Sustained To The End Of The Age
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Like
last week’s parable of the farmer and the different types of soil, today’s
parable is also an agricultural parable. (Now, keep in mind that parables take
two different things or stories and lay them side by side to make a comparison
and teach a main point. Thus, a parable
helps the listener understand unfamiliar spiritual truths by using everyday
objects and everyday illustrations.) Yes,
this parable is another story dealing with seeds being planted in soil. However, unlike last week, today’s parable
entails two different farmers with two different types of seeds, and with two
different agendas. The farmer who owns
the field and is the master of the land goes out and plants good seeds. These good seeds are wheat. During the evening though, an enemy comes to
the same field and plants weeds into the midst of the good seeds. These weed seeds are most certainly not
wheat, but look very much like wheat; they are darnel. The problem with darnel though is that it initially
grows just like wheat thus it is deceiving in the way that it looks. Only a very skillful farmer can immediately discern
the difference. Furthermore, the great
problem is that darnel is absolutely worthless for it is a grass-like undergrowth.
This
scheme of planting weeds among wheat is a long range plan of evil hatred. It is a secret, cowardly, dishonorable,
cruel, and an extreme expression of hatred.
These unfruitful seeds are planted and grow like wheat—that is until
later on in the farming year in which it will become evident that these seeds
planted by the enemy are not wheat but nasty weeds. At this point of realization it is too late
to uproot them, for if one were to uproot the weeds it would harm the
wheat.
Jesus
explains this parable by saying that the field is the world, the farmer who
plants the wheat is himself, and the devil is the enemy farmer that plants
weeds. As mentioned before, the evil one
is indeed cruel, cowardly, dishonorable, and an extreme enemy who plants weeds
at night. Does this not accurately fit
the sneaky, unpleasant, and conniving tactics of the evil one? It also makes sense that Jesus would be the
master farmer who sows seed that yields fruitful wheat. As a result of the actions of the enemy, the
field, which is the world we live in, is full of wheat and darnel. The world we live in is full of believers
(i.e., wheat) and unbelievers (i.e., darnel).
Indeed, the weeds are those who have rejected the kingdom of God. The weeds represent those that are in
opposition to God’s grace and are antagonistic to Christ, whereas the wheat are
those who receive the Gospel, those who are rest in the forgiveness of sins
accomplished by Jesus and given through the Word and Sacraments.
Up
to this point this parable seems to make sense, the pieces seem to fit together
quite nicely. However there is a bit of
a scandal in this parable, something that seems to go against our common sense
way of thinking. Otherwise stated, what
we may find puzzling in today’s parable is that Jesus, the good farmer, does
not immediately fight and uproot the weeds.
In fact, in the parable the servants of the farmer want to uproot the weeds
and logically so. I imagine their
reaction to the weeds being something like this, “Good farmer, we are sorry for
the evil that the enemy did to you, do you want us to go and pull up the weeds
and make this right? We are willing to
take on the weeds, for we surely don’t want the enemy to get his way! We want to address this most certain tragedy,
thus please give us the go-ahead and we will uproot this darnel!” Certainly, the comments of the servants make
a lot of sense to us as Christians and they make a lot of sense according to
the rules of commonsense. Yes, when we look around in our world what we see is
a messy garden of both good and bad. As
a consequence, we want a cleaner garden.
We desire more wheat and less darnel.
We desire to return to the Garden of Eden where things were right and
good and true. Thus, as it is most
understandable, these desires drive us to the temptation to go after weeds; to
take things into our own hands. We want
to rush in and make changes to the field. We want to purify things and make improvements
around us: a little of roundup over there and some deep tilling over here. Indeed, we are rightly repulsed by the weeds
of life; however, we unfortunately err when we attempt to take the place of the
creator and do what only He can do. Yes,
the good farmer in the parable forbids this uprooting request from His servants. “The servants are most emphatically not to try to change the situation; that
would be dangerously premature, and it is not their calling.”[1] Indeed, “the reason the [farmer of the land]
forbids them to pull up the weeds is because of the wheat. [The servants] thought they could help the
wheat by uprooting the weeds; but the [farmer] maintained that they would also
uproot the wheat when they uprooted the weeds.”
Otherwise stated, our attempts to go after weeds can have deadly
effects. In our well-intentioned desire
to weed out and make the garden (i.e., the world) more appealing or more pure,
we can end up plucking out Christ Jesus, His Word, and His Sacraments. Truly, in an effort to remove the weeds of
the world what can end up happening is that the Word and Sacraments get plucked
out of the church and out of God’s people too.
The good seed and the roots of the wheat are many times dispersed so
much that uprooting weeds will also uproot the good seed.
