(Audio Version; Music: "More And More Of You" (Fike/Lee/Riddle)--WorshipMob--Real. Live. Music.)
Introduction
One of the
by-products of being a pastor is trying to remind people that there is still
hope even in a world that seems so evil and hopeless at times. This past week,
two Palestinians entered a synagogue in Jerusalem wielding meat cleavers and
guns and murdered five people worshiping there. Just in case it couldn’t get
worse, Palestinians began dancing in the streets and celebrating the news. And
not to be outdone, our shameful President chimed in with the comment that too
many Palestinians have died too. Muslims have swept through large parts of the
Middle-East purging the region of non-Muslims and reserving their greatest
brutality for Christians, leaving some places where Christianity had existed
for 2,000 years nearly cleansed of all Christian presence. Here in the west,
Christians seem to face a barrage of sinful behavior from the surrounding
culture on a daily basis that can leave even the strongest believer wondering
how or if they can make a difference. And when sin is welcomed into our
churches, hope can feel like sand slipping through our fingers as we seek God’s
purpose for allowing good and evil to continue to coexist. We begin to wonder
if things will ever change. Will things ever get better? It can be hard for
faithful Christians to hold onto hope. It can be hard to find our place and
purpose in the world because we don’t understand the place and purpose evil
plays in the world. But Jesus, as usual, gives us a lesson of hope when He
tells us a parable to remind us that He still has all things under control and
we are part of His grand plan of redemption. Jesus tells us that for a time, it
is His will that good and evil coexist. However, a day will come when there
will be a great harvest to separate good from evil once and for all.
Nevertheless, until that day, Christians play a very important part in God’s
plan for His coming Kingdom as the Seeds
Of The Kingdom.
Subject Text
Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43
24Jesus told them
another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed
good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy
came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the
wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27The
owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your
field? Where then did the weeds come from? 28‘An enemy did this,’ he
replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29‘No,’
he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the
wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that
time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in
bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”…36Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His
disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of
the weeds in the field.” 37He answered, “The one who sowed the good
seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and
the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the
evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the
harvesters are angels. 40As the weeds are pulled up
and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The
Son of Man will send out his angels, and they
will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They
will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine
like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears,
let him hear.”
Context
You could say
that the context for our lesson begins back in chapter 11. Some of John the
Baptist’s disciples brought a message from John, who is in prison, to Jesus.
John knows that the long awaited Messiah has arrived yet he is still in prison
and will soon be executed. John, like all Jews, believed that when the Messiah
arrived, He would set all things right and return Israel to it’s national prominence.
However, to John, nothing seemed to change since he was sitting in prison and
Rome still had its thumb on Israel. But Jesus had in mind a far bigger mission
than the temporal re-establishment of Israel as an independent and respected
nation. Jesus’ mission was one of eternal reconciliation between God and all humanity.
Israel was merely the first to receive that message of salvation and witness
the Messiah at work when the blind received back their sight, the lame danced
with joy, lepers returned to their families and communities free from the
illness that had exiled them to the community of outcasts, the deaf could once
again experience the sounds of joy, the dead got a second chance at life, and
more important, the gospel of hope was being preached to those who had lost
hope. Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of God on earth through Him and through His
message of salvation. In doing so, the battle between those who believed His
message and those who rejected that message began. It would be so much easier for
all people if believers and unbelievers could do life separately but that’s not
what Jesus intended because believers are an important element in reaching an
unbelieving world. The text leading up to our Subject Text puts into sharp relief a world that, for now, will
include believers and unbelievers and sometimes, it will be hard to tell them
apart. Nevertheless, as our Subject Text
makes clear, a day will come when there will be a great harvest and God’s
angels will separate believers from unbelievers for their respective eternal
destinies.
Text Analysis
24Jesus told them
another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in
his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and
sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat
sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27The
owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your
field? Where then did the weeds come from? 28‘An enemy did this,’ he
replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29‘No,’
he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the
wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that
time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in
bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
All
teachings in the scriptures have their intended purpose. Some are more obvious
than others but they all have their purpose nonetheless. You may not know this
but there are 46 parables of Jesus in the gospels! Why so many parables? Again,
there is a purpose and we learn the purpose in vv. 34-35 which I left out of
our Subject Text. Matthew tells us
that Jesus only taught the crowds who followed Him with lessons shrouded in
parables and both were for the purpose of fulfilling Old Testament prophecies.
