Weeding the Garden

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

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            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.