“The Parable of Wheat and Weeds”
Matthew 13:24-30
Sunday, May 30, 2010

Introduction: Any great story has a hero and a villain. The villain creates tension in the story and adds suspense to the outcome. The villain enhances the emotions you feel about the story and the characters and adds drama. The villain reminds us that there is evil at work in the world, trying to keep good from happening; trying to keep good from being successful. On the other hand, the hero is the one who is counted on to defeat the villain. The hero is the one who fights for good; the one who protects those who are in danger from the villain.
In our story today we have the hero, a simple farmer, who sows seeds of wheat. On the other side you have the villain, who comes in after the farmer and sows seeds of weeds to grow right next to the wheat. The tricky thing about this, is that because the seeds are underneath the soil, no one will know that this dirty deed has been done until it is too late; until the wheat and the weeds grow up side by side. The weeds will not be noticed until they have grown out of the ground. And in this state they will threaten the health of the wheat.

I. The church is a mixed community- (Matthew 13:24-27; John 1:12, 3:16, 14:6)
a. The good seed- Of course we can know that the farmer is the
Son of Man, or Jesus Christ. One of Jesus’ roles in His time here on earth was to build up His Kingdom by bringing people to faith. Jesus was establishing the Christian church, building a foundation, and then setting the church loose to evangelize the world. So we see that Jesus was telling people that belief in Him was the most important part; we see this in many verses:
John 3:16- “For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” It is in believing in Jesus that You become part of the Kingdom, as John 1:12 says, “But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God.”
Another well known passage that reminds us of this is John 14:6- “… ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In these verses we see Jesus planting the seed, that the only way to heaven is through faith, in Jesus Christ. As the seed was planted in the hearer, it was then determined by the condition of the soil (or another way to say it is in the readiness of the heart as we talked about a couple of weeks ago) whether the person would believe and be saved, or not believe.
Since I just preached on this a couple of weeks ago, I won’t go into any more detail. But for those of you who weren’t here, and a reminder to those of you who were, let me say this:
The person who has a heart of good soil and receives the good seed is one who understands that he or she doesn’t have it all together. It is the person who understands that life as we know it isn’t an accident, or didn’t happen by chance, but happens by design. It is the person who doesn’t let himself or herself get deceived by the many things of our world that seem satisfying, but their satisfaction is only short-lived. It is the person who understands that worry and stress do us no good, and in fact they actually affect our health and our lives negatively. It is the person who understands that when you are always wanting more, you can never be happy with who you are and what you have now. It is the person who understands that there is a creator to all that exists, and that this creator cares about us personally. It is the person who is willing to believe/ even when they don’t understand, because they have experienced, or know people who have experienced God coming through time and time again!!!
b. The weeds are discovered- Now after the good seed is planted, the
farmer goes away, not knowing that there will be someone coming along after him and planting seeds of weeds. This in fact isn’t discovered until later, when the two of them grow up together!
As Jesus tells this story, this would present a clear picture to a Palestinian audience in the first century. Tares, or weeds, were one of the curses of a farmer. The farmer would labor hard to get the seeds planted, and to make sure that the soil was prepared well so that the good seeds would grow unencumbered.
The challenge is that tares, in their early stages, resembled wheat. By the time that it could be determined that the weeds were there, their roots were so intertwined with the wheat that it would be dangerous to pull out the tares without plucking them both out, or at least killing the wheat. So because the wheat and the tares could not be safely separated when they were growing, it was the practice to let them both grow up together and separate them once they had been harvested. To make sure that they harvested it well, they did it by hand, by spreading the grain out on a large tray so they could see it well.
Another important note is to understand that planting tares in a neighbor’s field was sometimes done to one’s enemy. That is why Jesus calls the one who plants the tares an enemy. It is actually a crime in Roman law. So we see that Jesus is letting the people know that He has an enemy, Satan, who wants to mess with His field, and wants to cause great problems by planting the weeds amongst His people. Satan wants to keep the good seed from sprouting, if he can.

