ESF, Lord’s Day service message
3/16/2025
The Parable of the Weeds
Matthew 13:24-30
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

A man went to a Church one Sunday. He was uncomfortable when the organist missed a note during the opening hymn. He was irritated by two teenagers talking to each other when the congregation was at prayer. During the Scripture readings, he kept looking impatiently at his watch. When the offering basket was passed, he felt that the usher was watching to see how much he gave. During the sermon, he felt the sermon was too long and irrelevant. When the congregation was singing hymns, he did not feel like singing. As he slipped out a side door during the closing hymn, he muttered to himself, “That was terrible. What a dull place and people! I will never be back to this place again!”
Another man went to the same Church on the same Sunday. His heart was touched by the organist playing “Amazing Grace.” He marveled at the sight of a father exchanging hugs with the little child draped over his shoulder. He thought when the collection basket was passed: “Some of what I give will be used to serve the needy. Am I giving enough?” He listened attentively to the Scripture readings, which spoke of God’s love for all people. He found an answer to his long-struggling question in the sermon. He joyfully joined in the singing of the closing hymn of praise. As he left the Church, he said to himself, “How good it is to be here and share in the experience of the Presence of God!”

Although both were in the same situation, one person became nasty and unhappy, another person became satisfied and happy. What could make such different results? It was their different perspectives on how to see people and the happenings they encountered. Also, it was their different attitude of how to respond to imperfect people and their behaviors.

Through this parable, Jesus teaches us a wise perspective and attitude to live with peace of mind even though everything and everyone in this world are not perfect. Jesus teaches us how to live with hope when this world is hopeless because of the existence of evil.

See God’s goodness in this evil world.
To live with peace of mind, and to live with hope always, we need to find something good in the imperfect people and evil world around us.
If we don’t do that, we will be either pessimists or perfectionists.

There are some people who are pessimistic about everything in this world. They think that this world is full of evil, and evil is overpowering the good. So, they conclude that this world has no hope. Some of them refuse to believe in the existence of God because of the problem of evil in this world.

On the other hand, there are perfectionists. They pursue and demand perfect status in their lives, and in the lives of others. They always see something imperfect and something wrong in people’s behavior. And they try to fix it. If they can’t fix it, they get upset and discouraged. When they come to church, they may quickly spot something wrong. They may see some people who make mistakes or who offend them. And they don’t want to come to church any more or they don’t want to get involved in any church activity. They are complaining: the church is full of problems and hypocrites.

While they live with such an attitude, they become negative. Their hearts are in trouble most of the time. It eventually makes them sick not only emotionally but also physically. Proverbs 17:22 says, A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

They are like farmers complaining about weeds in their field. They expect a perfect field with 100 % wheat and no weeds at all and when they find weeds, they are discouraged and give up on farming all together.

That is what Satan provokes us to do. Satan sows the seed of evil in this world and provokes us to see the world with pessimism or perfectionism. By doing so, Satan makes us pessimistic and hopeless.

But in this parable, Jesus teaches us to see things differently. Jesus teaches that the existing of evil does not mean that this world is hopeless. Jesus teaches that as long as we live in this fallen world, we cannot completely avoid evil. As long as we live in this world, we will face something imperfect. A field which has no weeds at all but only 100 % wheat does not exist. Every field has not only wheat but also weeds which are similar to wheat, but which are counterfeits.

Even the church will not be immune to this mixture. There are both saints and sinners in the church. There are both easygoing people and picky people. There are people who are kind, friendly and warm. But also, there are unkind, mean, cold people. There are both people who are thoughtful toward others and people who are very selfish and inconsiderate. There are people who are emotionally strong and are not bothered by the people who offend them but also there are people who are sensitive and easily get hurt by other people’s attitude. Also, individually each one of us has both strong and honorable aspects and certain weaknesses and dark spots.

But Jesus still loves the church. Jesus still loves you and all believers who are imperfect. There is cleansing power in the church-the blood of Christ, and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit which can turn weed-like hearts into wheat-like hearts. The power of the blood and the Holy Spirit keep building up churches and believers even if they are imperfect.

So, although we are struggling with the shortcomings of the church, and ourselves, we should not remain pessimistic and hopeless. We should not give up hope in God’s goodness when our church is not perfect, or we are not perfect.

When Paul wrote the letter of 1 Corinthians, he had to deal with many sins and problems in the Corinthian church-division, immorality, lawsuits among believers, pride, disorderly worship etc. But he did not judge them hopelessly. He saw the positive side based on God’s faithfulness, and God’s transforming power. He said to them in 1 Cor. 1:8 9: He (God) will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

You cannot always be a perfect person without making mistakes or sinning. Of course, you should not make excuses for your sin, but you also should not give up on hope for your growth and change. When your heart is troubled by people’s imperfect behavior, remember how the Lord has treated you while you have been living an imperfect life. See them through the eyes of the Lord who does not reject them, who builds up His church through them. Then He will fill your heart with peace always. You will remain at peace no matter who you are dealing with and living with.

