Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we are continuing our teaching
series called Growing Season, where we're going
back to the farm to see what the farm has to
teach us about faith. If you ask any gardener,
they will probably tell you the worst part of
gardening is all of the weeds. The things that
we didn't plant that pop up and get in the way
of those healthy things that we really do want
growing. We also have weeds in our lives, things
that come up all of a sudden, things that we
really don't want to see. But how should we deal
with those weeds? That's what Rob is going to
unpack for us in today's sermon. Today's reading
is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verses
24 to 30 and 36 to 43. Jesus told them another
parable. An enemy did this, he replied. The servants
asked him, Do you want us to go and pull them
up? No, he answered, because while you are pulling
the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest. At
that time, I will tell the harvesters. First,
collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to
be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it
into my barn. Then he left the crowd and went
into his house. His disciples came to him and
said, explain to us the parable of the weeds
in the field. He answered, the one who sowed
the good seed is the son of man. The field is
the world and the good seed stands for the people
of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the
evil one and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
The harvest is at the end of the age and the
harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled
up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the
end of the age. The Son of Man will send out
His angels, and they will weed out His kingdom,
everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
They will throw them into the blazing furnace,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in
the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears,
let them hear the word of the Lord. A number
of years ago, we purchased a goat. It was a boar
goat. And these are goats that have white bodies,
but they have brown heads and beautiful floppy
ears. And we decided to breed this goat. And
we were very, very excited about that. The prospect
of having, you know, little baby goats, kids
running around the farm was very exciting to
us. And I made sure that I got a special pen
ready for her to give birth. put bedding in there,
a special manger, a special, you know, pail of
water just for her, and kind of had it all set
up. And yeah, after five months, it was a really,
really exciting day when this goat gave birth
to two little baby goats, and it was fantastic.
But what I didn't realize, to my shame, was just
how unbelievably curious baby goats are. And
the next day, one of those little goats somehow
managed to squeeze itself under the gate into
the cow pen, and it was trampled to death. The
day after that, when I came out to the pen, I
was shocked to discover that the other... baby
goat had somehow climbed into that water bucket
I mentioned and drowned itself in about three
inches of water. And I was so, so angry. In fact,
you can ask my family members. They probably
never seen me so angry as I was that day. And
I was angry at myself because I should have known
better. I thought I had everything ready, but
I'd obviously made some pretty big mistakes.
But that's how life goes on the farm, right?
Farming, the farm is a place of growth, but it's
also a place. of loss. And growing up on a farm,
you kind of see it all. I've seen it all. I've
seen a stillborn calf pulled from a cow, only
to have the cow die as well. I've seen a fox
trotting out of my driveway with a chicken in
its mouth. I have seen a field full of soybeans
get rained on and rained on and rained on until
every last bean rotted. the ground. But perhaps
the saddest loss for me that I remember was one
year, it was discovered that among our many barn
cats, one of them had rabies. And so the officials
came and they collected all the cats and had
them all destroyed, including our favorite cat,
Tiptail. who was this gray cat who had just a
little, a bit of white tip on his tail. That
was just devastating as a kid. So tip tail, this
sermon's for you. We're in the middle of a teaching
series called Growing Season. Where we're exploring
the connection between farming and faith. Agriculture
and spirituality. And learning that God is a
great, great farmer. And he is growing something
in us. And he is growing something among us.
But you can't talk honestly about farming without
talking about loss. And the thing is, here's
the thing about losses on a farm. Sometimes losses
that happen on a farm are because somebody was
careless. A gate got left open. A bucket of water
was left in a position where a little goat could
get into it. And when you ask the question, oh
my gosh, how could this happen? Or what went
wrong? You know the answer. The answer was you
went wrong. You made the mistake. You should
have been more careful. But there are other losses
that are actually much harder to explain. Because
at other times, you can do everything right.
And still lose a calf in the middle of the night.
You can plant good seed into good soil. And as
my dad said, the hailstorm still comes and ruins
it all. You know, those losses start to raise
deeper questions in us. Not just, you know, what
went wrong, but questions like, well, where did
this tragedy even come from? Or how did this
happen? Or what do we do now? And it's not just
farmers who have those kind of questions rattling
around in their minds. Chances are you've known
some loss in your life too. A job loss. financial
loss, maybe loss of health, or maybe you've lost
a loved one yourself. And the thing is, it wasn't
because of anything you did, right? Or it wasn't
because of any mistake that you made. You did
everything you knew to do. You were faithful,
you prayed, and yet still something went wrong.
