Forgiving the Weeds: Sermon on the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds Pentecost 6 2014

Sermon: Forgiving the Weeds: Sermon on the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds Pentecost 6 2014

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

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who calls us to act through forgiveness.

            How many of you are gardeners? Farmers?

Ok, when you see a weed what do you do? You pull it.

I am a gardener, I got that from my Mom. I learned from an early age during garden tours that if you see a weed, pull it out then rather than later. So, it’s second nature to me when I see a weed in a garden I want to pull it out. It’s a weed, it’s not supposed to be there.

And then in our parable Jesus talks about not pulling up the weeds. It’s always something to consider when looking at Jesus’ parables, is that they follow real life, but not always exactly. Jesus always throws in a twist to make his point. In the parable last week the twist was this sower who didn’t sow as normal, carefully into the troughs in the ground but through the seed extravagantly. So, a couple of things to point out to find the twist in our text today.

First, unlike real life, in this parable Jesus never implies that the weeds interfere with the growth and yield of the wheat. The good sower has sown good seeds, and they all grow and will all yield, the bad seeds of the enemy are simply also growing in the field, not choking out or holding back the good seeds. While it doesn't seem like much it really focuses the meaning of the parable. Jesus is addressing not the issue of good seeds vs. bad seeds in this parable, the issue that Jesus in concerned about it the problem of the enemy vs. the good sower.

            So the bad seeds don’t overcome the good seeds. So, why does the enemy even sow them? Well, what the enemy sows is doubt and confusion. Whether that comes from the dualistic approach of people in Jesus’ time of there are good people, and bad people, or our more complicated understanding of people, summed up by a favorite quote of mine from Mr. Rogers. “Even a person who is bad most of the time will be good some of the time. And a person who is good most of the time will be bad some of the time. No one is all good, or all bad, all of the time.” Either understanding gives rise to the same doubt and confusion amongst the good seed.

  And with this doubt and confusion amongst us, these weeds, our reaction is to try and rid ourselves of the weeds, and when we do, as Jesus says, we pull up the good with the bad. There’s a couple reasons for this.

Maybe we’re tricked, maybe someone convinces us that that good thing we’re working on is bad, so we give up on it. Maybe we see something we think is a weed, and take it out, only to find out it’s actually a beautiful plant.

As I said earlier, my mom is a gardener. My dad helps, but mom is the one who really knows the different plants. In a farm field my dad would know what’s all going on, but in a garden, not quite as much. So, quite a number of years ago, I was probably in elementary or middle school my dad got a new weed whacker, and being the good husband he is wanted to help mom with the weeding. So, in the very front of the garden he see a whole row of these plants with no flowers and sort of a white dusty colored leaves. So, my dad thinking they are weeds, takes out the whole row. Well, as some of you probably gathered from my description, they were in fact Dusty Millers, and perfectly fine and in fact pretty plant once they get a little bigger, as long as you don’t take them out with a weed whacker. Sometimes what you think is a weed, turns out to be good seed. You may take it out, even with the best of intentions.

So, the only way for the enemy to take out the good seeds is to get them to take themselves out. It’s interesting that the enemy leaves after sowing the bad seeds, he knows that it only takes the seeding of distrust and confusion, we’ll do the rest.

Now Jesus’ idea makes more sense. So, Jesus says, don’t do anything about it, don’t react to the doubt and confusion. Don’t let the enemy win by hurting those around you. Don’t let things of this world distract you from being good wheat. Be the wheat and trust that God will take care of the weeds.

Now this is of course not to say we shouldn’t confront evil in this world. We of course should stand up to persecution and violence. We shouldn’t let evil reign supreme and let it do whatever it wants, but we should also realize that none of it matters in terms of salvation, on that front only God and Jesus matter.

How we stand up to evil is the final point Jesus makes here, but to realize that means a little Greek work, what would be obvious to Jesus’ listeners isn’t quite as easy for us. The Good Sower’s command to the workers is to “let both of them grow together”. The important word in that statement is the let. It comes from a Greek word that means things like let, suffer, permit, leave, and forgive.

Yes, forgive. And it’s not some different form of forgive that means something different. It’s the same forgive we find in the Lord’s prayer, “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” Jesus’ listeners would hear that echo of the Lord’s prayer, they would make the connection. And I think that’s the root of Jesus’ message. He means us to hear that echo of forgive in the middle of this parable. He isn’t calling us to a life of inaction when confronting evil, to simply accept whatever comes, to just let it grow, but calling us to be active in this world through forgiveness. Forgiving those who seek to do us harm, impacting this world not through revenge or violence, but love and forgiveness.

It’s how Jesus lived his life, and how he died. His words on the cross. “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

So, we live this life Christ gives us, full of good soil and good seed, and when thorns or weeds come up, we seed to counter through forgiveness, and if that doesn’t work, we let God be God. and have the faith to know that God will overcome.

Is this easy? No, it’s part of the reason the whole earth groans in labor pains as Paul says in our Romans text. We want to rip and pull out what we see as evil around us, we want to take revenge for what we perceive as affronts. But, we can’t ever rid the world of evil through vengeance or confrontation, it’s not in our power, but through forgiveness God will work and evil will be overcome.

Let us pray,

God of forgiveness, we find ourselves dealing with doubt and confusion, at times we can’t see your path for us, and we go astray. Help us to find our way back to you through the forgiveness offered through your Son.


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If you are looking for a more detailed undertaking of this Parable I highly recommend Robert Capon's look it in his book "Parables of the Kingdom."