Weeds among the Wheat

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church, Pinetop, Arizona

Rev. Michael “Mick” Mathews

The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – July 19, 2026

Sermon:  “Weeds among the Wheat”     Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

One of the arguments that atheists and other skeptics make against the existence of God goes like this: “If God truly exists and He is all powerful and truly good and loving, then He should use that power to get rid of all evil and all suffering in the world.” The fact that there is evil and suffering in the world, they say, proves that either God doesn’t have the power to get rid of evil and suffering; or that He has the power to end evil and suffering but chooses not to, which means He is not good or loving – or the simplest explanation, they say, is that He just doesn’t exist at all.

The parable that we heard from Jesus in the Gospel reading today gives us a different perspective on why God continues to allow evil in the world along with the suffering it causes. Jesus told the parable of the weeds among the wheat. In Jesus’ story, a landowner used good seed to sow his field with wheat, but his enemy crept in at night and sowed weeds among the wheat. And not just any weed, such as dandelions, which don’t look anything like wheat. Older English translations say that the enemy sowed “tares”; a more modern translation would be “darnel.” Darnel is sometimes called “false wheat,” because through most of its growing stages it looks similar to wheat. It grows everywhere in the world where wheat grows, and it’s only once the ear appears that the difference between wheat and darnel becomes easily recognizable.

In Jesus’ story, when the farmhands finally recognize the weeds, after the heads appear on both the weeds and the wheat, they ask the landowner what to do about the weeds. Should they go pull out the weeds? The master tells them no. If they try to pull out the weeds, they’ll pull out the wheat too. So they’ll separate the weeds from the wheat at the harvest. Then they’ll burn the weeds but gather the wheat into the barn.

Jesus told this story about farming to the crowds of people, but He game them no explanation about the meaning of the parable itself. So later on in private, Jesus’ disciples asked Him to explain the story to them. He said that He Himself, “the Son of Man,” is the one who sows the good seed. By spreading His Word about the kingdom of heaven, He makes people into “sons of the kingdom,” who are planted now in the field of the world. But “the evil one,” the devil, has also planted his sons in the world by spreading his lies, which too many people believe. According to Jesus, there is no way for God to get rid of the sons of the evil one without also disturbing the sons of the kingdom.

And think about that a little more: If you asked God to get rid of every evil person, every sinner on earth, wouldn’t He have to get rid of you too? Haven’t you said and done things that have been hurtful to others? Maybe in small ways, maybe in bigger ways – haven’t you been a source of suffering to others? Haven’t you contributed in some way to the evil of the world? Who truly deserves to be spared from God’s judgment? Who is truly the wheat instead of the weeds?

Think of what happened when God judged the wickedness of the earth in the time of Noah with the worldwide flood. Everything that lived on land and drew breath was destroyed by the flood. The only ones saved were the ones who went into the ark that God told Noah to build. That included Noah’s family, eight people in all, and the animals that God sent to Noah, two by two. But after the flood was over, God promised that He would not destroy the earth again in the same way, and He set the rainbow to appear in the clouds as a sign of His enduring promise.

The next time that God will bring His judgment on the earth will be at the end of time, when Jesus comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Jesus will send out His angels to do His harvest. “And they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace” of hell (Matthew 13:41–42). But “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).

So God will use His power and His goodness to set His people free from every evil and all suffering. But He will do it in His own time and in His own way, not in the way that atheists and unbelievers would expect or demand. If God got rid of all evil right this moment, we would all be wiped out as sinners. St. Peter in his second letter explains it this way: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God shows His love and His goodness, not by wiping out evil right away – not by wiping us all out right away, but by giving everyone time and opportunity to repent – to turn away from sin and turn to God to be saved by Him.

God’s judgment against all evil is coming, but He provides a way to escape that judgment through Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus did not shy away from the suffering in this world. He entered into it by taking on flesh and blood and living among us, as one of us, as the Son of Man. He took all evil and all suffering into Himself on the cross, and He put it to death by His death. His blood shed on the cross is able to cleanse us from every sin and every evil. He plants His Word in our hearts, and the Holy Spirit causes it to grow into faith – a faith that rejoices in God’s forgiveness now and that waits “eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8: 23).

Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, has planted faith in you by His Holy Spirit so that you live now as a son of the kingdom of God. You still live now in a world where evil and suffering surround you. But St. Paul reminds us that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). All of creation has been subjected to futility and corruption because of human sin. But all of creation will be made new when Jesus returns. This present heaven and earth will pass away, and God will make a new heaven and a new earth where we will live with Him forever as His children. We can only begin to imagine what the eternal life will be like. It will be perfect. And the sufferings that we experience now will fade into nothingness when the glory of God’s kingdom is revealed to us.

So we hold onto that hope in the midst of the suffering and the evil that now surrounds us. Dealing with the hardships of this present life can seem overwhelming at times, but even then we find that God does not leave us to handle everything on our own. The Holy Spirit is always there to help us – to strengthen us and to sustain us. Sometimes we get so worn down that we don’t even know what we should pray for anymore. But the Spirit always knows exactly what we need. He expresses our needs to the Father in ways that we never could. He knows God’s will for us and works to bring it to pass – most especially that we remain in faith in Jesus and hold onto the hope of eternal life through Him.

So when you are burdened by the evil and suffering that surrounds you in this world, remember that God is actually showing His love by not wiping it all out, because He’d have to wipe out the whole world along with it. God is being loving and patient to give people time to repent and believe in Jesus – just as He waited for us to be brought to faith as well. And God knows exactly when the harvest will be fully ready – when the last person has finally come to faith. And then the end will come. He will send the weeds into the eternal fire, but He will gather us as His wheat into His barn. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).

As Jesus say, “He who has ears, let him hear.”

And the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Isaiah 44:6    Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel

              and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:

      “I am the first and I am the last;

              besides me there is no god.

7   Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.

              Let him declare and set it before me,

      since I appointed an ancient people.

              Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.

8   Fear not, nor be afraid;

              have I not told you from of old and declared it?

              And you are my witnesses!

      Is there a God besides me?

              There is no Rock; I know not any.”

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Matthew 13:24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 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.”’” …

Matthew 13:36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.