And now you're left asking all of these questions.
Jesus tells a parable this morning about a farmer
who sowed good seed into a good field and he
did everything right. But when the wheat began
to grow, a whole crop of weeds appeared too.
And so the servants came to him and asked, they
said, master, didn't you sow good seed in your
field? Where did all this mess come from then?
And this actually is one of the most honest questions,
I think, in the whole Bible. If the seed is good,
what went wrong, right? If the field was good,
why the tragedy? And if the farmer was faithful,
why did the crop still suffer loss? This is one
of the oldest questions that human beings have
asked. Why do bad things happen? And philosophers
might call it, you know, the problem of evil.
Theologians call it theodicy. You know, if God
is good and if we are faithful, why is there
still so much trouble in the field, in my life?
Or in the world? Why so much pain? Why so much
suffering? It is a very deep question. And there
have been books and essays written trying to
answer it. But here's the interesting thing.
When Jesus is asked this question, his answer
is actually blunt and short. Jesus' answer is,
an enemy has done this. It was an enemy. There's...
An enemy out there. And that's the explanation.
And it actually tells us. Something quite essential.
About the world. According to Jesus. And that
is this. Evil is real. And there is an enemy.
There is someone at work. Against you. There
is someone at work. Against God. The purposes
of God. The field. Is not evil. The seed is not
bad. The farmer is not incompetent. You're not
to blame. It's just that there's an enemy and
he's evil. And it's very interesting for us to
remember that because so often when things go
wrong, our first instinct is to find someone
to blame, right? Who failed? Who sinned? Who
screwed up that caused all this? And even in
this story, it seems like the servants almost
blame the farmer. They're like, hey, you were
supposed to sow good seed. You know, did you
screw up? No. That's often how we think that
there's got to be human error. But Jesus knows
that you can't explain all loss that way. You
can't explain suffering. It's not just as easy
as finding out who to blame. The presence of
the weeds doesn't mean that the farmer failed.
I mean, can you imagine a child getting sick
or a marriage falling apart or someone's dream
that gets shattered? And one of the cruelest
things you could possibly do is stand over top
of that wreckage and say, well, you must have
done something wrong. And, you know, it reminds
me of what Job's friends did in the Old Testament,
the story of Job. Actually, Job was a farmer.
He had sheep and camel and oxen and donkeys and
all that stuff. But one day, fire fell from heaven
and burned up all the sheep. And the Chaldeans
swept in and stole all the camels and so on and
so on. But then, worst of all, Job's... own children
died too, and his family fell apart. And in the
aftermath of that, you know what? People assumed
Job must have done something wrong, right? They
said things like, well, Job, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble, they reap the same. Or they
said, hey, well, if your children sinned against
God, then he gave them over to the penalty of
their sin. In other words, Job, it must either
be your fault or it must be your children's fault.
But actually the whole book of Job is exactly
to make the point just the opposite of that.
It wasn't Job's fault. Job was righteous. Job
was good. Job was faithful. He did everything
right. And yet still look what happened. The
world is not the way that it should be. And the
field has been invaded. And there's an enemy
at work against your life and against the life
of God. And you may think, oh, that sounds so
old -fashioned or that sounds so superstitious
and fine. But just know that Christianity doesn't
just smile at suffering and say, oh, well, you
got to take the good with the bad. No, it gives
us permission to name evil as evil and to say
an enemy has done this. But if Jesus' first point
is that evil is real, his second point is that
evil is sneaky. And the enemy works under cover
of darkness and he works through imitation. I
mean, wouldn't life be great if evil was really,
really easy to spot? I think of this line from
1 Peter. Your adversary, the devil, is roaring
like a lion. He's prowling around. You know,
wouldn't that be, it's kind of hard to miss a
roaring lion. And I suppose sometimes the enemy
does roar like that, but in this parable, the
enemy does not roar. The enemy sneaks. The enemy
doesn't burn the field to the ground. He doesn't
go trample through the field in the middle of
broad daylight. No, he comes at night and he
sows weeds among the wheat and then he goes away
and it's quiet and it's hidden and it takes forever
for people to actually realize what has happened.
