Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43, Wheat Among Weeds

You have felt it. You walk into church with hope and leave with questions. You see kindness beside cruelty, faith beside hypocrisy, joy beside quiet wounds. You wonder why the kingdom of God does not look cleaner than this.

Jesus tells a story that refuses easy answers. A farmer plants good seed. An enemy slips in at night and scatters weeds. When both sprout, the servants want quick action. Pull them out now. Fix it. Clean the field. The master says no. Wait until the harvest.

Then Jesus explains. The field is the world. The good seed are the sons and daughters of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one. Angels will sort it all in the end. Not us. Not yet.

This parable should ease the heart. The presence of evil does not mean God has lost control. The mixture does not surprise Him. The kingdom grows in contested soil. Wheat and weeds share the same rain, the same sun, the same season. You and I live in that tension every day.

We know the ache. A believer fails us. A congregation divides. A leader disappoints. Some carry scars from people who claimed Christ yet acted nothing like Him. Jesus does not minimize that pain. He names it, then calls us away from panic toward trust.

Patience is not approval of evil. It is trust in God’s timing. The Lord could clear the field in a moment. He waits because mercy still calls people home. Scripture says He is patient, not wishing that any should perish. His delay is not weakness. It is grace stretched wide across time, giving space for sinners to turn home.

The harvest will come. Jesus promises a final separation. Justice will not be late. The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Every hidden thing will stand in the light. That future does two things at once. It comforts the wounded and warns the careless. God sees. God remembers. God will act.

So how do we live now? We tend the wheat. We guard our own hearts. We refuse the role of judge over souls, even as we deal honestly with sin where Christ commands it. We practice truth with gentleness. We keep sowing the Word. We pray for those who look more like weeds than wheat, remembering that grace once found us, too.

The field is not perfect. The Farmer is faithful. Stay rooted. The harvest is certain. And while we wait, ask Him to make you wheat that bears good seed where you stand.

~PW 🌮🛶

Check out the full sermon and transcript here: Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43, Wheat Among Weeds