The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany.
The Collect.
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LORD, we beseech thee to keep thy Church and household continually in thy true religion; that they who do lean only upon the hope of thy heavenly grace may evermore be defended by thy mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Gospel
(Matt 13:24-30)
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NOTHER parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I wll say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
We find that there are eight parables in the 13th chapter of Matthew. Though most of these parables relate directly to the Kingdom of Heaven, this parable is a mix of the Kingdom and of the World. Around the end of the 19th century, there began to be propagated a great lie by politicians and their cohorts in religion that there existed a great brotherhood that embraced all men upon the earth. The Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God – was the popular slogan behind this insidiously false claim. We are not “all God’s chillun’”! There are two, only, families upon the earth – the Children of God, or the Children of the Devil. We all belong to one or the other of these two families. While it is true that God created all living, He does not force His privileged parentage on any. The results of this lie have been a justification for every excess in governments to collectivize their economies and societies and to enforce the mediocrity of Communistically inclined policies upon their populations. The concept forces all – good and evil – into the lowest common denominator of value as human beings.
Perhaps our susceptibility to deception is a result of a failure to fortify our souls with the wisdom and knowledge that comes directly from God’s Word. In the reading of many letters home from soldiers of the American Revolutionary War and War Between the States, I have observed that there is often greater faith and mastery in the Holy Scriptures evidenced in those letters than that demonstrated by most modern theologians and ministers of mainline churches. Have we forgotten what one thing will assure the destruction of God’s people? Allow me to rekindle your fires of remembrance: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. (Hosea 4:6) Another factor may be that our ears have grown dull of hearing the Word of God through selective filtration of things Godly. Jesus concludes the previous parable with this mysterious command: Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Matt 13:9)
There is an auditory disability called auditory verbal agnosia, also known as Pure Word Deafness, that is caused by bilateral damage to the posterior superior temporal lobes. Well, there is a corresponding disability of the inner ear of the heart which has disregarded God’s full counsel with such frequency that the Voice of God can no longer be heard by that heart. That heart, calloused by repetitive sin and rejection of righteousness, has grown dull: Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron. (1 Tim 4:1-2)
So, the setting that Jesus confronts is a multitude of hearts that have been subject to fables and endless genealogies of the Pharisees and Sadducees that have stunted their understanding and removed any reference point for grasping these marvelous truths of Christ that are so completely extrinsic to their primitive minds.
24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: We see a slightly different venue and application in this parable of a Sower and that of the prior Sower and four different soils. The Sower is still the Lord Jesus Christ, the field represent the world, and the good seed here represents the children of the kingdom. He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; (Matt 13:37-38)
25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. It is perfectly normal for men to rest and sleep after their labors. Such rest does not make them remiss of their duties before God or man. The point seems that, despite the best efforts of righteous people, evil is bound to come from that same source it came in the Garden at Eden – the Devil himself. He works best during the hours of darkness and his seed are seeds of ruin and death. These seed sowed by the Devil are the children of the devil. …..but the tares are the children of the wicked one. (Matt 13:38b) The one who sows these bad seed is the Devil: The enemy that sowed them is the devil…. (Matthew 13:39a)
26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? What do men expect of the seeds they plant? I suggest that they expect the same nature of plant to grow therefrom as the seed planted. The good seed produced good fruit. The bad seed produced bad fruit (tares). The tares are the children of the wicked one, who are filled with his spirit, live according to his principles, and are under his control. They are not a degenerate form of virtue, but as distinct as virtue and vice. They often resemble the good till the fruit begins to appear, but they are as different as wheat and tares, as thistles and roses. We are the Lord’s servants (not simply the ordained ministry, but all believers). Do we sometimes wonder why our best efforts and Godly projects are mixed with emotions of greed, jealousy, and vanity in church? The devil does not restrict his children to the gaming tables, bars, prisons, and bordellos of the city – he also sends them to church as purveyors of every indecency. Though all men bear the seeds of wickedness in their hearts, the mastermind of all wickedness is Satan. He coordinates his plans and activities with a brilliance that is beyond the mind of man to understand. But God’s Holy Spirit is a defollient against every parasitic weed, and plants, in its place,Trees of Righteousness and Virtue.
28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. Who did Jesus say did this evil? An enemy! Satan is the enemy of your soul. He seeks no other joy than to ruin your hope and destroy your soul through every means of deception available in his arsenal of dirty tricks. It is discomforting to know that he NEVER takes vacation! We would like to clean house of the traitors, but Christ reserves that duty to Himself lest we err in our judgment. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Good and evil will exist side by side until the end of the world, then comes the harvest. The reapers will be sent into the four quarters of the earth to gather, first, the tares. These shall be shackled and cast into the fires. Then comes the gathering of the wheat (good seed) which is gathered into His barn (Kingdom).
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HE harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Matt 13:39c-43)
Have you heard and understood? The only proof that learning has occurred is by way of a change in behavior. Is your hearing keen to God’s Word, and does your living stand the earnest of your hearing?
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