The Parable of the Weeds

Psalm of the day: Psalm 132

Psalm 132 ESV

A Song of Ascents. Remember, O Lord, in David’s favor, all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, “I will not enter my house or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar. “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!” Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy. For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne.” For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place: “This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread. Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy. There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine.”

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 5:1-2; 7

Isaiah 5:1–2 ESV

Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

Isaiah 5:7 ESV

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!

Sermon

Good Morning Church! I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

This Morning we are continuing through Chapter 13, the parables chapter of Matthew. and we are looking at the parable of the Weeds. As we look at this parable we will quickly see that this is another one of the ones that Jesus gives us the explanation for. Next week we will have to tackle some parables that we are left to our own devices to figure out what these parables and what the pictures mean, to know what Jesus is trying to say, but HERE once again Jesus pulls his disciples aside and explains to them what exactly is going on. So because of that we will be doing what we have been doing, just a little bit of skipping, we will read the parable then skip ahead to read and hear Jesus’ explanation of this parable.

But before we even do that I would like us to note something that will take a little review. The parable discourse in general, we noted last week, just as a discourse of parables would be to “the great crowds gathered” that was 13:1-3. But Matthew sees feet to intertwine INTO this great discourse of parables these thoughts and explanations of Jesus that are to his own. We talked two weeks ago how parables have a twofold purpose. the first is that to God’s people, to those IN the kingdom they would reveal the truth, but to those outside the kingdom parables conceal the very same truth. and that plays out, for lack of a better word geographically in how Jesus teaches. He preaches the parables to all but he is sure to take time to take the disciples aside and make sure they understand the revealing power of these parables before he sends them off on their own. It is as if Jesus is saying OK, this is how you do it, Now go and understand the parables. So if we want to keep the school and education examples the last few weeks. If two weeks ago was the initial lecture, and last week was the take home assignment, this week is the review before the final that is to come next week.

With that being said lets just read out passages for today. We will be reading Matthew 13:24-40 and then Matthew 13:36-43.

Matthew 13:24–40 ESV

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but 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?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ” He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

Matthew 13:36–43 ESV

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning, Lets begin with a word of prayer.

PRAY

So as we evaluate this parable, the parable of the weeds, the first step, the first thing that we must do, and this is really true of all parables is that you have to determine the ELEMENTS

The ELEMENTS

What are the parts of this parable? and importantly what we have to discern, and this is a skill that requires practice, and it is something that requires some careful thought and work, but I believe that you can all do it, is you have to discern what are the parts that are critical pictures and tell the spiritual truth and what are the parts that just move the story along? Not everything in every parable or story HAVE to mean something bigger. Two ways to prove this. One: look at how Jesus teaches this parable. the disciples come in verse 36 and say: explain to us the parable of the weeds and Jesus Immediately catalogues for them what each and every thing in the parable stands for. But point two, we should note that this is how we have to understand EVERY story that we are told. For example, imagine that you and I are talking and You say: I heard you had a crazy week this week David and I am like oh yeah, I did let me talk to you all about it. Earlier in the week I was in the kitchen making a PB and J sandwich and Jayden walks up and is like I don’t feel good and my throat hurts, and so after taking him to the Dr and running all sorts of tests it’s not covid, or strep or the flu or RSV or any of the common suspects and so he is sent home to feel better then the next morning willow comes to my bedroom at 5:15 in the morning crying like right in my face and when I pick her up she is hot to the touch, like a fever of 101 and while taking her to the urgent care center she throws up all over the car and me and it turns out she has a bad case of strep, and that is how my week has gone. In that story there was some important information, my kids were sick, it has been crazy, etc. but there was also some information that if you spend too much time obsessing over you will miss the heart of what is said. Oh, you might think. It all started with a Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, THAT is why David's week was crazy! In terms of parables, what you need to learn how to read is which elements are my sick kids and which ones are the PB&J. And while in my story at stake is a misunderstanding between you and I about what makes a week crazy, but spiritual truths of the kingdom are at stake when we talk about the parables of Jesus. So as we read through this parable there were many things that came up, there was a field, there were seeds, there was a man, there were servants, there was an enemy. How do we know which ones are important and which elements are not? Well in this parable that is really easy. The ones that Jesus tells us what they mean, those are the important elements. the ones that he does not tell us what they stand for, I would argue, are less important and mostly serve to help the story flow along. So if we do this, if we boil down the elements in this story to how JESUS explains this one we will get to the heart. So I will restate this parable very briefly using the explanation that Jesus gave. I am going to put this on the screen, you can copy this down if you want. The elements that are critical that we understand in this parable are this:

THE SOWER SOWS GOOD SEED IN THE FILED.

