Out in the Weeds

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

My kids love this time of year – it seems that everywhere we drive, we are surrounded by fields, and most of them are being harvested right about now. The boys love seeing combines working the fields. Anyone who works on a farm will tell you that many aspects of farming are solid metaphors for life. Jesus recognized that as well, and saw that he could explain aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven through farming metaphor. Because Matthew wrote his Gospel primarily for a Jewish audience, he uses the language “Kingdom of Heaven” largely because Jews would avoid using God’s name. This is, in fact, where we get the name “Jehovah” for God – Jews were so careful when they wrote God’s Name, Yahweh, that they would write the consonants for Yahweh, but they would write the vowels for Adonai, meaning Lord. So when we see him referring to the Kingdom of Heaven, we are not talking simply about Heaven. We are talking about the same thing that Jesus talks about when he teaches us to pray: Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

The church is called to live out God’s kingdom on earth. So Jesus described the kingdom like a farmer sowing good seed. Of all the people in the world, God chose Abraham and blessed him to be a blessing. God sowed good seed – his chosen people. He chose people to be his children, his beloved sons and daughters.

But under the cover of night’s secrecy, something happened. The Bible is consistent in its depiction of day and night. Daytime is positive, night time is negative. In Revelation 21:25, Heaven is depicted as never needing to shut its gates, for there will be no night there. Night time is the time of trickery, deceit, and crime. Whenever you hear a news story and the time is 2:30 am, you know that it’s not going to be a positive story. Nothing good happens at that time of night!

Jesus has already proclaimed “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5), and the Apostle Paul makes a beautiful contrast between day and night. In 1 Thessalonians 5:5-8 he says: You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. God has sown us as “good seeds” to live in Jesus Christ’s light. This means being alert and self-controlled. Not distracted by all kinds of other things, not sleeping or dozing off, but always ready for action.

In Romans 13:11-12 we read: And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

It is during the night, while everyone was sleeping, that the devil came in, sowing weeds.

When I was on my mission trip in Russia, one day trip we took was to a collective farm, where our job was to weed a dill field. We found out that the dill was sensitive to herbicides, so the field had to be weeded by hand. I remember finding a thistle growing in my row – it was about three feet tall. I pulled it up and presented it as a “flower” to one of the women in our program. It was easy to tell the weeds from the dill. But the word that the NIV translation has rendered “weeds” is much worse than weeds. This ζιζανια is better translated “degenerate wheat.” This was a bad hybrid wheat; it originally came from healthy wheat but became bad. It looked like good wheat, but tasted bitter and even caused dizziness. It is, in essence, poison. Unfortunately it is impossible to identify from the plant which is good wheat and which is ζιζανια, so it cannot be pulled up in advance. Furthermore, the roots grow together, and by pulling up the bad, you’re bound to pull up the good as well. And so you have to wait until harvest and sort the good from the bad at that time.

So often we think of judgment day as an “us and them” proposition. After all, we’re the ones in church. We’re the ones who have heard the Gospel. But Jesus explains that among the children of God, the devil has sown weeds, and there is only one way to tell the weeds from the wheat. Jesus says that we will be known by our fruit. In Matthew 7:15, he warns people to “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Notice that he didn’t say they come in shepherd’s clothing? That’s because they aren’t necessarily the pastors or leaders who are leading people astray. They are people within the congregation, and they are dangerous. Jesus goes on to say, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:20).

God isn’t fooled by church attendance or service or whatever else we do in place of living for Him. And he calls his people to be alert and aware as well. We will be known by our fruit. What kind of fruit are you bearing?

The Bible tells us what Fruit God is looking for – the “wheat” in this parable will be known by our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) This earth is a human training ground. We recognize that we are all imperfect, but that as Christians, we are going on to perfection. This is what sanctification is all about; at one moment we were cleansed, made holy, sanctified, set apart by the Holy Spirit for God’s purpose. But sanctification is also a life-long pursuit of holiness, and we need to work toward it.

Anyone who has ever competed in a sport knows that a lot of hard work goes into the competition. Many people look at a marathon and say, “I could never run 26.2 miles” but the truth is no marathon runner runs just 26.2. I put in some 600 miles in specific marathon training in the 16 weeks prior to the marathon. Paul says that he doesn’t run aimlessly, but rather, “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:27)

Everything that God allows in our lives, He can use to shape us into his likeness. The Bible often uses the imagery of refining gold; you can’t refine gold without intense heat. What would happen if you looked at the “weeds” in your life as opportunities for growth? It’s kind of like when you ask God for patience; we say, “God, give me patience, and give it to me now!” But God doesn’t just give us patience; God gives us the opportunity to practice patience.

God leaves the weeds in amongst the wheat partially because they give us opportunities to put into practice those characteristics that God has called forth in us. Living out the Fruit of the Spirit is like anything that is worthwhile – if we don’t practice it, we won’t be able to do it when the going gets tough. In marathon running, I’ve often heard one particular phrase: trust your training. What that means is: you’ve already put in 600 miles on the road, you’ve done the fast runs and the long runs, now believe that they will work. I have made the mistake of going out too fast¸ which is a symptom of not trusting my training.

Honestly, when you get into a stressful situation, you will do what you have trained to do. This is why our Armed Forces training is brutal. It’s why boot camp is so tough. We don’t want soft soldiers who have been coddled to show up in combat situations. You want them to be ready. Since God calls us to practice the Fruit of the Spirit, ask Him for opportunities to practice.

And while we’re at it, let’s get over the notion that we’ve arrived or that we’re supposed to have all of these fruits perfect right now. Practice is when we learn skills and work hard to perfect the skills we’ve learned. We try and try and fail again and again, but keep working and asking God to shape us, and as we do so, we will begin to see success. It can be tiresome to continually remind yourself that God might be using this person or situation to shape you into His likeness, but God calls us to persevere! When I was coaching JV soccer, we were working on a particular skill and one of the kids asked me the eternal question: when will we ever use this? That very week, he found himself in the exact situation we had been practicing, and he ended up scoring a goal. After he scored, he looked at me and I shrugged at him and mouthed, “well?” and he said, “It was just like practice!”

What would we look like if we intentionally practiced the Fruit of the Spirit with one another? Remember that we are the Body of Christ, and we’re in a safe place to practice. We are all in this together. We will be known by our fruit, and the weeds in question looked just like the wheat… that is, until the fruit came out. What fruit will we be known for? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control? Or something else? Apathy, bitterness, selfishness, impatience, back-biting, brutality, gossip, being out of control? We will be known by our fruit.

There is another reason that the farmer leaves the weeds in with the wheat, and this has nothing to do with farming. In fact, it’s completely foreign to agriculture for two reasons: because wheat and weeds are never just wheat and weeds, and because with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26) When Jesus said this, He was telling his followers how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God, and they questioned how anyone could be saved. This is appropriate when dealing with weeds and wheat – because it is impossible for a weed to change into a plant, but with God all things are possible. God can transform even the nastiest weed into a fruitful plant.

So as we continue to pray for those who aren’t even in the field, and even as we continue to practice the Fruit of the Spirit, I ask you to pray for the transformation of the weeds. Because as much as justice demands punishment and payment, I recognize that on my own, without Jesus, I, too, would belong with the weeds, being harvested and burned. And by the gift of Jesus Christ, he weeds among us, even the worst, can be transformed and have a fresh start with the Holy Spirit.