Dear
saints, to be brutally honest there is another reason why it is not our calling
to uproot the weeds of the world and that is that we can become so focused on
trying to root out the weeds of the world that we fail to realize the weeds of
our very own flesh, the weeds of our old sinful nature. We can become so distracted with the weeds of
the world that we fail to recognize the very weeds that are planted right in
our own lives and within our own church.
Yes, because we have this sinful nature until the day we die, we too
have darnel weeds in our lives and within the church. Also, keep in mind that you and I do not have
the power to uproot our own sins for that is the work of the Holy Spirit
through the Word of God. Therefore, if
we cannot root out our own sin or even pay for our own sin, what makes us think
that we can successfully uproot the weeds of the world? Frankly put, the part of us that acts like
darnel weeds, our sinful flesh, should terrify us a whole lot more than the
weeds of the world.
Not only
are we powerless to uproot our own sin and the sin of the world, “who today can
properly distinguish between unbelievers who will remain unbelievers and
unbelievers who will one day believe the word and become wheat? Out of love for the wheat, Jesus forbids us
to cut short anyone’s time of grace.”[2]
Surely,
the servants were to “leave the situation precisely as it [was] and let the two
kinds of plants grow together until the harvest. At that time, the master will tell someone
else to collect the weeds out from the wheat.
Then the weeds will be bundled together and burned, while the wheat will
be stored in the granary.”[3]
So
if we do not have the ability, or the calling, or the wisdom to uproot the
weeds of the world what are we to do?
This is the wrong question for the parable does not lead us to a demand
of what we must do, rather this parable leads us to the conclusion that good
seeds planted in the midst of the world will be sustained to the end of the
age. In other words, relax; God is in control. The Lord is the dominant gardener. He is the chief farmer. He is the master of the field. Rest and let
Him work, for He is in complete control and has planted good seeds before in
weeds. Yes, God not only planted a good
seed when you were baptized, but He planted another seed long before you. You see, when Jesus Christ was born into this
world, it was as if God planted a good seed into the midst of a weedy
world. Jesus was the fullness of God in
Flesh. He was perfectly good; He came
into a world that was full of weeds and He planted Himself right in the midst
of the weeds. As a farmer-become good
seed: He grew, He taught, He loved.
Jesus as the good seed was sprinkled everywhere and He was planted into
people’s hearts by faith. But all of
this was not the ultimate planting of the Son of Man. Pushing this even farther, Jesus was planted
deeply into the soil of sin when He was nailed to a cross bearing the sin of
humanity upon Himself, as if it was His own.
Even after His crucifixion on our behalf, “He was literally planted like
a seed in the soil: ‘crucified, dead, and buried’. . . . [Yes,] at the cross
Jesus, the Sower-become-seed, the wheat of our wheat, was made to be a weed in
our place! God made Him who knew no sin
to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
And Jesus was treated as a [weed] when God forsook Him. He suffered hell—our hell. He, too, in a sense, was ‘gathered and burned
in the fire.’ God spared not His own Son
even this!”[4] This good seed was planted into the heart of
the earth for three days and three nights.
Then, this good seed burst forth, fully bloomed, fully alive, fully
healthy, and fully powerful. This Crucified
and resurrected good seed is the seed that is given to many, the good seed
given to you and me for the forgiveness of our sins.
Baptized
saints, God has worked in the midst of weeds, He is working in the midst of
weeds, and He will continue to. Let Him
work! Trust Him for He is good and He
knows what He is doing. Know that as you
continually receive the Word and Sacraments that the Lord is weeding out, and
burning the darnel of your sinful flesh, as well as continually planting the
good seed of the Gospel into each and every one of you; the Gospel seed that
you receive by faith.
Baptized
saints, the Lord is at work; His life-giving Word is constantly being
sown. People are being nourished, fed,
and evangelized. He is the Lord of the
harvest.
Baptized
saints, know that the weeds of the world don’t and won’t last forever; evil
indeed has an end for Jesus has promised that the weeds will be gathered and
burned with fire.
Baptized
saints, remember that Jesus will build His church and the gates of Hades will
not prevail against it. It is His
church. The Gospel will not and cannot
be snuffed out.
Baptized
saints, confess with confidence today and to the close of the age the truth
that Jesus lives forever, that He is Lord, and that you have been rooted and
built up in Him for the good seed of the Gospel has claimed you. You are washed, fed, preserved, and embedded
in Him.
The
peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus. Amen.
[1]
Jeffrey Gibbs, Matthew 11:2-20:34:
Concordia Commentary Series (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House,
2010), 696-697.
[2]
Sermon Studies on the Gospel: Series A ed. Richard D. Balge (Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Publishing
House, 1989), 262.
[3]
Gibbs, Matthew 11:2-20:34: Concordia
Commentary Series, 696-697.
[4]
Francis C. Rossow, Gospel Handles:
Finding New Connections in Biblical Texts (St. Louis, MO: Concordia
Publishing House, 2001), 53-54.
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