Be patient in dealing with evil.
Here the servants distinguished the wheat from the weeds. That was an ability of discernment between good and evil. With that discernment, they would like to pull up the weeds and remove them from the field of wheat.

However, the owner of the field did not allow them to do so. This was his reason: “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.”

In farming fields, both weeds and wheat might look alike until they mature and bear fruit. The weeds looked so much like wheat that it was hard to tell one from the other. It made the task of uprooting the weeds dangerous because wheat could be mistaken for weeds. So, if the farmers were not patient enough to wait until they could be sure to distinguish weeds from wheat, they might root up the wheat while they were trying to root up the weeds. Wise farmers wait patiently for the right time they can pull the weeds out without destroying the wheat.

When we love God, we want to be holy, and we want to make our church holy. We need discernment to distinguish good from evil. We must fight for good and right, and fight against evil and wrong. We have to deal with sin problems in the church.

But we should not be in a hurry in dealing with sinners. We should be patient and gentle in dealing with evil among the good. Why?

Because we may hurt the good while we try to take out evil.

Satan duplicates counterfeits to confuse God’s people. Satan tries to use our impatience against each other. Satan provokes us to be impatient so that we would quickly turn on each other and suspect each other of being a weed that needs to be uprooted. The tendency is that we become obsessed with the speck in the eye of a brother while neglecting the log in our own eyes (Matthew 7:3-5).

There may be people who have a seed of wheat in their hearts but simply are too weak to carry out the growth of the seed. There may be some believers, who really believe in God and in Jesus, but who are immature and make mistakes and fall into sin more than others. So, if we judge such people just as we see them now, we may discourage them and so they may give up on having fellowship with God’s people.

We also do not know the hidden motive and complex backgrounds of other people. So, if we hurry judging others, we may misjudge them and hurt them rather than help them.

There are many reasons why some people are doing things and behaving in certain ways that we think are bad or evil. While we are judging evil of others by our own understanding, it may not be evil in the eyes of God who sees the hidden motive and hidden backgrounds of man’s every behavior. We are not God. We are not as good at discernment as Jesus is. Therefore, we must be patient with the imperfection of others.

Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read. But he became one of the greatest physicists who ever lived.
Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school. But he became one of the great scientists.
Walt Disney liked drawing cartoons. He tried to sell his cartoons, but nobody was interested in buying them. But there was a minister who paid him a small amount to draw advertising pictures for his church. Disney had no place to stay, so that the church let him sleep in the mouse-infested garage. One of those mice which Disney nicknamed Mickey, became famous as the world knows.
Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college. But he wrote the literature classic that we know as “War and Peace”.

Be patient with those whom God has planted in your life. They may bloom into a shining star one day. Before you judge others negatively be patient as God has been patient with you. God will always fill your heart with peace even when you must live among the people who are so tough to deal with.

Honor God’s authority on the final judgement.
God allows us to discern good from evil, but God does not give us the authority to bring final judgement on the evil. That authority belongs only to God. God alone has wisdom and authority to determine when the weeds will be uprooted and separated from the wheat of His field. So, if we try to bring final judgement on evil, we will violate God’s authority.

There are times when we get in God’s way when He is tending the business of His kingdom here on earth.

A man was struggling with a large box at the back end of his truck. A passing neighbor saw his plight and came over to help him. He put his shoulder on the box. After a few tiring moments, the neighbor exclaimed, “What’s in that box anyway? I don’t think we will ever get it on the truck.” “Get it on?” the exasperated man shouted, “I’m trying to get it off!”

Likewise, we may be trying to put the box on the truck when God wants the box to be off the truck. We can go against God’s will while we think we are following God’s will.

Have you experienced injustice and wondered why God does not deal with the injustice? God is patient and waiting. God does not act fast in removing the weeds from the field. The field belongs to God. Unlike us, God is patient. God tolerates the weeds, because in the end, some who appears to be evil will become good, and some who appears to be good will be revealed as evil. 2 Peter 3:9 says: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God is therefore not indifferent! Quite the contrary! God is waiting and desiring the salvation of all! So, whenever we struggle with the problem of evil in our lives, we must learn to put our faith in God and be patient as we wait for God to accomplish His plan.

An Atheist farmer often ridiculed people who believed in God. He wrote the following letter to the editor of a local newspaper: “I plowed on Sunday, planted on Sunday, cultivated on Sunday, and hauled in my crops on Sunday; but I never went to church on Sunday. Yet I harvested more bushels per acre than anyone else, even those who are God-fearing and never miss a service.” The editor printed the man’s letter and then added this remark: “God doesn’t always settle His accounts in October (harvest time).” That editor was right! He doesn’t always “settle His accounts” at the time man expects. But He surely settles His accounts in the end!

Paul said to the Thessalonians who were suffering unjustly from the evil in the world: “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-7).

Trust that God knows every injustice. Trust that God will surely judge all evil and bring justice. Put the matter of vengeance into God’s hand.
Then, God’s peace will fill your heart. You will be able to be optimistic and peaceful although people around you are imperfect, and although you are imperfect.