Pastor Michael Cofer
Matthew 13
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You know what’s great about the old silent movies? You can tell at a glance the good guys from the bad guys. The good guys have a square jaw, and a barrel chest. They ride a white horse, and hold their chins high. The bad guys have the black cape and top hat, and that curly mustache. Their hobbies include rubbing their hands together, cackling maniacally, and tying damsels to railroad tracks.
It’s great because you know who to root for. Even if you come into the movie midway through, you can figure it out in no time flat. It’s like watching a Yankees game… you just cheer for the other team. Easy!
I can’t help but notice that real life isn’t much like that at all. Bad guys often look like the good guys. Sure, some thieves wear pantyhose on their head and wave a gun around, but others wear nice suits and promise guaranteed dividends.
The parable today paints a picture of the real world. There’s no black-hat, white-hat distinctions. In the story, the weeds are growing up right next to the wheat, and the land owner would rather leave them there than run the risk of pulling or damaging his good crops. I learned this week that there is a weed that grows in the Mediterranean that looks like wheat in it’s early stages. It isn’t until the two reach maturity that it is easy to distinguish them.
So, again, we have the oddity of a parable that Jesus explains piece by piece. The wheat are the children of God; the weeds are the children of the devil. The harvest is the end of time, and the harvesters are the angels. So… you know. Easy, cut and dry. What else is there to say?
Well, maybe quite a bit. Unlike the parable of the sower, I think it’s easier to identify who we are in the story: we’re the wheat. Great. So… what? Is the moral of the story, “Be wheat?”
I hope not, because the seed doesn’t have much control over that, does it? What’s that thing Luther says, Pastor Nieting’s favorite quote? “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.”
So, then, is the moral, “Be like wheat?” Well… probably not, because in the end “like” doesn’t cut it. You’re either wheat or your kindling.
So, what can we make of this story? Well, for starters I think we can safely say Jesus is warning us to not judge others. After all, if the angels can’t sort out the good guys from the bad guys, what are the odds that you can? Pretty slim, I’d guess.
Now, let’s clarify this a bit, because this principle gets abused something terrible. It’s one thing to try and judge who’s going to heaven and who’s going to hell. It’s entirely different to lovingly talk with someone about their sin. I don’t feel qualified to tell anybody here that they are going to hell, but it is my responsibility to confront you about your sin. But that really only works because I assume that you’re one of the wheat. If not, how can I possibly help you deal with that sin?
So, no, this parable doesn’t mean you aren’t accountable for how you live. It doesn’t mean that no one has the right to talk to you about your sins. But it does mean that you don’t get to make the call between the good guys and the bad guys.
I think there’s more to this parable that that though. In fact, I think this parable addresses one of the toughest topics that Christianity faces: if God is good, why is life so hard? After all, that’s the problem with weeds, isn’t it? They cause hardship to the good plants. They fight for water, of nutrients, for sunlight. Weeds make growth a challenge for the wheat.
This is a serious problem if you take the Bible’s picture of God seriously. Is God good? Absolutely. Can God do anything He wants? Most definitely. Then why is there sin in the world? Can’t he just say the magic word and make it go away? Couldn’t He fix it? Well… yeah, He could. So why doesn’t He?
As it turns out, God’s first priority isn’t that you have an easy life. He is much more interested in making you grow into the person he designed you to be. When he made the seed that you came from, he packed into that seed the potential for a truly glorious thing. He had big plans for you before you were even planted. While it may not always be comfortable, the growth he has planned for you is well worth it in the end. And part of that process may mean struggling against the weeds.
This is precisely what Paul was talking about when he said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Paul had plenty of sufferings: ship wrecks, wrongful imprisonment, an unnamed but debilitating “thorn in the flesh,” and a criminal execution. And none of that, was worth comparing to the glory that awaited him.
Now, again, let me offer a word of caution. Sometimes people get things turned around, and think that God sends hardship for our good. As if evil is somehow God’s fault. It’s not. The enemy sowed the bad seeds, not the landowner. But the thing about God is that He can take the most painful circumstances – He can take broken and tragic events – and make something beautiful out of them.
The devil simply cannot gain ground against God. Try as he might, every one of the devil’s plans will ultimately be frustrated, confounded, and turned against him. The good seed that God has sown will grow into fruition in the time of harvest. And when it does, the righteous (that’s you and me) will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
