Dealing the issue of evil in the world
Matt.13: 24-30
NOte: Some materials of this sermon are taken from sermoncentral.com
Just months ago, several destructive natural catastrophes occurred that brought great devastation and mortality. Thousands of lives and millions of crops and establishments were destroyed. These things that happened to the world we live in make us question how safe the world is and why these things happen. For many people it makes them ask the goodness of God, even question the existence of a good God.
Why are there so many evils in this world? Where do these evils come from? Why does a good God tolerate these evils? The parable we are looking this week speaks to the issue of evil in the world. The Lord is teaching us four basic truths in this parable that explain of the evil in the world.
A. WE ARE IN A WORLD WHERE EVIL IS PRESENT AND REAL
This truth is not difficult to see. We see and hear and even experience the evils in the world –man-made and some people called “acts of God.” We might say to ourselves: we thought God is a good God and that He made a good world. How did this evil get into it? Why do all these terrible things happen?” We are much like the Master’s servants in the parable who say, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” We read in the creation account of the Bible that, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). We want to know what happened then. Did God make a mistake, or lots of mistakes? Since he created everything, did he also create evil? After all, millions of good people and Christians died through out the centuries through man-made and natural calamities.
And part of what makes evil so evil is that it is often so unjust and unfair. Good people suffer while bad people sometimes prosper. Why do bad things happen to good people, and why do good things happen to bad people? This was the prophet Jeremiah’s complaint. He said, “You are always righteous, O Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?” (Jeremiah 12:1). There seems to be injustice in the way the world works. We think that it’s unfair that good people suffer and bad people prosper because we believe in our mind that bad things happen to someone’s life because of some specific sins in his life. We forget that we live in a fallen world –a world that has fallen away from God. The human race as a whole has invited evil into the world through our collective sin. To suffer bad things is possible because we are in a world where evil is present and real.
Many people get impatient with God. Many are disgusted with the way God deals mankind in general. The psalmist said: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:8-10). We like it when God does that for us, but we are angry when God does it for our enemies, or those we consider worse sinners than ourselves. We are angry to see that God did not punish the wicked and destroy them like we think He should. But the truth is: God operates on the principle of mercy. We might see that God’s ways often seem unfair but that it is because, in this dispensation of grace, He chose to exercise His mercy in place of judgment.
B.THE EVIL IN THE WORLD IS THE WORK OF THE EVIL ONE
Theologians use a term called theodicy. It is an attempt to justify God’s actions, and explain the evil and injustice that exists in the world. Thousands of pages have been written trying to explain the problem of evil in the world. But much of what has been written has ignored Jesus’ simple statement found in this parable: “An enemy has done this.” Who is this enemy? The Bible explains that our enemy is the devil who “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). You are free to deny the existence of a personal spiritual reality known as Satan or the devil, but what you cannot deny is that he is a part of the biblical story from beginning to end. You may not believe that he exists, but it is clear that Jesus taught that he exists. Our spiritual enemy is never presented as merely a symbol, but always as a reality.
The devil is not a medieval character in a red suit with pointed tail. He is not a mere mythical dragon. Satan is much more sophisticated than that, and far more dangerous. He knows how to make good appear to be evil, and evil appear to be good. That is what he does in the parable. The weeds he sows in the world grows up to look exactly like wheat. The weed he sowed was called darnel. In the New Testament era it was not unusual for someone’s enemy to plant darnel in their field. It was a dirty trick, because you couldn’t tell the difference between darnel and wheat until they had grown up, and by that time the roots were so intermingled that if you tried to pull up one you would pull up the other. The weed looked like the wheat, and the wheat looked like the weed. Actually, the purpose of planting the weed in the wheat field is to diminish the yield of the wheat and to make the harvest a much more difficult process. Satan is the enemy who sows seeds of destruction to the world to bring damage to God’s people. And very tricky as he is, he would do something that people would ascribe “God’s acts” to bring more confusion. He will instigate counterfeit ministries and bogus spiritual Christian movements to delude unwary targets and injure the church of God.
