An Enemy Has Done This
Matthew 13:24–30
July 19, 2026
Scripture: Matthew 13:24–30
He put before them another parable:
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone
who sowed good seed in his field,
but while everybody was asleep
an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat
and then went away.
So when the plants came up and bore grain,
then the weeds appeared as well.
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?"
He answered,
"An enemy has done this."
The slaves said to him,
"Then do you want us to go and gather them?"
But he replied,
"No, for in gathering the weeds
you would uproot the wheat along with them.
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."
Sermon
When a real emergency happens, /
you don't have time to think. /
You react.
You call a doctor, a lawyer, a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker. //
Real emergencies bring their OWN energy. ///
But small emergencies. ///
Small emergencies are the ones that drain OUR energy. //
Small emergencies are the ones that get us flustered, /
get us angry, /
get us writing strongly-worded emails, /
using hand signals out the driver's window
because someone dared cut us off in the Cordova Mall parking lot last Thursday – and I know that sounds very specific. ///
You forget where you’ve parked and now everyone is judging you. /
The freezer starts leaking. /
The tire goes flat.
Small emergencies feel so… personal.
Minutes later, sometimes hours, /
I catch my breath /
and see that — / despite the evidence —
the world has not ended. ///
That's when I have this thing I like to do. ///
I quote scripture. ///
I'll raise a finger in the air — / pointer finger — /
and dramatically recite Matthew 13:28 — ///
"An enemy has done this!" ///
Try it next minor emergency. /
It'll make you smile at yourself. //
It’s from the Bible.
Plus the added benefit of shifting the blame to someone else. /
It’s great for those overblown irritations when the
Undefined, / but undeniable. /
"Collective, / unnamed — / They"
Have been at work. ///
Them. ///
Whoever that is.
Those people. ///
Them is the problem. ///
As in, /
"They" have ruined this Walmart. /
Or, /
"They" have made my TV too complicated. /
Or, /
"They" stole my credit card —
Oh wait, /
here it is in my left-side pants pocket
where I definitely did not put it. ///
Clearly, /
"An enemy has done this!" ///
Who is your enemy? /
And what have they done to you, personally, now? ///
—
Matthew 13 says, ///
…but while everybody was asleep
an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat
…And the slaves of the householder came and said to him,
"Master,
Where, did these weeds come from?"
He answered, 'An enemy has done this.'"
Jesus knew about them hooligans. ///
Them is the problem. ///
That's actually what I wanted to name this sermon. /
"Them Is the Problem." ///
But then I realized
it would be plastered all over the internet. /
People would see it and say of Trinity Church —
"I feel so sorry for them people. /
The Interim Pastor's an illiterate hillbilly."
THEY should stop him. ///
Did Jesus really say
the Kingdom of Heaven is like this? /
Is heaven having someone else to blame? /
When silly things go wrong. /
When we back over the garbage can. //
Thank the Lord we can blame
the anonymous, / all-gender-inclusive "Them." /
Is that almost heaven? /
It can sure feel that way. ///
Is the kingdom of heaven the assurance
that someone else, / anyone else, /
anyone but us —
some bad person —
is to blame? /
Snuck in while we were sleeping. /
It's not our fault. ///
It's them's fault. ///
An enemy has done this. ///
—
Are you an internet personality — ///
Do you own a major news corporation — ///
Are you running for elected office (Boyce) —
like, / governor, / school board, /
or fourth-grade class president — ///
Are you a television evangelist — ///
If you answered "yes" to any of the above, /
you know the fastest way to generate clicks, /
capture views, /
gain votes, /
or receive generous gifts from rich widows and congressmen — ///
is to get people angry. ///
Angry sells. /
Angry is cheap. /
Angry is instant. /
Angry is viral. ///
You get people angry, /
and the shark brain kicks in. ///
A nibble turns into a bite. /
A bite turns into a feeding frenzy. /
It's like how once you bite your cheek, /
you can't stop. /
The taste of blood is sweet. /
Sweet, / like righteous anger. ///
Jesus must have known this. ///
Because in his parable, /
his short story, /
his post — //
Instead of having the people tap their head and laugh, /
saying, /
"Silly me. /
I must have bought the wrong seeds at Rural King." ///
No. /
Jesus the master storyteller knew. /
If you want to capture people's attention, /
then capture their sense of what's wrong. /
Get them angry. /
Get them looking for an enemy. /
Get them looking for THEM. ///
—
THEMs are kind of an epidemic these days. /
We live on alert. /
Because we know a whole city – or whole nation of THEMS is right out there. //
Them folks from across the tracks
or beyond the border, /
or across the ocean. /
Suspicion sells. /
Paranoia profits. /
An enemy may not have done this. /
Yet. /
But they could. /
Those THEMs. ///
Even Jesus knew how it works. ///
"Master, / do you want us to plow the whole thing up?" ///
Lord, / shake the holy Etch-A-Sketch. /
Make it rain 40 days and 40 nights. /
Flood it again. ///
Even sweet Christian people
have short patience and long memories
And overactive imaginations. /
—
After the workers have come
and told the owner what happened, /
it says: ///
He answered, 'An enemy has done this.'
