Sermon Tone Analysis

MT13.36-

MATT13.

Introduction

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is one of the most well known documents coming out of the Civil Rights Era.

I’d known about that letter pretty much for my whole life, but it wasn’t until I was grown that I paid attention to the fact that it was King’s response to a letter written by some Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963.

Their letter was a joint statement expressing their concern over a series of demonstrations by their Negro citizens which were directed by “outsiders.”

They wanted to strongly urge their own Negro citizens to withdraw from supporting these demonstrations, and to “unite locally in working peacefully for a better Birmingham.”

In the statement they said,

We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized.

But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.

In reply to their concern over the untimeliness of the demonstrations, Dr. King said,

Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was “well-timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation.

For years now I have heard the word “Wait!”

It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity.

This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.”

We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.

“…[W]hen you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” – then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.

There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.

I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

“I hope you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.”

“Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

A constant cry of the Civil Rights Movement was, “What do want?

Justice!

When do we want it?

Now?” Bearing under the weight of an intolerable situation for too long seems impossible.

There comes a time when the “cup of endurance runs over.”

With not quite the eloquence of Dr. King, Popeye the Sailorman would say, “That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!”

We are almost 55 years removed from the writing of that letter, but we hear those words and they resonate.

Not simply because of King’s eloquence, but because we know ourselves how hard it is to wait for something of immeasurable value.

And I’m not talking about material things.

You can’t put a price on justice.

In many respects you can’t put a price on physical health.

You can’t put a price on peace of mind.

And when those things are lacking, it’s hard to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit called patience.

It’s hard to wait.

Yet, the nature of the kingdom of God is that there is a present reality and there is a future glory.

In other words, there is an already and there is a not yet.

And God calls us to live in his kingdom right now with that future glory in mind.

Because of this reality those who commit their lives to following Jesus Christ will regularly look like fools in the eyes of those who don’t.

In our text today, Jesus focuses on the nature of God’s kingdom right now in real life.

And he explains it as a messy, unavoidable mixture of belief and unbelief.

He knows that having to deal with evil is tiring—evil that is done by others, and evil that still comes out of ourselves—it makes you tired and impatient for things to get better and stay better.

Yet, at the very same time he implies the necessity of patient endurance for those who would follow him.

Here is my favorite definition of the kingdom of God.

I’m giving it to you because we see it worked out in this parable.

Vos – “To Jesus the Kingdom exists not merely where God is supreme, for that is always and everywhere true, but where God supernaturally carries through his supremacy against all opposite powers and brings man to the willing recognition of this.”

In this parable Jesus explains how the kingdom of heaven can be present in the world while not yet wiping out all opposition.

From this text I want to discuss three things.

I want to share with you what Jesus says about the King, the Enemy, and the Kingdom.

The King

Every kingdom has a king.

And in the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven as Matthew prefers, the King is God.

And look at the identity of the King in this parable.

This chapter in Matthew’s gospel is full of kingdom parables.

The parable we’re looking at is the second one in this chapter, and Matthew says in v. 24 that Jesus put another parable before them, saying, “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.”

Down in v. 27, this man is called the master of the house.

And then when Jesus and his disciples go away from the crowds and into the house, in v.36, the disciples say to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”

The first thing that Jesus does in his explanation is identify who the master is.

He says in v.37, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.” I’m the Sower of the good seed.

I’m the master of the house.

“The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.”

Not only am I the master, the field I’m talking about is not some little plot of land somewhere, but the field that I own is the whole world.

I am Lord and Sovereign, not just over the church, but over the whole world.

And because the world belongs to me, I have the authority and the power to plant good seed in it.

This is an obvious point.

All you’ve got to do is read the text, and you’ll see that clearly.

Here’s why I point it out though.

Because Jesus is the King, the work that the devil is doing in this parable doesn’t surprise him or discourage him.

The enemy’s work surprises and discourages his people.

Jesus said a man sowed good seed in his field.

But then, in v. 25,

while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.

And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?

How then does it have weeds?’

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When the servants see the weeds grow up with the wheat, they ask the master, “Where did these weeds come from?”

How did this happen?

Do you want us to go gather these weeds?

Did you notice, in v. 36, when the disciples asked Jesus to explain the parable to them, they didn’t say, “Explain to us the parable of the wheat and the weeds in the field.”

They said, “Explain the parable of the weeds in the field.”

On their minds was the presence of the weeds and what it meant.

In the explanation Jesus says down in vv.38-9 that the weeds are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.

Even though y’all were sleeping when he did his work, I know him, and while he thinks that he’s thrown me off course, the existence of weeds and wheat together in my field for a time is a part of my plan.

So, I will continue to plant children of the kingdom in the world until it is the harvest time.

At that time, he says in v.41-3, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace…Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

Does the kingdom belong to the Son or to the Father?

The answer is “yes.”

Because Jesus Christ is equal in power and authority with God the Father, he can describe the kingdom as belonging to him and belonging to the Father.

So, whether we like it or not, Jesus is the King of the world.

And that means every creature in the world and every institution in the world owes allegiance to Jesus Christ.

There is nothing in this whole world that is irrelevant to the kingdom.

There is nothing that falls outside of his authority.

Nothing in the world that the king doesn't care about.

You owe your allegiance to Jesus.

Your company owes its allegiance to Jesus.

Your business owes its allegiance to Jesus.

Our government owes its allegiance to Jesus.

I know the church isn’t the state, and the state isn’t the church.

They have different roles and responsibilities, but they don’t have different masters.

Jesus is King and Lord over both.