Wheat and Weeds
Chris Seidman
Part of It's Like This
October 10, 2024

It’s Like This

Wheat and Weeds
October 13, 2024
Chris Seidman, Lead Minister, The Branch

Matthew 13:24-30 (NIV)
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 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? ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.
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.’”

Matthew 13:36-43 (NIV)

Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Connecting the Dots

  1. Jesus (the Son of Man) = the one who sows the good seed into the field.
  2. The field = the world.
  3. The good seed = the people of His kingdom who He sows into the world.

4 Satan = the enemy who sows bad seed into the field amidst all the good seed.
5. The bad seed = two things that Satan uses to interfere with the growth of the good seed: people (vs. 38) and “everything that causes sin” (vs. 41).
6. Together the good seed and bad seed grow in the same field, mixed among each other.
7. And it won’t be until the end of time, the final judgment, that God will separate the wheat from the weeds.

Questions the Servants Ask

  • Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from? (Matthew 13:27)

Matthew 6:13 (NIV)
… but deliver us from the evil one.

  • Do you want us to go and pull them up? (Matthew 13:28)

Matthew 13:29-30 (NIV)
“… because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.’”

What does this mean for us in the meantime?

  • Trust that God will do something constructive with the weeds in our lives.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)
… to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (v. 10) That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Excerpts from “An Altar in the World”

  • Pain is provocative. Pain pushes people to the edge, causing them to ask fundamental questions such as “Why is this happening?” and “How can this be fixed?”

  • Pain strips away all the illusions required to maintain the status quo. Pain begs for change, and when those in its grip find no release on earth, plenty of them look to heaven.

  • If you’ve ever made a graph of your life – writing your birthday at the left side of the page and today’s date at the right, filling in the major events that have made you who you are – then you are likely to note that the spikes in your pain bear some relationship to the leaps in your growth.

  • It was when your family moved for the fourth time in five years that you learned to enjoy your own company in the months before you made new friends at school. It was when the doctor called about the spot on your lung that you finally made up with your sister.These are not the ways you would have chosen to become more than you were, but they worked. Pain burned up the cushions you used to keep from hitting bottom.

  • Pain popped your clutch and shot you into the next gear. Pain landed you flat in bed, giving you time to notice things you never slowed down enough to notice before.

  • One night of real pain is enough to strip you away of your illusions about how strong you are, how brave, how patient and faithful. Pain is so real that less-real things like who you thought you were and how you meant to act can vanish like drops of water flung on a hot stove. Your virtues can become as abstract as algebra, your beliefs as porous as clouds.

  • Pain leads down to the ground floor where all the real things are: real love, real sorrow, real thanks, real fear. After spending some time on the ground floor, you can lose your appetite for tabloid gossip and shopping news.

  • Pain makes theologians of us all. If you have spent even one night in real physical pain, then you know what that can do to your faith in God, not to mention your faith in your own ability to manage life. Pain is one of the fastest routes to a no-frills encounter with the Holy.

  • There’s something to be said for blooming where we’re planted.

Arrangement of Matthew 13

  • Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30)
  • Parable of the Mustard Seed and Yeast (Matthew 13:31-33)
  • Explanation of the Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13:46-43)

Communion
What are the weeds you find yourself contending with right now?

What does it mean right now for you to bloom where you’re planted?

Is there someone in your life right now who is “in the weeds” and needs encouragement?