First Reading: Isaiah 44:6-8
6Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. 7Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen. 8Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”
Psalm 119:57-64
57You only are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to keep your words. 58I entreat you with all my heart, be merciful to me according to your promise. 59I have considered my ways and turned my feet toward your decrees. 60I hasten and do not tarry to keep your commandments. 61Though the cords of the wicked entangle me, I do not forget your law. 62At midnight I will rise to give you thanks, because of your righteous judgments. 63I am a companion of all who fear you and of those who keep your commandments. 64The earth, O Lord, is full of your love; instruct me in your statutes.
Second Reading: Romans 8:18-27
18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
24Jesus put another parable before {the disciples}, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
36Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
The Harvest Hymn
Nineteenth-century British clergyman Henry Alford was best known in his day for his outstanding, four-volume commentary on the Greek New Testament. Today, however, his lasting legacy is a hymn that many churches sing at Thanksgiving time: “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.” We sing it at Thanksgiving because of its obvious thanksgiving theme, and also because it’s full of harvest imagery. But Alford had a bigger harvest in mind than just the gathering of the crops each year, “ere the winter storms begin.” In many cultures, over many generations, and in many places on this earth, harvest is a time of celebration. It’s traditionally a time of feasting and of giving thanks.
Today much of our twenty-first-century American culture is removed from the land, and from the cycles of planting and harvest, then perhaps any previous generation of human history. So much of the urban and suburban population of the United States doesn’t have any sense for the seasons or the harvest. After all, we’re accustomed to being able to buy a large variety of fresh produce at virtually any time of year in our supermarkets. Unless we have a garden, or raise farm animals, we’re a bit more removed from the cycle of the seasons and the joy of the harvest.
Likewise, in our day of set wages, signed contracts, and salaries, we can also feel a bit more removed from the providence of God when it comes to our daily bread. After all, most of us go into a year knowing pretty much how much money we are going to make during that year. However, for the generations of agricultural societies throughout history, there was no such certainty.
For those whose livelihood and life are tied to the produce of the land, there is only hope, and a strong sense of vulnerability. There are, after all, so many factors that the farmer simply cannot control — factors that can bring ruin. Because of this vulnerability, in many primitive cultures, the people worshiped gods of fertility and weather, hoping for the best from their land and their crops. The ancient people of Israel, by contrast — and later the Christians — affirm one God: one God who made and who rules over all of creation. But He is not an erratic, unpredictable god, like the false gods worshiped by other people. No, the one true God we worship has bound Himself in a covenant-relationship to His people: He is a God who has made and keeps His promises, a God who has given us His word; a word we depend upon.
Because of this, when God’s chosen people gathered in the harvest, they knew and understood to whom they owed their thanks. And with thankful hearts, the harvest was a celebration of gratitude. Additionally, the harvest was a festival with many layers. First, the harvest represented the completion of a process — indeed the culmination of a course. Even if we live far removed from the land, we still have these kinds of celebrations; graduations, confirmation, the awarding of a degree, the ribbon-cutting for a new building, the completion of some major project at work, and the like. We like to celebrate those moments that represent the completion of a process.
In addition, the harvest also represented the reason and the reward for all their hard work. Imagine in our day a salaried employee who got paid just once or twice a year. Imagine the excitement that would come with such an occasional payday! So it was with the harvest: it was the reason and reward for all the farm family’s labor for so many months. The harvest also represented the answer to prayers.
Because the people understood that so much was out of their control, they understood that they had to rely on God. They covered the land with prayer as much as it was covered with seed and manure. The beauty and bounty of the harvest was therefore a visible, tangible answer to those many prayers. The world of the Bible was an agricultural world.
Ancient Israel had very few large cities — Jerusalem and Jericho, for example. Mostly, the land was dotted with small towns: towns that were the centers of surrounding acres devoted to farming. These were not big, industrial farms, but small, family farms. Since the world of the Bible was an agricultural world, we recognize that the teachings of Jesus were naturally filled with agricultural images and language. His teachings featured the shepherd with his sheep, the laborer in the vineyard, and the farmer in his field.
