WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.439 What is your least favorite chore at home? 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:05.839 Go ahead and tell the person next to you. 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:07.679 What's your least favorite chore? 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:15.359 Hmm. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.839 Getting a few of you in trouble, it looks like. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:26.480 I honestly thought that conversation would be a little more lively, but um maybe that's maybe it's good that it's not. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:29.839 Um I honestly don't know how I would answer that question today. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:37.280 It probably changes day by day, but when I think back to my childhood, my answer is immediate and unequivocal. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:40.479 I could not stand weeding. 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:42.880 Anyone say weeding? 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:44.960 Oh, oh, a lot of us. 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:45.520 Okay. 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:56.799 Well, um, right in front of our house, running alongside the driveway where I grew up, we had this long, kind of skinny patch of dirt um covered in flowers. 00:00:57.039 --> 00:01:02.479 And in the summertime, it was my chore to weed that patch a few times a week. 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:04.879 And I I just I couldn't stand it. 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:05.920 I couldn't. 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:12.799 Uh for one thing, I felt like I was constantly having to ask my parents which of the green things in the garden were weeds? 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:14.719 They all look kind of okay to me. 00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:16.719 They were hard to discern and tell apart. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:19.439 Uh, for another, I really couldn't always see the point. 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:23.519 Why would we consider some plants worthy of life and and others not? 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:29.120 For yet another, weeds can be stubborn, not wanting to come out. 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:36.159 And I learned pretty quickly that it was not acceptable for some reason to simply level off the weed at ground level. 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:38.319 Had to uproot the whole thing. 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:40.239 This wasn't easy. 00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:43.599 And it often brought with it a bunch of collateral damage. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:47.040 A few too many marigolds ended up in my bucket. 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:53.120 Then there's the thorns, the bugs, the blistering Hermiston heat. 00:01:53.840 --> 00:02:02.079 I remember one time uh we were completely redoing a whole section of the garden, and I was introduced to the garden hoe. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:03.680 What a day. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:09.680 What relish I took and raking it across every square inch completely, indiscriminately. 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:10.879 It was wonderful. 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:15.919 And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I was given a weed eater. 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:17.680 Oh yeah. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:23.759 Man, there was something about the smell of gas and the sheer power that it brought with it. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:25.520 Good stuff. 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:35.039 But most of the time, I had to deal with the weeds up close and personal, down on my knees, pulling them up hand by hand, one by one. 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:39.280 To be honest, I don't really mind weeding anymore, actually. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:41.199 I kind of find it relaxing sometimes. 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:44.719 But back when I was young, weeding was a slog. 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:53.439 And today in his parable, Jesus teaches us that sometimes life in a world riddled by sin is a slog. 00:02:54.240 --> 00:03:03.680 Last week we heard the parable of the sower, this story that Jesus tells about a man who throws seed all over the place, and some of the seed fares pretty poorly. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.599 But the seed that lands on the good soil fares really well. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:15.759 Well, today we've heard another story told by Jesus that involves seed and a good crop, but something has gone terribly wrong once again. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:23.840 And this story, usually called the parable of the weeds, is told by Jesus to reveal a much deeper truth about life and about eternity. 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:29.599 So let's go ahead and wade into the field with Jesus and see what he has to teach us today. 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:33.120 This story begins much like the parable of the sower. 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:36.159 A man sows good seed in his field. 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:39.759 So far, so good, no pun intended. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:41.199 All right, it was. 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:45.840 But then things immediately take a turn. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:54.800 Overnight, this man's enemy comes along and engages in what can only be called agricultural warfare, sowing weeds among the wheat. 00:03:54.960 --> 00:04:01.039 And as soon as the plants begin to come up and bear grain, the weeds pop up also. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.400 This, of course, is a huge problem. 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:06.639 The crop is ruined. 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:08.800 The weeds will choke out the wheat. 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:12.719 They'll steal their water, their sunshine, their life. 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:15.360 How could this have happened? 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:19.360 That's the question the master's servants ask. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:24.319 Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:26.959 How then does it have weeds? 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:30.160 It's a really good question. 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:37.839 And it's one that we ask too, because this story about weeds and wheat isn't in the end about weeds and wheat. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:39.120 It's about us. 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:41.759 It's about the world in which we live. 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:49.600 So using this special decoder ring that Jesus gives his disciples, we know that the field is the world. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:55.120 Jesus, of course, is the sower of the seed, which in this case is those who have faith in him. 00:04:55.439 --> 00:05:00.319 The weeds are those who don't, and the enemy is, of course, the devil. 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:13.600 And so it is that the question asked by the servants in the story, as they look around at the sorry state of the field, is the very same question on our lips as we look around at the sorry state of the world. 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:18.639 Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:20.959 How then does it have weeds? 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.319 Didn't God create a perfect world? 