITIES OF LIFE IN THIS WORLD
that Jesus speaks to us about today.
By way of introduction there are actually two schools of
thought among good, solid Bible scholars as to the main point Jesus is making
in this parable. Both of them revolve
around the meaning of Jesus’ initial words of the parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like,” and His later explanation that “the field is the world.”
One school of thought maintains that Jesus is simply making the general point that in this world (the “field” of the parable) believers (“wheat”) and unbelievers (“weeds”) will grow up side by side until the Day of Judgment, at which time they will be separated.
The other school of thought maintains that since Jesus is speaking about the “kingdom of heaven,” He is speaking about not just the world, but the church which can be found throughout the world. The point this school of thought believes Jesus is making is this: Just as a certain kind of weed cannot be easily distinguished from real wheat, so in the church there will always be believers and unbelievers mixed together. And while they may look the same to us, God knows who truly are His own and on the Day of Judgment will sort out the weeds from the wheat for all eternity.
Each school of thought makes valid and important points that are substantiated in other parts of the Bible, so for our purposes today we’ll consider them both.
First, let’s turn to the parable itself. The basic story line is as follows: A man sows wheat in his field. Later, under cover of darkness, an enemy of
the man comes and sabotages the field by sowing weeds among the wheat. (Interestingly enough, Jesus’ illustration
goes beyond the hypothetical. One Bible
commentator reports this form of revenge was common enough in ancient times for
the government of
At any rate, by the time this is discovered by the man’s servants things have progressed too far and pulling out the weeds may actually damage the wheat. So the farmer instructs his servants to wait until the harvest, at which time the weeds and wheat can be safely separated.
In His explanation Jesus points out that He is the farmer who sows the good seed, which stands for believers in whose heart the Gospel message has taken root. The enemy is the devil, and the weeds he sows stands for unbelievers. The field, as mentioned earlier, can either be understood to mean the world or the church in the world. The harvest is the Day of Judgment at which time believers and unbelievers will be separated for eternity.
There is much we could talk about here, but let’s limit ourselves to these two facts (or realities) that can be drawn from this parable:
Reality #1: There will always be unbelievers in this world. Expect this.
Reality #2: Making the distinction between weeds and wheat is God’s job, not ours.
Let’s talk about these two facts a little more…
Reality Number One: There will always be unbelievers in this world. In spite of all our mission work and personal witnessing; despite all the time and money and energy and manpower that has been and will be and should be spent on proclaiming the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, there are and always will be those who want nothing to do with Christ. That is just a reality…
Perhaps you’ve heard someone express the longing (or may have expressed it yourself) that if only everyone in the world were Christian – if everyone was on the same spiritual page and if everyone understood what Jesus Christ has done for them and then lived their life in gratitude and imitation of Him – then we wouldn’t have all these problems (like war, strife, man’s inhumanity against man, etc.).
That may be true in theory, but it is false in reality. Why?
Because there is another force at work in the world, and he also will
have success. Jesus identifies this
source as the devil. Jesus calls him the
“enemy.”
In doing so Jesus reminds us of a simple fact. The devil is real.
While the world may relegate him to a harmless cartoon character in red pajamas or consider him to be an affront to intellectual belief, Jesus doesn’t. Here and in other places in Scripture we are told that the devil – a fallen angel to whom God has still allowed a certain amount of leeway up until the final Day of Judgment – is not only real, but he also has an agenda: to lead people away from God. And he carries it out with a certain amount of success.
The Bible doesn’t give us as much information as we’d probably like regarding the power and limitations and the exact modus operandi of the devil, but this much we do know: All people are sinful human beings worthy of punishment for failing to give proper honor and glory to the good and holy God who created us. But all sinners are saved eternally through the perfectly sinless life and sacrificial death Jesus offered up as the substitute for all mankind. Through trusting him alone we have fulfilled life in the present and eternal life forevermore. This is the seed of truth.
Consequently, any philosophy or lifestyle or system of belief that contradicts this Gospel message of Jesus Christ no matter how “enlightened” or trendy or “spiritual” (a huge word these days) is counterfeit seed and has the handprints of hell on it. Simple as that. But unfortunately there will always be those over whom the devil holds influence.
This is reality number one, and leads to…
Reality Number Two: While this is true, we must not use it as an excuse to pull back or do nothing when it comes to working in God’s harvest field. Because God, not us, is the One who will make the final determination and the final accounting. In the meanwhile, we still have our marching orders given to us in the Great Commission.
For decades Christian thinkers and philosophers have made the pronouncement that we in America are now living in a post-Christian age; a time when Christianity has neither the acceptance nor the status that it once had, say, fifty years ago. Some have characterized our culture today as being beyond post-Christian and neo-pagan; that is, anything goes.
G.K. Chesterton once commented that when people stop believing in God it doesn’t mean they stop believing in everything. Rather they start believing in anything. Watch what is promoted on Oprah Winfrey and you’ll get a pretty good idea of where we’re at. We’re in an age of “construct-your-own-spirituality,” but such self-centered spirituality light years away from Christianity.
We could go on and on and talk about what’s wrong with the world and how our morals as a nation are going to hell in a hand basket. But maybe such talk is not all that productive. Maybe it’s time to stop condemning the culture and evangelize it.
Because the very fact that there are all kinds of counterfeit spiritualities out there is an indication that people are longing for something. And the only thing that brings true satisfaction is Jesus Christ. The philosopher Pascal said that everyone is born with a God shaped void in their heart. And Jesus is the only thing that can fill it.
So in such an age and such a place we also have opportunities. Although we live side by side with unbelievers, perhaps Jesus encouragement to us is to understand this arrangement certainly as a warning for vigilantly attending to our own faith and not get sucked in to counterfeit thinking and worldly ways, but also as an opportunity through word and deed to show the world what it really is so desperately seeking – the love, forgiveness and acceptance found only in Jesus Christ.
In the last couple of minutes we have let’s turn our attention briefly to the other school of thought on this parable, because this, too, is a simple reality: Within the church itself there are and will be both weeds and wheat.
Jesus said something similarly in the Sermon on the Mount when he declared that not everyone who called Him Lord will necessarily enter the kingdom of heaven. In both cases He is talking about the presence of hypocrites in His Church.
Why is it important to know this? First, because it is a Scriptural truth, and second, because it is, like last week’s parable, a call for self-examination.
Jesus wants us to know this is true not so we can look up
and down the pews and make and try to make a determination of who is wheat and
who is a weed, but as a reminder to each of us that we can lose what we have,
and an encouragement to be continually growing in our life of faith and love
for and in Christ. And that is why he
again concludes this parable with the remark:
“He who
has ears, let him hear.”
God grant that we have.
Having heard and learned from Jesus some realities of life in this
world, let us go forward with the understanding and in the strength that He
provides, until that time when we “shine
like the sun in the