July 19, 2026 - Matthew 13:24-43 - Proper 11

There was a conversation I overheard some while back at a grocery store. A girl had asked her mom why she opened the egg carton to look at the eggs. She thought this was an odd thing to do. Did her mom think there would be something besides eggs in an egg carton? The girl was then shown that you check to make sure the eggs aren’t cracked before you buy them.

The explanation makes perfect sense once you think about it. No one is obligated to buy cracked eggs. The grocery store accounts for a certain amount of loss when it prices its food. If you didn’t cause the damage, then you have no reason at all to buy a bad product. Buying a carton with a cracked egg isn’t the end of the world, but it can be disappointing to get home only to find that you spent money on something that isn’t going to do the job.

At least in this situation, identifying the bad eggs and dealing with the situation is relatively easy. Just put it back and buy a different carton of eggs. How do we deal with the situation when it isn’t eggs we’re talking about, it’s people? You can’t exactly “put them back.”

The story Jesus tells today is about wheat and weeds. As usual, Jesus tells stories that most of his hearers will be able to follow. Sowing seed. Growing Crops. Harvesting. These are all activities that people in those days had a pretty good understanding of. It’s not all that different for us today. Even if you aren’t a farmer, you have a pretty good idea of what the job entails. Not only that, you probably also get a sense of how actively hateful someone would have to be to sow weeds in and among your good crops. These days weed killer will deal with most of your common weeds, but, as with most things in life, we slowly discover that there may be hidden costs to using so much weed killer on our crops. Only time will tell. But, that sort of thing wasn’t even an option back in those days. If you wanted to get rid of the weeds, you were going to have to sort it all by hand.

That you want to get rid of the weeds is a foregone conclusion. They aren’t what you were working for. They don’t help you. They’re just a nuisance and ultimately worthless. They’re going to be thrown away. That’s a given.

When the report comes in that weeds are growing up in the field, the master gives a puzzling response. Why would you allow the weeds to continue to grow? Why would you allow them to take away the time and resources you dedicate to cultivating your fields? You’ll have to get rid of them anyway, so why not do that now, before they can cause you any more grief?

Jesus began his parables last week with the parable of the sower. His parables continue through the end of the chapter. Each uses different imagery: one describes fishermen, another a pearl, one with sowing seed and another with harvesting. All of these and more are given one after another. Though the imagery changes from one to the next, there is one theme common to all of them. This is what happens when God reigns. He’ll deal with the weeds, the bad eggs, whatever you want to call them. He just won’t do it right now.

That’s...unfortunate. Not only is the master not going to do anything about them right now, but he orders his servants to leave them alone too. We’re just going to be stuck living with them until Jesus decides to return and deal with them. It isn’t as if they all live somewhere out there all by themselves. No, there here among us. They’re in our communities, even in our families. They’re all around us. Just like weeds, there are many that are openly hostile. They try and smother or choke out the good plants. Others are more passive, content to just draw nutrients and attention away from the good plants. They’re all enemies. They’re all taking the good things given to the good people and keeping them for themselves. They don’t care about the wellbeing of God’s people, certainly not in the spiritual, eternal sense.

Is there some value in having to put up with the evils of our society? Do we gain something by struggling against the idolatrous, greedy, smug, abusive, spiteful, and otherwise rotten and scandalous individuals around us? Daily life is difficult enough as it is. Even if we never had to deal with a single bad egg, there’s still the constant toll that sin takes on our lives. We struggle against the sin within ourselves and the effects of sin on our bodies and on the world. Sure, we can say that difficulties, challenges, and struggles build character. Small challenges toughen us up and help us to endure the greater hardships will inevitably face in our lives.

But, we’re already pretty good at manufacturing a lot of that hardship ourselves. How many churches end up splitting because of heated debates over the silliest and most inconsequential things? How many marriages between two Christian spouses end up in divorce for any number of reasons? How many Christian families end up fractured over some old grudge? We don’t need help creating grief. That doesn’t even count the myriad ways our own body is slowly dying around us. At some point you hit the peak and then every day after that, things get just a little bit more difficult every day. So, why not get rid of all of the people who just make everything worse?

Jesus speaks to the crowds and tells them this unsettling news. If you have come to him expecting everything in the world to instantly get better, you will be mistaken. That is not what he has come to do. His kingdom is already entering into the world, for he is already carrying out his reign of restoration, but the time of judgment has not yet come.

