Evil ls Not that Bad

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 (click on pick to listen to it)

24 Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25 But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. 26 When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.
27 “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’
28 “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed.
“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.
29 “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. 30 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 to put the wheat in the barn.’”
36 Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.”
37 Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. 39 The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.
40 “Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

Can you envision a world without evil? If you can, we would not be in

it. Why is their evil in the world? Why didn’t God not simply make us so that we could not be sinful? This is the question of free will. Without free will we would simply be God’s puppets . Which means we could not truly love God. God desires a relationship with us – one that involves a choice. Because of that he allowed evil to exist. 

I John 5:19 reminds us, “We know that we are children of God and that the world is under control of the evil one.”

The Evil One has existed on this earth since Adam and Eve. When Jesus was born, soldiers were sent to kill all baby boys under the age of two in Bethlehem. The folks in Bethlehem witness the evil acts of an evil king. At the same time,  Joseph had been warned in a dream to flee. Joseph (OT) experienced the evil of man several times. The Evil One was allows to try to destroy Job’s faith. Almost every King during the times of which the scriptures were written was evil. They oppressed people and made them slaves.

In the 20th and 21st century we have witnessed all of kinds of evil:

• Thousands of Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
• ISIS is destroying human life.
• We have the memory of Columbine, Sandy Hook, and various university shootings.
• We have witnessed Charles Manson use mind control to manipulate his followers to kill others.
• We have witnessed cannibalism with Jefferey Dahlmer.
• We have witnessed Osama Bin Laden’s men crash into the towers and kill thousands of people.
• The U.S. dropped atomic bombs twice in retaliation of Japan bombing Pearl Harbor.

God is never the author of evil but He does allow it to happen. We like to blame God for the evil things happen. We also wonder why God doesn’t do anything about it. But even with his own son he didn’t stop it! He let evil men beat, mock, and destroy his son. God didn’t and still doesn’t stop evil from happening. In the midst of them destroying his son,  He was showing them grace. Even while He was on earth, Jesus didn’t even stop the evil in this world while he was here. His mission was not to eliminate the evil. His mission was to convince the world that His Father still, despite the evil, loved the world.  He let evil things happened to him to convince the world that God’s grace was there for  those who are evil and as well those who are good. He lets evil things happen  convince us that his grace is there for everyone who receive it and apply it to their life. God’s grace will not eliminate evil – but it has  the power to change someone’s life. Ann Spangler says, “Grace looks at every individual with respect and with love and the realization that they have the ability to know God, that there is something marvelous about the fact that they’re a human being with the ability to make choices and think.” Everyone has the ability to know God!

In a world that seems to be engulfed in evil, we sometimes forget in the midst of all this evil, there is wheat also growing in the field.  If you are a Christ follower, we are to look at every individual with respect, love, understanding knowing they have the ability to know God. It doesn’t mean they will accept God into their life but an act of grace, mercy,  compassion allows the Holy Spirit to penetrate the hardness of their heart. God wants everyone to experience His grace because he doesn’t want to destroy anyone. 

2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

God does not want anyone to be destroyed but He will destroy evil.

If God’s not going to eliminate evil, it’s certainly not our job to destroy evil or try to eliminate it.

What’s our job?

Our job is to let people know that God loves them. You can only do that by showing grace. Like the Indonesian village whose church and village was burned down by ISIS. In addition, ISIS killed hundreds of Christ followers. So what did they do? They took an offering of $5000 and gave it ISIS to help repair their mosque. (Voice of the Martyr). They didn’t retaliate. They showed grace. The Holy Spirit penetrated the hardness of their heart and some of them repented! God doesn’t want to destroy the people of ISIS he would rather they repent. But according to this parable, He will eventually destroy evil.

Our job is to be the fragrance of Christ.

2 Cor 2:15a – Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.

In the midst of injustice, in the midst of evil, in the midst of conflict, in the midst of unfairness, we are to be the fragrance of Christ. Where there is hurt, we are to be the fragrance of hope. Where there is injustice, we are to be the fragrance of peace. Where there is conflict, we are to be the fragrance of self-control. Where there is unfairness, we are be the fragrance of patience.

We are to be the perfume in an otherwise smelly situation.

Our job is to be the dispensers of grace. (credit to Philip Yancey for this phrase).

Does this mean we allow injustice to take place?  Does this mean we can’t oppose positions that are unbiblical? Does this mean we just allow evil to happen to others and let the “weeds” rule the world? Absolutely not!

Looked at Daniel did – he loyally served a corrupt empire. He did not compromise what he believed. He did not give up his Christian values to meet the secular expectations. He faithfully served a number of good and bad king and never stopped praying.

Look at what Esther did – she entered into a union with a non-God follower and through her godly influence she saved God’s people.

There was Obadiah, Jonah, Paul, Elijah, and anybody else you can read about in the Scriptures. They all opposed injustices, unfairness, and evil with grace and truth. Despite the evil they walked through, grace allowed them to speak truth and love to the people at the same time.

Grace is not grace unless there is truth involved. If there wasn’t a right and wrong we wouldn’t need grace. If there wasn’t good and evil we wouldn’t need grace. If there wasn’t justice and injustice we wouldn’t need grace. If there wasn’t fairness and unfairness we wouldn’t need grace. There would no reason for grace if there wasn’t evil in the world.  We wouldn’t have needed Jesus to die on the cross, need churches, or Christ followers.

Yes, evil destroys other human beings. Yes, evil creates unfairness. Yes, evil creates injustices. Yes, evil creates horrible consequences. According to this parable, God sees evil as an opportunity to demonstrate grace by being the salt and light of the earth. Grace shines brighter in the midst of darkness. Grace shines brighter when someone wrongs you and you respond with love, mercy, and compassion. The truth becomes powerful when grace is director. God sees evil as an opportunity for change to occur. Otherwise, he would pull the weeds. But according to this parable he is not going to pull the weeds.

Things sometime have to get darker before truth is heard. You can tell your kids not to touch the stove over and over again. The truth is you will get hurt. but there are some who need to touch the stove in order for the truth to be understood. You can warn others of the consequences of having sex before marriage, or how abusing alcohol, drugs, tv, internet or food or too much of anything can destroy your life. To be honest, in the darker moments of my life is when I heard Jesus the loudest. Why? Because I was desperate for answers. I was desperate for peace in my life. I was desperate for something to happen. It would be nice if Jesus would just answer our prayer and not let our kids nor us experience evil or dark times. But then, we would have no reason to pray and be with God.

The last four verses reminds us that evil doesn’t win!

40 “Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

Until that happens. Until Jesus returns. We, Christ followers, are to stay in the weeds. We are to show grace to those who don’t earn it. We are to speak truth when people don’t want to hear it. We are to be compassionate when people need it. We are to show mercy when people don’t deserve it.

God needs you and I to stay in the weeds. He needs you and I to face the evils in this world. He needs you and I to pray against the evil forces of this world.  He needs you and I to speak truth with grace.

God doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed.

He wants everyone to repent!

Will you do it?