A Mixed Bag

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Church of God here on earth is a mixed bag. In any given Christian assembly there are the faithful saints of God, redeemed by Christ and anxious to hold fast to the pure Word of God. And right alongside them are the false saints, the pseudo-Christians who would reject the truth of the Gospel, water down the proclamation of the Word, or propose new ways and new measures to accomplish their goals. We may wish it were not so, but that is how things are.

This is what the parable Jesus tells in today's Gospel reading teaches. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but in the middle of the night, the enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. No one was any more the wiser, until the plants grew up and their fruits were evident.

When it was evident that the weeds had been sown over top of and into the midst of the wheat, the servants of the master asked whether they should go and rip out the weeds. The master told them to leave the weeds alone until the harvest, lest they damage the wheat as they worked. Then, at the last, they could separate the good from bad and deal with each accordingly.

The enemy of God works in just this manner. Whenever he sees a place where the good and faithful Word of God has been sown, so that souls might be regenerated and people saved from death and hell, he comes in and sows the seeds of destruction over the top, so that false believers and false teachers sprout up alongside the faithful and threaten their existence.

Of course, the obvious way this happens is by those who would introduce changes into the faith once delivered to the saints. This has happened from the beginning. Paul withstood Peter in the midst of the apostles for bending to the Judaizers and endangering the proclamation of the Gospel. The seven churches of Asia had their challenges, to which St. John delivered the Word of the Lord. The Arian heresy threatened to split the Church throughout the world. The false teachings of Nestorius still corrupt parts of the Church in the East to this day. The sectarian doctrines of the Calvinists and the Anabaptists did not spontaneously generate outside of history.

These false teachings, and many more like them, grew up like weeds among the wheat of the faithful people and congregations of the Church which gathers around the Word and Sacraments of Christ, and which finds her identity hidden in Christ and none other.

Our Confessions speak about this fact when we confess the Church. The Defense of the Augsburg Confession says:

In the Church itself, infinite is the multitude of the wicked who oppress it, despise, bitterly hate, and most violently persecute the Word, as, e.g., the Turks, Mohammedans, other tyrants, heretics, etc. For this reason the true teaching and the Church are often so utterly suppressed and disappear, as if there were no Church, which has happened under the papacy; it often seems that the Church has completely perished. (Ap VII/VIII, 9)

It often happens in a given place that the Church is so sorely oppressed that it appears as if she has disappeared altogether. The tiny remnant of the saints is overwhelmed by the multitude of the unbelievers, until the assembly of saints finally fails to assemble. It is as though the field sown with wheat has been completely overgrown with the weeds. The preachers of the devil's lies teach false doctrine that has the ring of truth, but leads to death by inches. First, a step away, then a hop, then by leaps and bounds. Remember that the weeds do not spring up overnight, but at first grow right alongside the wheat.

But this is why we confess that the Church does not subsist merely in the purity of her external membership. We confess that “in order that we may not despair, but may know that the Church will nevertheless remain [until the end of the world], likewise that we may know that, however great the multitude of the wicked is, yet the Church [which is Christ's bride] exists, and that Christ affords those gifts which He has promised to the Church, to forgive sins, to hear prayer, to give the Holy Ghost, this article in the Creed presents us these consolations.” (ibid.) That is to say, the Church continues wherever the Word is preached and the Sacraments administered. The Church is defined by Christ, and wherever He delivers His Gifts, there His Body is to receive them.

Sometimes the members of the Church on earth are tempted to look around and see what is growing around them. It is easy to notice what “those people over there” are doing that is weird or wrong or “we wouldn't do it that way.” It is hard to see why there are so many divisions in the Church on earth. Divisions over sexuality and marriage. Divisions over the roles of women. Divisions over the doctrine of the Holy Ministry. Divisions over the authority of bishops. Divisions over Baptism and the Lord's Supper. And on and on. The divisions are easy to see, but difficult to understand. Why does the Lord of the Church permit such factiousness among His people?

There has been the temptation throughout the history of the Church to attempt to root out the weeds, to take the hoe and walk the rows of God's seed-bed. But what would happen if that were allowed?

First of all, who would do it? Who is so holy and perfect as to confess the Gospel perfectly and live a spotlessly holy life according to the Word of the Lord, so as to be worthy to be God's weed-puller? Do you always make perfect confession?

Also, the Church on earth will never be perfect. This seed-bed will never be free from weeds. If you were to go around eliminating everyone who ever makes an errant confession or does something contrary to the clear Gospel, eventually there would be no one left, neither to preach nor to receive.

The Lord graciously allows the Church on earth to exist intermingled with the weeds of the enemy. This is a measure of His grace. He allows the evil people of this world to mingle with the saints whom He has redeemed, in order that some might be saved. The unbelievers in the midst of the assembly cannot help but see the example of the true Faith, and the fruits of repentance, and the Word of God works where and when He wills it. In order that the unbelievers might have a hope of salvation, He allows the faithful to suffer for a time.

However, notice that in this parable, unlike last week's, the weeds do not choke out the wheat. The weeds grow up among the wheat, and the field is contaminated by their noxious fruit, but the wheat do not suffer greatly, nor do they die out. The wheat continue to grow, as though nothing had happened.

It is this way in the Church. Although the true Church is oppressed by heathens, pagans, and heretics, she nevertheless continues to stand and grow and flourish where she is planted. Why is this? Because the growth of the Church is not a human work. The Church is the Body of Christ, and she is defined by her Head and Master. The Church is defined by her marks, “namely, the pure doctrine of the Gospel, and the administration of the Sacraments in accordance with the Gospel of Christ.” (Ap. VII/VIII, 5)

The Church continues because her Head is eternal and invincible. She is weak and fragile and would certainly be choked out in a moment if left by herself among the weeds and thorns of the enemy. But you are not left alone; you are surrounded with the whole host of heaven.

Remember this. And repent. Repent of your efforts to purify the Church by your own power. Repent of your thinking that the growth of the Church might come under your steam. Repent of your thinking that the Church is somehow dependent on her visible, earthly membership for her definition and meaning. It is not. The Church does not depend on you. She depends on Christ, just as you must.

And this is precisely why our Lord Christ, the head of the Church, came to earth and lived as the wheat among the weeds. He lived as one born under the Law to redeem those condemned by the Law. He died the death demanded by the Law so that you might not be fear for your own self-justification, but despair of yourself and cling to Him. Rooted in Him, you will never be uprooted and thrown into the fire. For you have already passed from death to life, not through fire but through water.

And having died the death to sin, Jesus won the right to cleanse you from sin and guilt, to stand you before His Father, and to take you as His own holy and precious Bride, preserved from all harm and danger safely inside the ark of the Church. Here, He feeds you with the water of life, the wine of gladness, and the medicine of immortality. Here, He proclaims His love for you by forgiving you all your sins, by placing His own Body and Blood upon your tongue and His voice of reconciliation into your ears.

The Church will not always be a mixed bag, though. At the last harvest, the reapers will separate the weeds from the wheat, the first to be burned and the second to be preserved in the household of God. At the last, the faithful saints of God will stand, cleansed from sin, pure and holy. And the Lord who sowed them will keep them in His everlasting kingdom, preserving them in peace and joy forevermore. Let Your kingdom come, O Lord!

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.