But, when Jesus talked farming, he wasn’t just talking about farming. Rather, He was speaking in parables — usually parables of the kingdom. Repeatedly those parables began with the phrase “the kingdom of God is like…” Recall the parable of the mustard seed. Jesus said the kingdom “is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his field…” He said that it “is like a landowner, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.…” And in last Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus said it “is like a sower who went out to sow, and some of the seed fell along the path…”
Time and again, Jesus likened the heavenly and unfolding kingdom of God to the natural and agricultural world of shepherds and farmers, fields and seeds. Pastor Alfred Henry picked up on that metaphorical use of farm language when he penned, “All the world is God’s own field, fruit as praise to God we yield.” Just as a given farmer has a field from which he hopes to yield a certain crop, so the whole world is like God’s field, and he has plans for it. He has hopes for what it will produce.
This is the look, the feel, and the truth of one of the farming parables that Jesus told. “The kingdom of heaven,” He said, “is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.” And that man, Jesus later explained, represented the Lord Himself, the field represented the whole world, and the good seed represented the children of the kingdom of God. The Lord had sown His followers throughout the world, looking for them to mature and grow, to blossom and be fruitful. But this parable also comes with a warning, a stark and blunt warning!
“But then,” the parable clearly continues, “an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.” That enemy, we are told, is the evil one, the devil. Now it’s important to note here the word Jesus used for what we call weeds. The Greek word “dziz-an’-ee-on” is a poisonous weed, darnel. Darnel is an invasive plant that greatly resembles wheat until ripe. Even with close examination, a field worker will often fail to discern the difference until the weed’s black grain appears. Additionally, it’s most toxic just before harvest. The poison within the plant causes lethargy, deep sleep, and even death. You see even in the weeds Jesus chose in His illustration there is a warning about the works of the devil. Paul reminds us of the toxic nature of sin when he wrote, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23).
The wheat in Jesus’ parable is life, the weeds are death. And Jesus is giving us a clear picture of how we’re to serve in the current kingdom of God, and of the judgement that will come. This parable gives us a clear picture of not only our work in the current world, but also of what is to come when Jesus returns. This story reveals to us that God is not the only One at work here in this field that is the world. No, satan is also at work. The enemy of God continues to sow his own evil influence throughout the Earth, which yields a very different sort of produce.
The older translations, as well as the hymn, speak of the enemy’s work as “tares.” But the original Greek word, “dziz-an’-ee-on,” was a word that the farmers of ancient Palestine knew all too well. This poisonous weed was indeed diabolically similar to wheat. It grew to about the same height as wheat, and it was nearly indistinguishable from wheat until both were in the ear. In addition to being poisonous to people and animals, the weeds also robbed the wheat of some of its resources of soil, water, and sun. And because they were nearly identical in appearance, it was nearly impossible simply to go through and weed out the tares. You had to wait until everything was full grown and then separate the wheat from the weeds. The point is, evil at times can be camouflaged.
The Bible doesn’t speak in a straightforward way about the origins of evil in the world. Instead, scripture uses stories and imagery to convey the truth, including this very effective parable that speaks of a malicious enemy and his characteristic way of working. Secret infiltration — deception — and a product that appeared good at first but turned out to be poisonous. This enemy hoped to compromise, undermine, and ruin the Lord’s crop, the Lord’s field. Oftentimes, evil and its ruinous effects aren’t fully realized until it comes to fruition. However, there are indications of what’s to come if you look for it.
Again, look at what Jesus tells us: after all the plants began to grow, the enemy’s work became apparent. And, as Jesus tells the story, the landowner’s hired hands came to him and asked, “What happened? You sowed good seed in your field, so where did all these weeds come from?” The landowner immediately recognizes what had happened. “An enemy has done this,” he said. In response, his servants were eager to rectify the problem: “Shall we go and pull up the weeds?” It seemed like a reasonable suggestion: pull out the weeds, eliminate the problem. But then we get the surprise answer. No, the Master says, let them grow together until harvest time.