The slaves said to him,
"Then do you want us to go and gather them?"
But — it says — he replied,
"No, for in gathering the weeds — the THEM —
you would uproot the wheat along with them.
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."
OK. ///
Dramatic pause. ///
I know many times, /
when reading the Bible, /
people hear references to "wheat and tares," /
and "binding and burning" /
and immediately think Jesus is talking about
sending the bad guys to The Bad Place. /
See Matthew 13:36-43, / for reference. ///
But Jesus hasn't gone there yet, /
so neither should we. /
Let's not jump ahead to a five-alarm hellfire. /
Let's let THEM be the weeds for a minute /
because that's as far as the crowds would have heard. ///
—
When I read this parable, /
I don't hear divine judgment
or Delta Force damnation. /
I hear Jesus telling a story for normal people. /
Dealing with normal problems.
The point is not vengeance.
The point is perspective. ///
Perspective. ///
So, / OK, / you're right. /
Yes, / an enemy has done this. /
OK. /
But wait. /
There's more. /
Wait a minute —
get some perspective —
before you escalate this to Tier Two Customer Service. ///
It goes: ///
"So when the plants came up and bore grain,
THEN the weeds appeared as well."
Emphasis on THEN the weeds appeared. ///
I'm not a farmer. /
But I've lived in Dothan, Alabama, /
the Peanut Capital of the World. //
The National Peanut Festival —
with its country singers, /
demolition derby, /
and pig races —
happens only once a year. /
Don't laugh. /
It's really fun.
Once a year. ///
The point I'm trying to make —
is it's a long time between planting and harvesting. ///
So in the parable, /
the time between the alleged criminal seed-sowing
and the emergence of the weeds
would have taken a long time. ///
Jesus is not, then, talking about an emergency,
Or a legitimate crime. /
Just because something FEELS like a major emergency, /
doesn't mean it is. //
Don't plow up the whole field
just because you suspect a few weeds. /
Maintain your perspective. ///
The landowner tells his workers: ///
"Let both of them grow together until the harvest,
and at harvest time I will tell the reapers,
Collect the weeds first…"
Take a breath. /
See how bad it really is. /
That's the first point of perspective. ///
But then, / a second point of perspective. /
Look what the owner says: ///
"At harvest time, I will tell the reapers."
Wait a minute — /
who's he gonna call? /
Not you planter-people. ///
"At harvest time," / he says, /
"I will tell the reapers." /
The reapers. ///
He's saying: /
You guys are planters. /
And thank you very much for your work. /
You've done your job. /
Now we wait. ///
And then, /
after the waiting, /
and ONLY after the waiting, /
it's time to call in the reapers. /
You're the planters, /
they're the reapers. /
Reapers are a whole different department. ///
Second point of perspective: /
Do your job. /
Let the reapers do theirs. /
It's not just about you. /
Small emergencies are more about loss of control. /
Not that we had control in the first place. /
But we like to think we do. /
Especially when it comes to God. /
Especially when it comes to growth. ///
We like to think we're in control of our own growth. /
That we get to pick and choose
how and when we're going to grow. /
And yes, / we participate in our own growth. /
But we're not the ones in charge. /
We're not the Masters of the Universe. /
We're not the soil of sainthood. /
That would be God. ///
God owns the field. /
We're the seasonal workers. /
Sometimes we're God's planters. /
Sometimes we're God's reapers. /
Sometimes we're simply the beneficiaries
of someone else's labor. /
Thank God for our blessings and our good fortune. ///
But — ///
sometimes, / truth be told — ///
sometimes, /
we're the THEM. /
Sometimes, /
we're our OWN enemy, / our OWN saboteur. /
Sometimes we vandalize our OWN fields. /
Declaring emergencies. /
Pitching fits. /
Blaming the enemies
Who just happen to be watching from the mirror. ///
When what we really need is time, /
and a season of growth, /
and the gift of perspective —
the kind of wisdom —
that can only come
from the kingdom of God
and all its rich, / bountiful soil. ///
—
"An enemy has done this!" ///
Maybe so. /
Probably so. /
Possibly so. /
It could be THEM. ///
But if you’re not even sure who THEM is.
Who, really IS the enemy? ///
—
The parable ends with Jesus having the owner say, ///
"Collect the weeds first
and bind them in bundles to be burned,
but gather the wheat into my barn."
We hear "burn" from the Bible
and we think, /
flames, / punishment, / hell. //
But burning weeds doesn't punish them. /
It just gets them out of the way. /
Provides mulch. /
Clears the ground so the work can move on. ///
With perspective,
Deep breaths, and a little time,
most weeds blow away. /
We can walk around being angry all the time.
Or we can let the silly stuff go. /
So we can hold onto the good stuff. /
And fill our barns, /
our days, /
our hearts, /
with a harvest for God. ///
Let's pray.
