Sermon Tone Analysis

*July 20, 2008 Bothwell & Clachan*

*Sermon Series: Matthew’s Memories of Jesus*

*Message: Story 2 – “To Weed or NOT to Weed”*

*Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43*

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INTRODUCTION

!! - Parables are “Twisted Tales”

Most of Jesus’ stories are “simple” one or two point parables designed to get across a main central truth or theme.

However they are not so simple to create and tell when we are trying to do it.

The central point of these stories may also be counter to what one would expect, that is, it’s a Story with a twist in its “tale.”

\\ Michael Green says: Parables are not meant to pat us on the back, but to give us a kick in the pants.

They are not intended to comfort us, but to challenge us and change us.

Parables speak out against the status quo. .

.Parables are demonstrators waving signs of protest, speaking out against our ways of thinking, our traditional ways of experiencing and obeying God and our spiritual institutions.

\\ \\ Jesus’ stories like “The Parable of the Forgiving Father” or “The Parable of the Crooked Manager” fit this description.

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BUT WHAT IS AN ALLEGORY?

But this mornings Bible reading from Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 is an advanced form of a parable, the kind we call an allegory.

Allegories have a whole extra level built in.

The objects, events or characters in these stories may actually stand for symbols of something else entirely.

Jesus was using an allegory when he said, things like “I Am the Good Shepherd” or “I Am the Door.”1

And although we know Jesus wasn’t an actual door, we can still understand that he is “The Way” to God.

\\ You have probably heard of “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” one of the stories in The Narnia Chronicles by C. S. Lewis.

A story like that is told on more than one level.

At its most basic it is an exciting story of a battle between good and evil, between Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy, who with the help of a Lion and many brave forest creatures, go up against the White Witch and her many evil minions.

But the story also has a deeper level.

People of faith can see in it a Lion who has many qualities that remind them of Jesus; a Lion who goes through events similar to the Cross and Resurrection.

English teachers call these types of stories “metaphors” and there are many of them scattered throughout the Bible.

\\ Here in Matthew Chapter 13 Jesus overlays layer after layer about the Kingdom of God into his stories.

Last week w read of the Seed and how it produced differing results depending on the quality of dirt in which it was planted.

It was perfectly good seed, yet sometimes it landed in weedy or rocky gardens and couldn’t really grow.

In a similar manner some of Jesus follows became really great disciples and accomplished a lot for him, but others didn’t seem to have any good results in their ministries.

They just seemed to fade away.

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This Week’s Story

This week we discover something else, another level or layer of depth to the story.

Now Jesus is trying to answer those who are very upset that there is still evil in the world.2

After all if Jesus is here shouldn’t he be able to beat up all the bad stuff and chase it out of town, just like the brave sheriff in those old western movies?

Instead, good and bad have become mixed up together in the world, both in individuals and in organizations or institutions.3

So in this week’s story it is not just the quality of the dirt, that is, our lives, that determine who will respond to Jesus’ teachings.

\\ By adding on this extra layer, Jesus now says that there is also a bad character, Satan, similar to the Evil Witch in the Narnia story, who represents the Devil.

This “bad guy” is going around sowing evil “weed” seeds.

These evil forces which are at work behind the scenes are out to ruin the good crop of “Jesus-followers,” the people of faith that God wants to harvest.

But rather than trying to tear all these bad people up out of the world, Jesus shocks the people by saying “Wait.”

Later on in the future there will be a time of judging and all of this will be figured out, but not yet.

!! UPROOTING FLOWERS WITH WEEDS

The reason that Jesus is able to get his point across has to do with the comparison he uses.

Jesus picks Weeds.

(Well actually the point is that he doesn’t pick them.)

And not just easy weeds like dandelions or Creeping Charlie.

If he had picked flowers all of us would have been able to figure it out.

\\ Marsha Guber writes: One sunny morning I dragged my teenage son Matt outside to help me pull weeds.

He often snickers when he catches me talking to my plants, but I told him, "Be careful.

The weeds are so thick here you could easily uproot a flower.

If you do, stick it back in the ground and tell it you're sorry."

\\ My son sighed.

"Mom," he said, "I just weed the plants.

I don't counsel them."4

!! Bloomingcactus

The author of the blog “bloomingcactus” tells of his youthful experience with weeds.

It can also help us to understand where Jesus is coming from.

He writes: I learned more about weeds than I ever wanted to know as a boy in Iowa.

Walking through the soybean feels to cut out the weeds was my summer job from age 13.

A wise farmer once taught me that all weeds were not the same and could not be destroyed in the same way.

A cockle burr had shallow but widespread roots and had to be pulled out to get all the roots.

If you hacked it off at the ground level with a hoe it would be back in a week.

A milkweed had a very long tap root that could not be pulled out.

If you did try to pull it up, three separate sprouts would be back in a week.

Milkweeds had to be hacked off with a hoe and would “bleed” and die as the sap ran out.

If you didn’t handle the weeds right, hours of backbreaking work in the sun would be completely wasted.5

\\ But the weeds Jesus tells about are very sneaky weeds.

They are guerilla-type disguised “secret agent” weeds.

These are the kind of weeds that at first look like good old regular plants or flowers.

That raises the question: So how can anyone tell who is the “weed” in our world today?

That is Jesus’ point.

You can’t.

And that’s why Jesus says we had better not try to pick them yet, before their time.

It’s a little like Brenda’s perennial wild flower garden in the springtime.

You can’t tell what is a flower until the petals come out.

!! Why Weeds?

So how could Jesus tell a story using secret agent weeds in disguises?

It is because Jesus knew his weeds quite well.

First, he picked a wheat field.

Back in Jesus’ day there was a weed that looked just like wheat as it is growing up.

Even today, you can hardly tell the difference.

Today it is called “darnel” wheat or “bearded” darnel.

It looks like wheat, it appears like wheat but it is not wheat.

It fools you.

It is similar to “wild oats” and “true oats.”

They look alike but they are very different.6

Some of the older translations of the Bible used the word “Tares” to describe this special-agent type of wheat looking weed.

\\ In our story last week we read of a farmer who was fighting birds, rocks, and thorns.

This was not new to those who sat listening to Jesus.

Since most of them either farmed or lived close to farms, the word picture of a farmer scattering seed was the perfect starting point to illustrate how the gospel goes into the world.7

\\ As background to today’s story, Jesus’ audience would have been very familiar with warfare and feuds.

They knew that it was possible to destroy a nation’s (or person’s) agricultural base.

By doing this their military might would also be destroyed.

The most basic staple of their diet was bread; therefore wheat was critical to their survival.8

They knew all about these poisonous weeds or Tares that could be used as weapons in a war of terror.

\\ These weeds were especially dangerous because they took time to grow to a stage of being recognized as a threat.9

In the early stages of growth the tares so closely resembled wheat that it was not even possible to distinguish one from the other.

By the time they were distinguishable, the roots of the wheat and tares were so entangled that it was not possible to weed out the tares without uprooting the wheat.

That is why it was essential to let them both grow together until harvest time.10 \\ \\