Good Seed (Mat 13:43)

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, last week we saw how excited You were about the seed sown onto the good soil. This week, we are looking into another parable You told concerning bad seed sown amongst the good seed. Please send the Holy Spirit to work in our soul to understand how Your parable of the weeds & wheat applies to us and understand the grace You show us as we grow amongst the weeds of this Age. We pray this through You, Lord Jesus, who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Definition: I want to start out with a definition that will serve us well today and throughout the rest of the church year that ends in November. The word is eschatology. This word means the study of the “last”. It’s rooted in the Greek:εσχατος (eschatos), which means the last. That begs the question, the last of what?
- Eschatology is the study of the last or End Times. You may have heard of a series of books written by Tim Lahaye called Left Behind. His series was based on what Lutherans would consider a misunderstanding of the End Times. Some religions believe when Jesus returns to this Age, He will rule for 7yrs. What Lutherans believe about the End Times is that they began after Jesus ascended into heaven. Jesus will one day return to harvest the earth at the request of God the Father. When Jesus returns, that’s going to be the end of the line for everything we see and do in this life. Jesus is already ruling now as we confess in the Creeds. Therefore, when He returns, He will have His angels first harvest the earth of the remaining weeds, and then start the Age of the Church Triumphant. The Church Triumphant is comprised of God’s people triumphantly ruling in heaven alongside Jesus throughout eternity.
- This line of thinking is part of “eschatology”. God has made promises of grace for us both in the “not yet” as well as “now”. Part of the problem for believers is understanding which promises from God apply to our life now, and which apply to when we get to heaven. Today, we will be touching on the “now” promises and the promises of what has not yet happened (in other words, the “not yet”) as we continue to learn more from Jesus’ 3rd Discourse in Matthew.
Interpretation: And with that definition, let’s dig into Jesus’ interpretation of the Parable of the Weeds & Wheat. It may be helpful to you to turn to page 973 in your pew Bible in addition to following the sermon outline in your bulletin as we go through this parable.
- Jesus interpreted the parable in two parts (Mat 13:36). Part 1 of the parable answers the question, who are the characters in this parable? Starting with v37, we see Jesus is the sower of good seed, just as He was last week in the Parable of the Sower. The field in which the seed was broadcast is the world. This is the Age of the Church Militant (v38a). Jesus send us to spread His good seed.
  - Unfortunately, as we learned last week, a lot of the good seed Jesus spreads through us throughout the world falls into different types of soil. Recall from last week the soil conditions of seed falling along the path, into rocky soil, and in and amongst thorns (Mat 13:1-9, 18-23). The seeds in most scenarios grew a bit, but either withered in the sun or got choked off. But, combining what we learned last week with today’s parable, we can say that good seed landing in good soil produces a crop of 100-, 60-, or 30-fold yield.[1]
  - That’s the situation of the good seed that got planted. But now, who is the enemy? We find in v39a the enemy is the devil. He is the one who scatters the bad seed that produces weeds. These weeds are the ones in captivity of the devil (Mat 13:38c). Weeds are everywhere, even in, or shall I say, especially in churches. These are people who create strife in a church, causing people to want to leave. Or they lead people astray from true Christian doctrine. Satan doesn’t want any church succeeding in making disciples of our Lord Jesus.
  - The harvest of both these weeds and the crops of wheat is the end of the Age when Jesus returns for a second and final time (v39b). The harvesters are God’s angels (v39c).
- With this understanding of the characters in the parable, we move on to Part 2 which answers the question, how does the parable turn out? Notice in vv40-41, the harvest of the weeds occurs first. Jesus said in v42 they get tossed into a furnace of fire. There’s more detail on what this looks like on Judgement Day in Rev 20:15 - …if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.[2] There is one Book of Life, and it contains the names of the believers in Christ. We got our name added to the Book of Life when we were baptized into the kingdom of God. But like the good seed falling into bad soil types, the seed sprouted but ultimately wilted or got choked off. Some redeemed people wind up turning away from the Good Sower of seed. Trust me, you don’t want to be one of the weeds harvested first, because you didn’t keep your soil moistened and fertilized with the Word of God.
  - Abide in Jesus and He will abide in you.[3] His promise to those who abide in Him will be the wheat that remains after the weed harvest. This gets us to the verse of the day which I repeat - “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He, having ears, let him hear.”[4] Good soil people are the ones having ears. They will shine like the sun on a clear day. Jesus spoke directly to the Old Testament (OT) prophet Daniel some 600yrs before telling today’s parable, “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”[5] It’s interesting to note that the wheat which relied on the Sower and His gardening will now shine like the Sower.
Harvest now: This parable has aspects that apply to our life in this Age as well as our life in the next. This is where we get into the “now” and the “not yet” phases of our eternal life. What are we supposed to be doing in the “now”? We need to be making more “good seed” in the midst of “bad seed”.[6] We do this by being the hands and feet of our Lord Jesus to scatter good seed. Keeping our soil good by participating in Jesus’ Word and Sacraments, we spout and grow tall. We then scatter seed as the winds of the Holy Spirit blow on us. That seed in turn falls onto different places. And we do this amidst the scatterers of bad seed that wants to kill us off. But as we read from Isa 55:11 last week, God word will accomplish its purpose; weeds or no weeds.
- We will be scattering seeds this fall, starting on September 9th, when we begin an English as a Second Language (ESL) ministry. We need as many stalks of wheat here at St. Paul to scatter seed as the Holy Spirit casts our seeds to others who have not heard the Word of God. There’ll be weeds for sure, but by God’s grace, He will use us to reclaim lost souls that would otherwise be gathered up at the end of this Age and tossed into the lake of fire.
- Think of this: what if we passed around fliers during Summer’s Last Blast, advertising our ESL ministry? Is it possible we might do this in the face of an attack from weeds?[7] There are a lot of stickers out there, aren’t there?
- Out of your love for the Lord and them, you might hand out a flier to someone who immediately throws it away. People who reject the seed you throw may be the ones not hearing with their ears of faith about something that would benefit them now as well as in the not yet. Just remember that some of the good seed fell along the path and never got planted into the soil because of the Evil One snatching the seed away. It will not end well for people who react like that.[8]
- Jesus Himself in His 3yr ministry encountered opposition, even from religious people who should’ve known better. They were the ones waiting for Messiah to come as promised in the OT. They were weeds in the midst of God’s holy places. Mat ch#12 is full of examples of weeds in the midst of wheat.[9]
- And, as we learned a few weeks ago, weeds, that is, a man’s enemies, are in his home.[10] We *will* encounter weeds all along our walk with Jesus in this Age.
Harvest not yet: Jesus told us about opposition we will encounter, so that we are not surprised when it happens. That’s the “now”. But the “not yet” is coming whether weeds think so or not. God’s word will accomplish its purposes. And so, what Jesus said in v40 of our text, is a day that is promised - …just as the [weeds] are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.[11]
- The harvest of gathering the weeds will not occur until God the Father says so. Not even Jesus in His humility of being God in the flesh knew when the harvest would take place.[12] The saints in heaven complained to God, asking how long before He will judge the weeds of this Age. He told them they should rest a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants, and their brethren who were to be killed, would be completed.[13] That’s not a pleasant thought - weeds wrapping around us to choke us off and prevent us from scattering the good seed given to us by Jesus. That is what we can expect in the “now”.
- But while the weeds work against us, Jesus promised at the end of the book of Matthew that He will be with us unto the end of the Age as we go about making disciples.[14] And with the end, the threats against God’s people will end forever.
  - The Apostle Paul wrote 2 letters to the church in Thessalonica. His 2nd one was addressed to the church as an encouragement to persevere through the violence they endured. Listen to these words Paul wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit to encourage them and us today – 6 For after all it is …just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted …when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed...[15]
Conclusion: At the end of the original telling of the Parable of Weeds & Wheat, Jesus noted in v30 the wheat is gathered next into the safety of the barn. What is the purpose of a barn? It protects things inside from the elements and thieves. The “things” can be farming implements. The “things” can be animals. Jesus was born in a stable, which was the safest place Mary & Joseph could find at the time. In other words, a barn is for the safe keeping of what is being stored.
- Would you agree heaven is the safest place God could keep His people? And it won’t be a holding pen. God Himself will live in and amongst everyone there. This is how the Apostle John described what it was like inside the barn of heaven - …He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.[16] No more death or mourning, no pain. That’s what the “not yet” is like. That’s what’s awaiting all those who are the wheat of this Age.
- Let me repeat again today’s verse - Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father.” Shine like the sun. The emotional bumps and bruises we’ve endured in this life will be gone. Whatever the weeds did to us won’t ever happen again. There will be nothing to keep us from shining forth as the sun, because of the Son of God who is also the Son of Man.

