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The Evil and the GoodPreached at St. Barnabas Church, Bellville, TX Twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity, 2008 by The Rev. Stephen E. Stults
Matthew 13:27
So the servants of the householder came and said
to him, Our Gospel for the day brings forth one of the most perplexing and puzzling problems ever to confront the thinkers of this world: namely, why is there evil in the world and why does God allow evil to exist along with good in His Creation? Of course, this is a problem that has stumped philosophers for centuries, especially those who tend to see the world through a man-centered lens. We Christians, on the other hand, who have the mind of Christ, ought to be able to glean some sense from this passage and gain a least a partial understanding of the nature of evil in the world. Before we briefly examine the passage for its truth, let us keep in mind the importance of the 13th chapter of Matthew. This chapter is where Christ tells several key parables, known as the “Kingdom Parables.” These include the parable of the Sower, of the wheat and tares, of the leaven, of the pearl of great price, of the treasure hidden in the field, and of the great net cast into the sea. All of these parables seek to illustrate some truth about the Kingdom of God For example, the Parable of the Sower is incredibly important. It is like the “Rosetta Stone” was to the understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics. You’ll recall that the Rosetta Stone was the key to unlocking the meaning of ancient inscriptions found in the various tombs and obelisks. As an aside, what you may not know is that the finder of the stone did not know how to use it until he had a dream one night. In his dream he saw the Rosetta Stone with some writings on it. He got up and wrote down what he had seen. The next day, he combined what he had dreamed with what was on the stone. It seems that a key phrase or hieroglyph had been defaced, making it unintelligible. However, once combined, it made sense and served as a “decoder” to other hieroglyphics. In like fashion, the Parable of the Sower acts in the same way to understanding the other parables in the 13th chapter of Matthew. What is amazing about this chapter is that Christ not only gives us the parables but explains two key parables to his disciples. In this particular passage, Matthew makes a point of telling us that Christ did not teach any thing that day except in the form of parables, because, (as Matthew quotes Isaiah): Mat 13:14: “And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” Yet, Christ then turns to the disciples and says in Mat 13:16 “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” What? Is Christ telling us that not all men will be able to hear the Word of God? Is our “inclusive” God (to use modern language) saying that some will hear and not “get” the message? After all, doesn’t our merciful God want all to be saved? For example, in (Mat 18:14) “ Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” This is a favorite verse of those who believe in universal salvation; but it is, of course, quoted out of context. Yes, God does want all to be saved in His infinite mercy, but only if they repent and believe the Gospel. A better take on this concept comes from the third chapter of 2nd Peter, verse 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. “ Thus, what Christ is telling us is that the Word of God is meant for the people of God, the Church. That is, only in the context of a “faith community” can real sense and value be made of the Word of God, because only the Church, being imbued with faith, can rightly interpret the Scriptures. As such, the Church is the keeper and guardian of Holy Writ and helps guard against private interpretations of Scripture, which are a great danger. Of course, the Church is not a closed society in a Gnostic sort of way, but is open to all those who are called into Her. That is, through common grace, God calls all men into the Church, but of course, not all men respond. It’s a sad fact that not all men are ordained to salvation. The answer to that lies only in the mind of God. We who have responded to God’s gracious call ought to be eternally grateful that He saw fit to call us into fellowship with Him. Amen to that, indeed. According to Cornelius Van Til, a noted Reformed pastor, theologian, and author, there really is a great duality in creation and among mankind. It breaks down like this; there are two kinds of men: those who acknowledge and submit themselves to the loving, yet complete authority of God as Creator and Arbiter of all things, and those who see themselves, mankind, as the ultimate authority. One man, the Christian, sees God as Autonomous and himself as a creature under that autonomy. The other man sees himself as autonomous. To this unredeemed person, Man is, to borrow a phrase from the Renaissance, “the measure of all things.” This is exactly why we have concepts like macro-evolution, that is, the origin of man from apes. If man can prove to himself that he evolved from an impersonal Universe and was not made by a Creator, he can basically be answerable to nobody but himself. He is thus non-accountable to anyone but himself and the State. The non-believer says in effect, “None of that God-Creator-Intelligent Design stuff for me, I’m a product of the chance combination of millions of atoms that happened to combine in one time and one place from an impersonal force called Nature. I’m the product of a cross-species mutation that has never been scientifically proven, but has only been hypothesized.” You see, a law of nature is something that is almost certainly true. A theory is something that could be true. A hypothesis is something that might be true. The problem with evolutionists is that they try to prove macro-evolution, the change from one species into another, by using micro-evolution examples. Micro-evolution involves the intra-breed changes that can be accomplished through selective breeding and various responses to climate. Species do change internally over time, but not as a change from