Blaming God

The presence of evil is frightening and evildoers trouble us, yet there is no end to our wars, corruption, disease, shooting massacres, sex trafficking, domestic violence, and so forth.

By Guest Writer | Dennis Gladden

We blame God for a lot He is not to blame for.

The presence of evil is frightening, and evildoers trouble us, yet there is no end to our wars, corruption, disease, shooting massacres, sex trafficking, domestic violence, and so forth. Which prompts us to ask, "Why doesn't God stop all this?"

It is a logical question. If the Almighty is all-powerful and The Good Shepherd is sovereign, why doesn't He exert His power and goodness and right the wrong?

Perplexing as it is, we cannot blame God for the weeds.

Jesus tells us as much in two parables. One is rooted in agriculture, about wheat and tares, the other concerns a fearful investor who makes no profit on the funds entrusted to him (Matthew 25:24-27).

 “Lord," said the investor when he was called into account. "I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours."

Jesus didn’t refute his reasoning, but He did denounce the conclusion. “You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers.”

The parable affirms God’s sovereignty: “I reap where I have not sown.” It also reveals that not everything is His doing—there is seed He did not sow. Jesus applied this principle to the Pharisees: “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone.” (Matthew 15:13-14).

The Pharisees professed to be God’s elite, but Jesus disavowed them. They were someone’s planting, but not God’s. In time, He will uproot them but for now, don’t blame God for the weeds.

We return to the parable of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.

The parable breaks into three scenes or seasons, and each has important truths about:

• Spring, the season for starting out

• Summer, the season for discovery

• Fall, the season for separating

Spring: The season for starting out

The goodness of the sower (13:27). The main character is a homeowner. Some translations render the Greek as the good man of the house. He is a family man. Jesus leaves no doubt who this is: The Son of Man. The sower is Jesus.

Good seed (13:24). Jesus is specific: the man plants wheat and it is quality seed—it is good in that it will produce what the landowner wants, a crop. The seeds are people: they are children of God, sons of the Son of Man.

Good soil (13:26). "The grain sprouted and produced a crop." Previously, in the parable of the sower, only the good ground yielded a crop. The sower in this parable went to great lengths to have ground well-prepared to receive his good seed. The harvest testifies to soil made good by the work of the sower.

This parable is full of good intentions. Here is a householder who has prepared his land, sows wheat, and anticipates a harvest that will feed his family. It’s all good.

But not everything in the field is proper.

The evil of the enemy (13:25). A new character emerges who, for some reason, hates the landowner and goes, not after him, but after his crop. He doesn't trample the field or plow it under but sows his own seed to overcrowd it. Jesus identifies this enemy: the devil.

The imitation seed (13:26). The tares, or darnel, refer to a plant that is "wheat’s evil twin” because It looks like wheat and grows only in cultivated fields. Darnel is evil because in large amounts its seeds are poisonous and in small doses, they intoxicate and cause hallucinations.

The same field (13:26). The enemy doesn’t have his own field; he corrupts the landowner’s good land. The field that is favorable for the wheat will benefit the tares, too.

The devil’s intentions are rooted in hatred. His grain is not for food but doles pleasure in small amounts and death in large doses. The Son of Man wants to feed the family; His enemy intends to harm and destroy it.

The season for sowing teaches us:

• The field belongs to God. Satan sows in the same field, but it is God’s. The hymn has it right:

This is my Father’s world:

Oh, let me ne’er forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong,

God is the ruler yet.

• Good and evil are not in an eternal duel. Evil has not, and will not, coexist with goodness forever. When God finished creating, He said, "It is good. It is very good." God sowed, and then the enemy came. The good work of God precedes the sowing of evil. Evil perverts the good. Evil is a parasite.

• Don't blame God for the weeds. He did not plant the tares, but He is sovereign and the Lord of the harvest. He will reap what He didn’t sow and judge justly. God will vindicate.

Summer: The season of discovery

The enemy sowed while men slept (13:25). The devil’s work is not immediately apparent, which makes summer a season of discovery. Growth reveals there are plants in the field besides the wheat, imitators who don’t belong. The longer they grow, the clearer the difference.

The servants ask what we all ask when we see evil at work. "Where did this come from?"

They respond as we do. "Get rid of it. Pull up the weeds."

The owner has a different strategy, "Let both grow together."

He cares about the wheat while the servants are concerned about the weeds.  He agrees they must be separated, but not now. Pulling the weeds may also uproot the wheat.

This is the season

• for growing,

• for discovery,

• for distinguishing the weeds from the wheat, the good from the evil.

