Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.
Once I was driving children home after church and as I was asking them about their morning, they volunteered this insightful information. “Did you know that not every kid at church knows how to worship?” That day my car full of little kids couldn’t wait to tattle on the children that don’t stand for worship or even try to sing the songs in Sunday School. They thought their revelation would shock me, but their words actually made me very sad. Listening to them, made me realize how early it starts with us judging other people’s spiritual lives.
To be honest today’s parable is difficult to put into practice. Even after reading this passage over fifty time it is still hard for me to consistently, stop judging other people’s faith, or their lack of faith. In some strange twist of reasoning I find it especially difficult to stop judging judgey people. What would this look like if we obeyed Jesus’ teaching? So, before we start reading let’s pray and ask God to speak to us through his word, then let’s read Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.
24 He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. 26 When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. 27 The landowner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’
28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he told them.
“‘So, do you want us to go and pull them up?’ the servants asked him.
29 “‘No,’ he said. ‘When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn.’” CSB
Now let’s skip down a few verses in chapter 13 where Jesus gives the explanation of this parable to his disciples in Matthew 13:36-43.
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37 He replied, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world; and the good seed—these are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom all who cause sin and those guilty of lawlessness. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Let anyone who has ears listen. CSB
Jesus is talking about a specific kind of judgment with this parable. He is warning us against judging someone’s spiritual life. He is not referencing the judgement call a parent makes to protect her child or the necessity of evaluating someone for spiritual leadership in a congregation. There is a difference between evaluating someone’s spiritual maturity to do a job and judging if someone is of child of the devil or not. Jesus is warning us in this parable of the dangers of judging who the wheat are and who the weeds are.
Jesus says in this parable, “Let the weeds and the wheat grow together.” How many of us on first reading Jesus’ words thought well that’s risky? But, let’s look deeper. I want us to consider why it is risky to judge who are the real believers?
It is risky because the weeds are everywhere. Sometimes we wrongly believe we can control and create safe places where we can’t get hurt. Jesus is teaching this is impossible on this planet. The people who we work with, go to school with, live next door to, attend church with or even share a bedroom with might be children of the devil, but Jesus doesn’t want us wasting our time trying to figure out who the good guys are. He has a greater job reserved for us.
The first reason Jesus gives us for not judging someone’s faith is because the wheat and the weeds are sown together in this world. We need to accept the fact that while we live on this planet we will never be able to create a spot completely free of the children of the evil one. My godly parents couldn’t do this for me as a child and I was unable to do this for my loved ones. This parable reminds us that the devil has planted his children right next to God’s children.
Why does he alert us? I believe he alerts us, so we don’t lose the plot. We are called to love people into the kingdom of God and that is impossible if we are constantly looking for the bad guys, or trying to figure out who are the genuine believers. God alone knows who is truly for him, not only that only God knows who will eventually come to him. Our job is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We mustn’t forget the plot. We were created to bear Christ’s image of love on this earth.
It is risky because trying to figure out who the weeds are uproots the wheat. In the Middle-East there is a weed whose common name is Darnel. As a seedling it is impossible to tell the difference between darnel and wheat. When darnel has reached a certain level of maturity, where it is finally recognizable that it is not wheat, it is already too late because darnel’s root system is made up of tendrils which wrap themselves around the roots of the plants that it grows next to. This makes it impossible to pull up this weed without also uprooting the wheat.
Jesus is warning us that witch hunts will be notorious for uprooting and hurting genuine believers. If you study Christian history, you will discover God has never, never, ever blessed a witch hunt. We need to accept Jesus’ words as truth and put them into practice. If we will, it will make our evangelism even more potent. We mustn’t miss the plot. We were created to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves not to search for and expose the pretenders.
It is risky because this is a job reserved for angels. There will never be a time now or in the future when we will be in charge of figuring out who are the genuine believers. This job has been reserved for the angels. We have a different job, a calling that actually fascinates the angels.
In Ephesians 3:8-11, we read that without the church living out her gospel assignment those in the heavenly realm will remain clueless about God’s multi-faceted, mysterious, and eternal plans. Look at Paul’s words.
