Weeding the Spiritual Garden - 8th Sunday after Pentecost
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
July 19, 2026
We’ve reached that part of the
church year where Jesus peppers us with parables. Last week it was seeds; this week it’s weeds. But before we dig in to
today’s parable, let’s remind ourselves what parables are. A parable is an “imaginary story that
illustrates some spiritual truth.”1 They are usually short and simple in language, but often deep and
complex in meaning. One theologian says
they’re like diamonds that, in each era of God’s people, we place in our
setting, the way a diamond is set within a ring. And in each new setting, we see a new and
beautiful facet of that diamond.2 That’s why they seem timeless to us. But beware: parables aren’t mere entertainment like fables and fairy
tales. Parables, as scholar Amy-Jill
Levine observes, “remind, provoke, refine, confront, [and] disturb.”3
And so with all that in mind, let’s
consider today’s parable. It only
appears in Matthew’s Gospel, and involves a plant called “darnel” or “false
wheat.” As the name implies, darnel looks
like wheat for much of its growing life. Unlike wheat though, darnel can be toxic, so you don’t want it ground up
in your bread. But if you start weeding
too aggressively, too soon, you’ll likely destroy not only the darnel but your
wheat as well.
And so as Jesus explains, our call
is to be patient and humble. Don’t run
around God’s garden thinking you know who is darnel (the toxic false Christian)
and who is the “real” Christian. That’s
God’s work, not ours. Playing God by
judging others is just the sort of thing darnel would do. Trust the Lord to sort it out in God’s
time. Otherwise, even if you possess the
best of intentions, when you root around the spiritual gardens of others, you
will inevitably cause harm. And in your
zeal to purify someone else, you may damage not only their faith, but
your own as well.
So is that it? Do nothing and just put up with a weedy,
messy, toxic world, and trust that someday Jesus will do something about it and at long last rid us of those troublesome false Christians and, as
Jesus put it, those “children of the evil one?” Well, I don’t think that’s a charitable or healthy perspective. To go through life suspiciously judging one
another as potential darnel is a lonely and sad way to live. But merely enduring this life, believing we
are powerless to improve it or to bring about a holier, more Jesus-centered
world, is a hopeless way to live.
But there is another way. To explore it, we need to leave Jesus’s
garden for a moment and travel to my garden at my hillside home out in the
countryside. We’ll begin on the back
deck, where you’ll see some black plastic cups in which a few green leaves have
emerged. This all started in late Spring
when Linda and I were at a plant nursery. Normally we buy seedlings so we have a running start on our
gardening. But that day I was captivated
by a big wall of seed packets bearing bright colorful photos of flowers. I decided that this year I wanted to grow
daisies. So when I saw that packet of
Shasta Daisy seeds, I was sold.
As you may know, the excitement of buying seeds is always greater than the process of planting them and waiting for them
to grow. As I mentioned, all we’ve produced
so far is a few meager green leaves. We’ve
never grown daisies from seed before, so as we’ve inspected the cups this
summer, we’ve often reckoned with discouragement that we’re more likely tending
and watering stray weeds that’ve blown into the cups, and not the daisies we
painstakingly planted. Several times we’ve
been tempted to just rip everything out. But, mindful of this parable, we’ve waited, trusting that when something
definitively emerges, then it will be easy to tell what’s a weed and what’s a Shasta Daisy, with those delicate, snowy white petals and
sunny, button-like yellow center. If we
weed too soon, if we weed in ignorance, we’re going to destroy not only what is bad, but everything that’s good in those little cups of soil and
seed. That’s essentially the same story
Jesus is telling with darnel and wheat.
But now let’s go around to the front of the house where our flower beds are filled with French and English lavender
plants. I’ve planted, tended, cut, and
weeded many of these plants for nearly a decade now. I know them well. I’ve assigned each of them a number in my
gardening notebook where I record the date of each cutting and the number of lavender
bundles each plant yields. I know when
these plants are healthy and when they’re sick. I know when they could benefit from pruning, and when the best medicine
is to leave them alone. Most important
for our purposes, I know what’s lavender growth and what’s a weed that threatens to steal space and nourishment from my precious plants. And so when it comes to the lavender, I am both
confidant and relentless in my weeding, and the reward for that vigilance and
labor has been good, healthy plants.
So let’s come back to the parable in
our Gospel and this “other way to live” I mentioned a few moments ago. First, recall Jesus’s teaching: guard against
the desire to weed the spiritual gardens of others. We’ll end up doing more harm than good. Our job is to love our neighbors, not judge them. Trust that Jesus is tending and
transforming their gardens. And from our vantage point, if their spiritual grounds look like there are as many
weeds as daisies, then let’s remember that our gardens are probably in
the very same state.
And that, friends, is where we can and should do some weeding. In our gardens. Not tomorrow, next year, or
someday when we have the time. Now. Because just as I know my lavender
gardens, you know your own spiritual garden. You know precisely where the sun of our
Lord’s love is causing beautiful things to bloom in you: flowers of charity,
humility, and goodness. You also know
where the weeds are: brambles of greed, idolatry, and every other sin you can
imagine. And you know that those weeds
have the power to choke out all the other good things in your life. You want them out as much as Jesus does. But how? It seems daunting.
So I’ll close today with something concrete
and practical you can do. It’s rooted in
our Lutheran tradition, from a letter Martin Luther wrote in 1535 to his friend
Peter Beskendorf, who had asked Luther for some advice on how to pray.4 In that letter, Luther provides Peter with
several suggestions. But I’m going to
pass along just one, because it’s a sufficient, simple, and effective way to daily
weed our spiritual gardens.
Here it is: daily, ponder the Ten
Commandments, one at a time. As you do
so, ask yourself four questions. (1) What
does this mean? (2) How does God bless
me as I keep this commandment? (3) How well am I really keeping this
commandment? And then, (4) with a humble and repentant heart, say “God, will
you please help me do better?” Do this
slowly, as honestly as you can bear. It’s more than enough to kickstart your personal weeding. And if you aren’t sure what all the
commandments are or what they mean, Luther laid it all out in his
Small Catechism. If you need a copy, I’ll
have some at the door as you depart. Or remember:
there’s a Small Catechism in your ELW hymnal. It begins near the back, at page 1160.
You see friends, the way we build a
better, holier, more Jesus-centered world isn’t by tearing into other people or
their metaphorical gardens. It starts
with us. God is growing something
beautiful in each of us. But the world’s
weeds also find their way into us. We
don’t have to accept that, let alone embrace it. Through prayer and God’s grace, we can weed our spiritual gardens, for the blessing of our lives and the
blessing of our world. Thanks be
to God! Amen.
© 2026 Rev. Scott E. Schul, all rights reserved
Citations
1 The Lutheran Study Bible (© 2009 Concordia Pub. House), p. 1609.
2 Gerhard Lohfink, The Forty Parables of Jesus (©2021 Liturgical Press), pp. xi-xii).
3 Amy-Jill Levine, Short Stories by Jesus (©2015 Harper One), p. 4.
4 See Luther’s Spirituality (© 2007 Paulist Press) pp. 217-324.
Gospel
Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
24 [Jesus] put before [the crowds] another parable:
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his
field, 25 but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed
weeds among the wheat and then went away. 26 So when the plants
came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 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?’ 28 He
answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want
us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No, for in
gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 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.’ ”
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his
disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of
the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is
the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed
are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil
one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest
is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as
the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of
the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will
collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and
they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the
sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”
BACK