The Wheat and the weeds Mt13:24-30, 36-43 WBC 10/3/2 am SKR
Love these parables! So much in them… this one!
The Source of evil- (where does it come from?)
The age old question: why is there evil? Suffering? Why does God allow it?
- well, the Bible offers SOME answers. Some things it states clearly. Some not so clearly. Many briefly. And the Bible’s whole thought is summarised, here!”
“While everyone was sleeping”
- it’s not inferring God - was napping on the job
- failed in some way
- someone pulled a fast one on Him… caught Him on the hop… and introduced evil & suffering
It is perfectly normal to tend crops during the day and sleep at night.
- no negligence implied
It’s there to make a point. The point being
- God did not send evil… want evil
the source is ELSEWHERE
- “an enemy did this”
= consistent with Bible
- = what the snake symbolises in gen 3
- someone/thing external to God
- note: you don’t know from reading Gen 3 that it’s something called ‘Satan’. We only know that because of the fuller picture
- so THIS is just like Gen 3: someone else. An enemy
The point made here, as elsewhere in the Bible is:
- God’s not the source of it…sender of evil
- An enemy did this. We call him Satan
The argument for God and suffering/evil is called “theodicy”
- and this encapsulates the theodicy of the whole Bible! One line!
- Not really told much more! Not told ‘why’
- For many of us, who like the helpers are preoccupied with the issue of suffering such an answer seems woefully inadequate and short
- But I sense this issue is far bigger than we ever could imagine (like the universe is!)- and God has His reasons for not explaining more. Maybe we
- Couldn’t understand?
- Not supposed to understand?
But we’re told in no uncertain terms
- it’s not God!
- God is good. Love. Not the source of evil
- Not to be charged with evil
- JOB 1:22 “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with evil.”
- it’s from elsewhere
never doubt this! (you are good, you are good and your love endures)
Sorting out evil- (why doesn’t God do something?!)
= the big issue for us
is/was for these farmers
- seems logical that the farmer should do something
- “do you want us to pull them up?”
- come on! Let’s sort it out, now! Let’s do something about it
Makes agricultural sense!
- otherwise end up with a field of weeds
- worse still- if the weed is Darnel (suspect it is- as that looks like wheat until the ears form. Related to wheat)- the issue’s worse as you end up with poisonous bread- Darnel is toxic!
So the very fact that nothing is done seems even more ludicrous! Stands out
- and so it should. Jesus is flouting agronomic sense to make a theological point:
for some very important reason… that we can only catch glimpses of.. God chooses not to sort this out NOW.
- here are some of the glimpses:
1 none of us would stand a chance!
Because the wheat and the weeds are almost indistinguishable
- it’s not as simple as ‘they’re bad, I’m good’
- wheat and weeds look alike
- WE are a mixture of wheat and weeds
- "The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor classes, nor between political parties... but right through every human heart and through all human hearts" Alexander Solzhenitsyn
God comes back and starts controlling things- we’d be the first to complain ‘hey, I thought you gave me free will!’
God comes back and starts wiping out murderers, rapists.. (fine by me!)… adulterers… those who say bad things about their parents… those who don’t handle anger rightly
- woops! We all start sweating! None of us would stand a chance!
2 God is merciful
“ah! But we’ve been forgiven! We’re destined for the barn, not burning” You say
- well: think it IS as simple as that… and it’s NOT
- we may be surprised at who gets the barn and who gets the burning
- remember, here: only God knows
though we ARE the 99 safe sheep, the ‘sons of the kingdom’, if we’ve trusted Jesus for the ‘barn’
- God cares about the others. He is merciful!
- The jury is out as to whether they’ll end up wheat or weeds (and us, too, you could argue!)
