https://youtu.be/1Qzi44DZOi8
As most of you here this morning know, but you guys watching in may not, I grew up in a small town called Farmersville. At school we were the “Fighting Farmers” and though I never played in any sports, I guess I was still a Fighting Farmer trombone player. I guess. Anyway, I was a pretty decent Trombone player – 2ndchair to Greg Perkins most of the time, but he probably practiced at home or something. But I was and am a terrible farmer. I don’t have a farming method, but it’d probably be close to “dig a hole, throw some seeds in there, maybe water it and hope for the best”.
So, I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on this, but I’ve been reading some things about today’s gospel and they say that there is this weed called “Darnel” that, when it is a young plant, looks just like wheat. It’s really hard for a farmer to tell the difference between darnel and wheat until they mature.
The problem is, at that point that the roots of the two plants have become intertwined and tangled together, so you can’t pull out the darnel without damaging or even killing the wheat. The bigger problem is that when darnel matures it is poisonous. If it stays mixed in with the wheat, it can kill you. The weed is so bad that the Romans had a rule forbidding them to plant it in an enemy’s field. The Romans, who had no problems crucifying people, wouldn’t even use it as a weapon.
This weed is likely what Jesus was talking about in his parable. And, I don’t try to turn all these things on their head, but sometimes they’re just asking for it.
In the explanation Jesus gives, he talks about the burning of the bad wheat. In evangelical circles, this is a picture of hell. The bad wheat is bad people and they’re thrown into hell. I want to take a closer look at that.
We said before that the darnel and the wheat so closely resemble each other until they mature. Some would take this to mean that people are hard to tell good from bad until the DO good or bad. Bad people are darnel, good people are wheat. But I wonder. Who is really wheat? Are any of us really “good”? We’ve been talking for weeks about how we’re all infected with sin. We all have it. Paul tells us that we’re all sinners, and lets face it.. we are. You may sin differently than me, but I’m not immune to it either.
Jesus can make us wheat, but the darnel is still part of us. Verse 41 says that The Sone of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that cause people to fall away and all people who sin. Who sins? All of us! And what is he going to do with us? V 42 “He will throw them into a burning furnace. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.” That sounds like fun! But “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom”.
People seem to want to make these two verses about 2 groups of people, but I wonder if they are about the same group. He throws them in the fire, there is weeping, then the righteous will shine like the sun in their father’s kingdom.
How do we become righteous? In Malachi chapter 3 it says “The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire … he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.”
And how do we get to the Kingdom? We need to burn away the darnel and become “wheat”.
This idea of burning away the bad is prevalent through scripture. Even in the writings of Peter and Paul, who say that we will be purified as by fire, the excess burned away but the person saved through it.
That sounds a lot more like Purgatory than Hell to me. That sounds like a God “whose care is for all people” Whose “sovereignty over all causes [Him] to spare all” Who will “judge with mildness” Who has “filled your children with good hope, because you give repentance for sins.” (quotes from the Wisdom of Solomon)
A God who will search me out, know my heart and restless thoughts… who will see the wickedness in me and STILL lead me in the way that is everlasting. (Psalm 139)
And that, my friends is Good News.
As most of you here this morning know, but you guys watching in may not, I grew up in a small town called Farmersville. At school we were the “Fighting Farmers” and though I never played in any sports, I guess I was still a Fighting Farmer trombone player. I guess. Anyway, I was a pretty decent Trombone player – 2ndchair to Greg Perkins most of the time, but he probably practiced at home or something. But I was and am a terrible farmer. I don’t have a farming method, but it’d probably be close to “dig a hole, throw some seeds in there, maybe water it and hope for the best”.
So, I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on this, but I’ve been reading some things about today’s gospel and they say that there is this weed called “Darnel” that, when it is a young plant, looks just like wheat. It’s really hard for a farmer to tell the difference between darnel and wheat until they mature.
The problem is, at that point that the roots of the two plants have become intertwined and tangled together, so you can’t pull out the darnel without damaging or even killing the wheat. The bigger problem is that when darnel matures it is poisonous. If it stays mixed in with the wheat, it can kill you. The weed is so bad that the Romans had a rule forbidding them to plant it in an enemy’s field. The Romans, who had no problems crucifying people, wouldn’t even use it as a weapon.
This weed is likely what Jesus was talking about in his parable. And, I don’t try to turn all these things on their head, but sometimes they’re just asking for it.
In the explanation Jesus gives, he talks about the burning of the bad wheat. In evangelical circles, this is a picture of hell. The bad wheat is bad people and they’re thrown into hell. I want to take a closer look at that.We said before that the darnel and the wheat so closely resemble each other until they mature. Some would take this to mean that people are hard to tell good from bad until the DO good or bad. Bad people are darnel, good people are wheat. But I wonder. Who is really wheat? Are any of us really “good”? We’ve been talking for weeks about how we’re all infected with sin. We all have it. Paul tells us that we’re all sinners, and lets face it.. we are. You may sin differently than me, but I’m not immune to it either.
Jesus can make us wheat, but the darnel is still part of us. Verse 41 says that The Sone of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that cause people to fall away and all people who sin. Who sins? All of us! And what is he going to do with us? V 42 “He will throw them into a burning furnace. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.” That sounds like fun! But “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom”.
People seem to want to make these two verses about 2 groups of people, but I wonder if they are about the same group. He throws them in the fire, there is weeping, then the righteous will shine like the sun in their father’s kingdom.
How do we become righteous? In Malachi chapter 3 it says “The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire … he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.”
And how do we get to the Kingdom? We need to burn away the darnel and become “wheat”.
This idea of burning away the bad is prevalent through scripture. Even in the writings of Peter and Paul, who say that we will be purified as by fire, the excess burned away but the person saved through it.
That sounds a lot more like Purgatory than Hell to me. That sounds like a God “whose care is for all people” Whose “sovereignty over all causes [Him] to spare all” Who will “judge with mildness” Who has “filled your children with good hope, because you give repentance for sins.” (quotes from the Wisdom of Solomon)A God who will search me out, know my heart and restless thoughts… who will see the wickedness in me and STILL lead me in the way that is everlasting. (Psalm 139)
And that, my friends is Good News.
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