Let God Do the Weeding (2)

Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43

The disciples asked questions that we and many others have. When they saw a man born blind, they wondered why. Was his blindness a consequence of something his parents did wrong? Could it be that he had done something wrong even before he was born? Who sinned, the man or his parents? When some Samaritans refused to allow Jesus to come to their town James and John asked if they should call down fire from heaven to destroy the whole village. Their questions reflect the age-old questions that we all struggle with – Why is there evil in the world, and what are we to do about it? When evil rears its ugly head, it’s easy to want be like James and John and think that the best course of action is to call upon God to let us help him eradicate all evil. Jesus helps us see that such an eradication of evil is not his will and cannot be accomplished by us. In fact, whenever man tries to eradicate evil, he makes even more of a mess. Jesus encourages us to “Let God Do The Weeding.”

As Jesus continues to teach the people by means of parables, he tells this parable of the weeds. He speaks of a man who sowed good seed, seed that had been carefully inspected to make sure that there were no weed seeds in it. Yet, when the field that had been planted with this good seed began to grow, weeds came up along with the wheat. His servants ask, ““How could this have happened!?” The answer: An enemy did this.

Jesus explains what the parable means. He explains that he himself is the sower of the good seed. And he tells us that the field in which the seed is sown represents the world. The good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom, believers; and the weeds represent the sons of the evil one. The enemy who sows the weeds over the wheat is none other than Devil himself.

When he says this, we can’t help but think about the fact that when this world was created, it was perfect. When the Lord finished creating everything, he looked over his creation and said that it was very good. But as we look around us today, it is very clear that things are no longer very good. Like the servants in the parable, we like to come to God and ask, Lord, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Didn’t you create everything perfect? Where then did the weeds come from? Why isn’t it perfect today? Why is there evil, sickness, disease, crime, etc. in the world today? And God’s answer is the same as that in the parable. “An enemy did this”.

Evil came into existence through the enemy, Satan. Scripture says that Satan was an angel of God; most scholars believe that he was one of the highest angels, equal with Michael the Archangel. But it seems that he was not happy with his position. He rebelled against God. He was defeated and he and his followers (we call them demons) were thrown out of heaven. But at this point, evil had still not entered the world, it only existed in the spiritual realm. Then Satan tempted Eve, and Adam and Eve yielded to that temptation. They disobeyed God and that’s how evil-- sickness, disease, crime, and death-- entered this world. God is not the author of evil. Evil exists because Adam and Eve chose to listen to Satan’s lies rather than God’s truth.

We also know what God’s response was to Adam and Eve’s disobedience, and the order of these events is very important. First, he cursed the serpent, then he promised the savior, and then he discussed the effects that sin would have on the world—pain in childbearing, weeds, work, and death. The fact that God promised a savior even before he told Adam and Eve what the consequences of sin would be shows us what the kingdom of God is really like.

Consider what Adam and Eve had just done—they had just ruined God’s perfect creation! If you spent a lot of time working on a painting and then your little brother or sister came along and finger painted all over it, or if you built a nice castle out of blocks and they came and knocked it down, how would you react? I bet your first thought, or even your second thought, would not be forgiveness, or the offer of a way out of trouble. But that’s what our loving heavenly Father did. Instead of using his unlimited power to blast Adam and Eve to oblivion for messing up his perfect creation, he offered them a promise through which they could be saved, the promise of a savior. As more and more evil spread throughout the world he still kept his promise. He himself took on flesh and blood. He stepped into this world full of evil, experienced the evil of injustice, hatred, and crucifixion so that there would be a way out of evil for all who trust his promise. When Jesus came into the world, he did not come to condemn the world, but to save.

How angry God must be today as he sees the millions of people who continue to ignore him and his word, who worship created things instead of the creator, who take for granted his promise of salvation in Jesus. How angry God must be right now as he sees so many people living to gratify their own sinful desires, worshiping money and fame, abusing drugs and alcohol, abusing God’s gift of sex, lying, cheating, stealing, killing. As we look around the world today, we identify with the servants in the parable. We would like to see the weeds pulled out right now, forgetting, of course, that sometimes we look like weeds. We would like to see all evil disappear from the face of this earth, forgetting of course that we are evil in God’s sight because we sin too.