8 This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ, 9 and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. 10 This is so that God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens. 11 This is according to his eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. CSB
When Paul uses the two Greek words we translate “rulers” and “authorities” he infuses a deeper meaning into those words than the other New Testament writers do. For example, when Luke uses these words “rulers” and “authorities”, he is referencing the Rich Young Ruler, or he is referring to the religious or political authorities Jesus is taken before on the night he was betrayed. But, when Paul uses these words “rulers” and “authorities”, he is always referencing angels. Sometimes, like here in Ephesians 3:10 he is talking about both good angels and bad angels, and at other times like in Ephesians 6:12 he is only taking about bad angels.
So, with that background reread Paul’s words again in Ephesians 3:8-11.
1 Peter 1:10-12 reveals this about the angels’ curiosity.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated. 11 They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified in advance to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—angels long to catch a glimpse of these things. CSB
The prophets who were writing about the grace that was coming didn’t completely understand what they were writing about and the coming of Jesus’ mission to earth was something that even perplexed the angels. The unfolding mystery of salvation that Abraham first received by faith and was eventually preached to the Gentiles is thrilling for the angelic rulers and authorities to observe. They are amazed at God’s ability to call us to himself. They watch the children of God spreading the news of this free gift of salvation across the globe with anticipation, and while spying on us they uncover the mysterious multifaceted wisdom of God.
Disciples of Christ have a very specific assignment from God, we are to share the good news of God’s kingdom with the entire world. We do this best when we love each other. Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” But, when we usurp the angel’s assignment by trying to separate the weeds from the wheat we make ourselves powerless to do what we were really created to do. We can’t have it both ways. The angels will do the harvesting at the end of time, but until that day they are cheering us on because for now we are involved in a critical life-saving mission. We won’t be able to bring salvation to the lost if we believe we are supposed to be rooting out the bad guys. While there is breath in their lungs, every child of the devil has the potential to repent and become a child of God. If we begin to see people as unredeemable we will completely miss our eternal purpose. We were created by God to love him, this is the first and greatest commandment. The second greatest commandment is similar to the first, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. We learn in Luke 15 that the angels are watching in anticipation to see who will next fall into God’s arms of mercy and they throw parties in heaven every time a lost person is found (Luke 15:7, 10).
In today’s passage Jesus gives three reasons it is dangerous for us to judge a person’s spiritual life. It is risky to try to judge who are the real believers because the weeds are everywhere, pulling the weeds will uproot the wheat, and it is a job reserved for angels.
The weeds are everywhere – In our world evil exist right along-side the good. Sometimes even in the institutions we want to consider safe like homes, churches, denominations, schools or hospitals.
Pulling the weeds will uproot the wheat – The tendrils of evil can entangle any of us. Hold on to Jesus and he will see us through to the other side. It is always worth it to obey Jesus’ words because a serious judgement day is coming. A day of fire when it will be made known who really belongs to God.
It is a job reserved for the angels – Don’t rush in trying to do a job that will never be given to us.
Jesus’ teaching here is very practical and balanced. Don’t judge people’s spiritual lives. It will only exhaust us and pull us away from our eternal purpose. But, balance that with remembering there is a judgement day coming. There is a terrible fire coming for those who don’t become children of God while they are still on earth. We mustn’t forget the plot. As believers God has created us to make his love known on this earth. Will we embrace his call or will we seek a calling reserved for angels? To embrace our eternal purpose we need to learn to stay in our lane and we need to let angels do the job that they were created for. Think about the balance in this story between not judging another’s spiritual life and remembering a judgement day is coming. How might the knowledge of these two truths keep us balanced?
Jesus closes this passage with these words. “Let anyone who has ears listen.” This phrase appears twenty-one times in the Bible and it always signals something that is very important to God. The Bible can not be studied like any other subject. When we come to the word of God we often approach it like there is a head knowledge and there is a heart knowledge. Jesus does not make this distinction. Unfortunately, we are often content with a mere head knowledge of the scriptures and not seeking real life change. I believe with all my heart that to obey Jesus’ teaching we will need a deep heart change.
