Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text today is the Epistle and Gospel lessons that were just read, especially these words, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” Thus far our text.
Dear Friends in Christ. Recently my wife and I watched an episode of a television show called “Top Shot.” The show consisted of some of the best rifle and pistol marksman around, competing against each other in different trick shots to finally eliminate players one by one and to declare one to be the “Top Shot.” As we watched it, we kept asking ourselves, “who will make it? Who will be kicked off.” It was so much fun to try and figure out who could shoot the 500 yard target, and who couldn’t. There are countless other television shows with the same premise today. American Idol, who will win? America’s Got Talent, who will get the votes? The list goes on and on.
Friends in our text today, we are asked a different question, who will be in heaven, and who will not. Is there a way that we can look at someone and know they are saved, and look at someone else and know they are damned? We want to know who will be in eternity with us so that we can start planning our heavenly days to visit with dear friends and loved ones there. And we also want to know – and sometimes more – who will not be there, so that we can mock and ridicule them behind their backs. As our Epistle says, “The entire creation waits with eager expectations for the sons of God to be revealed,” or in other words to find out who will make it, and who will not.
It seems easy doesn’t it? I mean is this really a question that matters? After all we all know how people get into heaven don’t we? They just have to be good people, they just have to have more love then they have hate. They have to be the people that we get along with and that make us happy, that is what determines if someone will be in heaven or not, isn’t it?
But in our Gospel lesson today, Jesus paints a much more difficult picture. He says, “A man sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.” Now in the Greek the word for weeds is one that means “A weed that looks like Wheat,” or as we say in the Old King James, tares. These tares when they finally sprouted would look exactly like the wheat. There would be no way to tell until the harvest which plants were actually good wheat, and bad and weedy tares.”
So in order to not disturb the wheat, and to still harvest a crop the man lets both grow, so that come harvest time he can bring in what he wants, and burn and destroy the rest. The man and his servants sat and waited, with “eagar expectation” for the wheat to be revealed, and the weeds removed. Finally the truth was made known, and that which was good for the man would be harvested and brought into his granary.
Friends, Jesus tells us this parable, because it describes our world. It answers that question above, who will be in heaven? Can we know who will finally make it and who will not? Here on Earth we cannot know. We can only judge each other on outward appearances. Yes we can make our opinion on whether or not a person is good or not. We judge in human terms, “That person is such a pillar of our community. That person is not very smart. That person does so much good work for the poor. That person looks like a shady person. That person seems like such a friendly person. I wouldn’t want to hang out with that person.” But these things do not tell us if they are a wheat or a tare. Outward appearances are deceiving. Just as the man cannot tell the wheat from the tares, so too we cannot judge the holy from the unholy.
Friends it is not what you do, or how you look or even what other people think of you that earns you a place in heaven. There is not one person who is worthy on their own merit of being saved. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.” There is not one who is righteous (on their own), no not one. Dear brothers and sisters in the faith, you have sin, sin that infects every part of you and that sin makes you not wheat, but a tare. It makes you guilty. It makes you do vile disgusting sins that you know deep inside are wrong – yet we do them anyways. It makes us turn our backs on God and only worthy to be thrown into the fire at the end of the age.
But we are not, for Jesus has come to us. He has come to us while we were yet still sinners, and he has poured out his blood upon. He has given to us the gift of salvation. Jesus came to live among us weeds and tares. He came to us so that he could die in our place. SO that he could suffer the fate of those who had sin. He came so that he might be nailed to a wooden rugged cross for your sin.
And he still comes to you today. He comes to you bodily in bread and wine to give you faith and trust in Jesus. He comes to you in Baptism so that you might no longer be a tare or a weed, but rather that you might be a tiny wheat plant, full and ready to be harvested and brought to your heavenly home forever and ever without end. For it is the faith that Jesus gives that makes one from a weed into a wheat. It is the gift of God that you might be rescued. It is not what you do. It is not how you look or how you are perceived. It is completely and totally God’s gift that determines where you will be.
And it is the same for you. So often it is easy for us to meet someone and say, “They are a weed, they don’t really belong here, I’ll just ignore or forget about them. But friends, that person whom you wrongly judge may be a holy Saint of God. And that one that you judge to be a “true” Christian may also be a weed that only looks like wheat. For that reason we must continue to care for all people, to show the love of Christ to all, so that we do not scandalize that brother or sister who we are uncertain of but who has faith in the gifts of God. We must care for all people so that through us Christ may continue to take weeds and tares and make them in to faithful Christian people.
For that is what Christ has done for you. You who once were not worthy, are now worthy because Christ has come to you and for you. You who once faced the eternal fires of Hell has now been given the kingdom. It is the gift of God, the gift of faith that looks to the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We wait in eager expectation for the revealing of the Sons of God. And as we wait we know that we will be among them, for we share fellowship in the Gift of God – Jesus Christ crucified. He is our God and we are His people. We know that “On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly True. Amen.
