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St Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
“Don't Weed This Garden”
Divine Service
Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
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In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Here's a little practical gardening advice from 10,000 Garden Questions:
“Home gardeners, in common with farmers, nursery owners, golf greens keepers, and others engaged in horticultural pursuits, are faced throughout the growing season with the problem of weed control. Keeping weeds out of garden areas where they compete with cultivated plants for nutrients and water is surely one of the most trying and time-consuming tasks of garden maintenance for the home gardener.
“How can you keep weeds down? By constantly attacking them while they are still young, and above all preventing them from seeding.” [p. 1330]
“Constantly attacking them while they are young”... that sounds pretty drastic, but that's how it is with farmers and weeds, it's basically an all out war. Any gardener can tell you about the “trying and time consuming task” of pulling weeds, it is one of the most basic parts of having a garden.
But not with Jesus; not in His field. In our text this morning Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares. The farmer sows good seed, but under the cover of darkness the enemy comes in and sows tares, weeds. When the plants begin to sprout the servants notice that there are tares among the wheat, and ask the master, “Do you want us to go and gather them up?” The master answers, “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.” “No,” says the master, “don't pull up the tares, don't weed this garden.”
But what about the “constantly attacking them while they are still young”? What about the trying and time consuming process”? Jesus says, “Don't weed this garden. Don't pull these weeds.” I want you to see that Jesus is giving bad gardening advice. I want you to see how strange His advice this is, how it is unexpected.
Jesus is telling us a parable, that is an earthy story to express heavenly realities, and very often in a parable, it's the strange and unexpected things that hold the meaning.
For example, how many of you know a farmer that would throw his seed in rocks or in the thorns, or on the interstate? That would not be good farming. A good farmer puts the seed only in the soil that's good and ready. But not Jesus. Remember the parable from last week, Jesus is the sower who sows the seed with reckless abandon. Some falls here, some there, anywhere, really. What kind of farmer is that? And that's the point, that's the gift, the Lord desires that the seed, His Word, goes out to all people; it doesn't matter who. Stony hearts, worried hearts, tired hearts, hearts hardened by sin, all types of hearts, our hearts, Jesus says, “Here's My Word, and a little more, and a little more.” This might not be very good farming, but that's how this parable works: in the unexpected we find the gift, the gift of Jesus' generosity, the gift of His Word for all of us.
Here's another example, the parable of the forgiving king [St Matthew 18:23-35]. This guy comes to the king, and he's in debt up to his ears. Ten thousand talents, that's a ridiculous amount of money, millions, maybe billions. An the king does what he ought, he orders that this guy be thrown in jail. But he begs for his life, promises to repay, and then the king (and here's the surprise, the unexpected), the king forgives all of his debt, and lets him go free. There is no justice in that, no fairness; it's completely unexpected, and that's where this parable is giving the gift, showing us how God's love and mercy and the forgiveness of all of our sins in not earned or deserved, but given unexpectedly, undeservedly, all out of pure grace. The unexpected in the parable teaches us: His forgiveness is always a gift.
Perhaps one more example, the parable of the labors of the vineyard [St Matthew 20:1-16]. A certain landowner had a vineyard, and needed workers, and so early in the morning he finds some men in the marketplace and promises them denarius for their work. He does the same, three, six and nine hours later. When there is only one hour of work left to be done he finds even more to work his vines. When the day is over the workers line up to receive their wages. Those who had only worked an hour receive a denarius, and you know what the guys at the end of the line are thinking, “Wow, this is great, if they are paid a denarius for one hour of work, think how much I'll get paid!” But, and here's the surprise, the unexpected, as each worker comes to receive his payment, they each are paid the same, each gets a denarius. It's not fair, it's not just, it's not right, it's really not good business, it's certainly not expected, but in this unexpected we get the gift, Jesus is teaching us that our reward in not based on our works and labors and efforts, but on His promise. “Did you not agree with me for a denarius?” He pays the workers what he promised them, and so the Lord will do to us. He has promised us life and salvation and the forgiveness of all of our sins, and this He will give us, not because of of hard work, or because we deserve it, but because of His promise. And so, in this parable, the gift of the Gospel is in the unexpected.
And now, back to the parable at hand, the wheat and the tares. The gift is in the unexpected. Any good farmer would have the servants pull up the tares as soon as they are seen, but not Jesus, He says, “Don't weed this garden.”
Jesus explains the parable thus, He is the sower of the good seed, the field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, all Christians, the tares and weeds are the sons of the wicked one, the enemy who sowed them in the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. And so in this world the Lord is pleased to let the unbelievers “grow up” along side believers, and even in the outward appearance of the church, what we call Christiandom, there are tares growing up among the wheat, hypocrites who have the name “Christian” but nothing else, no faith in Jesus, and therefore no salvation. Outwardly they are members of the Church, but they are not saints of God, weeds among the wheat. And yet Jesus is pleased to let them remain. This is the unexpected, and so here is the gift. He is not about the business of “constantly attacking them while they are still young.” Jesus does not try to eradicate the weeds; He works for their salvation; He grants them repentance; He dies for their sins.
We are all born children of the devil, sinners, tares, weeds. But Jesus says, “Don't weed this garden, not yet.” Instead He waters us through Holy Baptism, fertilizes us with His Word, washes us with His Blood. He is patient with the tares, they they might become wheat, trusting not in their owns works but in Jesus who has done all. And indeed He has done it.
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. [Colossians 1:13-14]
And so the unexpected patience of the Gardener is our salvation, for He has not given us what we deserved, uprooted us and thrown us into the fire, but in His grace has granted us to believe and given us life and salvation and the forgiveness of all of our sins. “Don't weed this garden, not yet, not yet...”
There is one more thing, Jesus in this parable takes us all the way to the end, to the time when He will come again and judge the quick and the dead. No one knows that day or that hour, and so we live in eager expectation. The Lord might return today, tonight, next week or next year. Whenever it is, then His holy angels will come to reap; then there will be judgment; then the wheat will be separated from the tares, the sheep from the goats, the believers from the unbelievers. Then the terrifying threat: the tares who clung not by faith to Jesus the angels will “cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” [13:42]
On the other hand [St Matthew 25:33], Jesus speaks much differently about the wheat, that is, about all of you who believe in Him. The wheat has this glorious promise, “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” [13:43] It won't be too much longer now; the Lord will come to gather His own to Himself, and there, in His face, will be perfect peace and happiness, perfect joy and bliss, forever and ever.
May God grant us His Holy Spirit, that we remain wheat in His garden, rejoicing in the forgiveness of all of our sins, until we at last, receive the fullness of our salvation, eternal life with God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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