A, Post Pentecost 8 Proper 11 - Romans 8:22-27, Psalm 119:57-64 The Battle of the Heart: Our Weedy Addiction

Today we hear Jesus speak another parable about sowing seed.  Last week the seed was sown in four places: on a path, on rocky ground, amongst thorns, and in good soil.  Jesus is the Good Seed sown in Good Soil!  

Mysteriously, He is not only the Word or the Seed; He was also made Flesh, the Soil. The Son of God was sown into the flesh of humanity, the dirt—or Adamah—of Adam. Jesus is the Son of God, the Word made flesh, and the Seed sown in soil to be the Son of Man. Jesus is also the Good Soil who removes the hardness of humanity’s paths, the rockiness that causes us to stumble, and the thorniness that gives rise to our doubts and desires.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.” (Matthew 13:24–26 ESV)

In the parable the man’s servants want to pull the weeds from the crop but the owner stops them from doing so.

Last week we heard Jesus explain the parable to his disciples and He does the same again here with this parable.  Jesus works to till the hearts of His hearers with His Word to make good seed of them as He does us now.

Like the disciples in Jesus’ day, we are in a battle—a battle of the heart. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to continue that battle after His ascension. We now have One who battles for us within the earthly temple of our human body, and One in heaven who intercedes for us before our Heavenly Father.

This battle is one in which the devil, the world, and our sinful self allow all sorts of weeds to grow amongst the crop of good seed sown within us. Left unattended, this weediness will see us thrown into the fires of hell. Therefore, the battle continues within each of us individually, and it also occurs corporately in the church as a whole, making us sons of righteousness through God the Son, who fulfilled all righteousness.

It might surprise us that God allows weediness to continue within us and within the church, just as He allowed Paul’s thorn in the flesh. He does not pull the weeds now because the good crop, grown from the good seed, might also be uprooted in its immaturity. Any gardener knows how hard it is to tell what is a weed and what is not. Even when the weeds can be identified, pulling them out from amongst the crop can easily bring the good plants out too.

Similarly, God does not pull the weeds from within us or from within His church. If He commanded the weeds to be pulled now, we, in our spiritual immaturity and with weeds still growing within us, might find ourselves pulled from the Kingdom of God. Instead, God allows the struggle and battle to continue within us and within His church so that the Holy Spirit might bring us out of ourselves and into the glorious forgiveness given by God’s grace at the cross through the repentance He works in each of us and in His church.

As this occurs, we groan—but not only us; the whole creation groans. Saint Paul says this in Romans chapter eight, the Holy Spirit chapter of Romans. Here, Paul reports on the victory of the Holy Spirit over the desires of our fleshy dirtiness.

In our patient suffering he says, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”  (Romans 8:22–27 ESV)

Just as the disciples struggled and Jesus battled the evil within each of them, overcoming their deeds, understanding, and feelings, He continues that battle within us and within His church. Having sent the Holy Spirit, He wrestles the human spirit of our Old Adam into daily repentance by daily drowning our sinful nature in our Holy Baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Jesus, as the New Adam, restores the flesh of the Old Adam. He rips up the hardened paths of our works, removes the rocks that trip up true understanding of God, and revokes the feelings and desires that take the place of true faith and trust in Him.

When we deeply ponder our deeds, our understanding, and our feelings in the light of God’s Word, our weedy groan comes to the fore. This is especially true in the case of the Psalm we heard and spoke responsively today, Psalm 119:57–64.

Seriously pondering ourselves against what this Psalm says is a good example of the groaning Paul describes. As the weeds within us are exposed by the Psalm’s own words, we hear what its verses say you and I do—or, perhaps more honestly, what we always should do but rarely ever do.

When we see Jesus as the speaker of Psalm 119, we can all breathe a sigh of eternal relief knowing that it’s not about what we do but that God’s own Son has done it for us and the Holy Spirit now calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes us holy in what Jesus has done.

