A reflection for the journey of faith — sometimes we all need a little light for the way.
What do you do with a bunch of old sermons? Turn them into a blog – refined, condensed, made for today’s world – I pray that it will speak to you today! Or feel free to use it as a little inspiration for your own message. It’s FOR YOU! (Scroll down for previous posts)
Sunday July 19 – Eighth Sunday after Pentecost/Lectionary 16
Isaiah 44:6-8
Psalm 86:11-17
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “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?’
28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 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 13:24-30]
Fake Flowers, Wheat, and the Wisdom of Waiting
I thought I had witnessed a miracle.
I had helped at a friend’s wedding and was given a beautiful yellow corsage to wear. When I got home, I couldn’t bear to throw it away. It was just too pretty.
So I did what seemed perfectly reasonable.
I put it in the refrigerator.
A few days later it still looked fresh.
A few weeks later it was still beautiful.
Months passed, and it hadn’t changed a bit.
By then I was convinced I possessed some extraordinary flower that had somehow escaped the normal laws of nature.
Eventually the bride came to visit. She opened my refrigerator, looked inside, held up the flower, and asked with a puzzled expression,
“Why do you have a fake flower in your refrigerator?”
Well…
That explained everything.
Sometimes things aren’t what they appear to be.
Jesus tells a story like that in Matthew 13.
A farmer plants good wheat, but during the night someone scatters weed seeds throughout the field. As the plants begin to grow, they look almost identical. In fact, the weed Jesus describes—called darnel—looks so much like young wheat that even experienced farmers can have difficulty telling them apart until much later.
The workers are alarmed.
“Should we pull the weeds?”
It seems like the obvious solution.
The farmer says no.
Wait.
If you pull too soon, you’ll destroy the wheat along with the weeds.
I’ve always thought this was one of Jesus’ most challenging parables.
Because waiting is rarely our first instinct.
We Like Things Clearly Labeled
We live in a world that rewards quick judgments.
Social media encourages instant opinions.
News headlines invite us to decide who is right and who is wrong before we know the whole story.
Politics has trained us to divide people into teams.
Even in our personal lives, it’s tempting to label people as difficult, trustworthy, irresponsible, generous, selfish, faithful, or hopeless.
We like neat categories.
Jesus seems far less interested in categories than we are.
The servants are convinced they know exactly what they’re looking at.
The farmer gently reminds them that they don’t.
Only time—and ultimately God—can reveal the whole truth.
That’s humbling.
Because if I’m honest, I’ve been wrong about people more than once.
I’ve seen individuals I quietly wrote off become some of the most compassionate people I’ve ever known.
I’ve watched people who appeared to have everything together struggle with burdens no one else could see.
And I’ve discovered that every one of us carries both brokenness and beauty.
Maybe that’s why Jesus tells us to be careful before deciding who belongs in which column.
The Detail I Almost Missed
There’s one small detail in the story that has become more meaningful to me over the years.
When the workers discover the weeds, they don’t immediately rush into the field.
They go to the farmer first.
Only then do they ask,
“What should we do?”
I wonder how many difficult situations in my own life would look different if that became my first response.
Before reacting…
Before assuming…
Before posting…
Before confronting…
Before worrying…
Go to the Master.
Pray.
Listen.
Wait.
Discern.
We often think prayer is what we do after we’ve exhausted every other option.
Jesus quietly suggests it should be where we begin.
Trusting the One Who Sees the Whole Field
Perhaps the greatest comfort in this parable is remembering that God sees what we cannot.
We see one conversation.
God sees a lifetime.
We see one failure.
God sees a beloved child still growing.
We see one difficult season.
God sees the harvest that has not yet come.
That doesn’t mean evil isn’t real or that injustice should simply be ignored. Jesus never says that.
He simply reminds us that the final work of judgment belongs to God, not to us.
Our calling is different.
We are called to keep growing.
To keep loving.
To keep trusting.
To keep bringing our questions to the One who sees the entire field.
Because while we are often tempted to sort people into wheat and weeds…
God is still patiently growing a harvest of grace.
And perhaps that’s good news for all of us.
After all, if God had judged me too quickly, there have been seasons of my life when I might have looked an awful lot like a weed.
Thankfully, God is far more patient than I am.
God's Yes + My Amen 