Parable of the Weeds

Transcript:

 

 

Speaker 1:
Our verse today comes to Matthew 1324 through 30. Hear the word of the Lord. Jesus told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this. He said, the servants asked him, do you want us to go and pull them up? No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters, first, collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn. This is the word of the Lord. 


Speaker 2:
Good morning everybody. My name is Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here at Journey. It's good to see all of you here on our prayer Sunday, which is the reminders, a time where I'm going to preach for a short amount of time, and then later in the service we'll have time to come forward. And if you are sick, hurt, anxious, worried, confused, lost, or somebody who is, we will anoint you with oil if you'd like, and we will pray for you no matter what. So we're in the book of Matthew, another parable, and just to recap last week from what Carly preached, which was the parable of the sower, there was four places that the seed got thrown. The path which the birds ate them. The root never took hold and the gospel seed in that parable never came to fruition. We had the rocky places, which the seed caught and grew really fast. 


Speaker 2:
And when the first sign of struggle came, the truth disappeared because there's no foundation and no root in there. Then we had the thorns, which the seeds grew up and it was great, but eventually it got choked out by the thorns or the weeds, and that represents the spirit of worry and greed, basically anything that distorts the gospel message alongside what they think they know is the truth. And then we had the good soil where we all hope that we land and we have cultivated good soil where we have strong roots in the faith and we grow and we produce great crops and it's wonderful and it's perfect, right? We want to be the perfect crop. And so this past week, I hope you know that you were able to reflect on that a little bit. On Wednesday, Carly and I had a conversation, a journey online about these different kinds of soil parts. 


Speaker 2:
And one of them is the good soil. The only thing I think about the good soil is you don't have to be a super, a super Christian, a Jesus freak if you will, to be a good soil person. In fact, we shared people who influenced our lives and who shaped us. And a lot of them are just people who live out the faith. Well, they live it out silently or they just do what they're called to do, which is sometimes hard because you always think we want to a need to be doing something. We have to always be working in doing something. But the parable of the weeds, which is right after or yeah, right after this parable last week is kind of challenging because we exist in this world where we think we're the fruit and there is fruit, but there's also a lot of thorns and thickets and weeds beside us and how do we navigate this? 


Speaker 2:
And I think it's interesting. We're in this parable, this set of parables. It's all to do with agriculture. And why do we have agriculture over and over again? Well, there's a few reasons. One, it's because they would've known what agriculture was. They would've known how to farm, what farming looked like, the cycle of farming. If you're in this city in Dallas, you've probably not seen a lot of that cycle. If you go just a little bit outside, you'll see the farms and all that. In Ohio, it was just all farmland where I'm from. So you could tell what was being planted when, so you would understand these cycles. I also think that agriculture and growing stuff takes a long time. Sometimes. A lot of times it takes more times than we. It's people who want immediate reactions and actions. To do, you have to put the seed in this, the old forest, you have to prepare the soil and you have to plant it and then you have to water it and put the right nutrients in it, and then you have to just wait. 


Speaker 2:
You just wait and wait and wait and wait. And that can be a great parable for our walk with Jesus because there's sometimes it's a certain element of just waiting and doing nothing. And this parable right here, just to give you a little cycle, I read a lot about wheat. I should have known more about wheat because my dad was in F f A, my mom was in the former farm town and we grew up in Ohio around a whole bunch of fields, but I didn't know wheat took takes winter wheat. Specifically what we're talking about here in this parable takes five to six months to grow, five to six months for it to produce fruit and they would plant it in November or December. So it was ready and prepared by the time of Passover, which would've been around May time for their festivals and stuff, this is the nation of Israel. 


Speaker 2:
And so the good seeds here in this story, they're planted and they're planted well and it's great and we got the good seed. But there was sabotage in this, right? There were sabotage. Somebody came in the middle of the night, the enemy of the person who threw the seed out, the enemy of the person growing this came and put bad seed amongst all of this and that, that scripture goes very fast. And the Bible, it condenses a lot of time very quickly. But what you don't really see in this, unless you know agriculture, I death, and I didn't, but I do now, is that it takes a long time to know that your crop has been tainted and has been messed with. So five to six months after you plant the seed, five to six months after that is when you finally get to see what is being grown. 


Speaker 2:
And the seed that they're talking about in this parable, this weeded that has been thrown in is a plant that looks almost exactly like wheat, for example. Here is a picture of the wheat and the weeds. And I would be hard pressed to see any difference between any of those. And these people who are sowing this stuff and growing this I'm guessing are seasoned planters. You don't go out and start a farm just because how to put a seed in the ground. The difference between these two plants, the weed and the wheat is so, they're so similar and it grows so similarly that all the way up until the fruit is produced, the head of the wheat, you won't know the difference between the two. So for five to six months in this parable, this story, they had no idea what was wrong or they had no idea that anything was wrong. 


