Pulling Weeds---Sunday July 20th, 2014

This past Sunday we started our trek through the parables. Jesus taught by way of these stories that he told. The piece that was not preached on last Sunday was Matthew 13: 10-17, where Jesus told the disciples why he speaks in parables:

10 Jesus’ disciples came and said to him, “Why do you use parables when you speak to the crowds?”

11 Jesus replied, “Because they haven’t received the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but you have. 12 For those who have will receive more and they will have more than enough. But as for those who don’t have, even the little they have will be taken away from them. 13 This is why I speak to the crowds in parables: although they see, they don’t really see; and although they hear, they don’t really hear or understand. 14 What Isaiah prophesied has become completely true for them:

You will hear, to be sure, but never understand; 
        and you will certainly see but never recognize what you are seeing.
15     For this people’s senses have become calloused, 
        and they’ve become hard of hearing, 
        and they’ve shut their eyes 
            so that they won’t see with their eyes 
            or hear with their ears 
            or understand with their minds, 
                and change their hearts and lives that I may heal them.[a]

16 “Happy are your eyes because they see. Happy are your ears because they hear. 17 I assure you that many prophets and righteous people wanted to see what you see and hear what you hear, but they didn’t.

In between the parable of the weeds and its explanation, Jesus says:

35b I’ll speak in parables; 
        I’ll declare what has been hidden since the beginning of the world.


Jesus speaks in parables to reveal some secrets of the Kingdom of God; to open people's eyes so that they may see; so that the people may understand.

This week, we turn to the parable of the wheat and the weeds, Matthew 13: 24:30 and 36-43.

I admit, I get a little queezy when I think about God's punishment. Although this parable tells us that the weeds should remain growing with the wheat, ultimately the weeds are burned up. This is a difficult word for me to hear.

I remember picking weeds as a kid. It was one of the most daunting chores that I had to do. But Jesus doesn't tell us to pick the weeds.....

Last summer, I heard our Bishop, Ken Carter, speak at my home church (St. Luke's UMC in Orlando). I remember something that he said, stemming from an interpretation of this parable:

"In the gospels, a vivid portrait of patience is found in Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares. We are sometimes tempted to see the vineyard as more holy or just if those with whom we have conflict are no longer present. In the beautiful image of Jesus' parable, we grow together, wheat and tares, in the church. In this way, the church is a kind of “greenhouse” where we are planted, pruned and thus transformed.   To live together (even in our differences) is a gift of grace, and is essential in our maturing as disciples until the harvest where God is judge."


See you Sunday!