And the reason it takes so long and the reason
nobody notices is because the Weed that Jesus
is describing here is a weed darnel, and it's
a mimic weed. It looks very much like wheat in
its early stages, right? If you put it in the
same field with wheat and you just let it grow
there, it blends right in. Eventually, the difference
becomes clear. When it comes to the harvest,
one of them forms wheat heads and the other does
not, right? But here is the point. Here's the
point. Evil often imitates the thing that it
wants to destroy. The enemy doesn't work always
by making evil look evil. Sometimes he makes
evil look good. He makes weeds look like wheat.
He can make someone look like a strong leader,
but underneath they're just a power -hungry manipulator.
He can make someone look like they're your friend,
but behind your back they're... and saying all
sorts of horrible things about you. He can make
someone look like they're helping the church,
but actually what they're really doing is slowly
tearing the church apart. It's not easy to tell
which is which. You've got... To look at the
fruit, actually. Not just the appearance. In
fact, Jesus once said, beware of people who come
to you in sheep's clothing. Another agricultural
image, right? But inwardly, they are ravenous
wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Not
by their leaves, not by their stems. You'll know
them by their fruit. And so, as people, you and
me, who live in a world full of good and evil,
full of wheat and weeds, need discernment to
tell the difference. Not paranoia, right? Not
scanning the pews to find out who's good and
who's evil and who's a weed and who's wheat,
but discernment. The ability to see what fruit
is actually growing in that person's life because
that's how I can tell who they are. That's the
clue, the fruit. And let me just add this. And
this matters especially, I think, for the church
because the enemy rarely attacks a church through
obviously wicked people or sinister plans. No,
instead, what the enemy does is he grows things
among us, things that look spiritual, but in
fact, And those things choke out the love and
they choke out the honesty and grace of a church.
That's how the enemy works. The enemy works through
imitation and he imitates what he wants to destroy.
Right? So be discerning. That brings us to the
third part of this story. The enemy is real.
Yes. He works by imitation. Yes. But the servants.
They want a quick fix. They want to sort this
problem out right away. And you can understand
why. They see weeds and they're like, hey, do
you want us to go in and just like start pulling
them out? Should we just go in and start cleaning
up the field? And at first, that sounds like
a pretty good idea. If there are weeds, pull
them out. If there is evil, you should deal with
it. But the farmer says, no, don't do it. Don't
do it. For in gathering the weeds. You're going
to uproot the wheat along with them. Now, the
farmer's not being a wimp here. The farmer is
not scared of his enemy or saying, oh, evil doesn't
matter, just let it grow. No, he is saying, you
can't. You're just not capable of making the
final determination between wheat and weeds and
between good and evil. You can't do it without
causing real, real damage. And that, I think,
is because while the servants can see the weeds,
they definitely cannot see the roots. They see
what's above the surface. They don't see what's
below the surface. And if they charge in there
and start ripping out everything that looks wrong,
then they will end up destroying the very wheat
that they are trying to save. All those roots
are tangled together underneath the soil. Man,
oh man, and Christian history tells us over and
over again how the church has been tempted to
try to create this very pure field for God. And
so we go hunting for the weeds. And we're convinced
that if we just remove all the wrong people,
then everything would be safe. But human beings
are not good at final judgment. They get it wrong
again and again and again. And when we try to
sort things out too soon on our own, we end up
pulling out the wheat with the weeds. Now you
might say, well then, aren't we supposed to confront
evil? Aren't we supposed to fight back against
the enemy? And the answer is yes, we are definitely
called to resist evil. We definitely have to
protect the vulnerable from evil. We definitely
have to speak truth where there are lies. But
there is a big difference in assuming that it
is our job to do the final sorting of the wheat.
And to think that somehow that's our job. No,
no, that is not our job. Our job is not to figure
out what is good and evil. We're not called to
play God. The church is called to be faithful.
We're not called to finally sorting it out, but
to be faithful in truth and love and holiness.
We're not the harvesters, though. We are not
the final judges of who is in and who is out.
Even Paul says, he says, judge nothing before
the appointed time. Wait until the Lord comes.