Speaker 2:
They just looked out in the field and said, look at this beautiful bountiful crop out there. And then when it's time to harvest at the very last minute they're like, oh, hold on a second. They look at the master, the servants look at the master and they say, I thought you had had the good seed. What'd you do? Where'd what happened to all that good stuff? And thankfully, the person who sowed the seed, sowed the seed knew exactly what had happened. Probably too much relief of the person who goes out and buys the seed. I'm sure whoever the person that went out and purchased the seed was like, oh, thank God that the master knew that it wasn't me who got bad seed. He said, an enemy did this. And so when it comes time to harvest, now you got this bad crop, you have good wheat and good stuff mixed in with bad stuff and bad stuff mixed in with good stuff. 


Speaker 2:
So what do you do? These servants of the people, they want to go out and just start ripping out the weeds. That's what they said. You want us to go get rid of this weeds and do all of that stuff? Because here's the deal, the weeds that they're talking about in this parable are toxic. So if you mix them in with the wheat or you mix them by themselves and somebody eats it, it you'll make you sick. And so a rich man who owns a lot of farmland could probably very quickly become a poor man who owns no land and he says, don't do anything. The servant wanted to jump right into action. They were like, let's do this. Let's go and make this happen. Get rid. They didn't go attack the enemy. They didn't ask who the enemy was. They didn't ask what should we do? 


Speaker 2:
They just said, do you want us to go take care of this? They see a problem, they want to act, and the master says, no, don't do anything. How frustrating that must have been, how frustrating it must have been for these people who looked out and all they could do and all they were told to do was just to wait until it was time for something to happen, which when that something happened didn't even involve them, right? The master said, I am going to bring the harvesters in people who are experts at separating these out and they're going to separate the weeds and the weeds first. They'll take the weeds out, they'll collect them and they'll throw 'em in the fire and burn them and then bring the good stuff back to the barn. But you don't have to worry about that one. I don't know if they didn't know what they were doing, that wasn't their job or they just needed somebody who was very specialized in recognizing the difference. 


Speaker 2:
Because I mean, here is the fruit of the wheat and the weed that they're talking about in here. And even then I would, I'd be burning half the half the good stuff. I wouldn't know. Those look very similar to me. Those look very, very similar to me. So he says, don't do anything, just wait. Because if you mess with it now, then this last month of it has having to grow. You could ruin everything. And when it comes time to harvest, then we can worry about cutting stuff off. We don't really need to grow anymore. We're going to collect it up. But right now, don't touch it. Don't do anything to this. And so he goes on later, we didn't read this part earlier, but we get the explanation of the parable because like this soil that is being toiled and being worked to be good soil, Jesus tapes the disciples aside and says, let me tell you about this parable and what it means. So Matthew 13, I'll just read it here, 34 through 43 says, Jesus told the crowds, make sure I'm at the right spot here. 


Speaker 2:
Sorry, verse 36. Then he left the crowds and went into the house and his disciples approached him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. He answered the one who sows the seed as the son of man, the field is the word and the seed are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is at the end stage and the reapers are angels just as the weeds are collected and burned up with the fire. So will it be at the end of the age the son of man will send his angels and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and evil doers. They will throw them into the furnace of fire where there'll be a great weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun and the kingdom of their father. Let anyone with ears listen. 


Speaker 2:
So at the first read through of the parable just as it is, I think it could be pretty easy to understand. I mean, human starts the parable. The kingdom of heaven is like this field. And so we could, I think really quickly, easily brush by that. But I think if we break it down and look at the characters in the story of who is, this is a good exercise. Whenever you read a parable, it's good to first know, who am I reading this story as? And then also who is matching up with different parts of the story. So I did it for you, the man who sows is Jesus, okay? Who told that the enemy is Satan. We is the people who are going to be with Jesus for eternity. The weeds are the people who are not. The harvest is the final judgment. When it all comes, Jesus comes back. 


Speaker 2:
And the harvesters are the angels and the reapers that leaves the servants. Who are the servants? Who are we as the reader? Who are we in this story as the listener, as the hear? Well, it could be a couple of people. We could be, and we are the wheat or the weeds because we profess that Jesus is going to come back to judge. I mean, that is a part of our faith that we profess. And so we are going to be in this final harvest. And so this part admittedly was kind of hard to wrap my head around because I think I'm pretty literal here, that you plant a seed and it is what it is always. Like you put a seed in sweet, it will always be wheat. You put a seed in that is a wheat. It will always be a wheat. And that's hard to reconcile. 


