Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
February 16, 2025
I finally crossed the line and started to follow Jesus when, as a college freshman, I got to know some fellow students whose quality of character and conduct inspired me to join them in following Jesus.
Many of us deeply wish that we, like that, inspired many more to start following Jesus. Both as individuals of unique personalities and as a church of united purpose, we long to be the “city set on a hill”, of which Jesus dreamt our being, a light that draws folks to Him.
Yet, while Jesus is a dreamer, He’s also a realist. He’s well aware that, as His followers and as His church, we’re never entirely pure in character or perfect in conduct.
That’s why Jesus tells today’s parable. He doesn’t want us to be surprised or dejected when His church – for which He and we both have high hopes – remains, to a great extent, a messed-up mixed bag of folks of many different levels of spiritual maturity.
Jesus, a short while before, told a parable about a sower whose seed produced a variety of results. Some seed fell on hard soil where it was snatched away before it could even germinate; other, on shallow soil where it soon withered under a scorching sun; other, on thorn-infested soil where its life got choked out; and other, on good soil where it brought forth an abundant harvest.
Jesus now tells a parable about a sower who sows wheat in his field, but “while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.” When the farmhands finally notice the infestation, they ask the boss where the weeds came from. He only says, “An enemy has done this.” They then propose to pull out the weeds. But in Israel there grows a weed which, in its early stage, so closely resembles wheat that no one can distinguish one plant from the other; and which, by the time it’s matured enough to look different, has so intertwined its roots with the wheat roots that no one can pull up the one without pulling up the other. So there’s no choice but to “let both of them grow together until the harvest”. Only in the future will the two be separated, one to be burned up and the other to be gathered into the sower’s barn.
Some time after hearing this parable, the disciples do what they did to understand the earlier parable. They approach Jesus in private and ask Him to explain it.
He begins by identifying Himself as the sower of the wheat; and the field – no, not as the church – but as “the world”. This is often missed but significant to note. Jesus sows His good seed everywhere! But that good news is accompanied by some bad news: The devil sows his bad seed everywhere as well. That means that there is no human institution that is not a messed-up “mixed bag” of good and evil. It’s not just the church! Every government, every business, every school, every non-profit service organization, every community of well-intentioned volunteers, every neighborhood and every family is a messed-up “mixed bag” of good and evil. Not a one is entirely pure and perfect.
But the impurity and imperfection of the church seem particularly disappointing because it’s supposed to put on display the greatness and goodness of God and the right way to live. When, for example, those who are God’s “wheat” act like hypocrites – that is, like those who don’t live true to the convictions and values they profess – they give those convictions and values a bad name, dishonor God and undermine the witness of the whole church to Jesus and His power to better people.
Of course, it is unreasonable to expect 100% purity and uncompromised perfection in any human being or institution. But a watching world is right to expect to see the church headed in a positive direction. Its members may not yet be all they should be, but they at least should be showing a trajectory toward increased righteousness, fairness, generosity and love for all.
Many of us who have high hopes for the church and pray for it to have a better balance of wheat over weed are tempted to try to “purge” the church of its weeds. But that’s a job that no human being can undertake because every human being is themselves a messed-up mixed-bag of wheat and weed – and thus unable to sort out who’s wheat and who’s weed. That job is, for the likes of us, impossible; for it involves, not just rightly reading people’s conduct, but also rightly discerning their heart and deepest intent: the inner core of a person that is hidden from everyone’s view but God’s. That’s why Jesus here says the sorting out and pulling out of weeds is “the work of angels”, to be performed at “the end of the age”. No human has the power of perception to make the fundamental, final judgments that work entails. No one but God can see the essence of a person – and those who look like weed may turn out to be wheat in the end – and vice versa!
Everyone has the same right to experience the grace of God, but no one has the right to shut anyone else out of it. Until the end of the age, the door must be left open. While Jesus in Matthew 18 did endorse “shunning” under extraordinary circumstances, the goal is not to cut the person off forever; but to “tough-love” them that they might come to their senses, and come back to God and the community of faith.
Sometimes we have to speak the hard truth in love and hold fellow believers accountable. Jesus expects us to care enough to confront a brother or sister if they embark on a dangerous path. We exhort them to correct their course in a genuine concern to see them avoid pitfalls and fulfill their beautiful destiny in Christ.
There is a little detail in the parable that’s crucial to note: The devil sneaks in and sows his weed “while everyone was asleep”. Too often we spiritually sleep-walk through our days, fail to stay alert to the devil’s wiles, and fall short in noticing how we ourselves and/or our fellow disciples have drifted away from following Jesus – gradually, slowly, but still significantly. For want of paying close attention to what’s going on in us and around us, we grow oblivious to the peril and give Satan chances to sow his weed in God’s field.
And the more promising the prospects a church has to bring forth a big harvest for God the more effort Satan makes to prevent the fulfillment of its potential. Bigger fruitfulness, after all, means a bigger loss for him.
It is imperative then that we stay spiritually awake and keep an eye on developments within us, in our brothers and sisters of the faith, and in the world at large. Much is at stake in whether we follow news reports about starvation in Somalia and corruption in Washington, whether we watch over our fellow believers, and whether we keep tabs on our own consistency in prayer, Bible reading and the other personal disciplines of the spiritual life.
Our church may be a messed-up mixed-bag of both wheat and weed; but the world still needs us to be there, in the steadfast grace of the Good Sower, to clean up some of the messes that exist in every individual and every institution.
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