IN CONTRAST, THE ENEMY SOWS WEEDS

FINALLY THERE WILL BE A HARVEST WITH REAPERS

There are, it turns out, seven elements that it is critical for us to understand, to get the heart of this parable. And so this morning for the bulk of our time we will walk through each of these elements. See what Jesus says they mean to understand why this is important. The first one verse 37: THE ONE WHO SOWS GOOD SEED IS THE SON OF MAN.

JESUS sows GOOD SEED IN THE FIELD

in the last parable the identity of the sower, ironically in the parable of the sower was left a little bit of a mystery. there are ways to read it just as God, it is surely as here Jesus, the son of man, but there it could also be us. but HERE the person who is doing the sowing is given to us plainly and clearly. It is Jesus. Who is the one who is sowing the seed that is the kingdom of heaven. this parable started: the KINGDOM OF HEAVE MAY BE COMPARED TO THIS and it starts with Jesus. He is the king of the kingdom. He is Lord he is savior. Jesus is the main character if you will of this parable. it is his word and his work. Ultimately with a sort of final spiritual, a biblical, understanding of this parable, it is the person and work of Jesus Christ that makes all these other things possible. It s his work of saving and redeeming and interceding and calling and finding and loving and giving us the spirit. It is Jesu who is planing this good seed. this is his work! What is he doing here? he is sowing GOOD SEED! the good seed is, verse 38, the SONS OF THE KINGDOM

The GOOD SEED IS THE SONS OF THE KINGDOM

Jesus here in this parable is going out into the field, and in the filed he is intentionally and carefully sowing seeds of those who will be his people. they are the sons of the kingdom. In being the sons of the kingdom we can get a sort of whole Matthew view on this we are the one who are, chapter 12, his brothers and sisters and mother. we are his family. for he is head of the kingdom and we are sons of the kingdom. In being sons of the kingdom we are made new. he is also saying something very important, which is the kingdom that he is making, HE is growing. This is a organically grown kingdom, carefully chosen by Jesus to be his! and so he works, he did the work so that, we can push this thought in many ways to many good places. Jesus is the on who sows, HE grows in us, he blesses us by calling us. we could go to what is called the golden chain of redemption in Romans 8.

Romans 8:30 ESV

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

We are the sons of the kingdom, that he sows in THE FIELD. the FIELD, verse 38 is the WORLD

THE FIELD IS THE WORD

Here is an important reminder for us Christians. That while this earth is not our home, while I am a citizen of heaven I am a son of the kingdom, that is my ultimate and final home, and yet we are still here. We are still in the world. Though he is growing and sanctifying and changing us, still he sows this seed in the world. and so knowing that we are in the world the next whole portion of the parable should not come as a surprise to us. that we might face difficulty and trials. That we may face those who do not like us, those who will persecute us, hate us revile us for his name’s sake. the elements of this parable show us clearly that we are here still.

It is difficult, it is hard, but you know what, as we are sown in this field, there are weeds all around us. Jesus knows! He is the king of the kingdom and the great sower. In Contrast to Jesus and his sowing of his sons of the kingdom in the field there is someone else doing work in that filed. there is another character at work in the world. In the parable it is the ENEMY. Jesus tells us it is the DEVIL

The Enemy is the DEVIL

There is one who roams around like a lion seeking to find those whom he can devour. there is one set against God wholly and completely and his desire is to lead a rebellion against the holy God of the universe. And it is the devil. I want to make a few notes here, to kind of help us on either extreme here.

O spent a lot of time in my life in a sort of theological place where the work of the devil was highly magnified, such that every bad thing, every thing that occurs in your life is done by him. And that is NOT what Jesus saying here at all. The devil is sowing weeds. those weeds do enough damage on their own once they start to grow. When we over magnify the work of the devil we under magnify… which is not a word... we minimize the role of sin.

But to the other extreme, because, and I am guilty of this which I why i feel the need to say it, but because one one side we over magnify the work of the devil the other side us over here are like well the devil does really nothing. NO. here in this parable clearly he is working. He is sowing weds. he is described as the enemy. He is causing difficulty and pain at a minimum to the sons of the kingdom. As they grow they are being interfered with. Like that is a truth that we can state. But we should note that there is no aspect of fear, so much as there is frustration. there is no aspect of terror like this enemy is so great what can we do? so much as we just note, yep, there is an enemy, and he is sowing weeds in the field, and yep, its a bit of a problem.

Those weeds we should note, are the children of the evil one.