It is the same instruction Jesus gave about the Pharisees, "Let them be."

Experience, however, tells us the weeds will take over if we don't weed. The parable of the sower, where thorns spring up and choke the good seed, confirms this.

So we must ask: What is happening while the owner lets the tares and wheat grow together? In the words of the prophet Jeremiah, "Why does the way of the wicked prosper?" (Jeremiah 12:1).

Let's release and follow the ways of God.

• The parable begins with goodness: A good landowner sows good seed in good soil with good intentions. He wants a harvest that will feed his family. Jesus identifies Himself as the sower—He is the Goodness of God in its fullness. The creation in the beginning was like its Creator: good.

• One who hates this goodness emerges, and Jesus tells us how His Father responds.

o   He makes the sun shine on the evil and the good.

o   He sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

o   He commands, "Do good to those who hate you. Love your enemies." God practices what He preaches, because

"God so loved the world (the very field where the enemy sowed tares) that He sent His Son, that whoever believes should not perish, but have everlasting life."

• The Apostle Paul considers these things and gives us this teaching.

• "The goodness of God leads you to repentance" (Romans 2:4). In other words, follow God's goodness to its fullness in Jesus, who leads you out of where you are and what you are into a new creation in Christ.

• This is an amazing revelation. Not only is summer the season for growing and exposing weeds, but it is also the season when weeds can become wheat.

Peter put it this way: “You once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy,” (1 Peter 2:10).

• If this goodness of God does not affect you—if you remain a child of the enemy and do not become a child of God’s kingdom—"You are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (Romans 2:5).

This brings us to the harvest.

Fall: The season to separate

"Let both grow together until the harvest” (Matthew 13:30). The tares and wheat are together for a while, but not forever. Over the summer they grow, allowing each to appear for what it is. Harvest will be the time to separate them, the time to remain or be removed. Solomon’s wisdom applies: “To everything there is a season … A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted” (Ecclesiastes 3:2).

What is removed

• "all things" that offend and

• Those who practice lawlessness.

What remains

• The righteous

This season has two lessons.

The owner’s eye is on the harvest. He cares for the well-being of His children. He wants the offenders outed and ousted, but His attention is on the wheat and He exerts His power to preserve His people. Knowing when to separate the two requires patience and acquaintance with the ways of a crop. “The ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his paths” (Proverbs 5:21).

God's mercy manifests as protection of the offenders and the preservation of His offspring until the harvest makes neither action necessary.

The work of the harvest is already in progress.

The parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-9) includes a field where thorns spring up and choke the good seed. The weeds prevail. By contrast, the good seed in this second parable prevails. The wheat’s “evil twin” imitates, but the wheat remains true to character. It neither conforms nor is choked.

This steadfastness brings to mind another teaching of Jesus.

• If your right eye offends, cast it out.

• If your right hand offends, cast it from you.

The word that relates this teaching to the tares is this: offends. The harvest in the end will remove everything that offends. Meanwhile, followers of Jesus set themselves to recognizing and removing their personal offenses.

In both instances, the Greek for offends is skandalon, from which we get the English scandal. As a noun, skandalon is a snare or trap. It is also a verb, describing the one who lays the trap.

The trapper is akin to those who practice lawlessness, meaning those who do evil and cause others to do wrong. Jesus said the harvest will remove all things scandalous.

The division in the Catholic Church about President Biden receiving communion helps us understand the concept. Many have called on the Catholic leadership to withhold communion from the president because of his pro-abortion policies.

"Public figures who identify as “Catholic” give scandal to the faithful when receiving Communion by creating the impression that the moral laws of the Church are optional," says Charles J. Chaput, the archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia.

The Catholic catechism defines scandal as “an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. ... Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged."

Jesus says the tares represent the lawless and offensive—the scandalous who look good but do evil and cause others to do wrong. These appear in both the ungodly whom God will cast out in the harvest, and the ungodliness in our hearts that Jesus says we rid ourselves of now.

Be encouraged and withhold the blame

The outrage in our culture affirms we are offended by corruption, but the Bible reminds us, “The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

It is not wrong for injustice, poverty and abuse to rile and compel us to do good, as Paul insisted throughout his letters, but he adds, "Be angry, and do not sin" (Ephesians 4:26).

We sin when, in our wrath, we try to pry justice out of God’s hands into our own. “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay” (Romans 12:19).

Be encouraged and comforted to know the harvest is coming and the Lord of the harvest—the Judge of all the earth—will do what is right.

In the meantime, don’t blame God for the weeds.