In vv. 14-15, Jesus refers to the fulfillment of one of those prophecies found
in the Book of Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10):
9He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but
never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10Make
the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
And Mathew tells us that the second
prophetic fulfillment is from the Book of Psalms (Ps 78:2):
Knowing now the reason why Jesus
used parables to teach, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the disciples were
confused.
36“Then he left the
crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to
us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
If you’re
like me, you’ve read the bible many times so some of the mystery, suspense, and
surprise can be lost if we’re not careful. We read through the verses to this
point and already know what Jesus is talking about so a lot of the wonder of
these verses is lost on us. So take a minute and try to recognize the sincere
confusion of the disciples in v. 36.
It’s hard because we can’t unknow what we already know but the disciples
sincerely didn’t understand what Jesus was teaching. I suspect that part of
their ignorance was wrapped around their own perception of how they believe the
Messiah should be behaving. However, their ignorance was more likely rooted in
the fact that God was only then revealing His eternal purposes for the salvation
and judgment of humanity and with respect to our Subject Text “the great
principle of bad [people] being tolerated for the sake of the good. It
relegates to the end the judgment which the contemporaries of Jesus, including
the Baptist, expected at the beginning of the Messianic kingdom.”[2]
Consequently, the disciples sincerely don’t understand the point Jesus is
trying to make through His parable of the wheat and the darnels.
37“He answered, “The
one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the
world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the
sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil.”
There are
really two parts to this parable and in order to understand the first part, it
is necessary to accurately identify the key characters in the story in vv.
37-39a. This all seems really elementary but don’t forget that this is a whole
new theological worldview for the Jews. Their theology always revolved around
the relationship between God and Israel and Israel’s standing as a nation in
the world. Note that there isn’t even a mention of Israel in Jesus’ parable.
Jesus is shifting their nationalistic paradigm to get them to start thinking in
terms of a Kingdom paradigm where the distinction will not be between Jew and
non-Jew but between believer and unbeliever with all things revolving around
Him. It is also important to note that believers are identified as the “good
seed” and belong to Him while all the unbelievers are identified as the “bad
seed” and belong to the devil. It only makes sense that the one who is called
“evil” and “deceiver” would sow evil seed among the good seed that grows into
something that is evil and deceptive. Again, this is a new theological
perspective where Jews were automatically accepted because of their nationality
while all non-Jews were on the outside looking in until they went through the
prescribed rituals for acceptance into the Jewish community. However, unless
they were ethnic Jews, they would never enjoy the same religious benefits and
liberties as ethnic Jews. For example, even the temple had a separate area
designated for Gentiles where they were permitted to worship. From a Jewish
perspective, this is as close as a non-Jew would ever be able to come to
participating in worship activities at the temple. Jesus is changing all that
when he makes no distinction between Jew and non-Jew and instead implies by His
judgment language that He is sovereign over all. “The field is the whole world
and not simply Israel because, no matter how important Israel is to God’s
purposes, as Lord of all creation, he acts on a worldwide canvas…The good seed
is identified as the sons of the kingdom. This is a useful designation because
it provides a bridge between the historic people of God (as the natural heirs
of the kingdom...) and the actualisation of kingdom membership that is taking
place with the coming of Jesus.”[3]
“The harvest is the end of the
age, and the harvesters are angels. 40As the weeds are pulled up and
burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son
of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom
everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw
them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Now that
the main characters of Jesus’ parable have been identified, we come to the
second part of the parable that itself serves two purposes: 1) Hope for
believers that one day their suffering will end and they will receive their
reward; and 2) A warning to unbelievers that one day their unbelief and evil
will result in their eternal condemnation. Believers rightly anticipate this
day because it will be a vindication of everything they have accepted on faith
and it will also rightly be a day of great celebration as it marks the first
day of an eternity spent in the presence of God. However, it also marks a day
when it will be too late for unbelievers to turn back. It will be the day when
they will suffer the consequences of their ongoing choice to reject Jesus’
