Epiphany 5 – February 8th,
2015 – Matthew 13
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
Epiphany is the season of Light – the season where we focus
on and marvel at the fact that God loved poor, miserable sinners such as us,
and so He came down Himself, became Man, in order to win us salvation with His
death upon the Cross. When Christ comes
to earth, He comes to shed His blood and die so that we who are condemned to
death by reason of our sin might be forgiven; He comes to rise again on the
third day in order to burst open the doors of death so that we too will
rise. And all through Epiphany we’ve
seen how this is something that Christ does for all men – that Jesus is indeed
the Light to Lighten the Gentiles. The
Wise Men – Jesus came for them. The poor
and miserable sinners who were baptized by John – Jesus came for them. Peter, who confesses and then messes up; Paul
the persecutor – Jesus came for them.
Even those of little faith, the weak, those who find life to be a
struggle - Jesus came for them. Or in
other words, He came for us. This is the
wonder and joy that we see in the Church – that we are gathered here together
and that in this Church our sins are richly and daily forgiven.
But it seems to be that there still is a problem. Evil remains in the world. Listen to our parable for today. “The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a
man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his
enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain,
then the weeds appeared also.”
So, here’s the situation – what do you do when what you thought was
wheat turns out to be a weed instead?
And the way this works is that when they were young, this specific type
of weed looked a lot like wheat, but it was only in their ripening that you
could tell the difference. Now, our Lord
tells us what is going on – “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of
Man. This field is the world, and the good seed is
the children of the kingdom. The weeds
are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.” I think this is an apt description of the
world – you’ve got some wheat, and you’ve got some weeds. You’ve got those who are focused upon Christ
– the children of the kingdom – those who are baptized and live out their
baptismal lives, by daily repentance struggling against sin and seeking
Christ’s forgiveness – and then you’ve got the weeds… who don’t. Who brush off the idea of repentance, who
don’t care a whit about forgiveness.
People who care nothing for Christ and His Church often
cause us great pain and sorrow. Think of
all the persecutions in the middle east, in Africa
that we hear about – our Christian brothers and sisters slain by wicked men –
it seems the weeds are growing up around them ever stronger. Or even closer to home, there are those who
reject Christ or ignore Him or even hate Jesus, and as such they can reject us,
or ignore us, or even hate us. And the
bitter, bitter irony of this is that Christ Jesus came for all – we know that
Jesus came and died for the sins of the whole world – their sin too – those
people who are the fiercest and most bitter opponents, the most hateful and
hurtful people we know, Christ died for them too. And yet, they reject, deny, and ignore. And it’s sad.
And then, often, they cause troubles for us, annoyances for us – and
then we don’t just feel sorrow – we can feel anger, indignation, we can want to
“do something” about them… and what sort of things?
When the servants see the weeds in the field, and the
master tells them that an enemy has sowed them there, the servants ask a
question. “Then do you want us to go out
and gather them?” Sounds sort of
nice – gather. Let’s be a bit more
colorful – do you want us to rip them out of the ground, bundle them up, and
burn them, burn them with fire! That’s
what they would be gathered for – indeed, on the Last Day, the day of harvest,
that is what will happen. But do you see
the difference in approach? The servants
are eager to dive into the field and start ripping and pulling and tearing, all
in order to “fix” things. This,
likewise, can be the way we are tempted to respond as well. When we see wickedness, when we see people
who anger, hurt, and annoy us, our first response can be to want to reap
vengeance, to dive on in, both fists swinging, and pummel the tar out of those
evil people. Our first thoughts can be
on trying to make sure that the wicked get what they have coming to them. We can want to be destroyers.
But the master stops his servants, doesn’t let them go traipsing
through the fields to go on their weed hunt.
Why? “No, lest in gathering the weeds
you root up the wheat along with them.”
The master is worried about what today gets called “collateral
damage.” Sure, you might get the weeds,
but how many plants of wheat will you dislodge, displace, hurt, and even
destroy in the process? What are the
unintended consequences of your actions?
