Weeds Everywhere!

Rev. Debbie Cato
Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43
Fairfield Community Church
August 6, 2023

God of surprises, we come here from the weariness of the week, from various triumphs, from fears and doubts. Open our hearts to receive your surprising message of hope for all people, for we ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

 

Weeds Everywhere!

I don’t know about you, but the weeds are growing rampant at my house.  They are in my lawn, they are filling in the area where the sewer was dug, they have filled my little patio in the back, and my so-called flower beds are full of weeds.  Weeds have taken over.  I have not planted them.  I do not water them.  I did not carefully prepare the soil as we talked about two weeks ago.  The heat has not discouraged them from growing. They just grow.  They are even in the cracks of the sidewalk! Weeds are everywhere!

This parable has similarities to the parable we heard a couple weeks ago – the Parable of the Sower.  In that parable, the farmer sowed his seed, and some landed on the path, some landed on rocky ground, some among thorns, and others on the good, rich soil that he had prepared. 

In this parable, the farmer has already planted his crop, the field is planted with good grain.  We can anticipate a good crop.  But the plot thickens when the “good grain” must compete for space and nutrients with weeds that unexpectedly appear. The weeds resemble wheat and thus pose a dilemma for those who work the land.[1] Once it is established that the presence of these weeds is the result of a deliberate, hostile act (an “enemy,” Jesus says, planted these weeds). Shouldn’t the weeds be swiftly removed? Gardening 101 would surely recommend such an approach. In a year when I am healthy, I certainly pull the weeds in my garden as soon as they grow.  Get rid of them before they spread is my motto!

But not this time, and this is the key point Jesus makes in this parable.  The workers have a sense of urgency to get those weeds pulled as quickly as possible.  But the owner says, no.  We’ll wait,   he says. “Let the wheat and the weeds grow together.  There is enough time to pull them. When it’s time to harvest, then the weeds will be removed and burned. Then the wheat can be safely harvested.[2]  But for now, the parable goes, we’ll let them grow with the wheat. In their infant stage, it’s too hard to tell the weeds from the wheat.

The parable, like so many in Matthew’s Gospel, paints a realistic picture of the world. Good and bad, constructive and destructive, are indistinguishably bound together. Helpful and harmful are mixed up all around us, and indeed even within us—as persons and as communities.[3]

In this parable, Jesus is acknowledging that evil exists.  His parable clearly teaches that there is evil in the world. Evil exists, side by side with good. Jesus is teaching that we must get rid of it – burn it as he describes.  He also acknowledges that it’s difficult to get rid of it. And sometimes, it’s hard to tell evil from good.

If we are honest, there is not a single one of us who does not know what Jesus is talking about.  Sometimes our own lives resemble the farmer’s infested field, with weeds and wheat intertwined in our souls, our hearts, and our minds.  The apostle Paul certainly knows it.  In Romans 7, Paul writes, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”  Members of both AA and Alanon follow a 12-Step Program.  The First Step confesses, “We are power-less over alcohol and our lives have become unmanageable.”  Before an addict can overcome their addiction, they must admit and understand the control and power alcohol or drugs have over their life. Alcohol and drugs is the evil in their life. That is the first step to overcoming addiction.  The Fourth Step is to do a “fearless moral inventory,” sorting out the wheat from the weeds.[4] What is it in their life that they need to get rid of to stay on the path of sobriety?

So often we think of evil as the school shooter or the drunk driver that kills the family driving home from vacation. We think of evil as something “big”.  But the enemy’s sowing can be more subtle and harder to notice.  Countless distractions that derail us from doing what we need to do – like games on our phones or internet searches or watching a marathon of old TV shows. These things are not bad in themselves but when they derail us from some-thing we should be doing then that’s the enemy subtly creeping in and distracting us from doing something good.  

Maybe it’s the teacher facing a clique of parents whose criticism chokes out her creativity and care for her students. 

Perhaps it’s the employee who’s asked to look the other way “for the good of the organization” when something doesn’t feel right.

It could be the youth athlete who’s told to keep it to himself when he sees the coach breaking the rules or mistreating another athlete.

