Advent Hope for Difficult People: Trusting the Farmer
This week’s sermon used the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13) and the story of Gaius from The Chosen to challenge our tendency to sort people into “good” and “bad” buckets. John invited us to trust God’s timing, focus on our own spiritual growth, and practice seeing others as God sees them—wheat that is being grown, not weeds to be uprooted.
This Week’s Sermon: Letting Go of Judgment
Key Takeaways
- We are not reliable judges of who is “good” or “bad”; only God sees the whole story.
- The kingdom of God often allows good and evil to grow together until the harvest—rushing to remove evil causes more harm than good.
- Our primary job is to grow: cultivate love, joy, peace, and the fruit God has planted in us.
- When judgment rises, use simple practices (visualization, lists, community) to reorient toward compassion and growth.
- Advent reframes waiting: we live in hopeful patience, trusting the Farmer who will one day make all things right.
Sermon Highlights: When Wheat and Weeds Grow Together
We all have a “Gaius” in our life: someone whose name pops into our head when we think of pain, offense, or ongoing conflict. Maybe they wronged you years ago. Maybe they keep making life harder. It’s tempting to mark them as “bad,” file them away, and stop loving them. That impulse—easy and secretly satisfying—was the heart of this week’s teaching.
At The Journey this Sunday (the first week of Advent), we listened to Jesus’ parable about wheat and weeds and watched how Jesus treated even the worst-seeming people with kindness. Instead of sharpening our stones, we were invited to take a different path.
The Big Idea: You’re not built to be the world’s judge. Your job is to grow.
Jesus’ parable (Matthew 13) shows that weeds—poisonous darnel—and wheat are sometimes indistinguishable until harvest. Trying to uproot “weeds” too early destroys wheat. God, the Farmer, sees the whole field; we see only a few rows. Trust him. Tend your own growth. Love without exception.
Key Scriptures
- Matthew 13:24–30 (Parable of the Wheat and Weeds) — Used to show the kingdom’s surprising patience: God allows good and evil to grow together until the harvest so that the wheat won’t be destroyed by premature judgment.
- Ephesians 6:12 — Quoted to remind us that our struggle is not against people (“flesh and blood”) but against the spiritual forces of evil; people are not the enemy.
- Reference to Jesus’ encounters (Gospel narrative) — Illustrated how Jesus treats even the oppressive and violent (a Roman centurion like “Gaius”) with compassion, offering a model for us.
1. You’re a Bad Judge — And That’s Okay to Admit
We are often terrible at judging character. Even someone as obvious as Gaius the centurion carried hidden motives, pain, and complexity. We only see slices of people’s stories, and arrogance in judgment harms both others and ourselves.
Real life tie-in: At work or in family conflict, the urge to label someone simplifies complexity—but it also cuts off opportunities for reconciliation and growth.
2. The Farmer’s Wisdom: Let Them Grow Until the Harvest
Jesus’ farmer doesn’t rush to pull the weeds because doing so risks uprooting wheat. The harvest will reveal who is what. This requires patience and trust in God’s timing—hard things in an instant-gratification culture.
“Trust the Farmer: God sees the whole field even when we can only see a few rows.”
Real life tie-in: Instead of launching social or relational “revolutions” against people we dislike, we can steward patience, pray, and trust that God knows the full story.
3. Our Job Is to Grow Fruit, Not Sort People
We are called to produce love, joy, and peace—fruit that serves others. When we focus on our own growth, we become people who attract God’s work and model kingdom living.
“You are not the world’s judge—your job is to grow, to bear love, joy, and peace.”
Real life tie-in: Join small groups, find mentors, and practice spiritual disciplines that help you grow—because transformation is communal, not solitary.
4. Practical Tools
A visualization exercise: picture yourself and those you judge as wheat growing together in God’s field, surrounded by the weeds (evil) that entangle all of you. Make a list of people you’ve judged and remember those who surprised you later. These practices shift perspective from condemnation to compassion.
Practicing This Week: Stop Playing Judge
- Visualization: When you’re tempted to judge, imagine that person and yourself as wheat plants growing together in God’s field.
- Make a “Judgment List”: Write the names you’ve put in the “bad” bucket; beside each, note one fact you don’t know about them (or one way God might be working).
- Grow intentionally: Connect with someone you admire spiritually and ask for their guidance.
- Small mercy: If safe and appropriate, reach out to one person you’ve labeled and offer a small act of kindness—a message, prayer, or listening ear.
- Practice presence in communion: Remember Jesus’ presence in the bread and cup as a sign that God is actively growing us.
Questions for Reflection
- Who is a “Gaius” in your life, and what story about them have you stopped seeking to understand?
- When have you been surprised by someone you’d earlier judged? What changed?
- Where are the weeds (patterns of evil or hurt) entangling your own roots?
- What would it look like to trust the Farmer in one specific relationship this week?
- Who can you invite into your growth—someone to pray with or learn from?
Advent reminds us we live between Christ’s first coming and the final harvest. In that between-time, God is patient, persistent, and at work in every life—even those we find hardest to love. We don’t need to be judges; we get to be growers. Trust the Farmer. And remember: God is working with you, and you don’t have to carry the sorting—only the growth.