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:27.839 Didn't He look at everything and see that it was good? 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:29.120 What happened? 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:30.480 Why is it all broken? 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:33.680 Why has this glorious crop of the Master been ruined? 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:35.360 Didn't He sow good seed? 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:39.279 Hasn't He sent out His Word into every corner of the world? 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:43.439 How then does it have weeds? 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:46.560 This is the question. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:50.240 It's a really hard question. 00:05:51.360 --> 00:06:01.279 In a world where an all-good, all-powerful God runs the show, why, how is there evil? 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:08.959 Philosophers and scholars and theologians have wrestled with this question from time immemorial. 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:13.839 The master answers it in five words. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.319 An enemy has done this. 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:25.199 One of the things Jesus teaches us in this parable is that there is an enemy, and he is all too real. 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:33.199 We so often often want to ignore Satan or downplay him, skirt around him and the role that he plays in the world. 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:36.480 And that is just what he wants. 00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:47.199 He wants us to be bewildered and flummoxed and flabbergasted in all those good words, that there are weeds in the field, and he wants us to have no idea why. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:51.360 He is subversive and crafty and sneaky and destructive. 00:06:51.600 --> 00:07:00.879 And when we look around at our messed up world and are led to ask why, so often, he is the answer. 00:07:01.519 --> 00:07:04.399 He is the master's enemy, and therefore he is our enemy. 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:15.759 And he loves to sow weeds, he loves to sow discord, to turn us against each other, to leave us reeling in fear, to be lost in confusion, to be destroyed by despair. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:22.240 Today, Jesus wants us to know that evil is real and that life is hard. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.199 We shouldn't be surprised by the enemy's dark tactics. 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:28.720 We shouldn't be caught off guard by his destructive antics. 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:37.680 Yes, we should acknowledge the problem and we should rightly discern its cause, but then we should direct our eyes to where Jesus does in the parable. 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:40.879 Right back to the Master. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:48.319 And the Master leads us from an explanation of the problem to a description of the present. 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:52.800 Thanks to the enemy, the field is now a tangled mess. 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:56.639 The world is a tangled mess. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:59.360 Jesus doesn't pretend otherwise. 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:10.480 A couple weeks ago at home, um, Anna was working on something in her bedroom, and I asked her what she was up to, and she said she was trying to organize her jewelry box, but she was having some trouble. 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:16.639 And she brought out to me a huge tangled mess of necklaces. 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:22.720 It was as if a medieval blacksmith had taken them and infused them all together. 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:24.560 It looked hopeless. 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:31.839 And I think the look in my eyes communicated that because Anna's next question for me was Is mom around? 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:41.200 But you'll be proud to know I took it on and I didn't just slice through it with a sword like Alexander the Great did with the Gordian knot. 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:47.039 I'm meticulously, painstakingly disentangled, necklace after necklace. 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:49.279 Took me well over an hour. 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:53.600 And I do not want to look in that jewelry box and see if my work has lasted. 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:58.240 Now, if that isn't an object lesson for life, I don't know what is. 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:03.679 Life is messy, it is tangled up, it is confusing and suffocating. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:06.639 Which plants are the weeds? 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:09.279 Who is my friend or my foe? 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:13.279 We just want mom to come along and untangle it all for us. 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:16.159 And so do the servants in the field. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:18.639 They just want the weeds gone. 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:21.679 Do you want us to go and gather them? 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:23.519 They ask the master. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:26.159 Of course he does. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:27.440 Doesn't he? 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:29.200 Like, shouldn't he? 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:33.919 No, the master says. 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:35.120 No? 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:37.360 Is he serious? 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:39.120 What's wrong with him? 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:44.080 Here we are in the midst of this mess, longing for relief, and Jesus just lingers there. 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:46.799 He lingers for quite a while. 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:56.159 It's both perplexing and distressing when the tangled mess of the world presses in hard on us, and Jesus seems content to just leave us in it for a while. 00:09:56.399 --> 00:09:58.480 Far too long, we feel. 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:06.240 We want him to come in with the hoe, with the weed eater, maybe even a big old tank of Roundup and take care of the problem. 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:11.600 But notice in this parable, the master doesn't panic. 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:14.159 He doesn't overreact. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:20.639 And he says no. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:27.200 Not because he loves weeds, but because he loves the wheat. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:34.159 No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:38.879 Yanking up dandelions from the garden brings collateral damage. 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:46.639 Spraying Roundup on the weeds in the yard kills the grass too, as I found out in my childhood also. 00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:51.039 God is delaying judgment for our sake. 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:56.960 If I had grabbed Anna's necklaces and just started ripping into the knot, I'd have a pile of broken necklaces. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:03.039 God loves his people too much to inflict his righteous judgment on the world before the proper time. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:05.919 No, the master says. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:10.399 Let both grow together until the harvest. 