Slanderers! ~ Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 ~ July 17, 2011

Sometimes I really hated being a teenager…

My first part-time job was working as a cashier at a major department store chain.  I’ll admit that I was young and immature and there were plenty of times when I was not always professional in my dealings with customers.  But I really tried to treat people well and do my job right.

But sometimes people treated me like garbage—and one of the reasons for that was because I was a teenager.  People assumed that I was lazy, stupid, and that I didn’t care about them.  Some people judged my character solely on the basis of my age.

Just a few days ago, Elizabeth and I were eating in a crowded fast food restaurant.  Normally we find a table in a section where the sun isn’t shining through the windows.  But that day, that section was occupied by some rough looking teenagers.  So I sat us down in a seat in the sunny section near an older couple. 

Now I didn’t see those teenagers acting up.  But without even thinking, I stayed away from them—assuming they were rowdy and would disturb my enjoyment of my lunch.  I guess I didn’t learn anything from my teenage years.  I didn’t even realize I did this until the next day, when I sat down to study today’s Gospel. 

In it, Jesus tells a parable about a landowner and his wheat field.  After the landowner sowed good seed, an enemy came along and sowed weeds among the wheat.  So now there’s a problem: there are weeds in the field.  These weeds are depleting the nutrients in the soil and could very well choke the wheat and ruin the harvest.  So the servants ask permission to go and pull them out.  But the landowner says “no”—because they would surely uproot the wheat along with the weeds.  So the weeds will not be collected until harvest time.  The landowner goes on to say that it will never be their job to separate out the weeds from the wheat.  That job will belong to the landowner and his reapers. 

In turns out that the greatest threat to the wheat was not the weeds—but the servants.  It was the servants who could cause the greatest harm to the wheat. 

With this parable, Jesus is once again turning everyday common sense on its head.  We know that there’s a weed problem on this earth—a problem we know as human sin.  If someone were to ask us to identify the greatest threat to the health and well-being of the children of God, we would naturally say “sin” and “evildoers.”  But Jesus is speaking of an even greater threat—and that is people who judge certain people as the children of evil and treat them accordingly.  The greatest threat to the children of God is when we put ourselves into God’s position as judge and we condemn people by what we say, by what we do, or by what we fail to do.

Now I’ve been here four weeks, and I’m glad to report that I’ve heard no one from this congregation say to someone else “God hates you and you’re going to hell.”  Unfortunately, there are plenty of churches and Christians who will preach precisely that message.  And what’s so tragic about these people is that they do this in Jesus’ name, as if to say that Jesus’ mission is all about exclusion and condemnation instead of inclusion, redemption, and forgiveness. 

But there are still two other ways that we put ourselves into God’s place as judge… 

We hear Scripture passages like the second half of today’s Gospel, that speak powerful and disquieting words about judgment.  We look at ourselves, fully aware of our own sin and our failings, and conclude that we are the weeds of the field headed for the fire.  We do not believe that God could possibly love us and forgive us for the things we’ve done. 

The other way we put ourselves into God’s place as judge is when we choose not to share the love of Christ with someone.  Throughout the day there are opportunities to talk about our faith or do something kind for a neighbor.  But instead we walk away.  Sometimes we look at those persons and assume, for whatever reason, that they won’t appreciate our kindness; they’ll reject us and think we’re stupid for sharing our faith.  We assume that they couldn’t possibly have faith in Jesus Christ.  Other times we judge ourselves as incapable of doing ministry.  We doubt that God could effectively use us to draw others to faith.

When we judge people and treat them in accordance to those judgments, we put ourselves in the God’s place—whether we realize it or not.  But remember how often, throughout Scripture, the devil is referred to as “the accuser” and “the slanderer.”  When we make negative judgments about anyone—even ourselves, we are giving voice to the devil’s lies.  And it is the devil’s lies that destroy the children of God—because they stand in the way of people hearing and fleeing to the promises of God.  As sin wreaks havoc upon us and our world, we can’t help but cry out to God like the servants in the parable.   Every day we suffer the consequences of evil and we are desperate for answers and for help.  But we cannot overcome with the problem of sin and make disciples of Jesus Christ by making judgments and assumptions about one another.  God’s mission in the world is a bountiful harvest of people who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord.  This mission is accomplished by the grace of God poured from the cross of Jesus Christ.  The harvest is not something to be underestimated—because we cannot fathom the vastness of God’s grace or the power of God’s Holy Spirit to bring people to faith.  Therefore we have no reason to judge any person as anyone other than a child of God—even if we see no signs of faith or no potential for that person to become a Christian… even if all we see is the enormity of that person’s sin…

We pray for those who do us wrong and cause us to suffer.  We ask God to help us to love those who are hard to love.  We ask that God would help them to turn from their sins and live in obedience.  We ask these things for others just as we ask them for ourselves.  We see every single person as a child of God who will inherit the promises of God’s kingdom because that is God’s will for everybody.  We tell others of Christ’s love and do good for our neighbors in the hope that they would come to a knowledge of the truth of God’s grace and mercy.

God will indeed sort the weeds from the wheat at the end of the age.  There will be judgment.  Evil and evildoers will be dealt with.  But let us remember the true nature of the God who is doing the judging.  Christ died on the cross because God hated sin and sin’s power to harm and destroy God’s own children.  Christ died because God loves sinners.  We are not to concern ourselves with the specifics of who is a child of God versus who is not.  That is not our job.  Our mission is to join Jesus Christ in preparing for the great harvest of children who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ.  That is God’s purpose for all creation.  That is our hope.  And to all who cry out to Jesus Christ for that hope, the kingdom of God will be given. 

Let anyone with ears listen!