The news is disappointing. Those who come to Jesus looking for a better life, an easier life, will not find it. In fact, life may even be more difficult. Weeds don’t worry as much about the wellbeing of other plants. They serve themselves and thrive because of it. Undoubtedly, many will hear this message from Jesus and think it’s all just a waste of time. If my life isn’t made better right here and now, then there’s no point. That’s why people do many of the things they do, dieting and eating right, working out, avoiding smoking and other activities that may be harmful to you. People want to see results, even if those results aren’t always physical. Freedom from the frustration and aggravation of bad eggs. They want to see the evil swept away so that life will be better.

But that isn’t the case. The world mocks what it sees as a feeble and powerless king. Christians get discouraged and give up the faith because it gains them nothing. We are bombarded with doubts about whether God will actually do anything at all, or if this really is all there is. The vile and disturbing reports coming out about the abuse of girls in the UK, one point in particular came up. The Muslim men who abused the Christian girls would repeatedly ask, “Where is your God now?” To the wheat in the field, surrounded by weeds, the answer would appear to be, “Nowhere.”

Jesus continues to the story, but he doesn’t do it there in front of the crowds. We have a different audience now. True, some of those in the crowds may have been believers, but most were not. To many in Judea, Jesus was merely a curiosity, if not a threat. Now Jesus takes time to talk with his disciples alone.

His conversation here is different. It’s the same content. The parable hasn’t changed. There is still the field, the world. There is still the wheat, Christians. There’s still weeds, everyone else. But, where others may have looked for immediate relief and been disappointed, Christ now offers something different. Yes, the weeds are there. Yes, they will make life difficult. But, the harvest will come. The weeds will be separated from the wheat. It will happen. Those who persevere will find their patience rewarded. Ultimately, even the enemy who sowed the weeds will be dealt with as well. There is no reason for defeatism or despair here. The farmer is more than capable of sorting the wheat from the weeds, saving what is good and throwing out what is bad. The wheat, his chosen, will be saved in the harvest and all causes of sin and all law breakers will be gone.

Though the harvest stands out there in the future, it is still good news. None of the evil and sin we deal with now will last forever. But we will be saved. We will remain. We can look forward to a day when we will be free from all of this.

Jesus doesn’t attend to the question everyone asks. “Why wait?” Jesus doesn’t answer this question directly in this passage, but the answer becomes apparent. You can read this passage and assume it’s all predetermined. Everyone is already sown as either wheat or a weed, but the story doesn’t say that. The righteous are only truly revealed at the end. The end is what matters, not the beginning.

That’s even better news because, as St. Paul says, “None is righteous, no, not one.” We are all enemies of God. We are all evil. We are all sown as weeds by the evil one, seeking only our own wellbeing and caring nothing for others, much less the farmer whose field this is.

The weeds can’t choose to be wheat. It isn’t in their nature. But the farmer can make it happen. Through his loving, painstaking work, he can transform a selfish weed into beneficial wheat.

Jesus begins the parable by telling the crowds and the disciples that this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. This is what we see all around Jesus. Though he is kingdom and his kingdom goes with him wherever he does, he is not actively striking down his enemies. That’s not his purpose here and now. He knows he’ll be back. He knows harvest time will arrive and that’s when he will oversee the sorting. But that time hasn’t come yet. Right now he is here doing the hard work. He is giving his own life to cultivate his field, to turn weeds into wheat.

Jesus works until the very last minute to save every person who is willing to be saved. The farmer holds off on the harvest as long as possible in order that everyone who will hear and believe can be saved, people like you and I.

We groan under the burden of the weeds and all that they do to make our lives miserable. Jesus reminds us that not all of them will remain weeds. Some of them will be like us, selfish people who cared nothing for others who were made into wheat by the loving work of Christ. We pray for those around us who do not yet believe. We pray they hear the message and come to trust in Jesus for salvation. We pray also that Christ gives us the patience and perseverance to continue trusting him, despite everything that goes on around us. We pray that he constantly remind us that we are already saved. We have been made new through his sacrifice. We pray that he forgive us yet again for our impatience and our complaints. Finally, we pray that he returns when the time is right, to set us free once and for all.