This parable takes us back once again to the Garden of Eden. God has planted a wonderful garden in a perfect paradise. Two people walk the earth in this idyllic setting. But an enemy appears in the garden. He begins to sow seeds of doubt and suspicion against God. The couple begins to question the goodness of God. And what started as an evil seed in the mind of Adam and Eve has become a full grown crop of disastrous weeds in the human family. God could have pulled the weeds right at that point and destroyed them, but much good would have been destroyed along with the evil. There is evil in the world, but it is not because God has placed it there — an enemy has done this.
C. THERE IS A REASON THAT GOD TOLERATES THE EVIL IN THE WORLD
When the servants in the parable saw what happened, they asked the Master if they would go to the field and uproot the weeds. But the Landowner told them to just let the weeds to grow along with the wheat until the harvest time will. It doesn’t seem fair, isn’t it? Why should the wheat suffer over the presence of the weeds? Why should the good people suffer along or because of the evil ones? This is injustice. Why doesn’t God do something to pull out all evils?
The master in the parable had a very sensible reason. He knew that if his servants would pull out the weeds, they would mistake some of the wheat for weeds, and the wheat would be damaged in the process. In the end there would be fewer yields. The only thing to do was to wait for the day of harvesting. In the same way, God tolerates the evil in the world until the time of harvesting because as bad as the evil in the world is, it would cause more damage to try and remove it at this point.
Well, in the world of fantasy it might sound like a good idea to do away with the evil and preserve the good, but the reality is that, it is impossible. Great harm would be done. Some of the most dangerous people are those who claim they know what is right and wrong in every situation. They know who is bad and who is good. There are TV evangelists who blame sinners for disasters and call for the assassination of world leaders. They want to pull out the weeds before the harvest. They are afraid of what the weeds will do, but they do not seem to think about what evil would be done by pulling out the weeds.
They don’t realize that God tolerates the weeds, because in the end, some who appeared to be evil will become good, and some who appeared to be good will be revealed as evil. We can’t always tell who is who. God tolerates evil, because it would disrupt life as we know it if God would immediately punish every sin and every sinner. Example: if God had answered the prayers of my parents to pull me out from their way when I was yet a stumbling block to their spiritual life and ministry, there would be another pastor to preach here today other than me. Our lives were once weed-like and had God not been patient with us to just let us grow, we could never have found Him and be in God’s service here today. There is a reason God tolerates evil. It has been a blessing to us; it might be a blessing to others. Who knows, the people you hate to see because they are rebellious and obstinate will find the Lord and come out as wheat. All we can do is trust in the infinite wisdom of God.
D. THERE IS A DAY OF RECKONING
In the end the weeds are separated. The wheat is gathered and stored in the barn. The weeds are tied in bundles and burned. If you understand the simple truth of what Jesus is saying here, it is not a happy day for those who lived their lives away from God — those who rejected God’s ownership of their lives and lived to please only themselves. The time of harvest will not be a time of frivolity for those who practiced injustice and evil and flaunted their immorality and heresy. Those who harmed others will be repaid in full. They will reap what they have sown. Jesus said, “At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned.” Will you be counted among those who are wheat and taken into the Master’s barn?
Have you experienced injustice and been harmed in this world? Jesus is saying that God will be your avenger. This is why we do not take revenge, because God will take care of it. He will more than make up for what we may have suffered in life. Jesus said, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out — those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29).
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians who were suffering unjustly from the evil in the world and said: “Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels” (2 Thessalonians 1:4-7).
Someone was quoted saying: “The passing ‘rewards’ of evil should not tempt us to abandon good. The evil person is like the man who jumped from the 50th floor without a parachute. When he passed the 30th, someone shouted, ‘How’s it going?’ And the jumper answered, ‘So far so good.’” When evil happens and evil people prosper, it is like the jumper who is only at the 30th floor. Their end is inevitable…even if it is delayed.
