Episode Transcript
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Well, American Christians are infatuated with
eschatology now already. I need to apologize
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for two things. One, over
generalizations are just not helpful, so sorry
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for overgeneralizing to one of the things
that I've learned in seminary while while studying
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eschatology, is never to use the
word eschatology in a sermon. So for
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that I apologize. I've not graduated
yet. Please don't turn me in.
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So what does eschatology mean and why
are we so concerned about it? Well,
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simply put, eschatology is the study
of the last things, what happens
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in the end. You might be
wondering, why couldn't you have just said
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that I went to seminary to learn
words like eschatology? But moving on,
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one of the particular aspects of the
last things, of the end times of
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eschatology that is a particular interest,
I think, especially in America it seems,
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is figuring out the specifics of when
Christ will return and how the final
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judgment will take place. And do
a quick Google search you'll find this all
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over the place, that the people
are really int rested in figuring out how
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this is going to happen. Two
Thousand and ten there was a pole of
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of Christians in America and and forty
percent of them believed that Christ would return
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before two thousand and fifty, so
almost half. I would imagine if you
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did that pole again in a post
covid world, people would assume much,
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much sooner. And you're seeing this
as you read blogs and articles that that
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what we see around us seems to
be the end of the age. We
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really want to figure out if that's
true. Well, it just so happens
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that we are not the only group
that is interested in the end times.
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Fact, the end is certainly in
mind for Jesus's listeners in the first century,
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particularly his his Jewish listeners. They
are specifically concerned with when the Messiah
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comes, when the Savior of Israel
comes. How will this judgment go down?
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How quick is it going to happen? Because we really want this Messiah
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to rid the world of our enemies, specifically anyone who's not part of the
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nation of Israel, and in this
we want to finally be lifted to this
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place of global prominence and power.
The Israelites had endured the presence of gentiles
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and the land for a long time. Now they are under the thumb of
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the Romans. Their eschatology is hopeful
and they hope that God will rid rid
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the land of these enemies, these
unclean gentiles, these Romans that have been
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against them. They're concerned about the
end times, like so many of us
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are concerned about the end times.
But as we've seen, as we've walked
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through some of these parables, Jesus
comes and often times does not meet up
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with the expectations of his of his
listener, does he? I mean he's
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coming. He's announcing the Kingdom of
Heaven. We heard about that a few
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weeks ago looking at the SOWER.
But people are quickly confused as to why
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Jesus, the Messiah, if he
is really the Messiah, does not seem
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overly concerned about bringing about final judgment. Why is this? Well, I
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think it is this confusion, at
least in part, that Jesus is speaking
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into with this parable that we are
looking at this evening. Why isn't he
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establishing the Kingdom of God? Or, perhaps more accurately, why isn't he
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doing it in ways that people would
expect and ways that we would expect if
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we were bringing in a kingdom?
Well, Jesus answers these questions in the
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air by providing two very certain realities
that we will look at this evening.
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One of these realities is there is
a coming judgment when the son of Man
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will come and finally put an end
to all evil. He will punish on
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Righteousness, He will vindicate the Righteous, and this is a very real reality
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that we see in this text.
The other reality that we see is Jesus
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seems in no hurry to do it, and that's confusing for folks. And
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so will consider these two realities,
both this pending judgment and this patient savior,
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and finally, briefly, will consider
how this has US view this peculiar
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kingdom, the pending judgment, the
patient savior and a peculiar kingdom. So
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let's consider the pending judgment. So
our parable this evening comes right after Matthew's
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version of the parable of the sower
that we looked at a few weeks ago.
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We looked at it from Marks Gospel, but Matthew covers that as well.
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When Jesus continues to use this agricultural
imagery to explain the Kingdom of God
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to those who are listening. And
Jesus begins and he tells US story worry
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of a man who sewed a good
seed in his field. Well, like
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the parable of the summer, we
have the benefit of getting Jesus explanation of
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what's going on here. And so
he tells us this man who is sewing
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is the son of man, he
is Jesus himself. He uses this common
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title for the Messiah that that Daniel
uses in the prophetic writings, the son
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of man, and this son of
man is sowing good seed into a field.
