Tawa Baptist

The weeds among the wheat

 Scripture: Matthew 13:24-30 & 36-43

Video Link: https://youtu.be/_0WKCa2_7so

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 3 May 2026 – The weeds among the wheat by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Heaven on earth
  • Evil tolerated
  • Creative judgement
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

You may have heard of the Glycemic Index. The Glycemic Index (or GI for short) is a scale from 1 to 100 that ranks food based on how quickly it raises blood sugar levels after being eaten.

Food with a low GI is generally better for you because it is digested slower, providing a more gradual, sustained release of energy. Examples of low GI foods include things like quinoa, lentils and non-starchy vegetables.

By contrast, high GI foods like white bread, potatoes and lollies tend to spike blood sugar levels, giving you a quick energy hit before dumping you again.

For the last three months we have been exploring some of Jesus’ parables in the gospels. In many ways, the parables of Jesus are like low GI spiritual food. The meaning doesn’t come quickly. The parables digest slowly, providing a sustained nourishment for our faith.        

Today we conclude our series by focusing on the parable of the weeds among the wheat, in Matthew 13. In verses 24-30 Jesus tells this parable to the crowds then later, in private, the disciples ask Jesus to explain the meaning, which he does in verses 36-43. From Matthew 13, verse 24 we read…

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.’”

(Jumping ahead to verse 36…)

36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” 37 He answered, 

“The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Heaven on earth:

This parable is about the kingdom of heaven, also known as the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are interchangeable terms. They are different ways of saying the same thing.

God’s kingdom is not like any earthly political system we may be familiar with. Nor can it be equated to a geographic location. On a basic level the kingdom of heaven is God’s government or God’s reign. Said another way, the kingdom of heaven is life with God in charge. Life when God’s will is done. The kingdom of heaven is God’s way of operating.

In Matthew 13, Jesus compares God’s kingdom to a field of wheat. Jesus begins his parable by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.”

We know from the interpretation Jesus gives later, that the man in this parable is the Son of Man, which is code for the Messiah; Jesus’ himself. The seed that Jesus plants represents those people who belong to God’s kingdom. While the field represents the world in which we live. Ponder that for a moment.

Often times people think of the kingdom of heaven as some place in the sky or somewhere else not on this earth. A place we hope to go to in the future after we die. And while there is a heaven separate from this earth, Jesus’ purpose is to bring God’s reign, his way of operating to this world.

We sometimes sing a worship song by Brooke Fraser, ‘What a beautiful name’. There’s a line in that song which reads: ‘You didn’t want heaven without us, so Jesus you brought heaven down’. That line captures something of Jesus’ meaning in this parable. Jesus came to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.    

But notice the way Jesus establishes God’s reign on earth. God’s kingdom does not come by military force, nor by political manoeuvring. God’s kingdom comes organically, gently, gradually, invisibly at first, like seed sown in the ground.

The wheat Jesus sows is low GI.

In the same mysterious way a seed grows by itself, so too the kingdom of heaven grows by itself (no one knows how). Indeed, the growth of God’s kingdom is inevitable. It cannot be stopped.

When the world seems in chaos and our hope is threatened, we need not despair. God’s kingdom will be realised in its fullness one day. The establishment of God’s reign on earth does not depend on us.

In all of this we are to see the obvious; that this world rightfully belongs to God. And God is redeeming it in his own way through Jesus.

Evil tolerated:

Now at this point you might be thinking, what about all the wars, all the suffering, all the injustice and every other bad thing we observe and experience in this world? If Jesus came to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, 2000 years ago, then heaven falls a long way short of the paradise we might have expected.

Well, Jesus addresses this question in verse 25 saying: But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.

Jesus later explains to his disciples that the enemy here is the devil, and the weeds are those people who belong to the evil one.

In the 1995 film, The Usual Suspects, the main character, Roger Kint famously says: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

This line goes back to 1864, with the French writer Charles Baudelaire who coined a similar phrase. The quote suggests the devil’s most effective strategy is making people doubt his existence, thus making it easier for evil to go unnoticed.

Charles Baudelaire may have got his inspiration from Jesus, for the weeds sown by the devil do go unnoticed at first. Verse 26 tells us, it was only when the wheat sprouted and formed heads, that the weeds also appeared.

The word translated as weeds is not weeds in a generic sense but refers to a specific kind of plant commonly known as darnel. The fruit of the darnel plant will make you sick if you eat it.

Darnel looks a lot like wheat when it is young. It is only as the wheat and the darnel reach maturity that you can tell them apart. By that stage it is too late to pull the darnel out because the roots have become entwined with the wheat.

This is why, when the servants ask the owner of the field if he wants them to pull out the weeds, the owner says, ‘No, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest.’  

This is the most challenging part of the parable, I think. Remember the weeds (the darnel) represent those people who belong to the evil one. In practical terms, pulling out the weeds would mean first identifying and then killing certain bad people with the aim of trying to make the world a better place.

William Shakespeare, the famous playwright, explored this theme in his tragedy, Hamlet.  Hamlet was the prince of Denmark. When his father died, Hamlet returned home to discover his uncle, Claudius, was married to his mother, Gertrude, and Claudius had taken the throne.  

It turns out Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark, had been murdered by his brother Claudius. Claudius was having an affair with Gertrude and he wanted the throne for himself.

In thinking of Jesus’ parable, Claudius was what we might call a weed.

He looked like wheat, but really he was poisonous darnel. ‘There was something rotten in Denmark.’ Hamlet took it upon himself to avenge his father’s death and weed out Claudius by killing him.  

Tragically, it all went wrong. In the process of trying to kill Claudius, Hamlet accidently killed the wrong man, Polinius. As the play goes on the body count mounts. By the end Ophilia, Claudius, Gertrude and Hamlet himself are all dead. That’s what happens when you try to weed out the darnel.

