July 20, 2008 — Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
“The Seed and the Weeds in the Field” — Pastor Lassman
Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download. (Right Click)
My fellow redeemed in Christ,
If we want to be painfully honest about it the Christian church sometimes doesn’t look or sound very Christian. During the time of the crusades Christian armies killed in the name of Christ. During the inquisition in Middle Ages the church tortured and killed for sin and false teaching. In more recent history there is the scandal of priests who sexually abuse children. Denis Rader of Wichita, Kansas killed ten people between 1974 and 1991. Turned out he was a regular church goer who even served as the president of his congregation. In 2006 Mary Winkler shot her pastor husband with a shotgun while he was sleeping in their bed. The church elders found him later. But of course anyone who has belonged to a Christian congregation knows that there can be all kinds of troubles and scandals: gossip, pettiness, anger, adultery, theft, and division, not to mention a lack of commitment to Christ and his word. Christians who never or seldom come to church. Wow. I think I need a Starbucks’ break. Pretty sad isn’t it? You can kind of understand why people get turned off from church and leave. But that would be a mistake. That would be the wrong thing to do. That’s the point of the parable that Jesus tells us: “The Seed and the Weeds in the Field.”
I. Jesus is talking about the organized church, the church that we see with our eyes. The church as it is in the world, for he says “the field is the world.” And he tells us that the church is a mixture of seeds and weeds…a mixture of believers and unbelievers.
A. Of course there are true believers in the church, they are the “good seed”, they are the “children of the kingdom.” These are people in the church who feel sadness over their sinful condition; these are the ones who repent of their sins and confess them to God; these are the ones who don’t rely on how good they are, but trust in God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. For they know that they deserve nothing from God but his “temporal and eternal punishment”. But they also believe that Jesus died on the cross to cancel their debt to God. They believe that they are justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ who saves them and they want to live for God. These are the ones who long for the day that Jesus will return to raise them from the dead and give them eternal life. These true believers know that their faith has been given to them as gift from God by the Holy Spirit working through the gospel of Jesus Christ, for the one who sows the good seed is the Son of man.”
B. But Jesus also teaches us something that is rather shocking: in the midst of the good seed, there are weeds. In the midst of true believers there are people who don’t believe. These are the “sons of the evil one.” “The evil one” of course is the devil, Satan. Wow. This is shocking. Jesus is telling us that in his church are people who belong to the devil. Remember Judas? A weed, a son of “the evil one.” If even Jesus had a Judas in his midst, a weed, a son of the evil one, I suppose we should not be surprised to learn that the church will always have such people. Kind of shocking isn’t it.? To think that there are people in the church who really don’t believe in Jesus. On the other hand, it certainly explains all the bad things we know about the church--the divisions, the scandals, the abuses of authority, sexual sins, power plays, and on and on. This is what Jesus is referring to when he mentions those in his kingdom who are “all causes of sin and law-breakers.” And who is behind all of this? Satan. He is the one who plants the weeds. Satan hates the church of Jesus Christ and he does all he can to corrupt and destroy it. No wonder there are so many problems in the church, so many scandalous things done in and through the church-because Satan has planted weeds among the good seeds..
II. Unfortunately, some people leave the church when they see all the problems in it. But we shouldn’t. Jesus has warned us. Of course, there is a great temptation to fix this problem. “let’s get rid of all the weeds!” Indeed that’s what one of the servants said: “do you want us to go and gather them? And what does the master say? “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest…”
A. Now this could be misunderstood. Jesus is not telling us that we can’t judge sin in the church or that we can’t practice church discipline that could lead to excommunication. In Matthew eighteen Jesus says: “if your brother sins against you go and show him his fault….if he doesn’t listen take one or two others along….if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector” (18: 15-17). In the congregation at Corinth, Greece a man was having an affair with his father’s wife and Paul wrote to them: “expel the wicked man from you” (1 Cor. 5:13). However, Jesus is telling us that in our church discipline and excommunication we are not to do any kind of physical harm to punish people. In the Old Testament people could be stoned to death for sins such as adultery. But not in Jesus’ church. For the goal of church discipline and even excommunication is not punishment but reconciliation and forgiveness. But if they are put to death, reconciliation and forgiveness are not possible. But the church has not always listened to Jesus. During the middle ages the Roman Catholic Church put many people to death for sin and for false doctrine. Rome not only excommunicated Martin Luther but even wanted to put him to death. Such things are not to be done in the Christian church that’s why Jesus says: “lest in gathering up the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.” We are to leave the final judgment and punishment to God. That’s his business, not ours.
B. And so he says: “the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breaking.” Jesus knows what we cannot know: he knows who really believes in him and who does not. As Paul says in his first letter to Timothy: “the Lord knows those who are his” (2 Tim. 2:19). And he knows those who are not his. He knows who “the weeds”, “the sons of the evil one” are. When Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead he will gather “the weeds”, “the sons of the evil one” out of his kingdom and he will punish them for their sins and all that they have done and the harm they have caused to and through his church. They will be thrown “into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. But then the good seed, the children of the kingdom will be raised to life in their new glorified bodies as Jesus says, …”the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
Conclusion: at the end of the parable Jesus says: “he who has ears, let him hear.” In other words “do you understand what I have told you?” It is his way of telling us to make sure that we are “the good seed” and not “a weed”. For there are weeds, unbelievers, among the good seeds, true believers, and they do a lot of damage in and through the church. Do we believe that we are a sinner who deserves nothing from God but his wrath and punishment? Are we sorry that we have sinned against God? Do we believe that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, suffered and died to pay for our debt of sin and that we are forgiven? Do we believe that even our faith in Jesus has been given to us as a gift by the Holy Spirit? Do we want to live for Jesus who died and rose again for us? The good seed and the weeds answer these questions differently. God knows who they are and he will deal with them when Jesus returns to judge the living and dead. In the mean time we are not to let what the weeds do to drive us from the church of Jesus Christ. We stay with his church. And we keep preaching and teaching the message of Jesus Christ so that he might continue to sow good seed, children of the kingdom, in his field- so that on the last day they too will “shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”. “He who has ears, let him hear.” Amen!
