Göttinger Predigten
Göttinger Predigten im Internet hg. von U. Nembach
Pentecost 7, 07/23/2017
Sermon on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, by Richard O. Johnson
24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” … 36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. –Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43 ESV
Lady Nancy Astor was the first woman elected to Parliament. Known for her scathing wit, she traded some particularly sharp barbs with Sir Winston Churchill. One story has it that Lady Astor was seated next to Churchill at a dinner party when they were having a particularly sharp difference of political opinion. “If you were my husband,” Lady Astor declared, “I’d put poison in your tea.” To which Churchill replied, “Madam, if you were my wife, I’d drink it.”
This acerbic exchange illustrates the impatience that many of us have with people or ideas that we don’t like. We are eager for the quick solution. We think we know what is right, and we’re ready to knock down anybody who disagrees. This is particularly true of religious people, it seems; we are often quick to embark on crusades. This is nothing new, of course. Jesus dealt with it in the people of his day: Pharisees who wanted to avoid associated with anyone who wasn’t completely kosher; Zealots who wanted to use violence to smite the Roman foe; the self-righteous who were willing and ready to stone a woman taken in adultery, to ridicule Jesus because of his associations, to criticize and oppose almost everything he said and did.
This self-righteousness is exactly the attitude Jesus addresses in this morning’s parable. The Kingdom of Heaven, he says, is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. Under cover of darkness, his enemy came and sowed weeds. The servants wonder where it came from—“We thought you planted good seed!” they tell the master. He replies that these weeds are the work of an enemy. “Well then,” say the servants, “how about if we go out and pull out all the weeds right now?” Much to their surprise, the Master responds, “No, for there’s too much danger of pulling up the wheat along with the weeds. Rather wait, let both grow together until the harvest; then they will be separated.”
The servants’ solution
It’s our human tendency, you see, to want to pull up the weeds now, to root out evil now. It’s what we might call the “servants’ solution.” Go in and get rid of what’s wrong. You can almost imagine the servants offering to make this raid with some enthusiasm, for people are like that! We love a good witch hunt! Perhaps it is a social evil that gets us worked up, or perhaps some political faction that we know are just this side of evil in their views. Just let us at them—we’ll take care of ‘em, Master!
Imagine their surprise when the Master’s answer is an unhesitating “No! Let them grow!” The Master’s solution is different. Instead of an immediate attack, he advocates patience. “Let both grow together until the harvest.” That is not what the servants had in mind!
It troubles us, doesn’t it? It surely troubled those servants—not just that their solution wasn’t what the Master wanted, but that they had to be patient with those weeds! Who wants them there, who wants to watch them growing, day after day? That’s how it is with us. We want things to be OK right now. We want evil vanquished, bad people out of the picture, sin and sickness and death done away with. Yet the Master counsels patience. Why? What makes the Master’s solution the right one?
The master’s solution: recognize that you’re clueless
The parable suggests several answers to that. It tells us, first of all, that we servants aren’t really equipped to do the weeding we’d like to do. It’s hard to admit such limitations, but in the parable it is very plain to see. The servants are completely clueless! They don’t even know where these weeds came from! The master gently points out that they will not be able to distinguish between the wheat and the weeds, and if they go stomping through the field pulling up plants, they are going to pull up some wheat and leave some weeds.
And isn’t that how it is with us? We’ve got such certain opinions about things, about what is right and wrong, but often those opinions just mask ignorance and prejudice. We need time. Time to reflect, time to study, time to learn. And so the Master says, “No, don’t try to do it yourselves right now. You’re not able.”
The master’s solution: be patient
Then the parable also suggests that the Master’s perspective of time is different from that of the servants. The servants just see the weeds growing today, and think they must be eradicated. The Master looks ahead to the harvest. He knows that the weeds can be dealt with then more effectively. And so he can be patient, and ask us to be patient. Now that does not mean that we servants are told to ignore evil; certainly Jesus gives us plenty of instruction about how to identify and confront evil in society, evil in the church, evil in ourselves. But it means that we don’t have to be so worried about immediate results! “Let both grow together until the harvest”—be aware of the weeds, but concentrate on the task of growing wheat. Do not get sucked into the idea that you have to solve everything in the world today. There is time—God’s time.
Last week in our Thursday Bible study we were talking about confession and forgiveness. I recalled one of the first experiences I had of a Lutheran liturgy. It was at a rather intimate communion service in the Yale Divinity School chapel. We had prayed the prayer of confession; we were kneeling still, and the pastor came around the circle and laid his hands on each individual person’s head, and spoke the words of the absolution that was common in the old Swedish Augustana Synod: “The Almighty and merciful God grant unto you, being penitent, pardon and remission of all your sins, time for amendment of life, and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit.” It was that phrase time for amendment of life that stuck me, and that I can still hear. Time for amendment of life. God is patient with me, with you. He does not judge us now, but grants us time—time for amendment of life. Time to turn our wandering hearts to him. God is patient.
The master’s solution: cultivate the good
And that brings to mind a third point about the intermingling of good and evil, and our difficulty in separating them. You see, it doesn’t mean just that I’m good and you’re bad, and so I’ve got to be patient with you. It means also that within me, good and evil are intermingled. It’s like we heard Paul say a couple of weeks ago in Romans 7: I can will what is right, but I cannot do it! That’s how it is with all of us. And that’s why the master’s solution—patience, and concentration on the growth of the good—is the best. If it were time right now to pull out all the weeds, to separate the wheat from the tares, which pile would you be in? But the Master graciously grants us time for amendment of life! He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Think about the disciples who gathered with Jesus around the table in the Upper Room. They were a bunch of weeds if ever there were weeds! One had already agreed to betray Jesus, another would shortly deny him, others would desert him. Yet he gathered them around him and called them friends. What a picture of God’s patience!—his patience with evil, his patience with failure, his patience with you and me! And when we gather around his table, it is the same way. We come, not because all the weeds in our lives have been pulled out. Far from it! We come because he is patient with us, far more patient than we usually are with one another. And he gives us time, during which he concentrates on our growth in him.
You know, in the midst of this parable on how we deal with evil in the world, I think there is a word on how we deal with evil in ourselves. If you are like me, the weeds in your life are a great source of frustration and even anger. I’m just like St. Paul at that point; I get so frustrated that I can’t be better than I am, more faithful than I am. In that context, perhaps Jesus’ word in this parable is this: “Be patient with yourself! Don’t concentrate so much on rooting out the weeds, concentrate instead on cultivating the wheat.” It doesn’t do much good, you see, to get angry about one’s temper, for example. How many times do we say, “Well, I’m just going to stop having that temper!” But it doesn’t work that way. The way you control a temper is to cultivate a gentle spirit—concentrate on the wheat, not on the weeds! That’s the Master’s solution—patience! Patience with others, and with ourselves. That doesn’t mean ignoring evil, either in ourselves or in others. But it means cultivating what is good and faithful and godly, and letting God be the judge. It means growing in his word, feasting at his table where his patience washes over us like cleansing water and where goodness and mercy are outpoured. It means trusting God to correct what is wrong in the world, and in our hearts. It means allowing God to be God. That’s the Master’s solution for the evil in the world—and in our own hearts.