Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
July 17, 2005
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
When Joy and I decided to move to San Francisco in 1998, I said that I don’t want to mow a lawn again. To make sure this happened, we threw in the lawn mower when we sold the house. Maintaining healthy grass without any weeds was something I did on a quarter of acre lot for 20 years. I want no more weeding.
Now that I have planted indigenous plants and ground covering on the swatches of land around our California house, I only need to weed once every two or three weeks. Where there are healthy plants, the ground is filled in with no room for weeds to sprout. But in the areas where the plants are scrawny, I have had to go back there time and time again to pull out weeds.
Someone once said, “A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.” A plant is a weed when we didn’t plant it there ourselves.
Last week when a number of us extended our trip from the ABC Biennial in Denver, we traveled up to the Rocky Mountains. Wendy Quan bought a little book to identify the many wildflowers on our hikes. It was amazing to identify the variety and beauty of these wildflowers growing in high elevations. We wondered where the weeds were. What we might think are weeds, in the sight of God, are all flowers.
The Parable
Today’s parable from Matthew 13 speaks about two sowings: both wheat and weeds are the result of intentional activities and now the results stand together in the same field. An enemy or some evil person has thrown weed seeds in with the wheat and now both the wheat and the weeds are growing together. It was a nasty case of agricultural terrorism.
We know that if you don’t pull the weeds, they will take over your lawn. We know that the weeds would suck up all of the ground’s nutrients leaving your grass and plants weak. So once every two or three weeks, I’m out there with my blue pail and gloves pulling out weeds. But the surprising response from the landowner to his slave laborers is to leave the weeds alone—don’t pull them out. If you do, you might harm the good wheat in the process. They are to wait until the harvest, and at that time, a group of reapers will gather the grain and separate the weeds for burning.
The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was saying through this parable so later in the chapter; Jesus took the time to explain it to them. Jesus told them that the wheat represents the people who reflect the sowing activity of the Son of Man and the weeds are persons reflecting those who followed the Evil One. At the end of time, the reapers are angels who then would separate the righteous who will shine like the sun with God and the unrighteous will end up thrown into the furnace of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Weeding Out
Many have taken this parable and Jesus’ explanation of its meaning as justification to pull out weeds—people whom we think don’t belong. When we see weeds we think there is evil. We have assumed the responsibility to round-up undesirable weeds so that they wouldn’t destroy our manicured lawns or suck away the ground’s nutrients. We love it when the wicked are punished, when the unrighteous are mowed down, when the weeds are uprooted in the garden.
But there is more to this parable than its clear conclusion about judgment day, when the evildoers of this world will be burn and the righteous will shine like the sun. While we certainly have to take seriously this prediction of God’s final judgment, we also need to listen to what Jesus says about the danger of making judgments of our own along the way.
Jesus says, “Leave the weeds to me. No more weeding! You just worry about growing up as wheat.”
In the world that we live, there is just too much emphasis placed on who is right and who is wrong. You are either on this side of the issue or on that side. If you don’t see it my way then you must not be seeing it correctly. If you can’t decide one way or another then you are labeled as wishy-washy! There are blue states and red states.
And this is not just happening out in the world; it’s happening in the church. The church has caught this infectious disease too. Christians, right and left are strutting around these days in garments of self-righteousness suggesting that those who disagree with them are the weeds in the garden of life, while they themselves are the beautiful flowers. When we were high up in the Rockies, there were only beautiful wildflowers. There were no weeds. For some people like children, dandelions are flowers.
We live in a world that rushes to judgment. Some are judged harshly for being too radical; others for not being radical enough. Some are judged for embracing traditional values, others for appearing to have no values at all. Some are condemned for being too evangelistic, others for being too involved in the social ills in our society. And so it goes on.
In his little book, Illustrations of Bible Truth, H.A. Ironside pointed out the folly of judging others. There was a man called Bishop Potter, who was headed for Europe on a great ocean liner. Upon boarding, he discovered that he was to share his cabin with another passenger. After meeting his roommate, the bishop went to the purser’s desk to inquire whether he could place his valuables in the ship’s safe. Judging from the appearance of his roommate, he explained, he was suspicious of the man’s trustworthiness. Accepting the bishop’s valuables, the purser replied, “It’s all right, bishop, I’ll be glad to take care of them for you. The other man has been up here and left his valuables for the same reason.”
