The extraordinarily ordinary life of a Christian - The Christian lives as wheat among weeds

Matthew 13:24–30, 36-43 ²⁴He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ²⁶When the plants sprouted and produced heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. ²⁷The servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?’ ²⁸He said to them, ‘An enemy did this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather up the weeds?’ ²⁹‘No,’ he answered, ‘because when you gather up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the weeds, bind them in bundles, and burn them. Then, gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

³⁶Then Jesus sent the people away and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷He answered them, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world. The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the Evil One. ³⁹The enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are angels. ⁴⁰Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the world. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will pull out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and those who continue to break the law. ⁴²The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The end of all things is near. So have sound judgment and be self-controlled for the sake of your prayers. (1 Peter 4:7) Amen.

According to a new Gallup poll, more people say that wearing fur clothing is wrong than those who say that divorce, homosexuality or adultery are wrong. In that same poll, sex outside of marriage is more morally acceptable for adults, but 40% less think so for teenagers.

We are living in a time when people will feel guilty if they throw their empty water bottle in a trash can, but not feel guilty about living together outside of marriage. It is a time when people will say that there isn’t equality of pay for women, but they are the same people way say there no such things as binary sexes of men and women. It is a time when people will become emotional about the crazy cat lady with twenty malnourished cats. But those same people are not affected when a child is gunned down from street violence.

It is a time when Christians find themselves automatically judging every person they meet because they are or are not wearing a mask. We are quick to judge, because we quickly forget Jesus’ directive, “Stop judging, so that you will not be judged” (Matthew 7:1).

This is the ordinary life of a Christian living in these extraordinary times.

These are all examples of the lies, untruths, and false doctrines that have been planted into the field of this world. These lies, untruths and false doctrines cause weeds to grow and flourish in the field. The weeds attack, undermine and try to choke the faith and life out of the wheat in the field.

But we shouldn’t become angry or agitated, frustrated or frightened by the weeds. We should not become apathetic to what is going on in our culture. We cannot curl up in a ball, disengage from the culture and hope everything gets better.

Jesus told us all this would happen. He used a story to help us better understand: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the plants sprouted and produced heads of grain, the weeds also appeared.”

While God’s Christians – the sons of the kingdom – slept, the devil sowed his seeds on top of Jesus’ good seed. And the two sprouted up together. Wheat and weeds side by side.

The weeds are connected to the wheat. They will try to choke the life from the wheat. They will try to drain all the nutrients out of the ground and the air. They want to see the wheat suffer and die. Unbelievers are not content in their unbelief. They want Bibles out of public schools, evolution taught in public universities, acceptance of every lifestyle and tolerance for any viewpoint.

The devil wishes to kill the faith of every Christian so that they end up burning with him and his weeds at the Last Harvest.

And the tragic thing is … we let him!

We don’t need polls to tell us what is going on in our culture. We just need to scroll social media, turn on the TV or walk outside. We have already capitulated our culture to the weeds.

We cower in the corner when our faith is challenged. We don’t speak out when our children are shacking up with their fiance. We don’t call our friends to repentance for the language they use around us.

We don’t appear any different from the unbelievers when we go out to the bar; when we are sleeping in instead of worshiping; when we are dealing with our spouse or children; when we are speaking filthy curse words or taking the Lord’s name in vain or shouting with outbursts of anger.

We do all of these things! Yet, somehow, we believe we are different from the unbelievers. Even though we so often look and act just like them.

We have grown to love the weeds of this world, naively assuming that such devotion is not harmful to our relationship with Jesus. As though having the weeds so closely intertwined with us won’t affect us at all.

I know it doesn’t work like this agriculturally, but it does theologically – the weeds can transform the wheat into weeds.

We have tolerated the enemy’s words in our midst. We have allowed ourselves to be deceived by words scratching our itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3). We have let false doctrine into the church, the very seed which leads to more weeds. While we have been spiritually asleep – distracted by the pleasures of the world – the enemy is busy sowing his seeds in the Lord’s fields.

This is not the will of the Sower. This is not the will of the Savior. An enemy has done this!