one species to another. Thus, macro-evolution is, at best, a hypothesis. It has never been proved, only hypothesized. I hope that you get my point in regards to the supposed autonomy of man. It’s important to keep that in mind as we look at this parable of the wheat and tares. Recall in the story, that “a man” sowed good seed in his field, but “while men slept” his enemy came and sowed false wheat in the field. The KJV calls this false wheat “tares”, while the MKJV calls it “darnel”. Darnel is a grass that looks very much like wheat while it is growing alongside it, but is “easily distinguishable” from wheat when it is harvest time. Darnel is also poisonous, being known to cause the nasty symptoms of drunkenness such as loss of balance, dizziness and vomiting, when it is made or mixed into bread. Note that the workers ask the householder if he “planted good seed.” As Jesus explains the parable to his disciples later in the chapter, the “man” or “householder” is actually God the Son, who created the world through the power of the Holy Spirit, in blessed union with God the Father in the Holy Trinity. Thus, the seed was good, just as God pronounced His Creation “good” at the end of the sixth day. However, note that the enemy, who is Satan, came “while men slept” and sowed the darnel. Matthew Henry tells us this is an important point, because evil happens when men sleep, or let down their guard. The old adage about freedom goes, “For evil to triumph, it is only necessary for good men to do nothing.” How true. However, it is important to see how this highlights the nature of evil. It is usually done in the dark, away from the light of God and the notice of men. Of course, we Christians know that evil entered the world in the Garden by subtlety and by the appeal to the pride and vanity of man. Recall how Satan used his oldest weapon, lies, first and then the hook, the appeal for man to be as God when he said in Gen 3:4-5: “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” In the Medieval church, children were taught, “In Adam’s fall, fell we all.” Thus, we have evil in the world, because of the fall of our first parents. Although we as Christians can accept this, it does not satisfactorily answer the question why a loving God allows Evil to co-exist with Good in the world. After all, if you’ve ever had a “discussion” with an atheist, an agnostic or even a plain old pagan, you know that this is about the very first question they pull out of their debating bag. We Christians can answer this in at least three ways. None of these, however, will be acceptable to the non-believer simply because his unredeemed mind is not ready to handle it. Always remember, as Van Til tells us, believers and non-believers think differently. To be drawn into a discussion using their frame of reference is always a mistake. However, we must as St. Peter tells us in (1Pe 3:15) “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” Here, then, are the reasons a Christian can offer: Reason #1: God allows evil to coexist with good simply because of the fact that all of us are a mixture of good and evil, just like the wheat field in the parable. Thus, to root out the evil “all at once” would do incalculable damage to the Creation. The problem is that the darnel looks virtually identical to the wheat until harvest, just as Martin Luther told us that there are many hypocrites, deceivers and outright sinners in the Church. As in the parable, the householder tells the workers: in (Mat 13:29) “But he said, No, lest while you gather up the darnel you also root up the wheat with them.” We in the Church are undergoing a process of sanctification through Christ, thus we are all “works in progress.” Although we hope and pray to make significant spiritual and moral improvement in this world, we will not be truly perfected until the Resurrection. Thus, taking out all evil would involve another flood, as in the days of Noah. This is something God has promised never to do again. At the end of time, however, the spiritual harvest will separate the wheat from the tares, once and for all. Reason #2: God allows evil to coexist with good out of his ultimate mercy. This may sound strange, that God would let evil exist, but consider that God desires that non-believers may hear His gracious call and repent. Have you ever wondered why it seems that the most evil, despotic leaders live for so long? Could it not be that God is giving them every conceivable chance to repent and be saved? The alternative, as we Christians know, is eternal separation from God in Hell. This is not what God wants for mankind. Reason #3: This is perhaps the toughest reason and also the most unsatisfying, even to us Christians. The reason that God allows evil to coexist with good is that He wills it to be so. It is His Divine Will, as He directs all things in heaven and earth. We, as creatures under His authority, must reject the impulse of the so-called autonomous man and say, “Why God, why?” As St. Paul tells us in Romans 9:20:”No, but, O man, who are you who replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it, “Why have you made me this way?” Indeed, we shall not. We will not reply against God. However, will we still be troubled by the existence of evil in the world? Of course we will. Can we truly solve the problem of evil on earth? No, we cannot. We must accept that this is truly a mystery, known only to the unsearchable wisdom of the Almighty. However, there is one thing that we can do. Those of us who are redeemed in Christ can look forward to that grand and glorious harvest, when the world is made right and all traces of evil are expunged from the goodness of Creation. We know that our eternal home is with our loving Father and the blessed Trinity, enveloped in goodness, beauty and bliss for ever, safe from the taint and temptations of evil. This is our hope and this is the answer to all of our questions. Mat 13:30: “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” [1] Jamieson Faussett Brown, “Commentary on 1st John “ www.ewordtoday.com/comments/1john/jfb/1johnintro.htm
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