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And this field is, Jesus explains, is the world. The seed
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and it's subsequent growth represents the sons
of the kingdom, Jesus says. And
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right from the start, where and
parable form, seeing this doctrine of election,
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one that we can be squirmish about, ECS that we say, this
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beautiful song that Jackie Jackie requested,
and just beautiful about this, this picture
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of God choosing his people before the
Earth's foundations were laid and on and away
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Jesus is telling Aphesians one and parable
form here, isn't he that that the
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son of man has so good seed, that he has chosen and he is
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bringing about the growth and he has
these people in his hand from the very
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beginning and imparable form. We see
this beautiful doctrine of election. But quickly
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we run into a problem, don't
we? It seems that an enemy has
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come. He's infiltrated the field while
the servants of the master are sleeping,
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and the enemy begins sewing what our
ESV says weeds. Some translations say tears,
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other translations treat this and different ways, but it seems specifically like this
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plant is a plant called Darnal.
And the thing about Darnal, it's well
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known in the first century, in
fact is wellknown this day, is Darnald
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looked almost exactly like wheat until it
started to flower. So it's very difficult
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to tell what is what in the
passage confirms this, doesn't it? It's
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not until the wheat is near ready
for harvests that the servants even notice that
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it's there. But as soon as
they notice they're concerned, as any good
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farmer would be. They go to
the master. They said, didn't you
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put good field or good seed into
the field? And if so, where
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do the weeds come from? The
presence of Darnal, these these weeds,
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would be concerning for anyone who knew
about farming wheat and and and and harvesting,
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because what would likely happen is as
this donald grew and you didn't identify
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it, it would begin to entangle
itself with the wheat, it would begin
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to choke out the root system and
ultimately it would affect the harvest. So
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if you're concerned about the yield,
you would want to swiftly take care of
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these weeds. This would be very
important, as it is with these servants.
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They're in a hurry to get rid
of these weeds. Well, in
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Jesus explanation, he lets us know
that this Darnald, these weeds, represent
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the sons of the evil one,
all causes of sin and all lawbreakers,
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he says. Well, this analogy
fits, doesn't it? Evil in this
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world often seems like it is snuffing
out and taking over that which is good.
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It's poison and it's prevalent, it
seems in many ways to overtake all
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that it comes in contact with.
Paul picks up a similar idea in First
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Corinthians fifteen. He says bad company
ruins good morals. The presence of evil
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threats that which is good, and
that scares us, and and it should.
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We're concerned about our culture. We're
concerned about our children and those who
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are younger. We're concerned about ourselves. Will we be able to persevere in
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a culture that seems to be increasingly
antithetical to the word of God? There
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is real evil and I think all
of us are, in a way anxious
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to rid the world of this evil. Well, in Jesus explanation of the
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parable he too shows he is concerned
about this and he says that he himself,
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through his angels, will take care
of the evil. In the final
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judgment, Verse Thirty Nine, Jesus
says the harvest is the end of the
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age and the reapers are angels.
Just as the weeds are gathered and burned
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in the fire, so will it
be at the end of the age Jesus
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will send his own reapers, the
angels, and do this work of separating
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that which is weed, that which
is evil and that which is wheat,
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that which is good. And it's
a pretty forceful picture of the end,
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isn't it? Just as the weeds
are thrown into the fire, so all
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causes of sin and all lawbreakers will
be thrown into a fiery furnace. In
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that place there will be weeping,
nashing of teeth imagery that Jesus uses elsewhere,
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that we build up these that we
build these doctrines of eternal punishment,
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of hell. Probably not like favorite
memory versus for you. If they are,
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we should talk later. But they're
all over the scripture, aren't they?
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They're disturbing images. Second, Thessalonian
says that the UNRIGHTEOUS will be punished
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with everlasting destruction and shut out from
the presence of the Lord, from the
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glory of his might. Jude says
that the fires of Sodom and Gomora were
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just a foretaste of the judgments to
come. John Revelation speaks of this lake
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of fiery soul for that Burns eternally, one that was created for the devil
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and his followers. Again, not
favorite passages to read or preach on or
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think about, but true reality.