For me, this has always been the difficult part of this parable. If you eliminate the problem, then you have nothing to worry about. So what is Jesus really trying to tell us here? In other places in the Bible, we’re told to shun evil, to address sin, to avoid temptation, so how do we reconcile this parable with the rest of the Bible’s teachings? The caution of rooting out evil comes when Jesus tells His workers, “While you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Therefore, let both grow together until the harvest.” The caution here is that when we place ourselves in the position of judge, determining which is a good plant and which is a weed, we decide who gets to stay and who gets to go; we place ourselves in the position of judge and jury.
Jesus is challenging His workers here, remember Jesus said, “wait till the harvest.” This means wait until the grain ripens, wait until all the evidence is in. Remember last week, I reminded you of what Jesus said in His sermon on the Mount? You will know them by their fruit. Wheat has light-colored grains. The weeds had dark or black colored grains. By looking at the fruit, God’s workers could know for sure the good from the bad. This is about God’s timing, not ours. There is a process. God tells us to not get ahead of ourselves when it comes to making judgements. We need to be patient and wait “until the harvest.”
The harvest, is of course, the final judgment in Jesus’ parable. Hear what the master said about 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.” Jesus, at the harvest will send out the ones He designates to collect the weeds. Henry Alford again brilliantly anticipated that harvest: “For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take the harvest home; from the field shall in that day all offenses purge away, giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast; but the fruitful ears to store in the garner evermore.”
This parable gives us a picture of the great separation at the end of time. In this case, it’s the separating of the weeds from the wheat. Jesus will repeat this theme in the stories of separating the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) and separating the good fish from the bad fish (Matthew 13:47-50). And it’s in this parable’s closing that we see this separation and what happens to the weeds; the weeds are thrown into the fire. The “hell” or eternal punishment imagery Jesus uses is hard to miss. But it is clear, evil in the end will be dealt with, not by us, but by God Himself.
Today we may not talk much about hell, and on the one hand this is bad. Hell is real, and so is eternity. Each of us will stand before Jesus and give account for our thoughts, words and deeds. Again St. Paul makes this clear, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). This really is all we need to know. On the other hand, we also must acknowledge that God’s final judgement, hell and eternal punishment is too complex a topic to be relegated to one or two paragraphs in a sermon.
So, for today, let me just say, because of what we know about the justice and mercy of God, we can be assured of these two things. First, that there will not be a single soul in hell that doesn’t deserve to be there. God’s judgement is just and perfect. And when you look at Jesus’ explanation of the separation of the sheep and goats, there will be surprised on both sides of the isle. There will be seemingly good people that will be condemned, and there will be a great many souls in heaven who don’t deserve to be there! I read a very poignant statement this past week, “If simply being good was all it took to get into heaven than Jesus died for nothing.” Again, St. Paul makes this very clear, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The harvest, therefore — that is to say, the final judgment — is the occasion when both God’s justice would be fully unveiled and God’s mercy will be fully realized. Henry Alford yearned for that day: “Even so, Lord, quickly come,” he sings, “bring thy final harvest home; gather thou thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin, there, forever purified, in thy presence to abide; come, with all thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.” The hymn “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” is, for many, as much a Thanksgiving staple as turkey and stuffing as it is a prompting for us to think about the harvest.
But even beyond the season, the holiday, and the hymn, there are other, every day, things that can prompt us to remember the truths of Jesus’ harvest parable. Even something as ordinary as a weed in our flower bed or yard can be a reminder. So, as we look at our gardens, and the many vegetables that we are enjoying at this time of the year, let us remember these things about the harvest. First, the harvest will come, and when it comes it will be the completion of a process. And second, when it comes to our lives as workers in God’s kingdom, it’s also the reason and the reward for all the labor, and it’s the answer to our prayers! Come Lord Jesus come!
Amen.