2013년 6월 16일 주일 영어예배 설교
마태복음 13:36-43

The parable of the weeds
(Matthew 13:36~43)

Jesus Christ our Lord gives us a couple of parables of his kingdom, the Kingdom of God. Especially, in this chapter, Matthew 13, we see the parables of the kingdom, which illuminate us to show the characters of the kingdom from each angle. Of those parables of the kingdom, today’s is usually called ‘the parable of the weeds.’ And in fact this is the explanation of the parable of weeds itself that is previously given. Both the parable and the explanation of the parable are addressed by Jesus Christ himself. This parable depicts the situation and the conclusion of the kingdom from the perspective of the member of it.
People, unbelievers have raised their voice like “if there is a God, why has this world been full of evilness like this?” And they have simply reached the silly conclusion, “there is no God” while they have still been living in the garden called the earth that God created and have enjoyed all the factors in it, they even breathe the air that is produced by the mechanism that is also created by God. They have ceaselessly complained of the evils that they themselves have ceaselessly generated as if God is responsible for the evil. In history, as human beings have not found the way to be perfectly good as man, they have begun to suggest a plausible thought. For example, they say that human beings are continually newly born after death, one time as a man, next time as an animal, the other time as an insect or plant and so forth. Another example is that even after death they still have a chance to be good that could be accomplished by the merits of their families, relatives, or even friends who yet remained in the world. Some people think that human beings are just material entity with biological mechanism. And some people, in history, have begun to blur the boundary between the good and evil. They even insist that there is no definite good and evil, but there is just desirableness and undesirableness or properness and improperness in this human world. All those unfortunate conclusions or guesses are due to the fact that human beings are never able to find exactly what the good and evil is, and what is going on and will end related with them. They have neither the ability nor will to find the true nature and identity of good and evil by themselves without God’s revelation.
In the midst of the flood of these kinds of human thoughts labeled so-called ‘deep and profound’ that appear and disappear, and fall behind and develop in history, there is a crystal clear revelation dealing with the identity and end of the sons of evil, or evil itself. As one of the characteristics of the Kingdom of God, this revelation has been unchangeably stating it apart from man’s definition that has been modified and retouched day and night. Today, we are going to be considering together the fate of evil related to the humans’ question, the obvious distinction between the good and evil, and the linearity of history with the designated end of it.
In verse 36, “Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” As the reason why Jesus loves to speak in parables is to clarify more for those who have the ear to hear the meaning of the revelation, and to obscure more for those who have no ear to hear the meaning of the revelation, now Jesus Christ is about to explain the meaning of the parable of the weeds only to some restricted people including his disciples. The parable of the weeds that is previously spoken by Jesus is this, “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. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 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.”
In verses 37~39, “He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.” Now here, the first thing that we can obviously find is there are two kind members in this world, ‘the good seed’ and ‘the weeds’, that is ‘the sons of the kingdom’ and the ‘the sons of the evil one.’ And the expression, ‘Son of Man’ indicates Jesus Christ. This is often used in the Bible in indicating Jesus connoting his humanity. The text is telling us the field in which the good seed is sown by the Son of Man is the world. Here, the term, the world is ‘Kosmos’ in Greek, which means the entire world, or universe. In the same field, world, the weeds, the sons of the evil one are also sowed by the devil. That is to say, the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one are co-existing in the same pattern in the same world.
Here, in this text, the criterion of whether the sons of the kingdom or the sons of the evil one is Jesus Christ. It means that this matter doesn’t depend on whether how much one violates the laws legally and morally. That is to say, whether one belongs to the party of the good seeds or the party of the sons of the evil one depends on whether one is reborn through believing in Jesus Christ or is still not reborn in the natural condition. There are so many evilness in this world from cheating, hating, and slandering to stealing, murdering, and even mass slaughter. And the most severe evil thing amongst those evilness in the world is not believing and acknowledging God, or not believing Jesus Christ. Of course, the regenerated, believers still stumble into evil and sin whether it is intentional or not even after being reborn through believing in Jesus Christ. And many unbelievers, not small in number, do the good things. That is, they, believers and unbelievers seem to be almost the same. But there are critical and decisive differences between them. I want to confirm it even briefly from the perspective of three points to better understand today’s text.
First, even though both of them, believers and unbelievers are in the same imperfect and still sinful condition in this world and they all are kind of vulnerable to evil, believers are perfectly forgiven their sins and figure out their sin matter through believing in Jesus Christ, and unbelievers are not. This justification of believers is ‘a legal declaration’ and ‘a final decree’ by God. This is possible due to the fact that the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ is considered as believers’, the people who believe in Jesus Christ and follow Him. Jesus’ perfect righteousness is imputed into believers and Jesus Christ atoned their sins instead of them. This marvelous and graceful event has been completely accomplished through Jesus Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. So even if believers are not perfect during their life in this world, they are ultimately and legally found not guilty in Jesus Christ our Lord. But unbelievers are still remained in their sinful status being accusing of their sins including original and behavioral. Second, as the result of the legal final decision of no guilty for believers, the believers have turned their direction into the perfect righteousness and sanctification. So their life itself is heading towards the perfection step by step and day by day. This is also made possible due to Jesus Christ our Lord. The very perfect sanctification of Jesus Christ is made into ours, we are just believing and holding it. Through this we are going to the perfection. But unbelievers are still heading for its eternal downfall without figuring out their sin problem. The last point is this, in fact believers who were reborn in Jesus Christ pursue the good things and struggle to behavior good through their lives. This is one of the effects of regeneration through believing in Jesus Christ. True believers don’t have a lax life due to the guarantee of their non-guilty, but they have always tried to pursue the good and dedicated to the good cause. The fact that it is true is fully supported not only by the Bible itself but also by the history and by our daily life. In this sense, the text says that there are the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one and the good seed, or the sons of the kingdom are sowed by our Lord Jesus Christ.