Only God can bring to light what is hidden and
sort out the field without destroying the good
wheat. So the servants, yeah, they want to fix
the field real fast. And the farmer says, wait
for the harvest. And by the way, The harvest
doesn't depend on you. It belongs to God. But
here is another reason why those servants can't
just race in there and start pulling out all
the weeds. And that's because not all the weeds
are out there, right? Some of them are in here,
right? And so we should not talk as if the problem
of evil. is always somewhere else or someone
else. Because when I look honestly at my life
in the field of my own heart, I find wheat and
weeds growing a lot closer together than I like
to admit. I can love God and I can still want
control. I can serve faithfully, but I can still
crave recognition. I can preach grace. But I
can still be impatient with people's weaknesses.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who survived the brutal
Soviet forced labor camps, the gulags, he saw
more loss and more suffering than most. And yet
even he realized that the line separating good
and evil passes not through states, nor between
classes, nor between political parties, but right
through every human heart. And you know what
he's talking about. You know what's going on
in your own heart. You know that you want to
love, but there's hate in there too. And you
want to forgive, but resentment keeps growing.
You want to trust God, but there's fear, right?
You want to follow Jesus, but there's plenty
of things going on in your heart that look nothing
like Jesus. And so in other words, humility.
toward other people begins with honesty about
ourselves. Before I point out the weeds in my
neighbor, I need to ask him, search my own heart.
God, Lord, I see things growing in me that just
don't belong there. Fear and pride and impatience
or lust or whatever it may be. God, just, God,
pull me closer to you and do the work in my heart
first. And God is not surprised, by the way,
what he finds growing. In your heart, he sees
the wheat, the good stuff, and he sees the weeds
and he sees the roots. And yet he's committed
to saving what he has planted. But how? How is
this mixed field ever going to be saved? How
can my divided heart ever be saved? Well, here's
how. Here's how. Jesus. And Jesus does not stand
at the edge of this field, at the edge of this
world. No, no. He enters into it and he walks
right in to the weeds, right into the loss. You
see, Jesus actually knows what it's like to have
people that he loves kind of hurt him and walk
away. Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him. The
crowds turned back. He knows the pain of living
in a mixed world. field of good and evil and
the tangle of wheat and weeds. And so on the
cross, Jesus took that whole weedy field onto
himself. He took the thorns into his head, the
nails through his hands. And like those little
goats, Jesus was trampled. Jesus was drowned
by death. And on Good Friday, you know what?
It looked like the enemy had won. It looked like
the weeds had overwhelmed the wheat. It was a
total crop failure. But on the third day, Jesus
rises again. And the resurrection is God's announcement.
Guess what? The enemy does not. own the field
and sin does not get the final word and loss
does not get the final word and death does not
get the final word. And one day Jesus will return
and he will gather the harvest and he finally,
he will set the field right. Now, just before
I end, I want to be honest about some language
you heard in that reading that probably scared
the out of you, right? Jesus says the weeds will
be gathered and thrown into the blazing furnace
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
We could do a whole sermon just on this image
and it's very hard language and it might make
us squirm. It might make us uncomfortable and
I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't do that.
But just notice again, who is doing this judging?
The son of man will send out his angels and they,
will weed out of his kingdom everything that
causes sin and all who do evil. Jesus himself.
Jesus and his angels will be the ones who finally
determine what is a wheat and what is a weed,
what is good and what is evil. And that actually
should comfort us, not scare us because the judge
of the harvest is the same savior who died in
the field. And he is not cruel. We know that
he is not careless. He is not eager to destroy
anyone. He knows about every wound and every
loss. and every hurt, every person in this room
who has been harmed in some way, every tear that
has fallen into the soil, he knows all about
that. And in the end, he will make it right.
The hands that will sort through the wheat still
bear the nail marks on them. And that is the
reason why we can face judgment without despair.
Okay, and one day it's true. The righteous will
shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
The harvest is coming. And that's not, you know,
wishful thinking. That is the promise made by
the same God who planted the field in the first
place. He's not going to abandon the field to
the enemy. So until that day comes, what do we
do? We keep farming. We keep sowing good seed.
We keep watching for fruit. We keep resisting
the enemy and we keep trusting the great farmer.
That's what farmers do. You heard my dad, right?
After a hard loss, you get up the next morning
and you go back into the field. And it's not
because the loss didn't hurt. Of course it hurt.
But this field, this world is still worth tending.
If you've experienced loss, if you have weeds
planted, Where you thought you planted wheat
and you're saying, what went wrong? What do I
do now? This parable doesn't answer every question
you may have, but it tells us enough. The seed
is good, but the enemy is real. The field is
mixed, but the harvest is coming. And until that
day, stay humble, stay watchful and faithful
and hopeful. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thanks for
tuning in to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville
in Mississauga, Ontario on July 12, 2026.