(The following questions are not meant to be exhaustive, but offered as a way to lift up some of the concerns of Law and Gospel preachers. For a further understanding of Law and Gospel preaching, see my brief guide to this genre, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? Like the first parable in this chapter, the way the Word functions in the parable and the way it functions in the accompanying allegory are quite different. In the parable the emphasis is on the forbearance of the Master: "Let them both grow together until the harvest." This is certainly a gospel function as we are given a full view of the scandalous grace of the Master, when we, like the servants in the parable, wish to pluck up the weeds. The Word functions as law, however, in the allegory, as the emphasis there is on judgement: "The Son of Man will send his angels... and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Even the assurance at the close, that "the righteous will shine like the sun" does not have a gospel ring to it; rather, it seems assuring only to those who can manage to live rightly.
2. How is the Word not functioning in the text? The answer to this question will, of course, be tied to how we answer the first question. If we center on the forbearance of the Master, then the Law is downplayed, even though, at the close of the parable Jesus makes it clear that the weeds will be collected and bound in bundles to be burned. If, on the other hand, we center on the judgement in the allegory, the Gospel is downplayed, indeed it is hard to find at all. A balance is needed.
3. With whom are you identifying in the text? We are the servants in the parable, who ask the Master how the weeds came to be in the field, and who, upon learning that an enemy has sowed them, ask, "Then do you want us to go and gather them?" We are people who are concerned about the "weedy people" in our churches. We are the self-righteous ones who so easily assume that we are the wheat and others are the weeds. We are the ones who somehow insist that we are capable of separating the good from the bad, and seeing which people ought to be allowed to continue in Christ's church and which ones ought not be.
4. What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text? If the call to obedience is the Word functioning to instruct us in the best ways to live in response to the Gospel, then it might be argued that this whole text is a call to obedience. We are to bear fruit, according to the first parable in this chapter. This fruit needs to be "wheaty" not "weedy".
5. Exegetical work: The word translated "weeds" in this passage has been more precisely translated as "darnel". Darnel is an ancient grain that looks very much like wheat in its early stages, and reportedly was almost impossible to distinguish from wheat until the harvest was near. (Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. IV, p. 826) This would explain why the Master was reluctant to have the slaves attempt to pull up the weeds before the harvest. David Buttrick, in his excellent guide to the parables of Jesus, speaks to the dilemma with which this text deals: "[This parable addresses] a concern of the church: How can the church be morally pure and yet live in the worldly world? If we try for purity, we lose our evangelical touch with the world. If we give ourselves to attracting the worldly, we can become morally lax and lose our souls. A perennial problem." (Speaking Parables, p. 94) Augustine has a solution to this problem, suggesting that perhaps people are not permanently either weeds or wheat: "See what we choose to be in [the Lord's] field. See which of the two we will be at harvest time... Let the one who is wheat persevere until the harvest; let those who are weeds be changed into wheat... In the Lord's field, which is the church, at times what was grain turns into weeds and at times what were weeds turn into grain; and no one knows what they will be tomorrow." (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, NT, vol. 1a, p. 277)
6. Consider the insights of the pioneers of the New Homiletic? Eugene Lowry always emphasized the need to move the listener into disequilibrium and then back to equilibrium. This text might lend itself very much to that, as a preacher lifts up the discomforting thought that, while we easily assume we are wheat, we can readily see that we are not. Similarly discomforting is the fact that we are not able to distinguish the weedy folk from the wheaty ones in our midst.
Blessings on your proclamation!
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