II. The devil is at work in the church- (Ephesians 6:12; Luke 22:31; Romans 12:18; 2 Corinthians 5:20; Matthew 5:43-44; 1 John 4:19-21)
a. What tares look like in the church- We need to understand
that there are evil forces at work in the world. It is not popular to talk about the devil, even though 65-70% of people say they believe in the existence of the devil. Though they believe, they don’t want to think about dark evil forces. But these forces exist, and are at work. That is why the apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil…” The reason why Paul says it this way, that our fight ‘is not against flesh and blood,’ but against evil forces, is because Satan is the one who makes all of this happen.
Satan can’t control us, but he can deceive our thinking and lead us to places that can corrupt our thinking and behavior. EX. In the Disney movie Pinnochio (which I came to love when my kids were young), Pinnochio is carved by Geppetto as a puppet, but soon desires to make his own decisions and become a real boy. In the process he is captured and taken to a circus, and then he is lured away to pleasure island to be turned into a donkey. In some ways he would have been better off staying a puppet, so Geppetto could have controlled his actions and kept him out of trouble…. In the Star Wars movies the character Anakin Skywalker (who becomes Darth Vadar) is lured to the dark side by the evil emperor and turns bad. Like Pinnochio and Darth Vadar, people are lured away to the dark side, and their behavior is anything but holy.
Jesus Himself warned Simon Peter of this in Luke 22:31 when he said, “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail…” Satan seeks to lure us away with the ways of the world, the pleasures of the world, the desire for independence, and on and on it goes. Anytime we find ourselves choosing our will over God’s will, we are being lured away. And there are many in the church who look like followers of Christ, because they attend, and maybe even say they believe, but they have not given their heart over to Christ; they are still their own lord.
b. How we are to respond to the “weeds”- So if there are tares
around us in the church, posing as Christians, how are they affecting Christians and the church, and how should we respond to them? Should we go on covert operations and try to expose them? Jesus did say in Matthew 12:30, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” So these people are technically our enemies. Should we treat them bad? The answer is “no.”
First, we should be at peace with them. Romans 12:18 tells us, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceable with all.”/ Ex. When I was pastor at Ecumenical Church of Pueblo West, there was an interesting dynamic going on, because it was an “ecumenical” church. Now the word ecumenical has a couple of different meanings. It can mean all encompassing within the Christian faith, or all encompassing in regards to faith in general including those outside of the Christian faith. In a Christian church, it is obvious what it should mean. But there were some in the church who thought of the name in terms of the second definition. So, as time went by in my first year there, I had some people who were concerned that I was overly Christian. In fact, one lady in the church came up to me one day and complained that I preached too much out of the Bible. Soon after she left the church and went to a very liberal, eccentric, non-Christian church. Her 15-year-old daughter was a strong Christian who continued to attend our church. Sadly, one day she discovered her daughter dead in her bed!! I was not asked to do the funeral, but the so-called minister of her church did the service. Many of us from Ecumenical church went to the funeral, but were disappointed when not one mention of Jesus Christ occurred. This Christian girl did not have a Christian funeral. But we were supportive to the mother and sought to help in any way we could; we sought to be at peace with her on all accounts.
Second, we should seek to help them be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.” As we are reconciled to God through our faith, so we have a responsibility to seek to help others be reconciled as well!
Third, we should pray for them. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:43-44, “You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” What should we pray? That God works on their heart to become good soil, so that He could be planted in their life, and their life could be lived for Him, not against Him.
Fourth, we should love them. Everything about God is love. We are told in
1 John 4:19-21, “We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

III. Separation won’t happen until the end- (Matthew 13:30, 25:34, 41)
a. Let them grow together- Illus. Every year at the end of the
baseball season, there is an all-star team chosen. The all-star team consists of those kids who are the best players. The team they make up is a very good and talented team. They are chosen because the coaches feel like they have the best skills and have shown themselves to be the best players. Now, this doesn’t happen until the end of the season. Throughout the season all the other kids still get to play the games. They weren’t left out of the season. It is only at the end that the decision is made in regardsto who deserves to go on and play for the all-star team against all-star teams from other leagues.
Jesus says about the wheat and the tares: “Let them grow together until the harvest…” Now the harvest that Jesus is talking about is Judgment Day. But until Judgment Day, the wheat and the tares both live their lives in this world, and for some, in the church. Just like the kids who weren’t as good as the all-stars, got to play throughout the season with those who were all-stars, so Christians and non-Christians get to live in this world together.
Why would Jesus want both the Christians and the pretend Christians to both be in the church? Why not get rid of them? The truth is, we all need Jesus, and church is not just for Christians, but for non-Christians as well. Hopefully church is that place where we learn about Jesus and are challenged in faith. By being in church, maybe the “tares,” the non-Christians, will hear the message, have the seed of God’s word planted in their hearts, and will come to believe. Instead of the tares pulling down the wheat, the non-Christians bringing down the Christians, we as Christians can bring them up to the Lord!!
b. Separation will take place at the end- Jesus says that the
Christians and non-Christians will be separated at the end. Counterfeit Christians will not be able to preserve their disguise forever. It doesn’t matter if they fool you and me, for at the Day of Judgment they will be unmasked. It is not our job to do God’s sifting, or try to do the separation. We are called to love others for the Lord.
Illus. When I was growing up I used to love to watch Scooby-Doo. Do you know Scooby Doo? This show was about 5 characters, (Freddie, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and his dog Scooby), who would drive around in their Mystery Machine Van solving mysteries by exposing the “so called” ghosts, monsters, and crooks. The villain was always some masked creature that would scare those in the town. But in the end, the gang would catch this criminal and UNMASK them. It would always surprise everyone who the masked culprit was; someone no one expected it to be.
Jesus explains in Matthew 25 how this will be at the end of time… We read in verses 34 & 41, “Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world… Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” In this passage Jesus says that those on the right, the Christians, are the people who feed the hungry, help those who are homeless, care for the sick, visit those who are in prison. Their behavior is this way because they have received Christ as Savior, and let Christ be Lord, which impacts their attitude, the way they love, and their actions. Those on the left, the non-Christians, will not do these things, because they are not guided by Jesus, or His call, or His love.
Now, let me add this, that even though we don’t know who is “saved,” and who isn’t; who are Christians and who aren’t, we still need to live by God’s word and do God’s work. If someone is challenging the Bible, or God’s teaching, or seeking to discredit Jesus Christ and salvation in Christ, then they need to be kept accountable. There is always the call to stand up to any heretical teaching or non-Christian behavior.

Conclusion: We cannot read the hearts of people. We cannot know for sure who is saved and who is not. We are not called to be judge and jury. That role is saved for Christ alone. Christ is the righteous judge. Our job is to seek Christ, follow Christ, and love others as Christ has called us to love, knowing that there will be those in the church who are not living for Christ.
EX. As I coach Tyler’s baseball team, there is an interesting occurrence, which happens to most pitchers: when they warm up before the inning starts, they throw loose; they throw strikes. But then the batter steps up to the plate, and they tend to throw the ball outside. Why? Because they are afraid they might hit the batter; THEY LOSE THEIR FOCUS. Instead of focusing on the glove, they are focusing on the batter. They get distracted from where they are supposed to throw the ball.
If we are strong, and stay focused on Christ and His call to us, then all will be well in the end. We will grow up as wheat, in the midst of the weeds, but unaffected by the weeds. Let us stay focused on bearing fruit for the Lord. Amen.