Wheat & Weeds & a Good Sermon

This past Sunday, the Gospel lesson was the parable of the Wheat and Weeds, from Matthew.  (It is attached below.)  Now, I have been going to church for a very long time, and have had many opportunities to hear sermons preached on this passage, and have had more than one occasion to study it in small groups, or on my own.

And yet this time, Pastor Siri showed me see things I had not seen before -- or if I had, I must have forgotten them.

One of the primary points of the sermon was that we all like to think of ourselves as being "wheat."  Of course, if we are asked directly, in church, if we are "wheat" or "weed" we self-consciously have to admit that we are sometimes one, and sometimes another.

But in our everyday lives, we believe we are right, we are the ones making progress towards being something more -- and that others around us, competing for the sun and nourishment, are the weeds.

This is what Siri's sermons do so well -- they ask us to examine the meaning of biblical teaching to our own lives, and they lead us to question ourselves.  Typically, this passage is used in studying "the end times."  Siri has it apply to our times.

But that's not even the biggest of the "new" points. 

In the parable, the farmer gets asked by his workers if they should go out and gather the weeds.  The farmer says no.  He would not want the workers to mistake a stalk of wheat for a weed and destroy it intentionally.  Instead, the farmer gives the job of separation to the harvesters.

And who are the harvesters?  The angels.  But nevermind that.

The "point" is that his workers are not the ones who should be doing the separation.  A separation will come, but it will not be the people -- the fallible people working for the Son of Man -- who do the separation.

And once again, we have something we can apply to our own lives.  Do we care for the fields, or do we try to spend our time deciding which person is a weed and which is wheat, and then separate the "bad" from the "good?"  If we are judging, if we are separating, if we are making decisions before the harvest, we are overstepping our role.

Earlier in chapter 7 of the same gospel, Jesus says:

¹ “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

   ³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

It's pretty hard to weed a field with a plank in your eye.

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

24He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' 28He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
... 
36Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." 37He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!