Or it could be us.  Saying a hurtful, angry word to someone we love in the heat of the moment.  Hurting a friend because we are hurting, and we lash out at someone we care about. Yes.  We too can be the perpetrators of evil.  Evil is in us.  None of us is exempt.  The enemy is waiting for an opportunity to pull it out of us.  That is why we must be rooted in Christ.  It’s easy to see how the hate and injustice of our time has gotten so out of control in our society and throughout the world. We may not be first century Galilean farmers, but we confront evil every day and have decisions to  make.[5]

 Just before telling this parable, the pharisees, leaders of Jesus’ own faith, try to trick him and begin their plot to destroy him.  They look like true leaders, but they are as false and deadly as any evil weeds planted among the wheat Jesus talks about in his parable.  Elsewhere in the Gospel, Jesus warns against “false messiahs and false prophets, “ those who cry, “Lord, Lord,” and seem faithful and caring, but who lead people astray and harm the community.  In our times, Stephen Haugk, the founder of Stephen Ministry, describes such people as “antagonists in the church.”  By any name -  antagonists, weeds, wolves, false Prophets – whatever we call them, they are a reality in the community of faith and this  parable acknowledges that hard truth.[6]

But interestingly enough, and this is important to notice - this parable also clearly cautions against a rush to judgement.  We cannot always initially tell what is a good plant and what is not.  Plants can look like weeds and weeds can look like plants.  The landowner knows this so he tells his workers to be patient and wait until the harvest, when they can see the difference between the weeds and the wheat by the fruit that is borne.  Evil does not produce fruit, but the wheat does.

Once they can determine the weeds from the wheat there is no more hesitation.  The separation is swift and harsh.  Jesus knows that failure to deal with evil allows it to spread, just as the seeds of noxious weeds allows them to multiply and infest other fields.

It’s no different than wanting our own children to have “nice” friends, to be part of a “good” crowd.  When they are young, we can choose their friends for them.  We can pick their friends from families we have things in common with.  Friends from church, families with similar interests, similar morals, similar parenting philosophies.  As our children grow, we lose some of that control and they start choosing their own friends.  We may not know the families.  When they go off to college all control of friendships is gone.  But by then we pray that what we have ingrained with our own parenting and family dynamics and philosophies and faith practices will guide our young adult children.  And we pray!

And here’s the good news, Friends.  We all make mistakes.  We’ve all chosen weeds over wheat a time or two in our lives.  We’ve all been weeds – we aren’t perfect.  At least I’m not.  And often we are weeds to the people we love the most.  But we are loved by a God who pours his grace over us each and every day. 

Just this week, I saw this on Instagram and posted it on my FaceBook page.  I don’t know who to credit.

 

“A thousand times

I have failed God,

Yet He keeps forgiving me.

That’s love.”

 

I’ll add – that’s grace. 

We must forgive those who inadvertently do evil against us.  Because we are no different.  But when we face true evil;  some-one who intends to be destructive.  Whose intention is to hurt and tear us down,  walk away.  Stay away.  Do not be a part of it. 

Evil exists in the world, we cannot deny it.  We must be discerning.  And we must remember that we are beloved children of God.  We are called to be the wheat.  Not the weeds.  Amen.

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[1] R. Alan Culpepper, Matthew: A Commentary, New Testament Library (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2021), 257.
[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-16/commentary-on-Matthew-1324-30-36-43-6
[3] Arland J. Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 300-301.
[4] Feasting on the Word.  Year A, Volume 3.  Pentecost and Season After Pentecost 1.  Proper 11.  Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.  Pastoral Perspective.  Talitha J. Arnold.  P. 262. 
[5] Feasting on the Word.  Year A, Volume 3.  Pentecost and Season After Pentecost 1.  Proper 11.  Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.  Pastoral Perspective.  Talitha J. Arnold.  P. 262. 
[6] Feasting on the Word.  Year A, Volume 3.  Pentecost and Season After Pentecost 1.  Proper 11.  Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.  Pastoral Perspective.  Talitha J. Arnold.  P. 262.