+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of you may remember from this past Spring something that The Houston Chronicle (no doubt a little tongue in cheek) called “a scandal of potentially epic proportions”: in the flowerbeds around the Tower at The University of Texas at Austin appeared maroon bluebonnets believed to have been engineered at Texas A-and-M in College Station. Officials at U‑T came to a conclusion similar to that of the master of the house in today’s Gospel Reading who says, “An enemy has done this.” Of course, the enemy’s planting in today’s Gospel Reading is far more insidious and has eternal consequences. In the Gospel Reading the question is not “regular or maroon bluebonnets?” but “weeds or wheat?” So, we consider today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Weeds or Wheat?”
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up Jesus’s so-called “Third Discourse” in St. Matthew’s divinely‑inspired Gospel account right where the second-half of last week’s Gospel Reading left off. Today we heard the second of seven connected parables that describe the Kingdom of Heaven from the beginning of faith to the final judgment. Jesus later explained both of these two parables, perhaps to make sure that they were properly understood. The parable we heard today, which the disciples call “the parable of the weeds of the field”, is recorded only by St. Matthew’s account, and, like last week’s so‑called “Parable of the Sower”, Jesus seems to tell this parable because of the opposition and rejection that He was experiencing (Matthew 11:1-12:50).
Somewhat like the maroon bluebonnet scandal at U-T, there is intrigue in the Gospel Reading, with the enemy coming at night, his sowing weeds among the wheat, and his going away. We might like for Jesus to explain more about the devil’s sowing his children in the world, if not also about how the devil fell in the first place, but those things are not the main point of the parable. Rather, Jesus highlights the way “the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field” when Jesus says, “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the close of the age.” Then, the Son of Man’s angels will gather all causes of sin and all law‑breakers and throw them like weeds into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and then the righteous wheat will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.
Jesus essentially wants us to ask ourselves, are we “Weeds or Wheat?” Of course, you and I are law‑breakers, and we also can be causes of sin for other people. Each of us ourselves was a sinner by nature from the moment of our conception, and on our own each of us has not stopped sinning since. Yes, the devil bears some responsibility for our sin, but so also do the world and our own sinful flesh bear some responsibility; we are not excused from personal accountability! As we repent of our sin and believe that God forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake, we are indeed forgiven by God. Repentant believers are children of the Kingdom and not children of the Evil One. They children of the evil one are the weeds, those who “have met the kingdom, have been touched by its powers of grace, and have turned from it, preferring wickedness instead” (Lenksi, ad loc Mt 13:38, 537). God does patiently wait for all people to repent, but He will not wait forever (2 Peter 3:8-15). At the close of the age, the unrepentant unbelievers, thrown like weeds into the fiery furnace of hell, will begin to endure never-ending torment of soul and body, which torment Jesus, the Son of Man, came down from heaven and on the cross endured for us, so that we do not have to endure it.
Admittedly, Jesus’s referring to Himself with third‑person titles such as “the Son of Man” can be a bit confusing. Although the title “the Son of Man” sounds more “human”, the title in its Old Testament background actually is more “divine”. Of course, Jesus is both human and divine, man and God. In the Gospel Reading’s explanation of the parable, “Jesus portrays Himself in terms of divine majesty”, such as the Son of Man’s owning the world and His sending His angels to execute judgment (Roehrs‑Franzmann, ad loc Mt 13:37, 30). Yet, Jesus is also the Son of Man Who was delivered over and condemned to death (Matthew 20:18), Who spent parts of three days in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40), Who rose from the dead (Matthew 17:9), and Who, in doing all that, served by giving His life as a ransom for all (Matthew 20:28)—including you and me. Jesus is the Redeemer described in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 44:6-8). So, too, in the Gospel Reading, Jesus is “the Son of Man” Who sows the good seed—that is, the children of the Kingdom, namely us, who repent and believe. Indeed, Jesus, the Son of Man, has authority on earth to forgive sins (Matthew 9:6), and He does forgive our sins: He forgives our sins in very specific ways: in preaching, in Holy Baptism, in Individual Absolution, and in the Sacrament of the Altar.
Today’s Epistle Reading refers to us as “sons” and “children” of God, and it refers to our “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:18-27). God makes us His children, or adopts us as His children, at the Baptismal Font. In Holy Baptism He effectively redeems us, giving us the benefits of Jesus’s death on the cross. There, with water and the Word, He not only works forgiveness of sins, but He also rescues from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe. Baptized, repentant believers forgiven by God in turn forgive one another and come to this Altar and to its Rail for the Sacrament of the Altar, receiving in bread Jesus’s body given for them and receiving in wine Jesus’s blood shed for them, and so they receive the forgiveness of sins and thus also life and salvation. Weeds may not gathered from the field until the harvest, lest the wheat be uprooted, but, nevertheless, the unrepentant, who refuse to listen to the Church, are excommunicated, or cut off from Her communion, the opposite of Individual Absolution (Matthew 18:15-20).
Today’s appointed Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 772) is a lovely, relatively‑new composition by a now‑retired Missouri Synod pastor. My Mom taught me the hymn during my Dad’s recent health crisis, and here at Pilgrim our Midweek Bible Study group has “rehearsed” it the last few weeks for its use today. Although the hymn seems more closely connected to today’s Epistle Reading and its emphasis on prayer, such prayer according to the will of God grows out of our relationship as children of the Kingdom, children of God our Father, as described in the Gospel Reading. For example, we pray, as we did in today’s Collect, that, ever mindful of God’s final judgment, we may be stirred to holiness of living. Good works that flow from faith are the fruits that distinguish us from the weeds! Born of God in Holy Baptism, with God’s seed abiding in us, we do not make a practice of sinning (1 John 3:9). And, as the Epistle Reading describes, we will suffer, in this present time, but the suffering will end at the close of the age, if not before, and such sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed in us. Through such suffering and always, Jesus Himself is sacramentally present with us to the close or end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Then, when the time has come, He will deal with all the weeds, including any who inflicted suffering on us, while He gathers His wheat into His barn of heaven. There, in the Kingdom of our Father, we who repent and believe will shine like the sun emerging from a cloud, reflecting the glory of God and confirmed in His goodness.
Maroon bluebonnets “sown” around the U‑T Tower are hardly “worth comparing” to the devil’s sowing children as weeds into the world. Are we “Weeds or wheat?” The Gospel Reading’s so‑called “Parable of the Weeds” is “heavy with warning” for the weeds, unrepentant unbelievers, but, for the wheat, repentant believers, at least its end is “bright with hope and joy” (Lenksi, ad loc Mt 13:42-43, 546). God grant that hope and joy to us, today and always!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +