The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Matthew, the 13th chapter:
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 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?’ 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?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 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”’”Thus far the text.
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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.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place 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.”
My dear friends in Christ,
Here again our Lord tells His followers a parable tied into the idea of planting and sowing and harvest. It’s appropriate, isn’t it, that Christ uses the idea of harvest to describe what He shall do at the end of this earth?
I mean, harvest time always comes after a long season of growing and tending and caring for the crops. If a farmer were to harvest his corn crop in July, well, it would never be knee-high, and it certainly wouldn’t be very good corn, if there was any corn at all. Instead, the farmer has to care for his corn all through it’s growing season, and then, when the time is right, when everything is ready, when it’s done growing and it is ready to accomplish its purpose, he goes out and reaps his crop.
So it is with our Lord. He, at the end of all time, will pluck His harvest from the ground. But, see how long He waits for this? And do you see the tender care He brings? No? Perhaps it doesn’t seem right that the Lord would allow the weeds to grow among His crop.
Like last week, where we discussed the idea of how sowers sowed their seed, by broad casting them out of a bag, it is perhaps good for us to realize something else about farming in this time. To do that, we have to go to the original Greek, where the word in our English for “weed” is not actually that. It is a weed, but a specific kind of weed, darnel.
This weed looks so much like wheat that it is often called “false wheat.” In fact, it really hasn’t been until modern times that a farmer could efficiently separate this weed from the wheat. So, when the farmer allows the enemy-sown darnel to grow among his wheat, he is really making sure that, even amongst all the false wheat, the real wheat would come to its fullness at the harvest.
Obviously, we’re not just talking about farming here. Praise God that Jesus Himself gives us the explanation to His parable, that He is the sower, the field is the entire world, the true wheat seeds are Christians, the weeds are those who do not believe, the enemy is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are angels. It explains so much more for us.
The reality is that the God of the entire universe has spread the seeds of His Kingdom all over the world. He has even gone so far as to write His beloved Law onto the very hearts of mankind. He has put it in everyone and everyone then is to be His son or His daughter. But, through our rebellion, we are revealed to, not only be bad seed, but be seed that needs the blood of the Son of God to nourish and bring it to life.
So it is that the Father has sent the Son to scatter the seeds of the sons of the kingdom. Now, don’t think that women are excluded in this. They aren’t. If you are a son of the kingdom, that means you will inherit the kingdom. In the time of Christ, only sons could inherit property, and only fathers could pass it down. So, to be called a son of the kingdom is not necessarily to be called as a male, but one who inherits the kingdom of God through His death, the death of Christ upon the cross. And that’s you.
But notice that the seeds are planted, and the devil has come, and even in their midst, he plants bad seed, he plants darnel that looks just like the wheat. What I’m about to say may scare you, and actually I want it to do so. The bad seed, the darnel, is among you. The devil has placed, even in the midst of this church, weeds that look like wheat. They talk like wheat, they look like wheat, they smell like wheat, and they are otherwise indistinguishable from wheat until the time of harvest.
That means that, yes, there are even people in this church who are planted by the devil, but who do not believe in Christ. They are here in order that the wheat might be pulled down with the weed, so that they would both be burned together in the fires of hell. Now, if that scares you, good. It should. The devil has planted traps all around you; he is a roaring lion, prowling around, seeking whom he may devour. And he’d like to devour you, so he’ll throw every trick in the book at you, even other people.
Now, let me just say that I don’t know who these people are; I don’t know your hearts. But, the Church has always taught that there are the weeds among the wheat. We have always taught that heresy springs up only from within the Church. We have always taught that there are those who would lead you astray. We have always taught that the visible church, that is the church that you can see with your eyes and feel with your senses, is always going to be made up of believers and nonbelievers until Christ comes back.
Please don’t think I’m being harsh, or passing judgment on any specific person. I don’t know what is your heart, but as your pastor, I assume that all who gather here belong to Christ and we are coheirs of the kingdom. To judge whether you go to hell or not, that’s not my job, and I’m sure not interested in playing the role of God in the judgment. I, instead, get to play my role, which is that any time that sin is confessed I forgive that sin. I go by the words of your mouth. If you confess your sins, I’ll forgive them. That’s how I do. But, if you are only confessing with your mouth, but you do not believe in your heart, though you may hear the words of forgiveness, you have hardened your heart against the goodness of God in Christ Jesus, and the forgiveness of sins are not for you.
If you harden your heart, if you follow in the footsteps of Pharaoh and King Saul, then you are indeed the weeds among the wheat. If you will not receive the forgiveness of sins, if you do not seek to leave your sinful life behind, if you will not follow after Jesus, both in the freedom from sin and the desire to not sin, if you will not believe in Him as the only way to the Father, then you are the weeds and have been placed here by the devil himself. If this is you, you may not care as you hear the words of Jesus, or even hear them explained in this sermon. You may just be comfortably numb. Or perhaps, there is one among us who is truly evil, knows what they are doing, and doesn’t care for anything except to sow dissention among Christ’s Church. These people are rare, but they do exist.
But, if you are scared that person is you, if you’re afraid of being the weeds, you are not. If you are worried that you may be the evil ones sown inside the Church, you are not. You see, if you’re worried that you’re not saved, if you’re worried that you have committed the unforgivable sin, if you’re worried that you struggle with the grace of God in Christ Jesus, you are most assuredly His. I’m not saying that you have to struggle with that; but I am saying that it’s very likely you will struggle with it. Maybe you have already. Maybe you were a child, maybe once you doubted, but now your faith is strong and sure. Maybe you will struggle with this idea in the future. Maybe it’s right now. Or maybe, by God’s grace, the hard struggle will never come. But, in any of those cases, I am here, by the command of Christ, to come along side of you and tell you, assure you that you belong to Him and that you will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
You see the patience of God in this? He lets the evil ones abide even amidst His sons for the sake of the sons. He allows the evil to grow up among you, to grow with you, to look and sound like you. God, in His patience, waits to harvest so that all might be saved. That means that it is not too late for anyone. If you are evil, if your heart is hard, it isn’t too late for you. The angels have not yet come; the reaping has not yet occurred. You can still be counted amongst the sons of God. Repent of your sins and e forgiven in the name of Christ. But, the time is coming that God will call for an end of the growth of His Church and the harvest will begin. This is the final judgment, where Christ will divide the sheep and the goats.
This judgment is where Christ will give everyone exactly what they have asked for. It’s true. If you plead the blood of Jesus, if you depend upon His perfect life, His sacrificial death, His glorious resurrection for the benefit of your eternal salvation, then Christ will most assuredly give this to you. He loves to give you what you ask for. Ask for more Jesus.
Yet, if you instead ask to be judged by your own merit, if you reject Christ in life, death, and resurrection, if you will not have Him, if you want to continue on in your sin, then Christ will give you what you ask for: hell. It’s true. If you are one of the weeds, Christ will bundle you with all the others and send you to the place that, by your sin, you asked to be: burning forever in the fires of hell.
But, if you don’t want that, if you want everlasting life, trust in the patience of God. This life may be difficult, even as you face those who would come against you or come against the Church. Just as God long put up with the sins and idolatry of the Israelites, so, too, must you have to deal with those who would destroy themselves and the bride of Christ. The time will come when God’s patience with sin will end, and He will separate out those who love Him and those who do not.
You, though, will persevere unto the end; you are a son of God, a child of God, an heir of Christ’s kingdom. You have been forgiven through Christ, covered in His blood, and you will inherit the eternal life that is to come and you will shine with light of the Son, the Son who is Jesus Christ, the sun of righteousness, forever in that kingdom. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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