Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
This year we have been blessed with rain that has kept the lawns green and growing well into July. The lawns look good when they are freshly mowed, but, soon after, in many cases, the Bahiagrass rears its ugly heads high above the desired turf. Reportedly, there are both pre‑emergent herbicides, to prevent the seeds from sprouting, and post‑emergent herbicides, to stunt or eliminate the invasive South‑American grass. But, around here, people seem to let both grasses grow together until the next time that they mow. Similarly, in what the disciples called “The Parable of the Weeds of the Field” in today’s Gospel Reading, the Master of the House tells His servants to let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until the harvest. With the help of the Holy Spirit, this morning we consider today’s Gospel Reading, directing our thoughts to the theme “Good and evil grow together until the end of the age”.
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up right where last Sunday’s Gospel Reading left off (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23), with what Jesus called its “Parable of the Sower”, which we said then was about the fact that some people do repent and believe, and other people do not repent and believe. The Parable of today’s Gospel Reading, which is unique to St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, somewhat incidentally gives an explanation for the existence of evil in the world, something Pilgrim’s Elders and I discussed this past week in connection with Augsburg Confession Article XIX. But, the Parable mostly indicates that both the children of the kingdom and the children of the evil one “grow together” in the world “until the end of the age”, when there will be a separation, and the ones causing sin and breaking the law will be cast out, but the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
As we have heard even here at Pilgrim, people sometimes mis‑interpret “The Parable of the Weeds of the Field” by taking the field not as the world but as the Church, saying that the Church should not try to separate the unrepentant unbelievers from the repentant believers “until the end of the age”. However, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus makes clear that the field is the world, and elsewhere, for example, as we will hear in seven weeks, He teaches about the need to excommunicate unrepentant unbelievers from the Church (for example, Matthew 18:15-20). So, Pilgrim’s Constitution, Bylaws, and Standing Rules rightly provide for the congregation to excommunicate, for example, those who neglect their duties of membership, including being unwilling to hear Christian admonition, or those who are unresponsive to the witness and ministry of the church. And, “The Parable of the Weeds of the Field” is arguably ignored by literal millennialists of every stripe—whether dispensational premillennialists, historic premillennialists, or postmillennialists—who imagine such things as a secret rapture of believers out of the world, or some other form of separation of the good and evil before the end of the age, or a thousand‑year peaceful reign of Christ on earth, despite the fact that, as we heard, the Master of the House at harvest time will tell the reapers to gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned.
To be sure, such a separation will take place, when we die, or at the end of the age, whichever comes first. While we might normally think of God’s patience as serving His desire for people to repent and believe (for example, 1 Peter 3:9), the Parable of today’s Gospel Reading does not speak about patience for repentance, or about weeds becoming wheat, or about anything of that sort. Of course, even we who can be regarded as wheat may be dissatisfied with God’s seemingly unspectacular kingdom. We may wish that God would gather the weeds now, maybe even if His gathering the weeds now means His rooting up some wheat along with the weeds. Around us we see people who, for example, increasingly reject the governing authorities that God institutes to approve of those who do good and to carry out God’s wrath on those who do evil (for example, Romans 13:1-7). But, we all still are sinful by nature and would deserve both to die now and to be tormented for eternity, apart from the Holy Spirit’s leading us to repent and believe and so to be forgiven for Jesus’s sake.
The separation at the end of the age is in some sense the consummation of Jesus’s ministry, not chiefly in the eternal torment of the weeds causing sin and breaking the law, but chiefly in the eternal blessedness of the wheat righteous by God’s grace for Jesus’s sake through faith in Him (confer Fickenscher, Looking Forward, 189). Today’s Old Testament Reading described the Lord as our Redeemer and His having appointed an ancient people (Isaiah 44:6-8). Today’s Psalm sang of the earth’s being full of the Lord’s “steadfast love”, His “mercy” (Psalm 119:57‑64; antiphon: v.89). Today’s Epistle Reading spoke of our being saved in the sure and certain hope in and of our patiently waiting for the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:18-27). And, today’s Gospel Reading described Jesus as the Son of Man Who is master of the world, commands the angels, and executes judgment. And, we all would be judged as unrighteous had Jesus not both lived the life that we fail to live and died on the cross for our failure to live that life. Truly Jesus died in our place, as our substitute, and then He rose from the dead, in part showing that God the Father accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. The Son of God came so that we could be righteous wheat!
As St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and to us, God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), and the Holy Spirit assures of that election as He leads us to repent and believe in time, working both through God’s Word read and preached to groups such as this group and through God’s Gospel applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us in the Holy Supper. In Holy Baptism we are adopted as God’s children of the kingdom and made co‑heirs with Christ. In Holy Absolution we are forgiven of our sins by our pastors as validly and certainly as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself. And, in the Holy Supper, we receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all of these ways, our Lord Jesus is with always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
Today’s Collect of the Day asked God to so rule and govern our hearts and minds by His Holy Spirit that, ever mindful of His final judgment, we may be stirred up to holiness of living here, and dwell with Him in perfect joy hereafter. As we heard even in today’s Psalm, prayer is an important part of our patiently living here as wheat enduring the weeds; with our limited and sometimes impatient point of view, we especially need the Holy Spirit to, as described in today’s Epistle Reading, intercede for us with groanings too deep for words (Fickenscher, Looking Forward, 187-189). We also need to be reminded that the sufferings of this present time do not go on forever and are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Until then, we try to do the good works of God’s Commandments according to our various callings in life, and, with daily sorrow over our sin and trust in God’s grace for Jesus’s sake, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins, and, in turn, we extend our forgiveness to one another.
The Parable of today’s Gospel Reading is “heavy with warning” but also “bright with hope and joy” (Lenksi, ad loc Matthew 13:42-43, p.546). Like the desired lawn turf and the Bahiagrass, so in Jesus’s Parable and in its explanation: “Good and evil grow together until the end of the age”, then, our Lord Jesus says, “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
