The Wheat and the Weeds

Charles Kossivi

We started the church in Fargo in 2010.

At first it was just a group of twenty-somethings sitting in a living room talking about the bible.

But one day, some of the ladies in our church were at a coffee shop when a skinny African guy with dreadlocks started singing worship songs in the middle of the coffee shop.

So they went and introduced themselves to him and told them about our church.

Charles was 22 years old, recently married, and expecting his first child in just a few weeks.

I met Charles a few days later, and he started coming to our gathering not long after that.

Soon, his wife Erin and their newborn Makafui became a part of our church and Charlies began to lead us in worship.

Charles was born in Lome, Togo and had overcame a lot of struggle throughout his life.

His mom was poor and wasn’t supported well by Charles dad.

His dad had moved to America to escape political problems he had run into, and Charles ultimately followed him so he could go to school.

But after a falling out with his dad, Charles was on his own, navigating life in a new country where he had just learned to speak the language.

He overcame so much in the first 20 years of his life, and through that time, had met and given his life to Jesus.

Charles was the epitome of joy and was so passionate about following Jesus, sharing Jesus, and singing songs about Jesus.

He and Erin went on to have 2 more kids and Charles started a career in computer programming, while also leading worship and writing music.

His story was such a amazing story of God’s grace and provision.

Then in 2017, Charles was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in his stomach.

The next 5 years was full of bad news, good news, miracles, and tragedy.

And then, in January 2021, Charles died.

Charles’s life was short, and it was full of struggle, pain, and tragedy, but it was also full of incredible joy, grace, and victory, and a fair share of miracles.

The questions come from this type of tragedy: Why does cancer exist in our world? Why would God let Charles get it, after all he had overcame? Why didn’t God answer our prayers to heal him?

How can a story be so mixed up with what seem to be opposing realities?

And it is to this Jesus shares His next parable in Matthew 13.

We are going to actually look at 2 parables today, one long and one short, that are communicating the same realities.

We are going to skip some sections today, but we will come back to them next week.

Matthew 13:24–33 CSB

24 He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. 26 When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. 27 The landowner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’ 28 “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he told them. “ ‘So, do you want us to go and pull them up?’ the servants asked him. 29 “ ‘No,’ he said. ‘When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn.’ ” 31 He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.” 33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Wisdom for the Journey

1) Be CONSCIOUS of the CONDITION of our world.

In with the first parable in chapter 13, Jesus speaks this parable at first to the crowd.

Also like the first, it is a farming parable, which makes sense being that most of those listening would have been quite familiar with farming.

Jesus tells of a farmer who had good seed sown in his fields, but that at night, while his servants slept, his enemy came into the field and sowed weeds in the same place as the wheat.

After some time had past, the servants saw that amongst the wheat they had planted, weeds were also growing.

So they went to their master, who knows right away that his enemy is behind this dirty plot.

It is interesting to note that this, though likely not super prevalent, was not unheard of, to the point that Rome had laws on the books against it.

The servants ask their master if they should get rid of the weeds.

And his response is telling:

Matthew 13:29–30 CSB

29 “ ‘No,’ he said. ‘When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn.’ ”

The servants are told to “let both grow together until the harvest...”

And there’s Jesus’s first message.

The kingdom of God is like that field… evil, pain, and struggle grow next to goodness, abundance, and joy.

There is a theological concept for this idea: The Already, not yet Kingdom of God.

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Not to get too deep into this, but since the fall, this world has been under the rule of the Evil One.

We live in a world ruled by the Prince of the power of the air (Paul’s words in Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:1–2 CSB

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

John Piper paints the picture more vividly:

The air we breath, the atmosphere in which we live and move, is permeated by a personal evil power—the "power of the air." And so the whole world (as John says) lies under this evil power. And that power has a prince or a ruler called here "the prince of the power of the air."

This is the world Jesus was born into, and yet He came into overthrow this oppressive, evil king.

Jesus came to announce a coming kingdom, one He is introducing in His first coming, but one that He will bring to completion when He comes back.

So, until that day (the day of Harvest) our lives are impacted by both of these kingdoms.

So, we live in a world with cancer AND beautiful sunsets.

We living in a world with evil people who hurt and kill innocent people AND people who show incredible displays of love and grace to people in need.

We live in a world with extreme forms of selfishness and hate AND amazing stories of selfless service and incredible generosity.

These things exist in the same world.

Jesus is speaking to a mixed crowd of people.

Some of them struggling to understand what He is talking about,

because they are planted deep into the kingdom of this world, breathing deep the air and the atmosphere of their powerful prince.

But there were others who understood, because they were overwhelmed by the chaos and evil all around them.

And were longing for the day when these two opposing Kingdoms are separated.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Because we live in a world stained by suffering, corrupted by sin, and ruled by an evil, oppressive king who wants nothing else than to kill, steal, and destroy.

But there is a Kingdom growing, both in our hearts when we trust in Jesus and around us as we begin to live out His ways and in His power.

We must live with an awareness of this Kingdom, finding every way to feed it and invite others to join it through Jesus.

2) Be PATIENT in the STRUGGLE.

As Jesus goes on to explain the parable to His disciples, another message becomes clear.

He explains what each part and character in the parable represents.

And then He explains what will happen when the harvest finally comes.

The weeds will be gathered first, “all causes of sin and all law-breakers,” and they will be bound up and thrown into the fiery furnace.

Then the wheat, the righteous, will be gathered, and the will “shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”

Two very different outcomes.

What is striking about this picture points back to the farmer’s response to the servants in verse 29.

He tells them to wait, don’t rush out and pull up the weeds, just wait.

Jesus is showing us the wonder and beauty of God’s incredible patience and mercy.

God isn't going to separate until the end.

He is patient with us in our sin, merciful not to judge us guilty, and gracious to offer us eternal hope.

There is an invitation in this parable, don’t miss it.

Jesus is saying to all of us “there is still time. The day has not yet come. God’s offer of salvation is for you! It is not too late!”

But there are also implications for us:

We must be patient with others, patient with situations, and patient with God

Until the harvest (the day of judgement when He returns), we must be patient.

Patience calls us to not lose hope.

It calls us to persevere when the kingdom of this world is overwhelmingly trying or overwhelmingly tempting

It calls us to pray without ceasing, to know and rest in the promises, presence, and provisions of God. (Don't forget what He has done, because He will continue to do it.)

And it calls us to be gracious and loving to all because some, who may seem to be weeds right now, will one day, by God's grace, turn out to be wheat.

3) Be CONNECTED in KINGDOM-MINDED COMMUNITY.

I don’t think Jesus’s focus in this parable was the Church.

Though it seems accurate to understand these two kingdoms also exist within the church.

I also don’t believe Jesus didn’t have in mind His Church when speak and explaining this parable.

In just a few chapters from this, Jesus is going to talk about His Church.

One of the reasons Jesus established his church was to help us live in this incomplete (already, not yet) kingdom.

Living in this world, corrupted by evil, Jesus calls us into community with likeminded, kingdom sons and daughters.

He doesn't leave us alone in this world to fend for ourselves, He brings us together in community, to strengthen us and bond us together under His rule and reign.

Jesus reveals our desperate need for a community of kingdom-minded people to help us grow strong in the midst of weed invested world.

there are 2 types of people mentioned in this parable, those in the kingdom and those outside of it.

Just because we show up at church on Sundays doesn't mean we are part of the kingdom.

This parable goes along with the first. There are some who might look like wheat, but will one day be shown to be a weeds.

Final warning/question: are you wheat or a weed?