It’s as if Jesus replaces our addictions of the flesh with His addiction to follow our Heavenly Father in the weakness of our human flesh! 

And in His addiction to please the Father, He has sent the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness or addiction, to weed out the addictive weeds and throw them into the fiery furnace through repentance.  So, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father, right now!  Yes!  Right now!  Despite the groaning, caused by our addiction to work our way into God’s good books, despite our addiction to hang onto human understanding that trips us up, and despite our addictions to our desires and feelings that feed on the worries and riches of this world!

Jesus understands your weedy addiction!  In your flesh he remains addicted to the ways, the truth, and the life of God the Father.

Psalm 119 is a one hundred and seventy-six verse Psalm glorifying God’s Word.  Jesus bears the flesh that fulfilled this Psalm and all of God’s Word. 

The Lord is Jesus’ portion; through Jesus’ promise we are kept in God’s Word!  (Ps 119:57)

Jesus entreated God’s favour with all of His heart, so God is gracious to you according to His promise.  (Ps 119:58)

When Jesus thought of His way to the cross, death, and descent into hell, He turned and remained faithful to God’s testimonies. (Ps 119:59)

Jesus hastened and did not delay in keeping God’s commandments for you and me! (Ps 119:60)

When Jesus was ensnared by the cords and weeds of worldly wickedness, He did not forget God’s Laws. (Ps 119:61)

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, in God’s creation, Jesus upheld God’s righteous rule and was the first to be raised into the new week without the weeds of our addiction, sin and death!  (Ps 119:62)

Jesus is the companion of those who hang their weedy addictions on His cross and allow the Holy Spirit to produce the petitions and precepts of our Father, dispelling the darkness of our hearts and the world. (Ps 119:63)

Because Jesus hung on the cross, O Lord, the earth is full of Your steadfast love, therefore teach and till us with Your Word and keep us holy in it. (Ps 119:64)

Send us your Holy Spirit! Amen.  

Dear Heavenly Father, as we groan inwardly because of our weedy hearts, send Your Holy Spirit to defeat all our deadly addictions. Place in us the enduring devotion that Jesus had towards Your will and work, our God and Father. Amen.

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Sermon Summary and Reflection

Today we’re led to reflect on Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds, showing that the battle of faith takes place within the human heart and within the church. Jesus, the Good Seed and the Good Soil, enters the flesh of humanity to overcome the hardness, stumbling, and thorniness caused by sin. Rather than immediately tearing out the weeds, God patiently allows the struggle to continue so that the good crop is not uprooted in its immaturity. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ continues to work repentance, forgiveness, and growth in His people.

The sermon connects this struggle with Saint Paul’s words in Romans 8, where both creation and believers groan as they wait for redemption. This groaning is not hopeless despair but the sound of faith longing for fulfilment. In weakness, the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints and brings them again and again to the cross of Christ. Jesus, the New Adam, restores what the Old Adam corrupted and gives His people true faith, trust, and hope in God’s promises.

The reflection from Psalm 119 deepens this comfort by inviting us to hear Jesus as the faithful speaker of the Psalm. What we fail to do perfectly, Christ has fulfilled for us. He kept God’s Word, sought the Father’s favour, remained faithful through suffering, and bore our sin on the cross. Therefore, Christian repentance is not a work by which we make ourselves acceptable to God; it is the Spirit’s work of exposing our weeds and returning us to the forgiveness already won by Jesus.

In reflection you’re called to consider where and how the weeds still grow in your heart: in your works, your understanding, your desires, and your feelings.  You’re also called to trust God’s patience. The Lord does not abandon His crop; He tends it. He sends the Holy Spirit to battle within you, drown the Old Adam through daily repentance, and keep you holy in Christ. Even while you groan, you do so as a child who belong to the Father’s kingdom and who will shine like the sun through the righteousness of His Son.  You are a son of God’s kingdom through Jesus’ Sonship!