This was first given at the Lynnville UMC on July 21, 2002, and again, with some minor rewriting, at the Indian Creek Church of Christ, up in Calhoun County. on November 27, 2016.. The Scripture is from Matthew 13:24-30 & 36-43.

 

In 1942 grandpa bought a brand new Farmall ‘B’. At the same time, he got the one-bottom mounted plow and the set of two-row cultivators that mounted on the front. For those who don’t know, the ‘B’ was a little 14 HP narrow-front-end tractor that had the operator’s area offset to the right of the engine and transmission. This put you almost over the furrow if you were plowing, and right over the row if you were cultivating. Since the war was on, hydraulic equipment was scarce, so most of these tractors came with a big, long lever to raise and lower the attachments, and ours was no exception. The left-hand side of the tractor had a flat spot cast into the axle housing which was just perfect for a young’un to ride along, as long as he was able to hold on tight and didn’t mind sitting on a hot piece of hard steel. I can just barely recall riding around the streets of Hartford with grandpa as he would plow gardens for people in the spring.
Through the years, I have told others how this tractor was what I learned to drive on. I was so small, when I started, that I had to get down off of the seat to reach the pedal for the starter with my foot! I would practice driving around the barns and backing up to implements like I was going to hook up to them.
One summer day, as my brother and I were at the farm, grandpa decided that he had about an hours’ window to do some cultivating in one of our beanfields. To make the most of that time, he decided to let me take the ‘B’ while he used our old Ferguson with the four-row three-point cultivators. I was probably about ten, and this was the first time I had gotten to do any ‘sensitive’ fieldwork on my own, and I was excited! My brother, who would have been around seven, rode along with me sitting on the axle. When we got to the field I lined up on the row, but grandpa had to come over to lower the cultivators into the ground. Letting them down was no problem, but to penetrate they needed down pressure put onto them, and this meant moving that lever up against four strong springs. (No problem for him, but I was skin-and-bones back then and just didn’t have enough ‘oomph’.) Then he went back to his tractor and started down the field.
Boy! Was I nervous! With the transmission in first gear, and the throttle as low as it would go, I eased out on the clutch and headed down the row. In the first one hundred feet I must have taken out at least thirty feet of beans. And I knew that if I was taking out the row that I could see I was also taking out the row on the other side! But by the time I got to the other end I was doing much better. No more than five or six feet at a time! At the end, Mike helped me raise the cultivators and I turned around. We found that by me getting off of the seat and standing on the transmission and him standing on his axle ‘seat’, the two of us could just get enough pressure put on the lever to make the shovels dig. By now I was into second gear and opening the throttle a little! At the end of that hour, as I turned around at the far end of the field, grandpa was almost halfway back to the road. Mike and I set the cultivators in the dirt, and off we went. Fourth gear and full throttle! Dirt was flying and the beans were a blur, but we passed grandpa! And I barely touched any beans down that whole row, proving once again just how quick I could learn to operate anything with a steering wheel!
Fast-forward a few years. Grandpa retired and sold most of that farm, and we had bought our twenty-three acres outside of Edwardsville. The ‘big farmer’ in that area was Albert. Albert lived in Edwardsville but farmed about two hundred acres of swampland that he had ditched and drained as a young man. I never knew just how old he was, but he always bragged about the matched set of white mules he had started farming with! By the time I started working for him I was more accustomed to working with machinery, and even though his two cultivating tractors were older than our ‘B’, I never really had much trouble with that part of it. It was after we were done with the tractors that I didn’t like!
As a teenager, I spent many hours moaning and groaning about which job I liked least…painting fence…or walking beans! It seemed that if I had to paint a fence, I’d complain that I’d rather walk beans, and if I was walking beans I’d swear that I’d rather be painting a fence! The truth is I detested both.
Now, today, as an adult, if I had to paint a fence I would settle into the attitude that it was a job that had to be done and do what I had to do to do it. But if there were beans to walk somewhere…
Each summer, Albert would hire a crew of teenage boys to walk the fields and cut out the weeds in each row. And as his regular employee, I was expected to set the pace. This did not happen! I didn’t like getting soaked in the morning dew and then sweltering in the heat of all of those dark green plants. I didn’t like the cuts that you could get just walking through them in shorts, or the bugs that could find a home on every part of your body. I didn’t like not seeing the ground where I was walking and not knowing if there might be snakes or other critters at my feet. And most of all, I didn’t like walking over the entire area that I had just covered several times on a tractor! Oh, I did it! I just didn’t like it! And I certainly wasn’t the one to have set the pace for the others!
So when Jesus tells of the servants asking the owner, in today’s parable, if he would like them to go out and pull up all of the weeds in the field…the first thought that runs through my mind is, “Are you CRAZY!” Who in the world would volunteer to go out and weed an entire field! Not Me!
The owners’ answer was entirely logical and well thought out. First of all, it’s sometimes hard enough to get into a row and take out a weed without also taking out one or more plants next to it. And this was a wheat field! Imagine how many plants would be destroyed by uprooting…and how many more would be trampled down just trying to get through! Then add to that this very important item…the “weed” Jesus referred to looks very much like wheat in the early stages of growth. It only becomes distinguishable when the heads of the wheat appear. In other words, it would be almost impossible to tell them apart at this stage! So the owner decides that the loss from the weeds would be less than the loss from trying to eradicate them now. In the end the harvester will be able to determine which is which, sort them out, and destroy the weeds. And what’s the best way to destroy a weed? Fire! And the hotter it is, the better! And this is what Jesus declares will happen to all that is NOT gathered into the barn.
Why would the people of that time relate to this story? This was a known practice in ancient warfare and feuds — destroy a nation’s agricultural base and his military might would also be destroyed. Since the appearance of these two plants were so similar, Jesus’ hearers would have understood how no one would have noticed the weeds until the plants came up and bore grain. Only then would the weeds appear. A heavy infestation of this weed would indicate it had been “sowed” among the grain, and would cause the roots of both plants to become entangled. In fact, to sow such a weed in a person’s wheat field was punishable by Roman law. This real-life situation gave Jesus’ hearers a picture of God’s kingdom growing and thriving alongside evil in this world. “How so?” you ask.
There are actually two parts to today’s Gospel reading. I only read the first part, verses 24-30, before. Now, let me read verses 36-43…

