Growing Fruit: What about the Weeds?

Welcome/Intro/Prayer/Scripture Reading

Greeting:

Good Morning Church! How is everyone doing this morning?

Series Refresher:

The Series that We have been going through the past several months has been called Growing Fruit, for most of this series we have been focusing on looking inwardly as a starting point for producing outward fruit. But this Today is going to be different!

Intro/Me-You-God

I dont know about you, but as we have been focused inwardly Ive been tempted to ask what about other people Lord? What about other people that cause problems? I get that I am have problems Lord, but what about everyone else?

Today we are going to ask what about other people, in other words what about the weeds?

Have you ever wondered?

What about people that are evil and are "weeds" in the world?

Problem of people who do evil things.

Who will be judge between Evil and Righteous?

What will be the fate of those who do evil and cause pain in the world?

‘Why doesn’t God do something?’

God answers those questions with this parable so as I read this text let us listen closely to the words of Christ.

Would you join me and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate the words of scripture for us?

Prayer:

Scripture: Please tern in your bibles to Matthew 13 and follow along as I read. Read Matthew 13:24-30. I want to pause and unpack the first part of this passage.

Walking through the Text:

Cultural Context Behind the Text

Wheat is a grain that was part of the the most basic staple of the Palestinian diet (and the ancient diet in general) was bread; thus wheat was critical

Tare- Does anyone know what a tare is?

A tare is a poisonous weed which looks a lot like wheat in the early stages. If eaten by a person or an animal, nausea would occur, convulsions, and in certain circumstances, even death

We learned last week that farming is something that is done through manual labor in this time, when seed is spread, they didnt have planters that attach to our tractors, but they spread seed by hand.

Most of the land was owned by wealthy individuals and worked by farmers, peasants and even slaves.

They are asking about the injustice of us working for the wealthy.

The Parable

There is a farmer that set out with a plan to sow good seed.

There is an enemy that comes along and plants weed in the same soil. This probably happened at night in the cover of darkness.

The Servants discover that this terrible thing has occured and they come to the master right away wanting to pull the weeds.

Wheat and Tare in the early stages look indistinguishable. We know this because when the farmer finds out he tells them not to pull the weeds.

There are other plants that are like this too!

When you look at this picture would you think this is a weed?

The creeping bellflower is actually a beautiful flower (slide)

Why does the farmer tell them not to pull them up?

Wheat doesn’t have a deep root system. Wheat doesn’t go very deep compared to how high it gets. It’s easily pulled up and uprooted.

Notice, in particular, what the servants say about the weeds. They want to go straight away into the field and root out the weeds. The farmer restrains them, because life is never that simple. In their zeal to rid the field of weeds they are very likely to pull up some wheat as well.

The farmer tells them they have to wait, and when you want justice to come that’s perhaps one of the hardest things to hear. NT wright notes: These parables are all about waiting; and waiting is what we all find difficult.

In the end, the wheat and the weeds are separated, wheat is stored in the barn and the tares are burned in the fire.

Transition: These parables havent just been about farming and the Kingdom, but also listening, I think Jesus wants us to pay attention in to what the he has to say. Let me tell you a story of what happens when we only half listen to a teacher. I think when we read these explinations of the parables we can read them at face value and not observe all of whats happening.

Consequences of only half listening:

A small bottle containing urine sat on the desk of Sir William Osler. He was then the eminent professor of medicine at Oxford University. Sitting before him was a classroom full of young wide-eyed medical students listening to his lecture on the importance of observing details. To emphasize his point, he reached down and picked up the bottle. Holding it high, he announced: “This bottle contains a urine sample for analysis. It’s often possible by testing it to determine the disease from which the patient suffers.” Suiting action to words, he dipped a finger into the urine and then into his mouth as he continued: “Now I am going to pass this bottle around. Each of you please do exactly as I did. Perhaps we can learn the importance of this technique and diagnose the case.”

The bottle made its way from row to row as each student gingerly poked his finger in and bravely sampled the contents with a frown. Dr. Osler then retrieved the bottle and startled his students with these words: “Gentlemen, now you will understand what I mean when I speak about details. Had you been observant, you would have seen that I put my index finger into the bottle but my middle finger into my mouth” (1001 Great Stories, P. 305)!