What should we do? A few weeks ago, I built some flowerbeds in the back of our house. I also spread grass seed over new soil in our backyard. I now have flowers growing in my flowerbeds … and some weeds, too. I have new grass growing … along with some crabgrass. I want to dig out the weeds, but I’m afraid I’ll dig out my new flowers. I want to pull up the crabgrass, but I’m afraid I’ll destroy my newly planted grass. The servants asked the sower, “Do you want us to go and gather up the weeds?” That’s what any other sower of good seed would do – gather the weeds and destroy them.

But that’s not the way in the Kingdom of God.

Th sower of the sons of the kingdom is concerned for the whole field – the whole world. He has come to give his life as a ransom for the world. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son” (John 3:16). God not only loves and died for Christians, he loves and died for the entire world.

The sower in the parable says to his servants, “When you gather up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘First, gather up the weeds, bind them in bundles, and burn them. Then, gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Jesus does not want the wheat to be harmed when the weeds are removed. In his divine providence, he allows the weeds to grow alongside the wheat. Jesus does not want the wheat to be choked into becoming weeds. Instead, he wants the weeds to be cultivated into wheat. He desires for the unbeliever to be converted to Christ.

Again, I know it doesn’t work like this agriculturally, but it does theologically – through the working of the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament, wheat can transform weeds into wheat.  

Our Lord Jesus, the owner of the field, came to live among the weeds. He didn’t apply some kind of cosmic Roundup to the field, sanitizing it before he became flesh and dwelt among us. He immersed himself into the grime and grit of this sin-infested world. He lived flawlessly among the devil and all his demonic seeds so that his blood might turn sinners into saints, so that he could protect the wheat living among the weeds, so that he could convert and save, and so that he could raise the dead for his final Harvest.

Jesus announces at the end of his explanation of this parable: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” We are the righteous ones, the sons and daughters of the kingdom – not because of who we are, but because we have been joined to Christ. Joined with Christ in his Church, our focus is not to yank the weeds – as if we could tell the difference! – but to cultivate the field. Through water poured over heads, Word put into ears and the Sacrament placed into tongues, we have been transformed from weeds by nature into wheat by grace. It is through these same waters of Baptism, Word of God and Sacrament of the Supper that transforms natural born weeds into spiritually reborn wheat.

The enemy tries to sow dissension and division. He attempts to separate and segregate. He sows wrath and anger. God sows unity and love, kindness and compassion, grace and patience. When we demonstrate unity, love, kindness, compassion, grace and patience to each other and to others, the world takes notice. They aren’t seeing any of that right now. But they can see it from us. God uses us, along with his Means of Grace, to turn weeds into wheat.

As our district’s new Mission Board chairman, I’ve been gone almost this whole week for District Mission Board chairman training and meetings. I heard awesome stories, plus I shared some of my own, of God turning weeds into wheat these last few months.

I talked about when our church was closed in May to public worship, still the Lord of the Church grew his Christian Church with 9 youth confirmations, 1 child baptism, 2 adult baptisms, and 4 adult confirmations. Every one of those baptized and confirmed saints came to us through our combined ministry of Epiphany and WLS. The Sower planted his seed in our classrooms, and that seed grew and flourished within the homes, so that those seeds could be watered and fertilized at our font, pews and communion rail.

A classmate of mine has always been a fantastic mission pastor. When in-person adult confirmation classes became impossible this spring, he started Zoom classes. He had his biggest class in 24 years in the ministry! 25 adults! God used the fear of the virus, the uncertainty of these times, and the seeds of faith planted through his church and school, members and students, to change weeds into wheat.

There are other wonderful stories about some of our WELS home missions that were planning to have their first opening services this spring or fall. But all that changed. And God blessed that change! They changed and adapted their ministry and God is blessing those changes and adaptations.

We are the wheat. We are living among the weeds. That is the extraordinarily ordinary life of a Christian. We need to be aware that the weeds are intent in turning us into weeds. We need to remain ever vigilant into using God’s Word and Sacraments so that the Holy Spirit can convert weeds into wheat!

Judgment Day is coming. The Lord’s patience will end. The time for repentance will run out. There will be a harvest. At the harvest, there will be a separation. Wheat will be separated from weeds. Believers will enter eternal glory. Unbelievers will be cast into the fires of hell.

But there is still time. Don’t allow yourself to be infected with the cold unbelief of the unbelievers. Instead, inject others with the warming love of Christ. Pray that the Sower turns the enemy’s plans against him so that the weeds are influenced by their proximity to the wheat.  Amen.

Above all, love each other constantly, because love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8) Amen.