St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 9 -- July 14^th and 17^th, 2005

Dear members of God’s eternal family,

Maybe you who are husbands can relate to this dilemma. Your wife asks you to go and weeds the garden. I still don’t understand how weeds can grow even when you don’t water or care for them – but back to the problem at hand. You get your stuff together and go to the garden to pull some weeds. But as you look at the garden you see a mass of green. Everything has grown like pardon the expression "weeds." How in the world are you supposed to tell which is a plant and which is a weed. You can say that everything that has flowers on it is a flower, but I know some weeds have flowers. And I know some good flowers that don’t bloom until later in the fall. So what do you do? Do you chance it and pull out what you think is right? Do you go and ask your wife who knows what she planted and show your ignorance on flowers? Tough choices for such an easy job.

Today we will be learning from one of Jesus’ parables about weeds and good plants. We will soon realize this morning what weeds are, where they came from and how we are to deal with weeds. Our theme will be:

This chapter of Matthew’s Gospel contains a series of seven parables all dealing with the kingdom of heaven. Three of these seven parables describe the growth of the kingdom of heaven in the heart of individuals (sower, hidden treasure, pearl); four describe the growth of the kingdom of heaven in the world (weeds, mustard seeds, yeast, net).

"Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field." Having finished his explanation of why he spoke in parables and of what the parable of the sower meant, Jesus continued to feed the people with the word. The kingdom of heaven is God’s gracious rule in human hearts and lives — not a place so much as an activity. Through the gospel promises of God’s word and sacraments, Jesus gives us the sure hope of heaven. To explain one aspect of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus points us to the familiar world of farming. This farmer owned his own field and therefore made extra sure that the seed he planted was good seed. He wanted good seed that would germinate and produce wheat, not weeds.

"The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man." The man who sowed good seed in his field means Jesus himself. "The field is the world." The field that is the world is his field -- Jesus’ field. The world belongs to the Son of man and the Son of God who made it, Psalm 24:1. And since Jesus is given all authority in heaven and on earth, he is the one planting the seed that he calls good, the seed that will produce the fruit he is seeking. "And the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom." The sons of the kingdom are those, throughout the world, who are heirs of heaven, because Jesus planted them and the Holy Spirit makes them grow.

"But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away." This weed is a weed that closely resembles wheat, and cannot easily be distinguished from the wheat until the heads form. The grains of this weed are black and harbor a fungus that is poisonous. "The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil." That there is a personal devil, the enemy of God, is clear from Jesus’ words. Because the devil hates God, he takes pleasure in hindering and destroying God’s work whenever he can. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is a thorn in his eye, and he works hard to destroy that kingdom. Wherever Jesus is sowing good seed there also the devil is busy. The devil sows his own seeds: "the sons of the evil one," unbelievers. These "plants" may be outwardly righteous, appearing like the wheat, but they are really "the sons of the evil one."

In the world, there are both Christ’s kingdom, and the devil’s kingdom of sin and darkness. The Sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one live side by side in this world, and may look very much alike. They work at the same jobs, they have the same customs, they seek the same political goals. And yet they are entirely different. True Christians are wheat and produce fruit for eternal life. Unbelievers are weeds and produce poisonous fruit.

"When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ It was not easy to tell the wheat and the weeds apart. It took most of the growing season for the servants to recognize that not all that appeared to be wheat was really wheat. Not until they saw the fruit could they be sure that there were weeds among the wheat. Astonished, they went to the owner, who had expended so much care in sowing good seed, to find out where the weeds had come from.

"An enemy did this,’ he replied." God’s enemy, the devil, is the source of the weed seeds planted among the wheat. That is our Lord’s clear explanation of the spread of wickedness. God created a perfect world, but the devil stepped in and caused the fall into sin. Even though Satan carries on his work in secret, still the Lord knows all about it; before the devil ever carries out his mischief

"The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’" These servants are faithful servants, willing to take on this difficult task in the service of their master. But they don’t immediately go out and begin the work as soon as they realize that their master doesn’t want weeds in his field. First they ask the master what he would have them do. Our Lord also wants servants who are zealous to do his work, but who first find out from Scripture exactly what their Lord wants them to do to spread his kingdom and to counter the attacks of Satan.

The servants thought it best if they would pull all the weeds out of their master’s field. Jesus also had to deal with those, even among his own disciples, who would cleanse the world by ridding it of all unbelievers. And this makes sense to our human reason. Just as the weeds hinder the growth of the wheat, so also the unbelieving world hinders the growth and flowering of the Christian church. The world tempts the Christians, and some fall, to be replaced by weeds. It makes sense that the weeds should be uprooted. But our Lord does not concur with this plan.

"No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.’" The Lord’s answer to the servants is an unmistakable – NO! He will not have the weeds uprooted before the harvest. Jesus does not want us physically ridding the world of weeds. The church has only one weapon, and that is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Those who cannot be won with the word of God will not be won by the sword either.

The reason the owner forbids them to pull up the weeds is because of the wheat. They thought they could help the wheat by uprooting the weeds; but the owner maintained that they would also uproot the wheat when they uprooted the weeds. Certainly now that the heads had formed they could tell the wheat and the weeds apart, but what about the intertwining roots? And who today can properly distinguish between unbelievers who will remain unbelievers and unbelievers who will one day believe the word and become wheat? Out of love for the wheat, Jesus forbids us to cut short anyone’s time of grace.

"Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn. The will of our Savior is that both weeds and wheat remain in the world until the harvest. Christians will have to suffer and endure, and the Lord will give them patience to do so. The daily temptations from the world serve to test our faith and make it strong. The wickedness of the world makes us long all the more for heaven.

"The harvest is the end of the age", in other words, Judgment Day. As long as this present world stands, there will be both believers and unbelievers growing together in the world. But this situation will not continue forever; the harvest is coming. For our comfort, the Lord points us ahead to the harvest, when believers and unbelievers will be separated. We wait patiently for that day to come. Now it seems that the wicked are prospering and flourishing,, but we have Jesus’ promise that the harvest is coming.

The harvesters are angels. This is just as Jesus later said: "The Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him" (Mt 25:31). "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The temptations presented by unbelievers have plagued the Christians, but they will no more. Christ will put a permanent end to all temptations from the devil and the world. Not only are the weeds separated from the wheat, but they are burned, cast into the fires of hell forever.

Not only are the believers separated from the unbelievers, but they are gathered and brought into the Lord’s barn, into heaven. "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." The righteousness that has been credited to their account for Jesus’ sake is now theirs in the sight of all. Jesus "will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Phil 3:21). All temptation from our sinful flesh is put to an end. All believers will then be in the kingdom of their Father forever, as his dear children. This message is for us to hear and believe now; later we will see it with our own eyes. Amen.