Let us Listen to How Jesus explains this parable to the disciples, follow along as I read the rest of the parable verses 36-43 (Slide)

Unpacking the Parable

The Farmer is who sowed the good seed is Jesus, the field is the world, the enemy is Satan, the harvest is the judgement. The Lord sends out his angels. There is consequences for evil they are thrown into the furnace, but the righteous shine like the sun!

There are warnings and encouragement that we can glean from Jesus’ words.

Warning 1: We cant judge between the wheat and the weeds! We are too often like the servants, we want to rid the world of the weeds and Evil, but we are not the farmer, we cant tell the difference between wheat and weeds.

We cant decide good evil for ourselves

What we may call wheat God might call a weed. What we may call weeds God has called Wheat

The parables addresses the person that too easily judges themselves, to the one that feels like they are a weed, it doesnt depend on what you think but on what Jesus does!

To the person, who likes to call others weeds, its not about who you think is a weed because its not your garden but God's Amen?

one time Jess asked Sam about plants in the Garden, she said which of these things are weeds? Sam said, I dont know, what plants do you want? The ones you do you not want?

Sam was right!

A weed is: a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants.

Warning # 2- Judgement will come in Time, Now is not the time to judge someone

We dont know where the person is at in there story (What God has planned for them)

Think of people that we call hero’s of the faith

Abraham- gave away his wife

David- adultery and murder

Moses- Murdered a man and ran away!

Paul- He was a terrorist.

Imagine if they were judged at those points in their life.

My own life

Imagine if I was judged as an 18 year old, my actions certainly reflected evil and a weed, but look what God did in my life.

Think about your own life, can you think of a moment where you felt judged as a bad person or a time where you definitely acted like a weed?

Warning # 3: If we judge someone as a weed, we can cause more damage than good often hurting not just others, but ourselves.

Like the servants we want to rid the world of evil, but think about all the attempts to rid evil in the world that have only caused more harm than, good things like war, the war on drugs.

Even in our own relationships when we try to judge someone we can not only push them away from God’s life changing work, but hurt our relationship with them too.

Jesus says it will be him that Judges and specifically in this parable the angels who are good.

There are encouragement for us as well!

Encouragement # 1: God will do something about Evil in the World!

Spurgeon talks about the separation of the wheat and tares as a freedom from Evil, there will one day no putting up with persecution and the burden of growing among weeds.

Encouragement # 2: The Gathering of Wheat is a celebration of life!

Harvest is not something we celebrate as openly now as we did in the past, but its still something to be excited about!

He also notes the joy of the wheat gathered that the wheat harvest is larger than we can imagine! Even when we can be overwhelmed by the amount of evil in the world, at the end of the age when Jesus comes back we will be so overwhelmed by the good!

Encouragement #3: The wheat will go in the Barn and the Righteous will shine!

The Barn: Spurgeon makes note of the Wheat's destination, that it is the fathers Barn, a place of security and rest. The barn is a place where the wheat will continue to be used. The Father’s barn is the same as the fathers house!

The righteous will shine! The world will be completely different.

Isa describes it like this: Isa 2:3

Isaiah 2:3 NIV

Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Wrap Up: How does this text challenge us? How does this teach us to be more like Jesus? How does this text call us to live differently?

What do we need to know?

We aren’t to judge who is a weed or who is wheat! Jesus is the one who will judge!

God will do something with the weeds in this world Justice will come!

We need to know this because we can be constantly tempted to judge someone that hurts us or does evil to label them as a weed, but this parable says not only should we flee from this, but God will do it!

What does this parable challenge us to change how we live?

Reflect: When are we tempted to judge people as a weed?

How can we view people how God does?

Can we focus on the glory of the harvest instead of the burden of the weeds?

We can share that God in his love and grace can turn even the most hideous weed into a flower!

Garret Kell Example: bad guys and good guys.

Would you pray with me?

Id like to invite Jess to lead us in a song of reflection.

I invite you to reflect and sing along if you feel so lead by God’s Spirit.