A final judgment is coming. But there
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is good news. There's good news
for us that are in Christ, because
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we need not fear this end as
we look to Christ alone and rest in
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the promises sealed to us and and
baptism, the forgiveness of sins. Union
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with Christ, we can look forward
with great anticipation, not to judgment,
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but to the hope of glory,
to the Resurrection, and that is a
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wonderful thing. But one of the
problems we have with this infatuation with the
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end times, at least for those
of us who are counted among God's elect
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sons of the kingdom, is that
we can be in such a hurry to
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rid the world of this evil influence
that we forget the true reality that is
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coming for those that are not in
Christ. Horrible picture of Judgment. And
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then, our hurry to bring about
the end, our attempts to identify what
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is good what is evil, we
sometimes lack discernment, which brings about our
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second point, which will explain this
idea of discernment a patient Savior. If
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we move back in the passage a
bit and look at the parable itself,
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there's an interesting emphasis. The Servant
of the masters come to him. They
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offer to take care of the weeds, and rightly so. They don't want
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these weeds affecting the harvest. They're
concerned about what is good. Well,
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we, like these servants, often
have a rational impulse to rid the world
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of of evil, of these weeds. But the problem with our efforts to
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do this, the problem with these
servants, those who offer to go out
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and root out the weeds, is
they are not discerning nor patient enough.
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What do we mean by this?
Well, it's interesting how the master responds
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to the servants, isn't it?
Servants in Verse Twenty Eight say, Do
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you want us to go out and
gather up the weeds? He Says No,
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Lesston, gathering the weeds, you
root up the wheat along with them.
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This is interesting, isn't it?
These servants are so concerned with the
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weeds that they run the risk of
calling what God sees as good evil.
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They run the risk of wrongly identifying
what they are getting rid of. Me
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Think about this in the Jewish context
that we're speaking into. A Jew hearing
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this would assume, and some of
them rightly so, that they are good
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seed. Well, what would bad
seed be? Gentiles, the Romans easy
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enough to identify. And yet think
about if one of these Jews was responsible
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for for labeling the winners and the
losers, the weeds and the Wheat,
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the Gospel would not go out to
all nations. They would not properly identify
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that what sometimes looks like weeds as
actually God's precious wheat. All these people
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to the ends of the earth that
Jesus came to die for that still look
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a lot like weeds. We too, like to identify the winners and losers,
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don't we? We like to point
at things and label them as evil,
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and I think this impulses often right, but I think oftentimes our metrics
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for how we label things are not
so right. Sometimes it is simple as
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how someone looks, how someone thinks, God forbid, how they vote.
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We see that in our country,
don't we were able to label things just
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based on affiliations. But Jesus loves
to take what looks evil and make it
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good, because he is patient,
because he is kind, because he is
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long suffering. In the case of
this moment in history, during the telling
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of this parable Jesus has in mind
opening up the good news to the kingdom,
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to the ends of the Earth,
to gentiles like you and like me,
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to all tongues, tribes and nations. And for us here today,
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he has in mind people who look, thank and yes, even sometimes vote
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differently than we do, people that
we would quickly label as weeds. That
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God has beautiful things in mind for. It is good news that we don't
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choose the winners and losers, isn't
it? But that God and eternity past
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has chosen the winners and losers in
his son, not based on what we
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look like, but based on what
his son looks like and in history.
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Jesus is patient to us as we
all go through our weed phases. And
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Second Peter Peter wrights. He's writing
to folks that are concerned about this final
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judgment and he says this. He
says do not overlook this one fact,
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beloved, that with the Lord,
one day is as a thousand years and
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a thousand years is as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill
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his promises, as some count slowness, but he is patient toward you.
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Why does that matter? Because he
is not wishing that anyone should perish,
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but that all should we reach repentance. Peter will go on to say count
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the patience of the Lord as Salvation. How beautiful is that? Count the
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patience of the Lord as Salvation.