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:15.039 Let good and evil exist side by side for a time. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:24.960 Let those who know me and those who reject me live as neighbors, as co-workers, as family members. 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:29.120 Let this world's tyrant rage for now. 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:45.200 Let there remain for a time broken families and betraying friends, wars and cancer, church conflict and hypocrisy, temptation and sin and death. 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:48.639 Let them grow together with my people. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:54.559 You see, somehow it's deliberate. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:58.159 This world is messed up, and Jesus knows. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:01.600 He sees, and he is in total control. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:04.480 There is a plan, there is a purpose. 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:06.320 God is being patient. 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:09.200 It is mercy that stays his hand. 00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:12.159 It is kindness that leads us to repentance. 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:14.399 It is long-suffering love. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:18.399 We want God to fix everything today. 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:21.120 We want him to alleviate the tension at work. 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:30.320 We want him to stop the vitriol and the violence across the globe, to judge every injustice, silence every liar, end every suffering. 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:34.720 But God says, not yet. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:13:11.440 Today Jesus is teaching us to wade through the weeds, to embrace the tangled mess that is this imperfect world, to cling to him as the only rock, as Isaiah reminded us, and to trust that everything we heard Paul say today in Romans chapter 8 is profoundly true, that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us, that the creation is waiting with eager longing for all to be made right, that it has been subjected to futility in hope that it will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:20.240 That this groaning, as in the pains of childbirth, will give way to full redemption and resurrection. 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:28.320 Today Jesus teaches us to wait eagerly and patiently and with tremendous hope. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:34.960 And Jesus, of course, is our hope. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:40.320 He doesn't deny the weeds, he even names the enemy who sows them. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:44.240 But he doesn't let them win the day. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:55.039 Instead, Jesus enters into our tangled mess and wades through the weeds and lets them wrap themselves around his ankles and pull him down. 00:13:55.519 --> 00:13:57.919 Jesus is treated like a weed. 00:13:58.159 --> 00:13:59.840 His life is uprooted. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.639 He is thrown aside, cast outside the city, and destroyed. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:09.840 John even says that the place where he was buried had a garden. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:17.279 But as we heard Jesus say last week, when a seed dies, it produces a tremendous harvest. 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:19.360 Jesus rose from the dead. 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:23.120 And do you know what Paul calls him in 1 Corinthians chapter 15? 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:27.600 The firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:34.399 And if there are firstfruits, that means that there is a grand harvest of resurrection on the way. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:38.480 And that, of course, is the grand culmination of Jesus' parable today. 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:40.720 The promise of a coming harvest. 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:47.120 The tangled mess of life in this fallen world is something we can wade through with hope because we know how the story ends. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:53.600 We are not just wading through the weeds, we are waiting, waiting with eager longing. 00:14:53.840 --> 00:15:02.960 The eager longing of Romans chapter 8, with the watchful eyes of hope that see beyond the weeds and catch a glimpse of the promise that they will all be sorted out. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:04.559 Literally. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:10.080 Because for the two separate plants in the field, there will be two separate fates. 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:14.240 The two will be separated from one another and meet very different ends. 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:22.559 The master says, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:25.519 The master will make all things right. 00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:34.960 Judgment will come upon all sin, every wrong will be dealt with, every injustice wiped away, every sad thing made to come untrue. 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:44.720 Jesus says, The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:48.320 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.600 Justice will be served once and for all. 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:58.000 By the way, I used to think that gnashing of teeth referred to like the misery that you were experiencing. 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:02.080 And I've come to learn actually that it's a sign of anger. 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:09.759 Anger is so prevalent in our society, and it creeps into the church also, like an invasive ivy. 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:13.440 But God will eradicate it once and for all. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:15.600 Outrage will be wiped out. 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:18.559 The peace of Jesus will prevail. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:23.039 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:27.440 Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:30.320 For the former things have passed away. 00:16:30.559 --> 00:16:36.960 The former things, the tangled mess, will pass away, but you will not. 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:46.240 You, my friends, in Christ, will shine, because you have been made righteous, not by your own doing, but by that of Christ. 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:48.320 You will shine forever. 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:54.720 Jesus says, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father. 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:58.879 Like wheat safely gathered into the barn, you will be at home. 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:03.440 In the presence of your Father, you will have belonging and safety and peace. 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:07.839 No more sin, no more death, no more weeds. 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:14.319 For now we keep waiting and we keep waiting. 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:17.440 We may see a ruined crop everywhere we look. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:29.759 We may trip and stumble through this tangled mess in which we find ourselves, but we lift up our eyes and we turn our ears to the Master as we await the great day of his harvest and our resurrection. 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:39.839 So I pray that as you continue to reflect on this parable in the coming days, it will fill you with hope until the day that Jesus comes to bring it all to full fruition. 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:41.519 In his name. 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:42.480 Amen.