Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 11A)

July 23, 2023

Text: Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43

            Once again, the Sower is the Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ.  But this time the soil is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the Kingdom, believers in Jesus, who have heard and received His Word, who trust in it and keep it.  But Jesus is not the only sower in this parable.  There is another, a wicked one, an enemy of the Master, who opposes the Master’s every effort.  This enemy is, of course, the devil.  And the seeds he sows are the sons of the evil one, unbelievers, who act as weeds among the wheat, crowding out the sons of the Kingdom, thwarting their access to precious resources, hindering their fruitfulness, seeking to take over the field, the world.  The enemy comes at night to do this, under cover of darkness, while the servants, the Christians (and particularly the pastors) are sleeping.  Let your guard down just a little, as we all do, and there he’ll be, sowing his wicked seed. 

            So now, the field is full of both.  The wheat and the weeds.  Believers and unbelievers.  The righteous (which is to say, the justified) and the wicked (which is to say, those who seek their justification elsewhere than in Jesus Christ).  Jesus is probably playing off the similarity between wheat and a weed called “darnel.”  When the plants are young, they look pretty much the same.  It is only when the plants come to maturity, when it is time for the harvest, that you can easily tell the difference. 

            So it is with the weeds and wheat in the parable.  Thus, when the servants ask the Master if He’d like them to go and gather the weeds out of the field, He tells them no!  “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them” (Matt. 13:29; ESV).  This is always the danger.  We are so eager to help the Lord out, weed His field for Him, identify and eliminate the wicked of the world and the hypocrites in the Church.  But you can’t always tell the difference between the weeds and the wheat, between the sons of the Kingdom and the sons of the evil one.  Sometimes it is obvious, but more often it is not.  And you may think you are pretty good at spotting the difference, but your eyes aren’t as good as you think they are.  You can’t see into the heart of another.  One who appears to be a very fine and pious Christian may be the very definition of a hypocrite.  The outer appearance does not match the faith, or lack thereof, in the heart.  On the other hand, one whom you have judged as an obvious unbeliever on the basis of their outward life, may simply be a weaker brother or sister overtaken by the attacks of sin and Satan, clinging nevertheless to the lifeline of their Baptism into Christ and His sin-atoning death and life-giving resurrection.  That clinging is faith.  Or maybe you are the weaker Christian, blindly judging what you do not know.  Repent.  We must hear and heed the words of St. Paul: “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14:4). 

            Only God knows who believes and who doesn’t.  Only God can see the heart.  In pulling up weeds, you may inadvertently pull up what is actually wheat.  And there is also the added mystery that what is a weed now may, by God’s grace, become wheat as the Word of God is preached.  The status of weed and wheat is not static.  Unbelievers come to faith.  Believers apostatize.  Let us never forget that each one of us started out as a weed, born spiritually blind, dead, and an enemy of God, and that the Holy Spirit made us into wheat, bringing us to faith by Baptism and His holy Word.  And, so also, let us never forget that the weeds sown by the evil one are not just those other people, outside of us, unbelievers.  The devil sows his wicked seeds inside of us, as well, in our hearts… the sins, the lusts, the doubts in each one of us, which, apart from God’s gracious tending, would overtake us and transform us wholesale into sons of the evil one.  This, also, is why it is do difficult to tell the weeds and the wheat apart.  You could just as easily be mistaken for a weed! 

            It is not given you to weed the field.  God will send His holy angels to do that when the harvest comes.  And it is not given you to be your neighbor’s judge.  That belongs to God, and He will do it.  Wait for His appointed time.  Wait for the harvest.  Then all will be set right.  Then weeds and wheat will be revealed for who they are.  Until then, trust the Master, that He knows what He is doing in His own field.  He doesn’t need your help or advice.  He will preserve you.  He will preserve His good seed, the sons of the Kingdom.  He will preserve His Church.  He will make wheat out of weeds.  And at the proper time… at just the right time… at the time appointed by the Father from all eternity… then the weeds will be gathered to be burned, and the wheat will be gathered into the Master’s barn.

            This afternoon, the Lord unburdens you from two loads that are impossible for you to bear.  The first is that of judging your neighbor.  No, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t call sin, sin; that you shouldn’t judge the rightness or wrongness of an action when such is clearly identified in Holy Scripture.  Nor does it mean you should never help a Christian brother or sister who is struggling with a sin or weakness you may know about.  Quite the contrary.  But it does mean you don’t have to identify who is a Christian, and who isn’t… who has faith, and who doesn’t… who is a better Christian, and who is not so great.  You just believe and trust in Christ, be forgiven of your sins, receive His gifts, confess Him, and love your neighbor.  That is what you are given to do between now and the harvest. 

            The second impossible load from which the Lord unburdens you is that of this endless effort to justify yourself in your own eyes, and the eyes of others; to convince yourself and others that you are righteous and good, especially in comparison with others; the virtue signaling; the stories and social media posts that make you look admirable and exciting, and your neighbor not so much; the maintaining of the illusion that you have it all together, all figured out, and that you have any righteousness of your own to bring to the table before God.  The weight of that illusion crushes you.  But you no longer have to bear that weight.  Your justification does not rest with yourself, or with your neighbor.  Your neighbor is not given to judge you any more than you are given to judge your neighbor.  Your neighbor’s judgment doesn’t count.  Only God’s does.  And He judges you in Christ.  He judges you with Christ’s righteousness as your raiment.  He has planted you as wheat... in Christ.  He tends you and cares for you, so that you grow and bear fruit… in Christ.  It is all by grace. 

            Look what kind of Master your God is.  See how patient He is with His field.  He holds back His overeager servants.  He gives the field time.  Time for His Word to go forth in preaching.  Time for repentance and for faith to blossom.  Time for more sons of the Kingdom to be born, more weeds transformed into wheat.  We are eager for the harvest.  We are impatient.  We pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” and He will.  But the Lord has extended the time of grace, why?  For the sake of those yet to come to faith.  It is a great mercy.

            But we must also know that this time is coming to an end.  Jesus’ parable is also a warning.  At the close of the age, the Son of Man will send forth His angels to “gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:41-42).  Just to be clear, we’re talking about hell, a real place, where real people, who do not receive Christ, really go.  Now is the time of grace.  Now is the time for repentance.  Do not delay, presuming on the Lord’s mercy.

            But, so also, for those who are in Christ: Be comforted.  The time of our eager longing is coming to an end.  For, what will happen to the wheat, the righteous, those justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, at the close of the age?  They “will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (v. 43).  Even as they now bear Christ’s own righteousness as a gift of His grace, so they… so you… will shine with His glory on that Day when all that is darkness shall be made light, when all that is hidden shall be revealed.  Then we will know who is a weed, and who is wheat.  Then the sons of God will be revealed.  All will see.  All will know.  And all Creation will rejoice.  The separation will be complete.  And Christ will be all in all.  Wait, beloved.  It is coming.  Until then, trust in Jesus, and love the plant next to you.  “He who has ears, let him hear.”  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.