36 Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain the story of the weeds in the field.”

37 “All right,” he said. “I, the Son of Man, am the farmer who plants the good seed. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. 39 The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.

40 “Just as the weeds are separated out and burned, so it will be at the end of the world. 41 I, the Son of Man, will send my angels, and they will remove from my Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace and burn them. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the godly will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand!

Barnes’ Notes points out that the bad seed had been thrown out onto the new-plowed field, perhaps before the good seed had been harrowed in, and adds… thus, in darkness, Satan sows false doctrine…in the very place where the truth is preached…and while the hearts of people are open to receive it.
He then adds that…(The enemy) knew the soil; he knew how the seed would take root and grow. He had only to sow the seed and let it alone. Satan knows the soil in which he sows his doctrine. He knows that in the human heart it will take deep and rapid root. It needs but little culture, (whereas) Grace needs constant attendance and care.
The Wycliffe Commentary proclaims that, “(Satan’s) children often masquerade as believers,” While Barnes adds, “Multitudes are persuaded (by Satan) that they are Christians, but they are deceived. (He may convince them of many things), and still there be no true love to God or Christ…no change of heart…and no real hatred of sin.”

It seems like I’ve been fighting weeds most of my life. From pulling and hoeing in the garden to cultivating with a tractor…from stomping on a dandelion with my heal to spraying Round-up all along the fences…in one form or another I’ve had a private little war against weeds. And when I see a cornfield taken over by morning-glory vines, or the acres of Kudzu growing over everything down south, I shudder to think what would happen if we lost all control over them. And yet, here is a case where the only thing to do is let them grow to the end.
The “servants” in this parable raise one of the toughest questions ever posed: If God is good and all-powerful, why are the weeds permitted? In other words, where does evil come from? The answer provided is a simple one: “An enemy did this.”
When sin and unbelief seem so strong, don’t try to figure out where they originated. We know Satan is our enemy. Instead, trust God and determine to follow him. Because we know that the harvest day is coming.
The Life Application Commentary says…
Jesus explained that the kingdom grows quietly and abundantly, yet evil still exists in the world. That the enemy came while everybody was asleep does not indicate neglect on anyone’s part; that he went away does not indicate his absence. Instead, these details merely highlight the stealth and malicious intent of Satan (the enemy, “the evil one”). (And, just as the presence of the weeds would weaken the wheat in the field,) the presence of Satan’s children among God’s people would also serve to weaken them.
The young weeds (unbelievers) and the young blades of wheat (believers) look the same and can’t be distinguished until they are grown and ready for harvest…they must live side by side in this world. God allows unbelievers to remain, just as a farmer allows weeds to remain in his field so that the surrounding wheat won’t be uprooted with them. At the harvest, however, the weeds will be (destroyed.)
Are you a wheat …or a weed? Are you producing the grain that your sower intended…or are you robbing nutrients from those who are? That’s the point that I would like for you to take home with you today! Is your Christianity real? How can you tell? Ask yourself this question…am I living my life for God by helping to support His church and spread His word to others…or am I just here? Because, if you are not out there actively participating in God’s work, then you may well be helping the devil to do his! Just how hot a fire does it take to destroy a weed, anyway?