In verses 39, “and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.” Here, the devil is the enemy. Who’s enemy? The enemy of the master of the field. And we can find the fact that the weeds, or the sons of the evil one are sown by the devil, not by the master Jesus Christ, but the devil the enemy of Jesus Christ. And finally the master, our Lord Jesus Christ begin to state the decisive mentions starting with ‘the harvest is the end of the age.’ In the parable itself, the expression ‘harvest’ appears, and Jesus Christ identifies the harvest with the end of the world. It means that there should be the end of the world and history. It means that the end of the world is already set in the master’s mind and plan. The reaper, it is needed at the very harvest. The master finally launches the full-scale harvesting.
In verses 40~42, “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 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. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Here, we definitely find the final annihilation of the evil. This is the plan of the master. We need to confirm the fact that the evil’s existence of this world is not just by-production of human history out of God’s control. The existence of the evil itself is under God’s control and plan. The fact that the evil still prevails doesn’t mean that for God it is unavoidable and God himself is still struggling with it. The evil was already overwhelmed and defeated by God and the final completion depends on God, the master of the world. We need to pay attention to the part of the parable, “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.” (Matt 13:28b~29a) Letting the evil’s influence till the end of the day itself is God’s controlling and plan. The evil’s influences are also completely under the controlling of God. We find this truth in Job’s story also. Before this clear and simple revelation, the reason why people still clamor about the unwarrantableness of the evil’s existence of the present days is not because of God’s non-existence or lethargy but because of human’s sinful ignorance of the revelation of God. The phrase is telling us that not only the law-breakers, or the sons of the evil one but also the cause of sins will be annihilated at the harvest, or the Judge Day, the end of the days. And here, we find some terrible fact. It is the fact that the annihilation means just in this world not eternally. After throwing it into the fire, they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth as the text shows the result of the evil. This expression of the situation of the unbelievers in the hell is found in the other places of the Bible. This is the result of sin. This is the result of not believing in Jesus Christ who God has sent for their sin problem. This is the result of the man who doesn’t figure out his or her sin problem. In verse 43, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” As the final statement of this parable, Jesus shows the extremely contrasting result between believers and unbelievers. The sons of the kingdom will shine like the sun while the sons of the evil one will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness. What makes this horrible difference between them? Yes, whether being in Jesus Christ our Lord or not being in Him.
Everyone, The still existence of the evilness in this world is not because of God’s non-existence or inability but because the time is not yet come. There will be definite judgment day of the evil and it totally depends on God’s perfect will and plan not human being’s imperfect will and thoughts. And in the grand picture of our God, there are two distinctive influences, the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one. The people who have complained of the prevalence of the evil in this world, before this revelation, have also complained of it saying “this is such a dichotomous thinking.” Regardless of man’s incoherent and non-grounded clamors like that, this revelation of today’s text has already given to us. This is one of the characteristics of the Kingdom of God. This is the powerful and silent marching and spreading of the Kingdom of God. Nobody is able to stop, interfere, or change the progress of the Kingdom of God. What is the key in it? What is the main agent in this history and world of God? What is criterion in being the sons of the kingdom and being the sons of the evil one, and in being thrown into the fiery place and being gathered into the master’s barn, and being weeping and gnashing teeth in out darkness and being shining like the sun in the kingdom of the Father? Yes, yes! It is Jesus Christ our Lord. Only the people who is forgiven their sins through believing in Jesus Christ, being drenched into the precious blood of Jesus Christ is considered as the sons of the kingdom, otherwise, the sons of the evil one. Only the people who are grafted into Jesus Christ, are united with Jesus Christ, and are believing the effective grace of the cross of Christ for sinners will be gathered into the master’s barn otherwise, into the fiery place. Only the people who believe and trust in all the merits of Jesus Christ for themselves will be shining like the sun in the kingdom of the Father, otherwise, sadly weeping and gnashing their teeth in the darkness. Jesus Christ, He is our unique safe harbor. Please drop your life anchor into Him firmly and completely. Then you will shout the triumphant victorious songs at the harvest day. Try to find and think whatever the ways you can for you to live and get victory forever, tangibly, intangibly, logically, instinctively, scientifically, practically, theoretically, experientially mobilizing all the factors you can in your life. Try it as much as you can as a human being! Try it for your perfect and safe life! Do you find something by yourselves? And then now I suggest to you, hold the old rugged cross of Jesus Chris our Lord. Now the last mention of our Lord in the parable comes up in my mind, “He who has ears, let him hear.”