Jesus said, “He, having ears, let him hear! (v43b)” He said essentially the same thing to the 7 Churches of Revelation (Rev 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22). Each church wasn’t trying to lead a life pleasing to God after all He did for them. Let’s not make that mistake. Let’s keep our ears open to the Great Sower, so that we hear what He has to say, and obey His gospel. As far as the weeds that are in our face are concerned, we know how it turns out if they don’t repent. It’s scary that anyone would needlessly burn eternally. Out of love for Jesus and for others, let’s work on scattering the seeds Jesus gave to us, so that there are fewer weeds to be pulled at the end of the Age and eternally burn. Amen.

[1] Reference Mat 13:38b from Mat 13:23

[2] Rev 20:15 from NASB95 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/rev/20/15/t_conc_1187015

[3] Reference John 15:4

[4] Original interpretation of the Greek from the mGNT of Mat 13:43 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/mat/13/43/t_conc_942043

[5] Dan 12:3 from NASB95 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/dan/12/3/t_concl_862003

[6] Reference Mat 9:35-38

[7] Reference Mat 11:12

[8] Reference Mat 11:20-24

[9] Reference Mat 12:1-45

[10] Reference Mat 10:32-39; Mat 12:46-50

[11] Mat 13:40 from NASB95 at https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb95/mat/13/40/t_conc_942040

[12] Reference Mat 24:36