Weeds Everywhere

Rev. Debbie Cato
Genesis 28:1-19 and Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43
Manitou Park Presbyterian Church Tacoma
July 19, 2026 

God of surprises, we come here from the weariness of the week.  Some of us have celebrated triumphs and others’ fears and doubts. Some of us have experienced all these in the same week.  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 our lawn, they have filled in the cracks in the patio and sidewalk, and my 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 so they would grow well.  The heat has not discouraged them from growing. They just grow.  Weeds are everywhere!

This parable has similarities to the Parable of the Sower, which Jesus tells right before this parable on weeds.  Did someone preach a sermon about that last week?

Well, 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. Jesus’ compares the outcome of the planting to how we digest His Word. Sometimes God’s word doesn’t phase us – like the seed that landed on the path.  Sometimes, we aren’t open to hearing from God.  That’s like the soil on the rocky ground or even among the thorns.  Other times, our hearts are open and we both hear God’s word, and we apply it to our lives.  This is when the soil of our hearts is rich.

Today, we hear the parable of the weeds.  In this parable, the farmer has already planted his crop.  Jesus tells us that the field is planted with good grain.  We can anticipate a good crop.  The plot thickens when the “good grain” must compete for space and nutrients with weeds that unexpectedly appear. The problem for the those who work the land is that the weeds look a lot like the wheat.[1] How do they know what plants to pull and which to leave? 

Jesus says the presence of the weeds is the result of a deliberate, hostile act (an act of the “enemy”).  An enemy planted the weeds. Now, you would expect that the weeds should immediately be removed.  Gardening 101 would surely recommend such an approach. Get them out! I certainly pull the weeds in my garden as soon as they grow. Or at least I try.  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.  We might pull out good, healthy wheat thinking it is weeds.

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

In this parable, Jesus acknowledges that evil exists.  His parable clearly teaches that there is evil in the world. And the truth is, evil exists, side by side with good. Jesus is teaching that we must get rid of it – burn it as he describes.  But, 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, we 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 knew it.  In Romans 7, Paul writes, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”  Do you ever feel that way?  “I do not do what I want to do but I do the thing I hate.  Or the things I don’t want to do.

So often we think of evil as the school shooter or the drunk driver that kills the family who’s driving home from vacation. We think of evil as something “big”.  Something awful.  Something we ourselves would never do. 

But the enemy’s sowing can be more subtle and harder to notice than that.  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 something 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.  

Often, when we are hurting we lash out at someone we care about rather process what has hurt us.  It’s easier.  It’s safer that way.  But it’s so hurtful. Words come out so fast and are not easily forgotten. We can easily be the perpetrators of evil. Each one of us.  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 times 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 we have decisions to make.[5]

 Just before telling this parable, the pharisees, the 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 that 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.  Today, we see Christianity used for things far outside the Gospel teachings.  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 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 –the good, does.

 Once they can tell 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 allow them to multiply and infest other fields.

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 – none of us are 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. 

 I saw this on Instagram a while back.  I don’t know who to give credit to.

 “A thousand times I have failed God,
Yet He keeps forgiving me. That’s love.”

“A thousand times I have failed God, Yet He keeps forgiving me. That’s love.”

 I’ll add – that’s grace.  It’s Grace that He forgives us over and over again.

 Because of the grace God extends to us, we must extend grace to others.  We must forgive those who inadvertently do evil against us.  Because we are no different.  We also commit evil. But when we face true evil; someone who intends to be destructive.  Someone 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.