Weeding the
Garden
Matthew
13:24-30, 36-43
Every parent worries about who their
children will choose as friends. You
want your child to hang out with the right crowd, with the kids who cut their
hair and get good grades. You hope they
avoid those who drink and smoke and run around at all hours. The reason you do this is because you know
how others can influence the way your children view the world, look at life and
make up their minds about what is right and wrong.
The problem is that appearances can
be deceiving. Some of you may remember
the old TV program, “Leave it to Beaver” which presented an idealized version
of the American Family. Dad went to work
every day, and Mom stayed home and made apple pie while wearing heels and
pearls. Wally and Beaver were the kids
every parent hopes for. My favorite
character though was Wally’s friend, Eddy.
Whenever the parents were around he was all polite with “Please and thank
you and what a pretty dress you’re wearing, Mrs. Cleaver.” But, when the parents were not around he was
the one who came up with all the ideas that got the “Beaver” into trouble.
No one understood the human heart
better than Jesus. In today’s parable he
warns us about too quickly making judgments about others because we’re not very
good at it. We don’t know enough. We don’t look deeply enough.
Let us pray:
Lord, we are captive to first
impressions. We make snap judgments based on the most superficial
observations. Help us to see as You see
so that grace may shape the attitudes of our hearts, the words we speak and the
actions of our hands. Amen.
Jesus’ primary opponents, as most of
you know, were the Pharisees who were more religious than God. They wore their religion on their sleeves -
literally. Their robes had long fringes that
set them apart. They tied phylacteries, little leather boxes that held bits of
the Torah, around their heads. They were
the ones who stuck on the backs of their donkeys signs that read, “Honk if you
love Moses”.
When they walked down the street everything
about the Pharisees screamed, “I’m different from you, better than you, more righteous
than you, holier than thou.” They hung
around with their own kind and avoided those they saw as being beneath them,
which turned out to be nearly everyone else.
They believed one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel, so they
carefully examined each and every apple for any sign of blemish. If they found an imperfection they’d pull
that apple out of the barrel and throw it away, and they’d tell everyone else
to watch out for that bad apple. They
were like parents who tell their children, “I don’t want you hanging out with
so-and-so because he has long hair, or a tattoo, or tattered jeans or any of
another thousand reasons.”
They believed the people of God
should look distinct and act differently from people who do not know God. You should be able to tell the difference
between a saint and a sinner. If you
love God you should keep his commandments.
You should be faithful to his Word.
Your life should look better than those who care not one whit about the
Lord.
I’ve heard Presbyterians say the
same thing. Often when we talk about the
touchy and taboo subject of evangelism, Presbyterians who are always shy about speaking
to someone they know about Jesus will sometimes say, “I let my life do the
talking.” That is, I try to live in such
a way that others should see in me something that is different and maybe even
better because it comes from God and when they see that they will want it for
themselves. My witness is not my words
but my life. There is some truth in
that.
In fact, that’s exactly the way the
Pharisees looked at it. It’s not the
talk that matters, it’s the walk. So they were constantly reflecting on the way
they lived and whether they were keeping the commandments of God. How many times have I prayed today? Have I
cheated anyone? Have I been
truthful? Have I been a good person? Do
I gossip? Do I slander? Am I fair? Have I tithed when the offering plate was
passed around? The Pharisees constantly
looked into the Word of God as a mirror so they could see themselves as God
sees them. How else, they wondered, can
you become a better person?
So, what’s wrong with that? Isn’t that the way you look at faith? Isn’t it supposed to make you a better
person, more faithful, more loving?
Aren’t we supposed to hold ourselves up to the truth in God’s Word so
that we can see where we fall short and so learn how we can improve? Isn’t that
what God wants? Isn’t that what you
want?
The difference between Jesus and the
Pharisees was not their understanding of life’s main goal. They both believed the most important thing
was God. They both believed their life’s
purpose was to know and please the Lord.
They just disagreed and disagreed profoundly on how to do that.
The Pharisees believed you did that
by working as hard as you possibly can to obey and fulfill every command of God
and that the best way to do that was to avoid anyone and everyone who could or would
divert and distract you from that purpose.
Perfection was their goal. That’s
why they would search the barrel and throw out any bad apples because they can ruin
the others. They can be a bad influence
and lead one into temptation.
Jesus did not look it at it that
way. First of all there is no way you
are ever going to be perfect in the sight of God. No matter how hard you try, you are going to
make mistakes. If you think you are
going to earn God’s love only by doing all the right things then you have a
pretty shallow view of his love and a pretty high view of yourself. God’s love is deeper than that. It is more profound. It doesn’t wait for you to measure up. It seeks you out wherever you are.
That’s exactly what Jesus did, and
that’s why the Pharisees opposed him so.
While they looked at the larger world with disdain and judgment, Jesus
looked at the larger world with hopeful eyes and a loving heart. The Pharisees judged him for eating with “tax
collectors and sinners”, but Jesus responded, “I came to seek and save the
lost.” While the Pharisees wanted to
build a wall to keep the sinners out, Jesus came to build a bridge to bring
them in. When the Pharisees turned away
from sinners, Jesus invited them to lunch.