2PE 3:8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
God is giving you every opportunity to choose Him
- and US every opportunity to share Him
3 “when the wheat sprouted”
dunno how else to entitle this bit
= a fascinating bit of insight, here
- this is not like the parable of the sower, where the weeds choke the wheat (true though that is!)
here = no inference of hindrance of wheat’s growth
- it says ‘don’t uproot them’- not because they’re intertwined, and the wheat strangled- but because they look so similar
there’s nasty stuff in this field
- but it doesn’t stop the wheat growing! (unless some over-zealous helpers uproot it)
- the weeds don’t kill the wheat. They don’t pose a threat to growth (only hassle and pain for the servants)
- I know it doesn’t FEEL like that. Evil, suffering is very real!!
- Here, like ‘growing seed’ in Mt 4:26 “all by itself the seed grows”
NOTHING can stop the kingdom/rule of God growing in your life… if you let it.
- and the incredible thing is – God can even use it!
- MAYBE this is the reason He doesn’t remove it… evil.. your suffering)
- He’s still in control. The farmer is so much bigger than seed. He can use it
- Suffering, struggle, pain is part of the fabric of this life- and the greatest things are born of – fight… struggle
- Not least with the Almighty’s help
- No! He doesn’t send it. Tempt you
- But He can use it
- and the main point here is not the eschatological, end time, redress of wrongs… though that is here… but the present forbearance of them)
Bible is full of this:
JAS 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Heb 12:11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
HEB 12:12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Phil 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
… and God being master over these weeds:
1Cor 10: 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
It does feel like you’re being tested beyond elastic limit- but you’ve gotta believe this!
4 The cross
God’s present… and eventual… method of dealing with evil is far deeper than we can ever imagine
- dying on the cross instead of nuking His enemies
…and oh, yes, God… the farmer… the sower (Jesus) knows all about the struggle of this world… wheat
He became ‘seed’, wheat. ‘Flesh’. Vulnerable. “Powerless”. Wheat beaten like chaff
5 present consequences, not judgement
Something else: it tells us that there isn’t much judgement, now.
= true if you observe life
- evildoers prosper. ARE happy, often (and rich!)
- the rain falls on the just AND the unjust fella (but more on the just because the unjust has stolen his umbrella)
There are consequences, repercussions
- but judgement awaits a latter time
6 the harvest
But we are given an assurance that there will be an end to suffering… and a reckoning for all we’ve done and the choices we’ve made with regard to the One True God and His Son Jesus. A Harvest of the field
When God – calls you… or comes (at the end of it all)
- whatever this may be like
And there’s the sure promise that the Kingdom God can set up in our loves, now… will be fulfilled then
Separating evil from good- (can we know which is which?)
Now, in the meantime… what about US?
How should we act towards others? Should we go for a ‘pure’ church with only proper ‘Christians’ in it. Should we root out evil in other’s lives?
- not unless you want to do untold damage
- the enemy can’t harm the wheat, here
- but over-zealous helpers of the farmer can!
- WE can. By routing out evil in people’s lives… in stead of letting God do it. Letting he transformation work in-> out
- By judging who is in/out
There have generally been two models for ‘doing church’:
- one is the attempt to get a ‘pure’, ‘gathered’ community’ of believers
- usually shown by baptism. Then if you’re baptised you can come into membership, or take communion. Clear boundaries.
- Other model is the kind of which the CofE is an excellent example
- allows people to be ‘in process’. Wheat and weeds.
- “letting” others be in. ‘Letting’ the wheat and weeds grow
- lit ‘forgiving’- those who look like wheat AND weeds
(occurred to me: what if we have to ‘forgive’ folks who come to Muswells? What if a guest gets drunk… or, heaven forbid, are rowdy? -> “forgive the wheat and the weeds to grow together”
You’re a great church. A good church of good, loving, mature people. You understand this, of course!
- that’s the kind of church I want- and I believe is shown here.
- I believe in church… and this kind of church, where the kingdom can grow.
So. In summary:
- hold fast on the judgement. Time, God will tell who’s wheat and weeds
- let’s ‘forgive’, and ‘gather’ all kinds…and let God change us all
- Suffering: God can use it, and sort it. It will be sorted eventually.
- God is good. You are good, you are good and your love endures
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