Jesus is patient. He is a patient
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gardener awaiting the full number of his
elect to come to harvest. Yes,
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he is fully aware of the final
judgment. He's the one that will bring
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it to pass, but his concern
at this time is that none of his
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would be lost. He is awaiting
the salvation even now. I some that
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we know, some that we pray
for, or some that might be our
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children or our parents or friends,
people that have not even been born yet,
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and he's holding off on final judgment
even now so that they might come
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to repentance. Jesus is willing to
wait, and it's not just good news
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for those that are still coming to
repentance, but it's good news for us,
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because we did not always look like
wheat. Some of you can point
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to a specific time in your life
where it was very evident that you did
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not look like wheat and had someone
come through to collect the wheat and the
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weeds, you would have been yanked
up. Some of you have had the
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great privilege of being born into a
Christian family, being baptized as a covenant
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child. You can't remember its time
when you weren't wheat, but there was
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a time and Jesus was patient,
waiting for you to be born that he
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might bring you into his kingdom.
Our master is patient, not willing that
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any might perish, but they we
might fly hour that we might produce good
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fruit. Two very real realities.
Final judgment is coming and our saviors patient.
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Well, question does remain for us. What do we do now and
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this evil world? How do we
know we will not be overcome by evil?
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How do we know that these weeds
will not choke us out, will
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not choke out the faith of our
our children and our family? What do
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we do with one foot in the
Kingdom of Heaven and one foot and the
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Kingdom of this earth? How can
we know that we are safe, that
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this kingdom is actually coming to pass? Well, briefly, this evening,
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I want to consider how Jesus answers
this. We don't oftentimes put the parable
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of the mustard seed in the parable
of the leaven right after this and include
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it as part of this, but
there's a reason it's right after it,
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and I would argue that Jesus is
perhaps answering this question. He's aware that
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this parable would not fully satisfy his
listener, a listener that is eager to
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rid themselves of the evil in this
world, a listener who expects the Messiah
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to come and make every thing okay. And now, if this parable,
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it seems like Jesus is far more
interested in having them endure evil than eliminate
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it? Jesus knows this question is
in the air. How does he answer
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it? He says, well,
the Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain
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of mustard seed, really small,
insignificant, and though you don't see it
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growing, it will one day fill
the earth. He uses this picture from
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Daniel of this tree where we're all
the birds can nest in it, where
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the beasts of the field can find
shade in it. He says, if
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that doesn't make sense to you,
that the Kingdom of Heaven is like this
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little bit of leaven that you can't
even see in your hand and a woman
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puts it into some bath goods and
you don't see it happening, but this
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loaf will be full of this leaven. Growth of this kingdom looks small,
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though it will one day be a
mighty tree and a fully leaven loaf.
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That day is probably a ways off. For now we do have to endure
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evil in this world, but we
can know that he is establishing his kingdom,
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and I think the way that we
can know it even more clear than
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those who are first hearing this,
is that we can see that is often
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this very evil in the world that
God uses to bring about his good he
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is a God who uses evil.
He's a God who leaves His throne,
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in all that seems godly, to
take on our humanity, our suffering and
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order to allow the greatest injustice and
world history to stare him in the face,
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to put a crown of thorn on
his head and to nail him to
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the cross, to endure defeat from
evil so that you don't have to.
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He allows himself to be plucked out, so that we might see fruitfulness.
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That is a peculiar victory and a
peculiar kingdom. And if, this evening,
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you buy into that mysterious message,
then you can rest assure that is
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you continue to hold fast to that
mysterious message of Christ and him crucified,
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that he who started a good work
and you will be faithful to complete it,
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even as we let live in this
present darkness, and rest asshored also
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that the ways that he is completing
this good work often look peculiar as well.
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They look ordinary, ordinary means of
grace that he gives us to build
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our faith. They don't look powerful, they don't look grand as we would
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think of them. And yet in
the Gospel preach through the mouth of a
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sinner, bread and wine, things
that look ordinary, even foolish. He
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gives us himself that we might be
preserved, that you might enjoy everlasting life
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as a member of his harvest.
Rest asshored this evening, brothers and sisters,
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that the master does not sleep.
His servants might, but he does
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not sleep. He knows your struggles, he knows your life, your worries,
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your frailties, and he comes to
us even in this night to give
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of himself through word and Sacrament,
that we might be strength in both body
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and soul to life everlasting, that
we, as the parable says, may
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shine like the sun in the Kingdom
of our father let's pray together
