Are All the World’s Problems What We Should Expect? Is God in charge, or what?
16th February 2025
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
“Let anyone with ears listen!” (v43) – Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus is telling this story.
Someone sows good seed in his field.
BUT… “but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat” (v25)
[Sound effect: “Mwah-haha!”]
When the wheat seeds grew, what also appeared?
WEEDS.
The man is asked “Where did these weeds come from?”
He answered, “An enemy has done this.” [Sound effect: Dun-dun-dun!]
Shall we gather up the weeds?
Nope, because you’ll inadvertently uproot the wheat.
What sort of teaching is this…?
‘Apocalyptic’ (revealing God’s purposes for the end of time)
This teaching is a ‘picture’ that offers theological signposts.
These signposts give us expectations about God,
and our existence as God’s creatures.
This teaching of Jesus is Soteriological (salvation);
and Eschatological (end of time).
Do you see in this picture the world that God desires?
God wants to make the world beautiful, and productive, and life-giving.
That is God’s desire.
But that’s not all that’s in this picture.
We are given here a better understanding of evil.
Is evil part of God’s plan?
No. “An enemy has done this.”
Evil does not come from God,
but from somewhere else;
(someone else) ‘the devil’.
Jesus’ story has a DC Comics feel…
!Batman arrives and finds Gotham painted purple!
What ‘Joker’ has done this?!
Despite the ‘cartoon’ character,
(this ‘nocturnal Sower of weedy seeds’)
this story tells us something important.
It exposes an intentionality of evil
(not just that the presence of evil is an unavoidable fact of life).
We may cringe a little at this talk of the devil.
However, for First century Jews, their cosmology was influenced by cultures at the time
(Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek)
which was dualistic (good god / bad god).
Without getting too fixated on who exactly the devil is and his place in the cosmos,
the value of this picture is to help us recognise that God is not the author of evil.
Some other force has influenced God’s good world.
If we put aside the causality,
this picture of weeds as “all causes of sin and all evildoers” tells us what we can expect in the world.
What do you think about this picture for our world…?
Isn’t this what we see…?
A mix of good and bad,
right alongside each other at times?
Mixed-in even?
So this picture helpful for us.
What we experience is what we should expect.
Our world is full of troubles.
You can probably think of a fairly clear list immediately:
1. War in Gaza
2. War in Ukraine
3. political polarisation
4. racism
5. poverty
6. hunger
7. global warming
This parable also tells us what to expect from God…
This is a complete ‘cosmic purification story’ –
the causes of sin and evildoers will be removed at the end of time,
leaving… “the righteous [who] will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (v43)
Important theological point:
Whatever/whoever the ‘devil’ is,
this power is not equal to God’s.
Evil is a very subordinate power.
(lack of goodness, lack of light, lack of relationship)
As well as theological understanding, what else does this parable offer us?
I’d suggest it’s primarily about ethics.
What does Jesus teach about how we live?
How does this guide how agency; our actions?
The central question in the parable is
‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’
The response teaches us it’s very difficult to tell the difference between wheat and weeds.
…Just as it’s very difficult for us to judge who is ‘good’ and who is ‘bad’.
Also, just like plants we have in our garden, pulling out weeds growing and intertwined with good plants can damage much more than just the plant we are tugging on.
The lesson: GOD is the one who sorts out the weeds from the wheat.
This is God’s business, not ours.
That’s the teaching here.
Let us look at some historical lessons…
Christians of other ‘stripes’ were persecuted by the state
(which tried to ‘purify’ their brand of state church)
Many people emigrated to avoid this religious persecution,
including to this part of the world.
In the very next chapter of Matthew’s Gospel (14),
John the Baptist is ‘purified’ by the state.
John had a disturbing religious belief that Herod ‘uprooted’.
Eventually, the lessons of history reduced the role of governments with religious authority,
to avoid them doing ‘weeding’.
If this parable helps recognise the particular problem of having a church of the state that tries to ‘purify’,
…then the history of our own country here
is something we can celebrate!
Do you know much about the ‘Fourth Article’ of the Treaty of Waitangi…?
Alistair Reese writes:
On the morning of February 6 1840, rangatira gathered on Busby’s lawn to continue the deliberations…
Te Tiriti, the Māori-language document, was then read aloud by Henry Williams. However, before Te Tiriti could be signed, the Catholic Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pompallier interrupted the proceedings with the request:
that the natives might be informed that all who should join the Catholic religion should have the protection of the British Government
Hobson gave agreement.
At which point, Williams then inquired whether the same protection would be afforded to all faiths.
On receiving an affirmative response, he took some paper and wrote this addition to the Treaty:
The Governor says the several faiths of England, of the Wesleyans, of
Rome, and also the Māori custom, shall alike be protected…
This is the addition to the Treaty now (sometimes) referred to as the Fourth Article. https://e-tangata.co.nz/history/waitangi-an-oral-covenant/
I mention this because it signalled a willingness by the Crown for Māori and Pākehā alike to have the freedom and protection to practise their religion, faith and cultural customs.
There would be no one ‘authorised’ religion or practice.
There is currently a petition being presented to Parliament to recognise this oral agreement “4th Article” as part of the Treaty of Waitangi.
This protection of religious freedom is fully legally guaranteed to all under The Bill of Rights.
Christian ethics recognises the tremendous risk of any attempt at ‘purification’.
It’s not that there is no ‘good/bad’.
Or that there aren’t real differences in theology and practice between religions and denominations.
It’s just that any ‘sorting’ is up to God –
not the government, not you, and not me!
God is the righteous judge.
And God has revealed how His justice and mercy meet:
On the cross of Christ, evil is condemned and salvation is opened up – showing God’s love for us, to justify and sanctify humanity.
So, we live in an unweeded garden,
and must expect to live with this reality.
You can tell, this means having patience –
as we lament the many troubles of the world.
In other words, the troubles
(no matter how problematic they seem)
do not justify humans deciding to ‘burn it all’.
Earlier in the service, we sang the words (of the ‘Puritan Prayer’ song):
“show my ruined self to me/
Teach me to more clearly see/
Your might and will to save me.
Why are we unable to adequately remove the evil from the good?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote:
“The line separating good and evil passes
not through states,
nor between classes,
nor between political parties either –
but right through every human heart”
Taking seriously this observation about the human condition, David Gushee asks might we see ourselves (each of us)
as a field with wheat and weeds growing together –
doing both good and bad.
Rather than seeing ‘just us good folks here’,
and ‘those bad folks over there’ who need to be judged and from whom we need to be ‘purified’.
So to conclude…
Distinguishing evil from good is beyond us.
It’s God’s business.
With Christians around the world, we declare the truth of our faith in who God is and what he will do, when we say that line in the Apostles’ Creed:
“he [Jesus] will come to judge the living and the dead…”
Can I finish by suggesting just one word to sum up the teaching of Jesus in this passage today?
Humility.
Thank the Lord, He can be truly trusted to sort us out!
Amen.