Matthew 13: 24-30

The phrase that catches me in this parable is, “Let both of them grow together.”

The slaves of the householder ask how those weeds got among the wheat, and do you want us to go and gather them? The common weed that grew among wheat in those days in those circumstances appeared similar to wheat as they grew together. It was only at harvest time could you discern wheat from weeds. The master told the slaves to let both of them grow together.

They couldn’t label them wheat or weeds until the harvest. But labels do come in handy. A woman took pride in her homemade freezer meals which she labeled clearly: meatloaf, pot roast, pork and vegetables, chicken and dumplings, or beef pot pie. Whenever she asked her husband what he wanted for dinner, he never requested any of those choices. So she decided to relabel the entrees according to his requests. Open the freezer now and you’ll see: Whatever, Anything, I Don’t Know, I Don’t Care, Something Good, or Food.

The master’s injunction against efforts to purge evil had three reasons behind it. One, such attempts now are premature – we really can’t tell the difference between wheat and weed. Two, such attempts have as their usual results the disturbance and loss of the faithful in the process of seeking to eliminate the unfaithful – “In gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.” And three, the task of judging between good and evil belongs not to us but to Christ.

According to the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, chapter seven, we are not to judge, but rather to work at reconciliation as Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 18: “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses” (18: 15-16). The business of this was reconciliation. In the context of Matthew 13, those who sin against us, are they evildoers or did they merely makes us angry or hurt our feelings?

A man is driving down a road. A woman is driving down the same road from the opposite direction. As they pass each other, the woman leans out the window and yells, “Pig!” The man immediately leans out his window and yells, “Stupid!” They each continue on their way. When the man rounds the next curve, he crashes into a huge pig in the middle of the road and just misses getting killed. Thought for the Day: If men would only listen.

In this parable, as explained in Matthew 13: 36-43, the Son of Man had planted the wheat. The weeds are the children of the evil one planted by the enemy. These are evildoers and the causes of sin. They are not collected until the end of the age. The children of the kingdom are not separated from the doers of evil until the end of the age. They are intertwined, intermingled. You tare out the bad, you tare out the good. “Let both of them grow together.” The kingdom of heaven is compared to this.

So what do we do in the meantime? What do we do living among doers of evil – we, the wheat, and them, the weeds? Good thing we have the words of Jesus. Again, from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, chapter five:
38 ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 40 and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41 and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42 Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus told them on the mountain, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.” And he said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. . . For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? . . . Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Where does that leave us? In the explanation of the parable in Matthew 13, Jesus told his disciples, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers” (13: 41). The Son of Man, the resurrected and glorified Jesus Christ will judge wheat from weeds. In the meantime, we have to realize the children of the kingdom and the children of the evil one are intermingled. The taring out of one will bring unnecessary harm to the other. That would be an action confined to the Son of Man and his angels only. IN THE MEANTIME, WE ARE TO LOVE AND DO GOOD AND BE PERFECT IN REGARD TO THESE INTERMINGLED AMONG US, INTERMINGLED AMONG THEM.

Dr. Tony Campolo tells a story of a German Lutheran bishop, Martin Niemoller. He was called upon to negotiate with Hitler during World War II in attempts to save the Church of Germany from being closed down by the dictator. Toward the end of his life, Niemoller told of a recurring dream that he had in which he saw Hitler standing before Jesus on Judgment Day. Jesus got off of his throne, put his arm around Hitler, and asked, “Adolph, why did you do the ugly things you did? Why were you so cruel?” Hitler, with his head bent low, simply answered, “Because nobody ever told me how much You loved me.” The bishop reported that at this point in the dream he would wake up in a cold sweat, remembering that during the many, many meetings he had with Hitler, he never once said, “By the way, Fuhrer, Jesus loves you! He loves you more than you’ll ever know. He loved you so much that He died for you. Do you know that?” Dr. Campolo closes the story with, “So often we fail to bear witness, and hence lose precious opportunities to alter the course of history.”

What happens when you come to love a neighbor as a sister or a brother? You don’t want any harm to come to them. You’re willing to defend them as you’d defend a close family member. You’re willing to sacrifice time and money and resources for their well being. You may shake your head at the things they do, but they are family to you. You want to see them prosper and grow strong and be blessed. “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” When we pray for anybody we know we pray for them to encounter the goodness and love and mercy of God BECAUSE WE LOVE THEM. We are intermingled. We are intertwined with wheat. We are intertwined with weeds. Jesus’ words tell us he’ll do the judging. We will do the loving and blessing because he has taught us to do that because he’s loved and blessed us. WHEAT OR WEEDS!

(Preached at St Mark United Methodist Church in Anniston, AL, July 23, 2023)