Pentecost 11A
July 19, 2026
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
INTRODUCTION
Today we continue through Matthew’s parabolic discourse, this series of parables. Remember last week I mentioned that Matthew has set up his Gospel with five discourses – the first is the Sermon on the Mount (instructions for faith), the second is the missionary discourse (instructions for the apostles proclaiming the kingdom of God), and now we are into the parable discourse, which will teach us some truths about God. Today’s story is the parable of the wheat and the weeds, in which an enemy sows weeds among the good seed, and the farmer tells the workers not to pull the weeds, but to wait until the harvest, when all will be sorted out. This powerful parable, along with the other readings today, bring up some tough questions about evil – where it comes from and why it is among us. Each reading offers a directive that brings us both comfort and discomfort: wait. God’s got this under control. Evil and suffering will, finally, come to an end. “Hope for what you do not see,” Paul urges in our reading from Romans, “and wait for it with patience.”
In the midst of so many unknowns in our world, that “wait and see” message can be a difficult one to hear. But friends, do hear it today. And try to find in it some comfort and solace for whatever uncertainty you face, as we wait with patience “for the glory about to be revealed to us.” Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
There are precious few parables for which Jesus offers an explanation. One we heard last week – the Parable of the Sower – and I think the only other one is the one we just heard, the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (or you may know it as “the Wheat and the Tares.”). I have mixed feelings about Jesus providing an explanation. I appreciate that he’s done some of the work for me as the preacher, but I think his simple, allegorical explanation lures us into a false sense of clarity about what the parable means – when really, there is still so much here for us to wrestle with! So, friends, let’s wrestle!
The first thing that strikes me is who sows the evil: that it is not God. This gets at the age-old question about the origin of evil, and how it can exist if God is indeed good. Here, Jesus tells us: the Son of Man sowed good seed, but an enemy came and sowed the weeds in and among the good seed. But interestingly, when the workers want to remove the evil weeds, the landowner (presumably God) says don’t do it. Let the weeds grow alongside the wheat, and he will sort it out later.
Now why would he say a thing like that, and what has that got to do with our own life and faith?
First of all, it turns out that wheat and tares are nearly impossible to tell apart, and, they are so
intertwined with the wheat, as the landowner points out, that trying to take out the one would undoubtedly uproot the other, and then where would we be? With no harvest at all!
This feels very relatable: we also cannot always tell the difference between wheat and weed, either literally or metaphorically, though we may think we can. And, sometimes removing what we would call a weed is disruptive to the ecosystem. Look at dandelions. They have many nutritional benefits, and are some of the first flowers to appear for the pollinators, which then helps all of the other food and flowers to grow. Removing them messes with the whole ecosystem! Yet people spend time and money to remove these “weeds” from their lawn because what, they’re ugly? Why do we get to decide it is a weed? Just think of the negative impacts of removing all the dandelions!
If it’s tricky with plants, it is even trickier with humans. Pick any politician, and some people will consider them a weed who needs to be pulled and burned, and some will see them as wheat that is making society better. Some ne’er-do-well on the street, a clear weed, may also be a devoted brother or grandson. Someone may be nice to your face, but she’s an opportunist who would push you in front of a bus if it means she’ll get ahead. I am certain that in some people’s minds, I am very much a weed – because of my political affiliation, or because I’m a woman pastor, or because I support LGBTQ+ people. And then to others, I am seen as wheat – for the exact same reasons!
Sometimes, we would go so far as to label an entire group of people as weeds (especially if it is a group we don’t really understand), because this means we can dismiss them, even judge them or think we get to decide what is best for them. And this keeps us from having to do the much harder work of loving them. I know I can and have slipped into that temptation.
Well, Jesus says, don’t do that. Let the wheat and the weeds grow together – because, frankly, you don’t know what you are doing. Only God knows our hearts, our deeds, our intentions, our value, and so only God can make the judgment.
Of course this opens another whole can of worms: If we’re supposed to just let the wheat and weeds grow together, does that mean we should sit back and never call out the evil among us, letting it wreak havoc? That’s the ditch on the other side of the road: on one side we judge people and try to eliminate whomever we deem to be a weed; or, on the other, we do nothing, letting evil go unpunished.
But of course, there is a road between these two ditches. And here’s one distinction: there is a difference between judging a person as evil or good, and identifying their deeds as such. “A tree is known by its fruit,” Jesus says, in the chapter just before this one. Someone could be basically good, but make bad choices, and vice versa. And for a Christian, the good fruit we’re looking for is the fruit of love. And the other fruits of the Spirit, too – joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But the greatest of these is love. And that love should mark all of our interactions, whether with wheat or with what we would call weeds.
Now, before I go any further, I want you to ask yourself: as I have been talking about weeds and wheat, good and evil, have you been thinking about other people who fall into each category… or are you wondering if you are, yourself, weed or wheat?
I think sometimes in conversations like this, it feels safer to point outward, to consider whether other people and their actions are good or evil. But the real kicker of this parable comes when we point inward: what is the good or bad fruit that we are producing? And do we, maybe, produce a bit of both?
The truth is, I don’t think this parable is about people who are all good, or all bad, because such people don’t exist. None of us are always children of the kingdom, or always children of the evil one. We are all “simultaneously saint and sinner,” as Martin Luther says. And, this parable is not about everyone else; it is about us, about our own saintly and sinful hearts.
So this brings us back to an earlier question: does that mean God wants us to let evil grow in our own hearts alongside the good, until the “end of the age” and God’ll sort it out then? What are we supposed to do with that??
Thankfully, we have a way of dealing with the weeds that are burned at the end of the age, that doesn’t require us to wait that long. Did you know, that every week in worship, we have a mini-apocalypse, a reckoning, a great revealing? It’s right at the beginning, before we do anything else: the confession. In these few minutes, we have a chance to come before God and say, “God, there are some weeds growing in and among the good wheat you planted in my heart. I know it is in there, but I admit, I can’t always see it or tell the difference. I try to do good, and it comes out bad. And if I’m honest, sometimes I don’t even try to do good – when I make a snarky comment, or judge bad drivers, or even other things I don’t feel comfortable saying in church. I know the weeds are in there, and I know you know which ones they are, even if I don’t always. And so, I come to you today, God, and I ask you to separate those weeds from the wheat, the bad from the good. Gather up the wheat, that it would be nourishment for my faith and for the world. And as for the weeds – just burn them up, Lord. I may weep and gnash my teeth, because it is hard to change my ways that are planted so deeply within. The weeds always seem to come back! But burn them up, anyway. And when I mess up again, do it again. So that eventually, in the final judgment, I can come before you as the best version of myself.”
And then, remarkably, God does! We hear those words of forgiveness. The slate is wiped clean. Our sin is burned up, and utterly destroyed, and we are left as the saints God named us to be in our baptism. And by his death and resurrection, Christ promises that this will never stop being the case.
And then in our worship, sins forgiven, we collectively move into a hymn of praise – unburdened by all those weeds, as we worship our God of love and forgiveness.
Will we mess up again? Yeah. We will. But again and again, we return to God and pray the same prayer – “take away my sin” – and we are, again, forgiven. And we are again reminded that the burden of sin is not our end point, but that God is always making things new. And from there it becomes possible to be sent out not to judge the world, but to love and serve the world in Jesus’ name. Thanks be to God!
Let us pray… Gracious God, this world is full of both weeds and wheat, and we don’t always know the difference – even when it is growing in our own hearts! But you do. Help us to trust you to remove our sin, so that we would be sent out to nourish the world with your goodness. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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