Speaker 2:
My brain of people can change. You can't change an apple into a banana or banana into an apple. So that's difficult. But I think what I've taken from it and understand and through some commentaries is that you just don't know. You just don't know. Don't know who anybody else is. If anybody else next to you is a wheat or a weeded, you could be a wheat stalk that produces no fruit at all. You could be a wheat stalk that has died very early on because of no nutrients or no working of you. You could be very fruitful, weeded, but you're still spreading hate in the work of the devil. So difficult. But when we get purified, I think the way I can look at it is when the weeds are taken out, they're purified and taken away for the, and that's just kind of the hard truth that we profess that Jesus is coming back, that some people will not make it into heaven. 


Speaker 2:
And that weighs on me a lot. We could also read ourselves as the servants. The servants didn't know what they didn't know. They just knew they were working for Jesus. They, they're working for the servant. We are working for Jesus and we always want to act, never wanting to just simply grow into something healthy. The disciples did this, I mean, they prevented kids from coming to Jesus. They told the crowds to go find something to eat themselves. Peter cut off guy's ear to get in the way, and Jesus every time said basically, chill out. That's the Jeremy paraphrase. Chill out, do nothing. And what that mean for us, I think that it means for us that we need to chill out. We need to have no understanding of how to separate the weeds and the wheat of the world. I think we'd be surprised at who gets into heaven and who makes it to the barn and who makes it into the fire. I think that could be, it might be an amazing realization because we don't have the skills to figure it out ourselves. I mean, if we go back to that picture, they look exactly the same except for the untrained eye. 


Speaker 2:
The reality of existing in this time and age before Jesus has come back is that we live in a world where there is evil around us. We are, hopefully, we are beacons of wheat, beacons of light in the midst of a dark world. And again, it's not up to us to go and rip those weeds out. We don't know. And what are we supposed to do about all that? There's weeds growing alongside of us. What are we supposed to do? Well, nothing, I don't think any attempt to remove the weeds of the world, of our own power and our own understanding will harm and damage the witness of the church. When we start to do stuff ourselves and on our own power and our own understanding, we will start to rip out the wheat next to us. We don't know. We don't know. So we start to damage the witness of the church and we're ripping out evil. 


Speaker 2:
We think we're getting rid of the weeds, but we're also, we're tearing the crop down. We're burning people up, we're tearing them out. And Jesus says, don't you do anything. He says, the son of man. So I want you to hear any part of these two verses where Jesus tells you the listener, you're supposed to go out and take care of this problem. The son of man will send out his angels and they'll weeded out his kingdom, everything that causes sin and do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace where they, there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. They the angels, the reapers people who Jesus sends will take care of separating the wheat and the weeds from the final harvest. I firmly believe that there's a reason people are leaving the church. I mean, we talk, I think probably everybody's bemoaned people leaving the church, but in the world of technology and social media where people can share stories and look around and see how actions have hurt each other, every time we try to legislate or legalize or put into executive order or on our own power morality, they're going to look at us and say, you just a, you're just look like a weeded yourself. 


Speaker 2:
You know, have the problems of sin. You exhibit us. We do not have the authority to do that at. 


Speaker 2:
I mean, you don't have to look far. You can just look at any person that we try to put into power in the civil side of the world to represent people. I mean, we've elected and put into power people who are convicted and accused abusers, people who are liars, people filled with greed and seeking power, serial cheaters on their spouses, slanders and on and on and on. Oftentimes we look the other way and say, that's okay because they are going to do the work of getting rid of the weeds that I think need to be get gotten rid of in this world. But they don't have that power either. They don't have that power either. And what are the weeds that we're going after this week? What are the weeds that we go after all the time? Is it the L G B T weeded? Is it the political party weeds? Is it magic like Harry Potter, the Satanic panic in those days, the wrong music? Is it people here or here illegally? Like what weeded are we going after? Weeded? Are we going after in the name of harvesting for the master? When the master has told his people don't do it, chill out. You do not have the power to weeded out my harvest. 


Speaker 2:
Our job is simply to grow and to be fruitful. That's all we're supposed to grow and to be fruitful. And if we do that and we do that well, we will produce fruit and it will multiply. If I am a wheat that is supposed to be harvested for the kingdom of God, if I produce well and I cultivate and work, then the fruit that comes off of me is not weeds. It is more wheat. It's more good fruit for the kingdom of God. My job is to grow to live that well. And by the fruits of the spirit, God will know who we are. People will know who we are. 


Speaker 2:
I think it takes a lot of pressure off too, because we just need to chill out and do nothing. And I know that will be hard and difficult, and I know people will say, Jeremy, you just want lawlessness and you don't care about the standards of God and blah, blah, blah. I do not want lawlessness. I do care about the standards of God, but it is not my job to go out and rip out what I consider to be the weeds of the world in the name of God who has not given me that authority. Your job is to do nothing and grow and be good fruit for the kingdom of God. So when the harvest day comes, you yourself will not get thrown into the furnace, but will spend time radiating like the sun in the house of the Lord.