Who else will it hurt? And this,
dear friends, is what we ourselves need to remember whenever we want vengeance,
whenever we want to “take it to” someone, whenever we want to be the instrument
of punishment. This always ends up
hurting extra people - especially when they see you, a Christian, rampaging
through the field like the proverbial bull in a china shop. In our zeal to fix, to punish, we can often
bruise and batter people we didn’t intend to.
And why? Because in seeking
revenge, we stop focusing on loving our neighbors and stop focusing on serving
them as we have been called by God to do, and rather seeking revenge, we don’t
see the full extent of the damage we are doing, damage to them, to ourselves,
to the people around who say, “If that’s what those Lutherans are like, well,
then I don’t want to be one!”
This isn’t to say that the wicked get off scot free. Hardly.
“Let 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.” Gathered to be burned – but just not by
you. Not your job. Our Lord explains that on the last day,
that’s when things will get sorted – not until then. And this really drives home a point that we
need to remember. Even with all the times
where our Lord gives warnings of the end, of how the wicked will be thrown into
the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth – that’s
not His focus. That’s not why Jesus
comes, at least not primarily. The
reason He comes is to rescue people from sin, to save them from everlasting
torment. The reason He warns us of the
fires of the last day isn’t so that we can look up at the sky and say, “I hope
Jesus comes today so so-and-so will finally get it.” He teaches this so that people might
understand the consequences of evil, repent of it, and receive life. In other words, Jesus is much more interested
in mercy.
So now I will call upon you to examine yourself. Are your thoughts more thoughts of mercy or
thoughts of vengeance? Are your thoughts
more towards delighting in the wonders of forgiveness that Christ has won for
all, that all people should benefit from, or are your thoughts more focused on
how someone else did you wrong? When you
see your neighbor, do you see someone for whom Christ Jesus has died, or do you
see someone who is an annoyance, making your life more difficult? Do you love your enemies and desire mercy for
them, or do you hate them back and desire their destruction, desire that they
get theirs? It’s easy to view people as
difficulties, as burdens – because to be honest, sometimes they are. But that’s not all they are – they are people
for whom Christ Jesus has died, they are people God has put into our lives so
that they might receive from us love and mercy.
In this, we fail. I
don’t see any way around it, I don’t see how I can claim anything else. I doubt any one of us would have to think too
hard to come up with times when, even quite recently, we’ve been angry,
annoyed, put out, and as a result have let that anger, and maybe even a desire
for vengeance, come to the fore and overshadow love and patience and
mercy. And so this text today calls us
to repentance – warns us of our sinful desires for vengeance, calls us to the
carpet for the sin of neglecting to show mercy and love.
But why does our Lord give us this parable? Not because He hates us, not because He wants
to hurry up and get to His vengeance against us for our miserable and pathetic
failures – but because He is God Almighty who has come to earth to win
forgiveness for precisely this sin and all the other sins which swirl around
us. He calls us to His House, His table,
not in order to condemn us, but in order to forgive us and give us life in His
name. Hear the last verse, the closing
word of this parable – “Then the righteous will shine like the sun
in the Kingdom of their Father. He who
has ears, let Him hear.”
Forgiveness and restoration is Christ’s goal, Christ’s focus – and He
doesn’t want your eyes to be taken off of this – He doesn’t want you to waste
your time worrying about punishment and condemnation – He will see to that sad
duty when it is needed; but that is not for you and I. Jesus has something better for us – we are
children of the Kingdom, washed clean of our sin by the gift of Baptism, and we
are being prepared for the everlasting Kingdom where we will shine forth in
holiness and righteousness. This is what
Christ’s mercy brings about in you and me.
Yes, now we often see our sin to our own shame and regret, but Christ
Jesus is your Lord and Savior, and He has forgiven you. The day will come, the Last Day, when, on
account of Him, you will rise and shine, even as He is risen and shines in
glory now. In the Name of Christ Jesus,
the Light of the World + Amen.
3 comments:
Is it okay if I make a pinterest board for your sermons? :)
Rebecca
I don't quite know what that means precisely... if it means other people can read them... sure.
If it means you are going to turn my sermons into a doily... um... sure?
HAHAHA! No doily... :) Just saving them.
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