That’s
why he gave us this parable of the wheat and the weeds. Jesus told them another parable: "The
kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while
everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went
away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
Now the word for
weeds is “ziwan”. This is a particular
kind of plant. If you were to eat the
grain that it produces you might become dizzy or sleepy or sick to your
stomach. You might even go into
convulsions, develop gangrene, and some even die. In other words, it is a poison. It is the bad apple that the Pharisees had
been warning about. Better, they said,
to pull it and burn it rather than let good people eat it and get sick.
The problem with
that strategy though is that in the early stages of growth it is nearly
impossible to tell the difference between the weed and the wheat. One looks
like the other. So, in Jesus’ parable
when the farm workers tell the land owner “We’ve got problems in the field, do
you want us to pull the weeds?” he says, “Let them grow together until the
harvest.” We’ll separate the wheat from
the weeds then.
In other words,
be careful about making judgments about people too early because first
impressions can often be the wrong impressions.
But, we do it all the time, don’t we?
I can’t tell you how many times I have formed an opinion about people
after meeting and speaking with them for only ten seconds. I’ll take in their appearance, the way they
cut their hair, the clothes they wear, the accent with which they speak and the
vocabulary they use. I’ll consider their
age, their height, their weight and I measure them up so that I think I already
know something about them. And I don’t
think I’m the only one. I’ll bet you do
that, too.
How many times
though, have you found when you’ve gotten to know someone better that you had
pegged them all wrong? They may not
speak with a college education, but you discover a deeper wisdom. They may not wear their religion on their
sleeves, but you later see a profound faith. They may be a person of few words,
but each and every one of those words is laden with meaning and purpose.
Or, maybe you have envied someone who appeared
to have it altogether—a great job, a great house, a fancy car—but then you discovered
their personal life is a wreck. They’ve
been married five times and they have six kids, none of whom speak to them.
No matter how
confident we are in our ability to size people up, somewhere along the way
we’re going to get it wrong, and that’s when the gossip we shared or the
slander we’ve used comes back to bite us.
A friend chastises us for telling them that so-and-so said this or did
that, then they discover that was not so and that you were just a willing link
in a chain of slander and gossip. That
friend now looks at you a little differently.
They don’t really trust you anymore.
Better, Jesus
says, that we are not so quick to judge, because we don’t really do a very good
job of it. But, then he says, and make
no mistake about it, there will come a judgment.
Jesus
said, “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the
end of the age. The 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. They will throw
them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let
the one who has ears - hear.”
Well,
these are tough words to hear, and the temptation to dismiss them is strong
were it not for the fact that they come from Jesus, himself. What Jesus is really saying to us is that
what we do, matters. What we say is important. More than that, what we say and
what we do is influenced by what we believe. That’s why it is important for us
to know what we believe and be able to speak of it. It’s why whenever we
celebrate the Lord’s Supper we include the Apostle’s Creed or another
affirmation of faith. That is why our
words and attitudes and actions have meaning and purpose.
They
count for something and so we will be held accountable for them. Think about that the next time you’re tempted
to gossip about someone or slander their name.
Think about that the next time you are tempted to cheat or mistreat. Think about that the next time you come to a
quick judgment about someone and are tempted to see them as a weed and pull
them out of the field and throw them away.
Now, the good news about this judgment (and you’re really
going to be thankful for this) is that I’m not the one doing the judging and
neither are you. Neither you nor I are the umpire. We may gather at home plate and argue about
whether the other guy is safe or out. We
may list the sins of the fellow on the other team and explain to the ump why he
should be thrown out of the game. We may
rant and rave in righteous indignation and try to kick dust on his shoes, but
in the end there is only umpire and it is he alone who calls balls and strikes.
It is he and he alone you calls you safe or out.
That’s
good news. Judgment belongs to God and God alone. It belongs to the same God who so loved the
world he gave his only begotten son. It
belongs to the same God whose ways are not our ways and whose thoughts are not
our thoughts. It belongs to God whose
mercy is everlasting. It belongs to the same God who said, “as far as the east
is from the west so far will he remove our sins from us.” (Psalm 103:12)
God
is holy, is just, and is righteous. God
does hate sin the Bible says, because it is so hurtful to others and to
him. But, God is also “merciful and
gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (Psalm 103:8)
So
think about that the next time you are tempted to pull someone out of God’s
garden and throw them away because you think they are a weed. Before you see
yourself as the wheat look for the log in your eye before you talk about the
speck in the eye of another. “Judge not, Jesus said, “lest you be judged.”
When
it comes down to it, each of have wheat and weeds growing inside. We are saints
and sinners. We have good and bad
moments. Sometimes we are more weedy
than wheaty, and sometimes we are more wheaty than weedy.
Our
goal then, and it is why we begin each worship service with the Prayer of
Confession is to pull the weeds that grow in our attitudes and actions, and
nurture the wheat that grows though our beliefs and faith.
Let’s
close with a prayer that David offered in Psalm 139:
“Search me O God, and know my heart; test me and
know my thoughts. See if there is any
wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Amen.
