Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Until the Harvest!

            One of the hardest lessons in life is the lesson of delayed gratification. It’s the ability to resist immediate pleasure for a future reward. In life, we all must learn that some of the best things we can get take time, waiting, or patience. For this reason, we become willing to forgo many desirable things for the sake of something better. Yet so often if we can’t wait, if we give in to the temptation of immediate rewards, then the greater reward disappears. Think about this in terms of faith. Faith is an active example of delayed gratification. Can we forgo the sinful immediate pleasures for something greater in the future? Yes, the Christian life is often about forgoing the many pleasures of the flesh, the desires of our hearts, to wait for the greater treasure of God, which is eternity. But let me put it another way, can we forgo the coming of Christ now, so that it may be even more glorious later? You see, delayed gratification in terms of faith isn’t just about forgoing pleasures, but about trusting in timing. If we had our way, Jesus would come back now and bring us to our eternal paradise immediately. If we went by our own timetable, those who do evil would be punished immediately. This is why we so often wonder… why doesn’t God? The presence and success of evil often leaves us wondering if our good deeds will ever be rewarded. 

            For such is the purpose of our parable today. As Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares, we’re reminded of the tension of the “now… and not yet”. Everything we could possibly dream of is coming… just not yet. For we’re not to give up on doing good, rather we delay our gratification for a time that we may see a greater reward! As we learn:

IN GOD’S TIMING, THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL COME!

I.

            There’s always been the question about the presence of evil in our world. If God is good, then why does evil exist? Or to the question of the parable, if Jesus is reigning over his kingdom, why do we see evil present amongst it? For our parable requires some context first. Consider the intro to the parable, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away,” Matthew 13:24-25. To what circumstance does Jesus refer? In these two short verses is already all of salvation’s history. That is, the parable assumes already the death and resurrection of Jesus and the salvation of believers by faith. In the kingdom of God are the good seed which the Son of Man plants. Jesus has sown good seed in the world through his teaching of repentance and forgiveness given through his own death and resurrection. To say that a man sowed good seed is itself gospel already. God has indeed sown good seed through the work of his Son, Jesus Christ. 

            So, why the tares? Why is there evil still in the world if God sowed only good seed? For this is our current circumstance, the world as it is after Jesus’ salvific acts. The answer is quite simple, but the response astonishes us. As Jesus says, “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn,” Matthew 13:28-30. Let them both grow together… Let evil endure alongside good. Yes, we know the work of Satan well. The devil has sown the weeds, yet God’s allowance of evil to continue still astonishes us. For the presence of the tares, the weeds cause us great grief and harm. As we learned last week that weeds choke the wheat. So is it with evil. Evil seeks to choke good out of us. It seeks to silence those who are good and remove any nutrients or motivation for doing good or being faithful. For this is the reward of faith in this life. Faith is rewarded by constant chastisement and persecution. 

II.

            So, can the wheat wait for the harvest, or will it wither and die because of the tares? Can we as believers delay our need for gratification, waiting for the Lord to return, or will we give into our sinful desires forsaking the faith altogether? For this is the key to the parable, even these three words, “until the harvest”. The reward for faithfulness and righteousness doesn’t come fully in this life. That’s not to say we don’t experience it at least in part. There’s both a now and not yet. Now, already in this life, Jesus is reigning over us, blessing us with his forgiveness and grace. He blesses us with family and friends, with a church family and all the needs of body and soul. Though, the view of God’s kingdom is diminished by the presence of the tares. For God stalls his judgement for your sake and mine, “Lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest,” Matthew 13:29-30. God is merciful that he doesn’t punish evil immediately, lest in his wrath he destroys the faith of his people, and they get swept up in his judgment upon sin and evil. For like Sodom and Gomorrah, God won’t wipe away the innocent with the wicked. He desires the salvation of all people.

            In God’s timing, righteousness and faith shall be rewarded. Even though evil thrives and good is punished in our world, it shall not always be so. Even if God forestalls his judgment longer than we would wish, we’re not to give in to temptations. For the deception of evil is that it tries to convince us good will never be rewarded. But the harvest is coming, when “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace,” Matthew 13:41-42. At the end of the ages, evil will receive its just punishment. It’ll be removed from the congregation of believers. And then, then… God shall gather all those who have been marked by the cross of Christ. He shall bring unto himself those who have confessed their sins and been forgiven, who have died to sin and risen to new life in Christ. By the cross of Christ, God shall reap a rich harvest of the faithful from all the earth whom he will give a rich reward… life in the eternal paradise! 

            For the presence of evil shall not disturb us because we know the end of all things. We know that God shall—in his own timing—punish the evildoer and reward the faithful. Let me finish with this, as the Psalmist writes, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!” Psalm 37:7. Don’t fret over evil, for Christ reigns even now… and shall reign fully at the culmination of the age when he shall reward the faithful with eternal paradise! In Jesus’ name! Amen!