“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?’” (Matthew 13:27). How many of you have asked that question? Lord Jesus, why is this happening in my community? Why must I have these weeds growing in my family? How did the bad seed get into my church?

“Should we pull out the weeds?” they asked in verse 28. And isn’t that our inclination? Lord, we can help. Do you want us to take care of this? We’ll make this right. You’ve given us the tools, and we will use them to clean up this place. It’s not completely wrong to use the tools God has given us, but often, we don’t use them correctly.

This happens in parenting, education, and the church. One congregation loved to cite the tool Jesus gave us to use when someone had sinned. Jesus told us that you are to first go to them privately, and if they refuse to listen to you, then bring one or two along with you. And if they still refuse, then you treat them as outsiders. (see Matthew 18)

Jesus clearly states that the purpose of this tool is to win the sinner back. But what this particular church loved to emphasize was the part where you could prove the person wrong and send them packing! Such misuse of this tool, their judgmental legalism, drove people away from the very place they needed. And this misses the emphasis of Matthew 18, which is to pursue restoring people to the body of Christ.

This judgmental application is akin to moving the decimal to the right and inflating our response. But to the answer given to the offer to pull out the weeds, here’s the answer: “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles and burn them, and put the wheat in the barn.'” (Matthew 13:29)

Jesus explains, it is a job for the angels of the Day of Judgment to separate the wheat from the weeds. Instead, Jesus teaches that the first proper response is to invite them to salvation. Invite them to repentance. Notice how this invitation refuses to inflate a response of judgment in Galatians 6: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you two be tempted.”

Throughout His teaching, Jesus reminds us how to use righteousness in the field of weeds:

Love those who hate you.
Do not curse them.
Love as the Lord first loved you.
Forgive as the Lord forgives you.
Serve others as Christ served you.

All of these, Christ gave to us from the cross.

Prayer
Lord, may our judgments be just, our responses be loving, and our hearts be filled with mercy as we navigate this world in need of Your grace. It is in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.