Why doesn’t God want us to rid the world of evil right now? Because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. I had that problem in my garden. A bunch of grass overtook the area where I planted onions. I pulled up the grass but lost a lot of onions in the process. Jesus says, you can’t weed out evil in the world. You have to wait until the harvest, only then can the wheat be safely separated from the chaff, only then can evil be removed without harming believers.

This old world of ours, us included, has been given a time of grace. We don’t deserve it. We deserve to have God just wipe us and everything contaminated by sin off the face of the earth. But he has given us a time of grace. We don’t know how long it will last, but it is a time in which we have the opportunity to hear his promise of salvation in Jesus and to be brought to saving faith in Jesus so that we are considered by God to be sons of the kingdom, righteous in his sight because of Jesus.

For us to call upon God to root out all the evil and wickedness from the world right now would be asking him to cut short someone’s time of grace. And remember, you sin too. There’s probably someone who considers you a weed. Maybe they wishe you would be pulled out and thrown into the fire of God’s judgment because of something you have said or done to them.

Jesus makes it plain in this parable that from now until the last day the wheat and the weeds will be allowed to grow together, evil and good will exist at the same time on the earth, there never will come a time when all evil, sickness, disease, war, etc. is eradicated—not until he comes again in glory.

Where does that leave us? Assuming we are the wheat, that we are among those who know Jesus and trust him for salvation, we will have to face the fact that we are going to continue to live in a world where evil abounds. Instead of whining and complaining about it, we make the best of it with God’s help. Instead of concentrating on all the evil in the world, we are to concentrate on growing where God has planted us. We want to send roots deep down into the rich, moist soil of the God’s word. We want to make use of God’s word and Sacrament often so that, with the strength that God provides, we become strong and fruitful plants, that we aren’t easily mistaken for weeds.

Just because it’s true that there will always be evil, doesn’t mean that there is nothing we can do about it. God has given us something more powerful than a nuclear bomb with which to work in the field of the world—His word which is the power of God for salvation; and sharper than any double-edged sword. It has the power to do something unheard of, amazing. It has the power to transform weeds into wheat, to transform sons of the evil one into sons of the kingdom. It is through the gospel promises in the word that we have been made “Sons of the kingdom” and others can be brought into the kingdom too. If we want to see evil decrease in the world around us, Jesus has told us what to do. Don’t bother trying to pull up the weeds, that would do more harm than good. Do all you can to get the gospel to more people because whenever anyone is brought to faith in Jesus they will be moved to turn away from evil. The gospel works a change of heart. It moves us to change our focus from ourselves to God and others.

As long as we live here on earth there will be evil all around us, but we look forward in faith to the harvest, to the time when we will live in the kingdom of the Father. We look forward to the time when Jesus will come again in glory and send his angels to weed out everything that causes sin and all who do evil, and throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Revelation says that in the New Jerusalem, God himself will be with us and be our God. He will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. And it says: He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Nothing impure (evil) will ever enter the New Jerusalem, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the lamb’s book of life. Those whose names are written in the book of life, those who are righteous not by their own works but by the work of Jesus, will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father forever.

Do you get upset when you see the amount of evil that exists in our world today? Do you wish the Lord would just weed out all evil right now? Remember, God is patient and wants everyone to have the opportunity to hear his word and to come to faith in Jesus. Though he allows evil to exist along with us, he promises to give us grace and strength to stand, to grow and be fruitful in the faith, to witness to his love and grace in Jesus. As we look forward to the end of the age when Jesus will return in glory and send his angels to root out all evil, we can help keep evil down by sharing the gospel with all people, for the more people that are made sons of God through faith in Jesus the fewer there will be who are sons of the evil one.