offer of reconciliation and salvation. It will be a day of rejoicing for
believers but not a day of gloating. Because just as believers will spend
eternity in the presence of God in heaven, unbelievers will spend eternity
separated from God in hell. This is not a game with winners and losers where
everyone goes home at the end of the game. Only one side gets to go home; only
believers get to go to a glorious home God has been preparing for them. Unbelievers
never get to go home unless you consider hell home because that’s where they
will spend eternity. No matter what you think of unbelievers, this isn’t
something we should wish on the worst of them. It is a reality for unbelievers
at the end of the age but until then maybe some of the unbelievers of today
will become believers tomorrow. This is why it is so important that we understand
the gravity of this parable and why it should motivate every believer to double
their efforts to reach out to an unbelieving world with the salvation message
of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, the salvation message is two-fold and always has
been. On the one hand the invitation for salvation is available to all who
choose to believe and on the other hand it is a warning of condemnation for all
those who, until the end, reject that invitation. Until that day of judgment,
believers and unbelievers must coexist in order for God’s eternal will to be
done and so that all those unbelievers who are destined to believe will have
the opportunity to make a confession of faith even if it is with their dying
breath. “In this world, even after the announcement of Jesus that the
eschatological kingdom has already begun, those guilty of lawlessness—the
people who belong to the evil one—coexist with the righteous, who are the
people of the kingdom. There has not been, nor will there be, a dramatic separation
of the lawless from the righteous until the harvest at the end of the age. The
present age is thus one in which human society (and thus even the Church) is a
mixture of those of the evil one and those of the kingdom. This can result in a
confusing situation, especially when the wicked seem to prosper and the
righteous suffer…But the ambiguity of the present situation is a temporary one,
and with the end of the age it too will be brought to an end. Then, and only
then, will there be a clear demarcation between the two, and each will receive
their eschatological due: the lawless a dreadful punishment and the righteous
extravagant blessedness. The evil will be shown for what they are, but the
righteous too will become conspicuous. To this future expectation Matthew
returns again and again, as a warning and encouragement to his readers.”[4]
Application
You know by
now that Jesus never says or does anything by accident so it is no accident
that He refers to the “good seed” as “sons (and daughters) of the kingdom.” In
a world constantly surrounded by evil, we can easily get discouraged wondering
why Jesus doesn’t do something about it and what role we play in the overall
plan. John records something Jesus said when He told His disciples that the
time had come for His death. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel
of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it
dies, it produces many seeds (Jn 12:24).” Jesus was clearly referring to Himself
in this particular context but would it be such a stretch to think that He
might expect the same thing from us? I don’t want to press the imagery of the
parable too far but it is certainly something to think about and certainly
something persecuted Christians often believe. The second century theologian,
Tertullian, once said that “The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in
number we grow, the blood of Christians is seed.”[5]
Perhaps Jesus intends that some of that “good seed” He refers to in our Subject Text must fall to the ground and
die as a means to produce a bigger crop; as a means to produce more believers;
as a means to advance the kingdom of God. It doesn’t always have to mean a
physical death. It can just as easily mean death to the persistent desire for a
better more comfortable life. It can mean death to the constant temptation of
trying to wrestle control away from God. It can mean death to what we think is
best for us in exchange for what is best for others. It can mean death to the
dreams we have for our life in exchange for the dream God has for our life.
Anytime we die for our faith, or something in our life dies as a result of our faith,
our faith doesn’t die. Instead, the example of our life and our faith
multiplies and grows as a natural result of being Seeds Of The Kingdom.
[1]
Frederick William Danker, A Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature,
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 429.
[2]
W. Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor’s
Greek Testament, Vol. 1, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1983), p. 200.
[3]
John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew—The
New International Greek Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005), p. 559.
[4]
Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1-13—Word
Biblical Commentary, (Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1993), pp. 394-395.
[5]
Francois Decret, Early Christianity in
North Africa, (Cambridge, England: James Clarke & Co., 2009), p. 36.
