This sermon was preached on Sunday 23rd July 2023.

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Reading: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

We are carrying on from last week with Jesus’ parable of the weeds. At the start of Matthew chapter 13, Jesus told the parable of the sower and then went on to explain the parable to the disciples. Jesus spoke about four outcomes for the seeds of faith. Number 1, the seed fell on the ground and was eaten up by the birds. Number 2, the seed fell on the rocky ground and shallow soil where the seed could not plant roots. Number 3, the seed fell among the thorns which grew up and choked the seed. And number 4, the seed fell among the good soil and yielded crops 30, 60 and 100 times over. 

Subsequent to the parable of the sower, Jesus tells the parable of the weeds. In this parable, Jesus is taking a deep dive into the problems of the thorns and weeds explored in the third outcome of the parable of the sower. 

Unlike the parable of the sower, in the parable of the weeds, Jesus talks about how weeds and thorns got into the soil. Where the seeds of faith we receive were sown by Jesus, the weeds that we find around us were sown by the devil. The devil sows weeds to choke our growth in Jesus Christ so that our faith may be suffocated and smothered by the weeds. We might not see the weeds being planted at first, but as seeds of grain grow and begin to sprout, so do the weeds. These weeds grow around us and sow roots next to us which creates all sorts of problems and challenges for us. The gardeners in the room know that weeds sap energy and nutrients away from the seed thus hindering or even completely preventing its growth. In the same way, the weeds sown by the devil can suck the life out of faith; they surround and overshadow us from seeing the light of the Son of God. They overtake us and keep us from growing in faith and can even be the death of our faith. 

So, who are the weeds that grow around us? You would want to watch out for these weeds. Any gardener would be out in the soil with their eyes sharply looking for any trace of weeds in order to sort them out. But who are the weeds that are hurting our growth in the faith? Jesus says the weeds are the children of the evil one. Well, who are the children of the evil one? 

When growing up it was always an interesting occasion when I answered the phone, or at least once my voice had broken. The reason being is that once my voice had broken, people calling would struggle to tell if it was me or my dad who picked up the phone. Some of you might have experienced this with your own parents or your own children. My dad and I have similar voices and we both answer the phone with the same intonation. They would hear my voice and say ‘Hey Andrew,’ to which I replied, ‘It’s Shakeel.’ ‘Oh really,’ they would say, ‘You sound just like your dad.’ My guess is that I am not the only person to have had this experience in this room. 

Children often sound like their parents. They can look like their parents and often have the same mannerisms and behaviours as their parents. In many ways, children are a version of their parents. So, when we ask, who are the children of the evil one, it follows that children of the evil one are those who speak, act and sound like the devil. These are the people who pursue things that are evil and not of God. These are the people who lead us away from faith. The people who take us away from the things that help us spiritually grow like gathering for worship and prayer or time spent reading your bible or in devotion. Or it could be people who encourage you to gossip or to slander and smear someone. These are the people who are like weeds in our lives. 

So what do we do about these weeds? The gardener in some of you might be telling you to pull up these weeds and get rid of them. And that would make a lot of sense. However, there is a problem with this. You see these weeds are deep-rooted. Not just in our lives but across the whole world. And the problem with deep roots is that they can interweave deep in the soil with other roots, the roots of the good seed. As I said before, these weeds are growing alongside the good seed, both above and under the ground. And Jesus recognises this problem too, which is why the master of the parable says to the slave:

‘No [don’t gather in the weeds], for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’

The weeds have grown too much and are a part of our lives. Just look at the world around you. Stick on the news. You can’t go a day without seeing someone who is acting like a weed in our world. But if we took out the weeds from every part of society, it would cause so much disruption to society, that the extent of the disruption would affect our ability to grow. Imagine if in turning over a corrupt government and political system it led to a complete uprooting of life as you know it, after which you are dealing with the mess of this new life. Can you see how disruptive that would be to our personal and spiritual growth? Look at when we see this happen over the years in countries like Ukraine, Syria or Afghanistan. They have had their lives ‘uprooted.’ Uprooted, it is a seriously devastating event people will struggle to recover from and some won’t even survive. This is why Jesus says that the weeds are not uprooted now, because it will risk the growth and life of our seeds of faith. 

So what happens instead? We wait until the harvest time. That is the time when Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. This is at the end of time when Jesus has taken all who follow him to be with him and he will deal with all those who have been weeds in this world. There is a lot which unclear in scripture about when and what the end times will look like, and I don’t want to get into it now, but what it does tell us is that for now, our Christian lives will be lived amongst weeds. Therefore, we need to find a way to live and grow in spite of the weeds in the world. 

How do we live amongst the weeds of this world? When there are other weeds that can be a drain on us, it is even more important that we are growing deep roots of faith and that we are taking in good nutrients from the sun and the soil. Where are you putting your roots of faith? Is it in Jesus? Is it in prayer and worship? Is it in God’s word? Is it in your church family? Or is it in non-nutritious things, which may not be intrinsically bad, but they will not sustain us and help us grow? Junk food will sustain us, but not well, and it is not going to help us grow (at least in the way we want to).  We need to commit to drawing on good spiritual nutrients. This week my challenge is for you to look at where you are getting your spiritual nutrients. Do a spiritual-health review and ask what is nourishing you. Are you getting the spiritual nutrients you need to grow faith in a world of weeds? If you are not sure where to start then start right here, right now. We come together in worship and prayer to gather around the Lord’s table and feed on him, to be nourished and strengthened by his body and blood. So come to Jesus to be fed and may you grow strongly amongst the weeds. 

Amen.