The moral of this story is that we are all weeds in someone else’s eyes! It is not the church’s task to uproot, nor the Christian’s task to judge one another.
So Jesus counsels his disciples to hold off on the weed-pulling, “for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.” Let them grow together until the harvest. Jesus is committed to preserving the weeds until the wheat is fully developed. He doesn’t have a desire to rush to judgment, preferring instead for nature to take its course.
The point of the parable is not that Jesus is going to go easy on the weeds. No, he fully intends to put the evildoers into the furnace of the fire, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
What Jesus is trying to teach us is to leave the judgments to him. He knows that we are consistently off the mark when we try to make an accurate assessment of the moral character of a friend or a neighbor, or a group of people, and so he orders us to put our energy in being healthy wheat.
Here’s an example: A seminar leader recently showed a class of government workers a series of pictures. The pictures began with a view of a person’s face, and then broadened the view to reveal the person’s entire body. It was only when the entire picture was seen that the class could make anything approaching an accurate judgment.
The first picture showed a face of a grizzled man, scowling and straining. He looked to be a member of a motorcycle gang, perhaps gripping the handlebar of a motorcycle. But when the entire picture was revealed, it became clear that he was a maker of custom wheelchairs for the handicapped, and he was pushing one of his creations.
Another picture showed the face of a lovely woman with a beautiful smile. She appeared to be a flight attendant or a waitress at an upscale restaurant. But when the view was expanded, what the class saw was an exotic dancer.
We don’t have the whole picture, says Jesus, to be judgmental.
Be Healthy Wheat
The challenge for us is to put our energy into being good wheat, instead of trashing the weeds around us. Rather than erecting walls, building boundaries and trying to purify our community of faith, our job is to grow up healthy and strong—and leave the judging to Jesus. The problem with trying to pull up weeds is that we might grab some wheat by mistake, and hurt ourselves and others who are part of the good wheat.
Forty years ago, some Christians condemned Martin Luther King, Jr. for being a trouble-maker. But today, almost every American city has a street named after Dr. King. Some people call U2 singer, Bono an air-headed rock star, and maybe he is, but fail to recognize his courageous call to respond to the AIDS emergency in Africa. Some people thought that Chinese were heathens and the Gospel would have a hard time getting through to them but look at where our Gospel Choir did two weeks ago in Denver. They shared their Christian faith in front of thousands of people!
Don’t rush to judgment, says Jesus. Let the weeds grow up with the wheat. It will get sorted out in the end.
Remember what I said about healthy plants will crowd out any weeds from growing in your garden? The good news is that growth and maturity are probably the most effective forms of weed control. If your lawn is healthy, you shouldn’t have to dig out many weeds at all—in fact, the presence of weeds is a sign that your grass is weaker than it should be. If you find yourself dealing with weeds, one of the best things to do is to simply let your grass grow taller. Don’t cut it too short. It will cover the bare spots and weeds won’t have a chance to sprout up.
One of the best things we can do is to become healthier wheat by becoming stronger in our faith in Jesus Christ. Learn to forgive others as Jesus forgave us. Forgive as Christ did on the cross. Don’t attack the weeds. Don’t try to pull them up from their roots. Just let them be and forgive.
This may sound like being a Christian is passive and not to care about the evil in the world. Think again. This is not a call to do nothing, but a call to being strong and healthy Christians. After all, it is not easy being wheat in a world full of weeds. Yet the best solution to evil in our world is still God’s solution—Grow in faith by forgiving others and go about the business of being wheat bearing a good harvest by listening to God.
Through our patience and hopefulness, we pray that God may yet reach those who are weeds before the harvest. Thanks be to God!
Let us pray.
Almighty God, we thank you for planting your word within us as good seed, germinating new life through Jesus Christ, your Son. Give us grace, we pray, that we may grow into his likeness. Grant us courage, that we may remain steadfast against the works of the enemy. Make us like the beautiful wildflowers on the high mountains so that the world may see that you are good. And fill us with hope as we await with joy your harvest. Through Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.