“Rooting Out Evil ”

July 18, 2020

Matthew 13:24–30

Jesus put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So, when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’

One day an older gentleman decided he was going to get a pet to keep him company. A few months earlier his wife had died and he was struggling with the adjustment of living alone. Not wanting to tie himself down to the responsibility of dog, he decided that a parrot would be an easy pet. He hoped the parrot could talk to him and lessen the loneliness he was experiencing.

The next day he went off to the pet store and spotted colorful, mature parrot. While admiring the bird it said “good morning” to him. This is the “perfect parrot for me” he thought. About that time the store manager approached asking if he needed assistance. “I sure do. I’m looking for a pet to keep me company, and I think this parrot will do it.”

The store manager winced and said, “I must warn you sir, that this parrot has a past. We took it in on trade! This parrot’s previous owner was known for colorful language and the bird learned it.”

Well, this gentleman had already set his heart on this parrot and was confident he could reform the parrot — ridding it of its foul tongue. So, confident he could rehabilitate the parrot, he purchased it.

With a level of enthusiasm not felt for many months, the man returned home with his new pet and got the cage set up in the kitchen, where he would often pass the parrot, and where he could hear that “good morning” each day as he ate breakfast.

Well, it was not long before the parrot showed his true colors and let loose a barrage of bad words. The man, already forewarned of the bird’s tendency to profanity, calmly approached the cage and shook his finger and firmly said “no” to the parrot, hoping the beak would close and the barrage cease. Well, it did not. So, the man reached in and removed the parrot from the cage and placed it in freezer for a one-minute time- out. After the minute he retrieved the parrot and put it back in the cage. “Now, what do you have to say?” he asked. Feathers shaking and beak rattling, the parrot began another barrage of filthy language.

So again, the parrot went back in the freezer, this time for 90 second. When the time was up, the man returned the parrot to the cage and again asked, “Now what do you have to say? Are you going to curse again?” Shivering, the parrot let loose again — words not suitable for repeating here.

Back in the freezer the parrot went, this time for two minutes and when the man pulled the bird out its feathers had a touch of frost on them and an icicle was hanging from its beak. The man asked, “Now, have you learned a lesson? Will you clean up your language and not use bad words anymore? The parrot replied, “Y-y-y-essss sir. But one question. Lifting a frosting wing to point toward the freezer, the parrot said, “Could you please tell me what that t-t-t-turkey in there said to you?”

The real turkey in the story was the first owner of the bird who had such a bad influence on it. It is on the subject of good and bad intent, that Jesus tells a parable, a story in our bible reading from Matthew today.

Here’s how the story goes. Jesus said that a farmer put good seed in his field to grow wheat. But one night, someone came along a sowed seeds of weeds. When the wheat and the weeds began to grow, the farm workers asked the farmer where the weeds came from. The wise farmer knew it was his enemy that had sown the weeds. So, the farm workers asked: “do you want us to go and pull up all those weeds?” But the wise farmer said, “No! For if you pull up the weeds you will uproot the wheat too. Let both of them grow together until the harvest.” (Matthew 13:29 NRSV)

In this parable of the good wheat and the evil weeds, Jesus teaches two things. First, evil is always with us. Second, put your effort into growing the good — in other words, growing your faith.

Our natural impulse is to destroy evil if we can, isn’t it? Jesus says, though, we should not act against the evil. There are reasons behind Jesus directive to let the evil go. Jesus says it may be premature to sort through the good and evil. Sometimes it is too early to judge. Destroying the weeds could also affect the wheat.

In his book The People of the Lie, M. Scott Peck tells of counseling of troubled people. Searching to find reasons for the struggles in people’s lives, Peck realized that in many cases the suffering we experience is sometimes due to the reality of evil in the world.

So, he decided he needed to define evil. At one point he asked his young son to define evil. The boy said, “Evil is `live’ spelled backwards. “ That is how Scott Peck derived his definition of evil. Evil is the opposite of life. It is what destroys life.

Jesus does not answer any questions about why there is evil in our lives. He does not give us a list of characteristics we should look for in defining evil people. But he does do something important for us in this story. He offers a word of hope = God will deal with evil; that’s God’s business, not ours. Our business is to grow faith, in ourselves and for the sake of others. It is a life-long process. One does not finish the process of becoming a person of faith, much like we earn a diploma or degree.

A wise, deeply faithful woman tells the story of being approached by a young man at an airport gate. “What do you do?” asked the stranger. Not exactly sure how to answer the question, the woman replied, “I’m a pilgrim.” “A what,” replied the man. “I thought they came over on the Mayflower.”

“I’m another kind of pilgrim,” she said. “I’m trying to find the way from birth to life!” “Don’t you mean from birth to death?” said the man. “No,” said the woman. “I mean from birth to life!”

In this move from birth to life, we all know the way includes evil and good. I do not need to convince you there is not a shortage of weeds in this life. But while those weeds want to choke the life out of us — there is good news. God ultimately will not allow that. Easter showed us that evil does not have the last word because life does!

So dear reader, the Good News this day is to leave the weeds to God and direct our efforts to growing in faith and serving love in the way of Jesus our Lord.