Continuing the series, "The Greatest Stories Ever Told"
Based on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The Season of Pentecost - July 19-20, 2008
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Palatine, Illinois
Pastor James G. Bauman
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The other day as I was scrolling through my e-mail I noticed one with the subject of "Tick Warning!" It read like this: "I hate it when people forward bogus warnings, and I have even done it myself a couple times unintentionally-- but this one is real, and it’s important. So please send it to everyone on your e-mail list. The Scripture reading today gives us a real warning, a scary one. No one taking it seriously would want to be a weed. "He who has ears, let him hear." But how can we be sure that we are good grain? The weeds are all those "who do evil". The problem is that none of us is sinless. Where is the line? In the words of Paul to the Romans, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (3:23) And once a weed always a weed. Nothing in the parable suggests that they can change into wheat. It’s one or the other. The first disciples were confused too. "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." Jesus makes two points in response. The first is that the kingdom of God is present in the midst of all the weeds. Sometimes we become discouraged. We wonder how can it be that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son to die for all the world’s sins and to rise again victorious over sin, death, and the devil-- and yet there remains so much that is wrong in our world-- so much evil and suffering and things we just can’t understand being possible if a good God is in control. John the Baptist had the same question for Jesus. He expected that when the Messiah would come, evil would be overcome and banished. The hated Romans would be driven out of the land promised to God’s people. In other words, judgment now, not later. He had preached that the Messiah would come "gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." In Matthew 11:2 we read that "When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask Him, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’" The fact that Jesus was going about teaching and preaching and healing with a small band of twelve very unimpressive disciples did not square with John’s expectations. He was discouraged too. Our OWN discouragement is often worsened by the damage done by the weeds in our personal lives and in the lives of those whom we love. The most sincere Christians may feel the problem most deeply. St. Paul said it best, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me." So, even in spite of best intentions, Weeds of Yet the kingdom is still there and growing in the midst of it all. We do not need to be discouraged by the entangling presence of evil. The second point that Jesus makes in response to His disciples request for an explanation is that there will be a judgment. Evil will be dealt with at the right time-- not only those who do evil but everything that causes sin. Creation will be restored to what God originally intended. The Son of Man-- the Lord Jesus Himself-- will be doing the judging, using the holy angels. There will be no mistakes made. The wheat and the weeds will be separated. At last things that are confusing will be made clear by Him who sees all. Our very souls will appear naked before Him. Nothing will be hidden. One short story. Rob and Tom apply for the same job. They take a written test. "You both got the same number of questions wrong," they are told by the Human Resources director, "but Rob gets the job." Tom asks indignantly. "Well," says the Human Resource person, "one of his incorrect answers was better than yours." protests Tom. She answers, "For problem No. 46, Rob wrote, ‘I don’t know.’ You wrote, ‘Me neither.’" There will be no mistakes made in the judging of our lives. The one who will grade us has perfect understanding. That is still a frightening thought for us who do evil so easily. As I was thinking about this parable I remembered how as a boy I heard a news report about the latest scientific inventions being envisioned. One was to be able to pick up sound waves from the distant past. It was said that we would even be able to hear Abraham Lincoln’s speeches. I thought that sounded great. But suddenly a sickening feeling came over me as I realized that I had recently had some conversations that I would never want anyone to know about. The fact that God knows everything about us can be a frightening thought. That there will be a Judgment, a day of reckoning, can be even more unsettling. But there is something more. Parables confront a person with the necessity of deciding about Jesus Himself-- deciding who this really is who speaks with such authority and knowledge. Either people are led into the kingdom by the words of a parable, or they reject the lordship of Jesus and with Him the kingdom. Those with ears to hear-- those who are willing to listen more to Jesus, recognizing His authority-- will also hear from His lips these amazing words: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned." The One who will one day come as Judge has come first as the Friend of Sinners. The waiting time is a time of grace for our world. This is the time to hear and to receive by faith the invitation to be made a new creation already now so that we will be fully prepared to be received into the kingdom still to be revealed. A "new creation" is how Paul describes what happens to believers as he writes to the Corinthians: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!… God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." Again, in the inspired words of Paul to the church in Rome, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering." Those who believe and are baptized into Christ Jesus share His own righteousness. They will shine like the sun on the day of His coming again. There IS hope even for weeds. Forgiveness is real and effective. It changes everything. It even changes weeds into wheat. When our Lord Jesus gave us the gift of His Holy Supper by which to remember Him and to be assured of our forgiveness and strengthened in the faith which we need-- He also gave us a glimpse of what the future holds for us who believe. "I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s Kingdom. We are invited to look forward to a great celebration in the new creation-- a banquet in heaven shared with Jesus Himself, where evil in every form will be banished completely and forever. So come now and receive your Savior’s very Body and Blood, the cost paid for the forgiveness which changes you in God’s eyes, which makes you new-- righteous, completely right with God. Just as God spoke and the first creation came into being, now the One through whom all things were made-- the Word made flesh-- speaks to you here. And these are His words: "This is given and shed FOR YOU. You are forgiven." God’s Word always does what it says. You can trust it to change your reality. That Word is joined here to the bread made from good wheat and the good fruit of the vine. Come and recognize the Presence of the Kingdom here for you already now in the midst of all the evil entangled in your life. Then leave this place with full confidence that the weeds will never have the power to destroy what God at such great cost has declared you to be by His grace in Christ Jesus-- His own forgiven, beloved, righteous child. And go to be the wheat that God Himself has planted and nourished you to be. Go to provide others with the bread of life, made with the wholesome grain of undeserved love that changes everything. And the peace of God which far surpasses our human understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus for that great day yet to come. Amen. |