Hamlet is a work of fiction but tragedies like this play out in real life all the time. History is littered with assassination attempts and plots of revenge. Human beings playing God, trying to make the world a better place by weeding out certain individuals or groups.  

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous Christian theologian, wrestled with this very question (about whether or not to pull out the weeds) and he became embroiled in a plot to kill Hitler. He failed and was imprisoned for a while before being executed.

Most people these days view Bonhoeffer as a hero of the faith. Was Bonhoeffer right to try and weed out Hitler or would he have been better to leave well alone? I don’t know. That is for God to judge. I pray we never have to face a decision like that.

The point is, in God’s kingdom on earth, evil is tolerated for a while. Evil is allowed to grow alongside the good, until the harvest. The implication here is that God permits suffering in this life. Which means we are called to practice the unpopular virtues of patient faith, forgiveness and perseverance.

In God’s kingdom, judgement about who belongs to Jesus and who belongs to the evil one is left to God. We are not to judge. We don’t have all the facts and we are a bit biased anyway.   

Letting the weeds be, fits with Jesus’ teaching about how to treat our enemies. In verse 39 of Matthew 5, Jesus says: Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Then in verse 44 the Lord goes on to say: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

In other words, God waters the weeds as well as the wheat. This is challenging stuff. We cannot love our enemies in our own strength. We need special grace from the Lord to do this. May God deliver us from the time of trial.       

Creative judgement:  

God will not permit evil and the suffering it causes to remain in the world indefinitely. At the end of the age there will be a final judgement, a day of reckoning, when all evil will be weeded out, not by us, but by the angels of God.

Just as weeds (in ancient times) were burned in the fire, so too everything that causes sin and all who do evil will be destroyed. Scary stuff if you are on the side of evil. But it’s good news if you are in Christ. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.

When we think of judgement our focus is often drawn toward the pyrotechnics, the blazing furnace, the weeping and gnashing of teeth and such like. We can go down all sorts of rabbit holes exploring theories about the conditions of hell. And while the prospect of judgement is understandably concerning, we must not overlook the creative aspect of God’s judgement.

What we notice in this parable, is that God separates the weeds from the wheat at the end of the age. In another judgement day parable, God separates the sheep from the goats. Basically, at the judgement God separates good from evil.

By doing this God is restoring order to his creation, much like he did in Genesis 1 and 2 where we read how the Lord brought order to the chaos by separating things that were mixed together.

For example, the Lord separated the light from the darkness. He separated the dry land from the sea, and he separated the water below from the water above, making the expanse we call ‘sky’. In doing this the Lord made the world functional for human life.  

What I’m saying here is that judgement day is also creation day. It’s not all hellfire and brimstone. God’s judgement makes this world new, functional, beautiful again.

Nevertheless, we may still feel some fear and trepidation in listening to Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13. How do we know if we are weeds or wheat? The human heart is deceitful, who can know it? Even when we want to do the right thing, we often end up doing the wrong thing anyway. Are we not all sinners?

Well yes, the Bible tells us all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That is true. However, God in his grace has atoned for our sin through Jesus’ death on the cross. What separates the wheat from the weeds is a personal relationship with Jesus. We relate with Christ by faith.

Changing metaphors for a moment, Jesus is the good shepherd who goes out of his way to find the lost sheep, but salvation is not automatic. Repentance and faith in Jesus are how we accept God’s salvation.

Two criminals were crucified with Jesus. One on his right and the other on his left. We might think both criminals were weeds, poisonous darnel destined for the furnace. Certainly, one of the criminals hurled insults at Jesus, but the other criminal showed his support for Jesus saying…

“Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our sins deserve. But this man [Jesus] has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” And Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise”.

Faith and repentance you see. As human beings we are able to make choices and the choices we make do matter. We cannot be sure who will prove to be wheat until the final judgement; therefore, we cannot judge others.  

Conclusion:

Jesus concludes the interpretation of his own parable, in verse 43, by saying… Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

You might think the wheat gets ground into flour and eaten after the harvest. No. That would be to take Jesus’ parable in a direction he never intended.

The righteous are more than mere wheat. If we trust and obey Jesus, we are children of God the Father. We may seem pretty ordinary, pretty beige, in this life. But in the age to come we will be golden.

Let us pray…  

Lord Jesus Christ, you are God with us. Grant us the grace and strength to persevere in faith, bearing good fruit to the praise of your glory. Amen.        

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What proportion of your physical diet is low GI food? What proportion of your spiritual diet is low GI?
  3. What does the parable in Matthew 13:24-30 show us about the way Jesus establishes heaven on earth?
  4. Why does God tolerate evil on earth, at least for a while? What are the implications for us? 
  5. Discuss / reflect on what this parable reveals about God’s judgement. In what way is the day of judgement a creative act of God? What notes of hope do we find in this parable?
  6. How do we know if we are weeds or wheat? What separates the weeds from the wheat?
  7. How does Jesus’ parable of the weeds among the wheat make you feel? Why do you feel this way?

Bibliography:

  • R.V.G. Tasker, ‘TNTC: The Gospel According to St Matthew’, 1963.
  • William Barclay, ‘Gospel of Matthew Vol. 2’, 1967.
  • Robert Farrar Capon, ‘The Parables of the Kingdom’, 1985.
  • Michael Green, ‘BST: The Message of Matthew’, 2000.
  • Leonard Mann, ‘Green Eyed Monsters and Good Samaritans’, 2006.
  • R.T. France, ‘NICNT: The Gospel of Matthew’, 2007.
  • Craig Keener, ‘The Gospel of Matthew – A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, 2009.