Sin
He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No, 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.’”
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”
Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43
Richard Milhous Nixon, in some aspects of his political career, can be considered a weed. You can dismiss his uncouth language as heard on the White House tapes. You can overlook his presidential campaign where he launched what was called his “Southern strategy,” which was an attempt to increase white voters in the South by encouraging racism. What cannot be ignored is that Nixon was both a traitor and a murderer. Yes, a traitor and a murderer. This is why I am hesitant to bestow accolades on his presidency.
Before his Democratic opponent Lyndon Johnson withdrew from the 1968 presidential election, Johnson was the focus of his campaign. Johnson was negotiating a peace treaty with Hanoi to end the Vietnam War. Nixon needed the Vietnam War on his campaign platform in order to win the election. Nixon sent his own delegation to Hanoi asking the North Vietnamese leaders to forego a peace settlement with Johnson, instructing that Nixon would offer a more lenient settlement once he was in the Oval Office. The delegation encouraged Hanoi to continue the war until Nixon was elected. These negations were an act of treason.
During the extended conflict, which Nixon instituted, hundreds of young soldiers were killed or wounded. Their death meant little to Nixon if it allowed him to win the election. In common vernacular, to Nixon, these young men and women were nothing more than “collateral damage” to his campaign. As a side note: Lyndon Johnson knew about these secret negotiations, but had to remain silent because he leaned about them through illegal wiretaps. Johnson did not want to expose himself as being dishonest, and as one who was also breaking the law.
Abraham Lincoln is the one person who is almost universally called wheat. As seen in his writings, his speeches, and his life he was truly a compassionate and benevolent individual. One example will suffice. During the Civil War both sides, Union and Confederate, claimed that their endeavor was blest by God. Lincoln dismissed such nonsense when he said, “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
Then there are those who we cannot distinguish if they are a sprout of weed, or a shaft of wheat, or maybe a little of both. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is a good example of this. As one of the most prominent generals in the Confederacy he is a traitor who tried to establish the Southern states as a new nation. Yet, owning one slave, whom he received for the man needed a caretaker, Jackson was so benevolent to blacks that the citizens of Lexington, Virginia, where he lived and taught at the Virginia Military Institute, constantly ridiculed him.
In Lexington, on May 1, 1858, three lawyers confronted him on the street in front of the county courthouse. This confrontation was a criticism that Jackson established a school for black children and financed the school himself. The three lawyers threatened Jackson with a Grand Jury investigation if he did not suspend the school. Jackson, normally the most civil of men, responded angrily, “Sir, if you were, as you should be, a Christian man, you would not think it or say so.” Jackson then turned on his heel and strode away. The school continued in operation for the next thirty years.
There are many weeds in our society who are not nationally recognized figures, and who I could discuss. A case in point is Amy Cooper, who has become a “Karen” in our society. She is the white woman who, on May 25, 2020, called the police on the African-American Christian Cooper, a bird watcher, who in Central Park, asked her to leach her dog. Instead, she reported to 911 that she was being attacked by a black man. She was charged with filing a false police report, which was punishable by one-year in jail. In February 2021, charges against Amy Cooper were dropped after she completed a five-session educational and therapeutic program focused on racial identity.
This brings us to our scriptural reading for this morning: the Parable of the Weeds. Jesus always used strong definitive language, and this parable is no exception. Jesus said, “The weeds are the children of the evil one.” Jesus also said, “the good seed are the children of the kingdom.” While it is clear that the weeds “will be thrown into the furnace of fire,” the wheat, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom.”
It is important to note the reference to the word “kingdom.” Jesus will be the one who judges between the weed and the wheat, not you or me. What Jesus is underscoring, as he did when he discussed separating the sheep form the goats, he is underscoring how serious we must be about living a life reflected in the Sermon on the Mount, about living a life obedient to the Ten Commandments, about living a life honoring the two Great Commandments.
It is good that judgment is Jesus’ decision alone, as all of us have some weeds growing around our feet. Though, as individuals we cannot avoid making character judgments, as I have with Nixon, Lincoln, Jackson, Cooper, and the countless others whom I have not shared, but could have, in this devotional; yet, I have silently judged them and devalued them as individuals.
The question is, will we let the weeds grow in our lives until they are no longer manageable. Some of us, sadly, will have to walk through a field of kudzu. The issue is if you or me will allow kudzu, that dreaded South Carolina weed where I reside, engulf us. Kudzu grows very rapidly. It is a vine that grows up around a tree and becomes so thick that it actually chokes its host to death.
As the Apostle Paul puts it, will we live by the flesh or by the Spirit. Will we let the flesh – the kudzu weed – choke us to death.
I have read several studies that when we see someone, even if is so slight as passing him or her in a grocery store aisle, our brain, in a nanosecond, follows this process of evaluation, and in this order: the color of their skin; their sex; their age; their perceived socio-economic status.
Along this continuum a bigot will come to a chain-linked fence topped with barb wire. A fence that surrounds them like a prison, because they are in prison. They cannot go any further. The individual before them is devalued, and further, considered as a blight on society.
The rest of us will come to a speed bump, actually several speed bumps, as we have developed the discipline to step over the speed bump – to step over those weeds in our lives. Yet, so many Christians lie to themselves. They are pretenders who claim to have no speed bumps in their human evaluation process. These are the Christians who say, “I have many black friends!” with “many” being in reality “few” to “none.” Their piety is odious. Their self-righteousness is obnoxious.
The entire process of tearing down the fence and learning to step over the speed bumps requires honest self-evaluation, reflection, and a willingness to change – to be transformed. The transformation comes through self-evaluation, living by the truths of the Scriptures, and observing those who are truly a living example of wheat in their lives.
Speed bumps. We all have them. Can you admit that you do? Are you able to step over them? Worse of all, do you confront a chain-linked fence?
Away with looking at the weeds. What is so heartwarming in our current place in history is the wheat we are seeing, some of it growing in the most unexpected places. Where we once saw individuals trod through a patch of kudzu, we are now seeing them gently strolling through a field of wild flowers.
The Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians have changed their team’s names, as they are now addressed as the Wahington Commanders and the Cleveland Guardians. Businesses are reevaluating their racist logos which have identified the companies for decades. This mean that we no longer see Mrs. Butterworth, Aunt Jemima, and Uncle Ben on our grocery shelves.
So there so many areas where we can see weeds being exterminated. A plantation is no longer a desired place for a wedding. Congress is renaming military bases that were named after Confederate generals. Even our language is being scrutinized for being racist. Even if the word did not originate during centuries of slavery, or the aftermath of Reconstruction, or the following years of Jim Crow, we have adopted the concepts of racism into our language. For example, homes have a “master bedroom” which implies a master servant relationship. We are now calling it the “primary bedroom.” The word “blacklist,” which lists the people who will not be included in an event, is in the process of being changed. Technology will no longer use the words “master” and “slave.” “Master” is used to describe hardware that that controls the software, called the “salve.”
Research has shown what a congregation desires most from a sermon, which is application. It is the question of how will you and I apply today’s daily devotional to our daily living. Will we live encaged, or will we be able to step over the speed bumps?