THE WEEDS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE EVIL ONE

And knowing this is a helpful thought for us. For one one hand the children of the evil one are not the “enemy” per se, that is the devil. But yet, the children of the evil one do cause harm. they are weeds. people have dove deep into this parable on this point, and they look, there used to be a crime in Rome, for there was a weed that looked almost exactly like wheat for its first like 3/4 of its life but instead of being wheat it is actually POISONOUS. And so if you were caught mixing it with the wheat of your arch nemesis it carried hugely strong punishments, because these weeds cause much harm, left unchecked they can poison the whole crop, not taken care of there can be great harm by just a weed.

These children of the evil one, though they re not the enemy, they are still a danger. SO what does this teach us? Well as we grow up, we, the sons of the kingdom, sown by our savior Jesus, we grow up we are doing so with those around us who are the children of the evil one. their life is poisonous. there is danger here. But more that that, these children of the evil one sown by the devil, jesus gets to the heart of the matter. It is one thing to state the truth of what we experience in life now. That as we grow in knowledge and grace and strength and in our sanctification we do so in a world full of weeds, the children of the evil one. But that is the truth of now and Jesus promises there WILL be a harvest. that harvest is the end of an age

The harvest is the end of an age

There will be an end to this age. there will be a time where Jesus comes back and when he does he will do so in authority. WE live in the time that theologians call the inter-Advent time, the easy thing for you to know, we live in between the time of Jesus’ first coming and his second one. But there is, there should be no doubt or fear in our mind, there will be a second coming of Jesus. and when he does this age will end. He will usher in the time of his glorious rule and reign. This will be at the end of the age the time when he will make all wrongs right, he will come to judge with a rod of Iron. Revelation 19 and 20 type things. He will come with a name written on his thigh, “KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS!” he will come to judge the living and the dead. He will come to rule all nations, he will come to make war, to TREAD OUT THE WINE PRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD ALMIGHTY! He is coming and there will be an end of the age!

As the wheat grows up in the field with the seeds of weeds all around them they do so looking forward to the time when one group of seeds will be taken and they will be harvested and burned; the other group of seeds will be gathered into his barn. But we are given another important detail. The reapers, Jesus tells us in the end of verse 39 ARE ANGELS

The REAPERS ARE ANGELS!

Again, we need to tread carefully here, but we need to tread here. We need to go here. Jesus says Angels, which are his mighty warriors. When He comes! Again, this is why we need to have a right and proper view and understanding of how all this plays out, the physical and spiritual world, we have to get a proper balance here. But angels are the ministering spirits of Jesus. they will perform his will and whim and work. When he comes he will come with an army arrayed behind him those are his angels. Verse 41:

Matthew 13:41–42 ESV

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

His angels are responsible for sort of sorting between the wheat and the weeds between the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one. His Angels will then throw these law breakers into the fiery furnace, his angels will do this. there is a whole host of angels, of those whom God gas created for the purpose of doing his will. There will be angels!

Here is then the heart of this parable.

Jesus sows into the world us, his people. in contrast we have growing all around us in the world he sons of the devil the children of the evil one. But we know, there will come a day, there will be an end of the age with angels with judgement with wrath and with glory. This is how we get to our final thought: The MESSAGE:

THE MESSAGE

Once we understand the elements, the message itself becomes crystal clear. This is NOT a parable of JUST wrath and judgement. When we first red it that is sort of where our heart and mind go. this gathering and being thrown into the fire, burned, we read verses 41-42 this gathering of lawbreakers and being thrown into a fiery furnace. We hear that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But that's not the full message.

The message is a much different one. It is a message of hope. We focus, if we misread the elements and miss what is fully going on here. we misread the thoughts of judgement and wrath and justice as messages of JUST Judgement and wrath and judgement. But ultimately what we should have our mind and heart focused on is this: the end of verse 30:

Matthew 13:30 ESV

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

and verse 43

Matthew 13:43 ESV

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

this parable more than a message of judgement on the weeds… there will be those messages, Jesus will get there, trust me. We have a whole host of calling out the Pharisees, and the olivet discourse, we have a whole lot of wrath and judgement, but HERE, in this parable, the message is not exclusively wrath and judgement, instead it is hope. hey, you sons of the kingdom, as you grow up in this world. as you struggle with all the brokenness and sin and weeds all around you as you feel the weight of the weeds that grow around you and the pressure and you feel this. as your roots feel like there are weeds growing all around you, you are feeling choked out by the world, know that this is all the plan of your father. Know that one day you will be gathered into his barn. Know that his ultimate plan is that we the righteous will shine like the sun i the kingdom of their father. Know, we read it once before. Romans 8:30

Romans 8:30 ESV

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

He knows. He knows the state of your roots, he knows how you feel, he knows what you are going through. Trust the sower, the son of man, Jesus Chrsit our Lord

Lets PRAY