Thanksgiving Day – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Matthew 13:24-30 “Wheat Gathered into His Barn”
November 27, 2025 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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For the Lord our God shall come And shall take His harvest home, From His field shall in that day All offenses purge away, Give His angels charge at last In the fire the tares to cast, But the fruitful ears to store In His Garner evermore. Even so, Lord, quickly come To Thy final harvest home; Gather Thou Thy people in, Free from sorrow, free from sin, There, forever purified, In Thy Garner to abide. Come, with all Thine angels, come; Raise the glorious harvest home. Amen (ELH #461 v. 3-4).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The sermon text for today is taken from the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. We read the verses once more in Jesus’ name:
[Jesus] He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’
He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’
So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’
But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)
In Christ Jesus, who plants you and roots you into Himself so He may harvest you into His Kingdom which has no end, dear fellow redeemed:
The holiday we are here for today is a holiday of reflection. Thanksgiving takes place at the end of the harvest season. When we gather, we see all that God has given from the harvest. To get to the end, we know that this is only the end of what was hard work. The field begins bare. It needs so much work before the seed can go into the ground. It may be a wonder how we can get to this point of thanks. Jesus teaches it takes time. It takes time and the wheat doesn’t grow to perfection. There are dangers that will try and disrupt the growing process. While we may think the growing process can be stopped prematurely to try and escape the danger, the harvest waits. We may want the harvest not to be stalled for any reason, but our text reveals we are waiting so this harvest can be the very best. To our eyes, what can look like a problem, God always has a solution. The solution, this day of thanks, is your Savior through His work gathering you, the wheat into His barn.
There have been centuries of waiting for this great day to be stored up in God’s kingdom. As Jesus points out, this is what we are seeing. God’s kingly rule where He reveals He oversees us, and even as we may disagree with His rule at times, He also gives us plentiful blessings. People must realize how much they are blessed even if the blessings don’t look like much compared to someone else’s. It is important to see God’s gracious blessings and cares no matter how small they may be because as our parable teaches, the enemy will convince those close to the wheat his way of looking at God’s blessings. He wants to convince people that their blessings aren’t God’s blessings, but blessings they have earned all on their own. As we look in the world, it does seem possible to just get things for ourselves. Jesus points out how comparable His parable is to the way we think and to the real field work of His day. There is a weed in real life that looks very close to wheat, and it is very difficult to distinguish when the plants are young. To pull them, the deep roots would uproot the emerging wheat plants. To prevent spreading the weeds would need to be burned. While God does the sorting, those who want things for themselves will try to drag as many with them into this thought as they can.
Now it wasn’t always like this. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. From the beginning of the world where all things, all blessings were made good, man was to care for and cherish these blessings. The enemy sowed division. Division that is still witnessed in the world. With the division being noticeable, then the question is, how does one get rid of it? The servants have an idea and offer it to the master. “To stop this evil thinking in its tracks, we should just attempt to grab it now so it can’t falsely proclaim that anyone can make blessings for themselves.” The master though, knows this will cause many to be lost because of how quickly our brains can be convinced of something false.
The master does something He has no reason to do. The master shows great patience. Patience we should know as we are told, “don’t judge people prematurely.” This is easier said than done as the weeds are growing so close to us. It is hard for us to hear how we should treat those who are actively attempting to get us to believe that we can survive without God’s blessings. St. Paul writes, And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil (2 Timothy 2:24). Even though this is for those who serve the Lord in vocation, we can agree how hard it is to patiently endure evil. Our patience wears thin as we wait for the Lord to harvest us out of this life. Most of the time we understand what God has given us for blessings, and we aren’t upset when we see what God has given to others. So, why doesn’t God say we are ready now? Jesus says, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). Even the slightest thought of envy over what someone has or believes that “we can just get it done all by ourselves” and this is the result. Our weak flesh has caused us to be like the tare and deserve fire. The master’s patience thankfully outlasts us to where we see ourselves as wheat being stored for future use.
The people in Jesus’ day had a hard time seeing the future of the barn, even though they were much closer to it than they realized. The master was among them now, sowing His good seed. Good seed that was going to be their faith, believing in Him and His gracious work. It would need great patience to grow, even for those who were the closest to Him as they would also stumble. This good wheat would see how ripe they would become. It was not due to their patience as they had lost it long ago. The patience of God stayed true, even as the master would know what was needed of Him and His patience. He would need great perfect patience to endure the very pains of the cross. And with this great suffering that would be completed, the patience of the wheat would only be a short duration. The Great kingdom of the barn is now close at hand. As the church would look to the cross, instead of seeing followers being reaped for the fire because of abandoning the blessings from God, they received the greatest blessing of all as their master would command His angels “gather the wheat into my barn.”
This command that God gives to His angels is also heard by you. When He looks at you, He commands His reapers to “gather the wheat into my barn.” It is during this time of Thanksgiving where you can put your focus on His kingdom where you find His most gracious blessing. This is a blessing that can be overlooked, the blessing of how your God rules over you in His threefold kingdom. His Kingdom of power is just that, the way in which He cares for you and keeps you safe from all dangers. His Kingdom of glory is the barn where you will be taken too, not because you earned it, but because it is given to you as a blessing. A blessing you see in His rule of the Kingdom of grace. The Kingdom you are currently in now. This Kingdom does not abandon you when you try to claim blessings for yourself or you simply give up and lose patience. In your struggles, it can be easy to lose sight of God’s timeline. He keeps His timeline on the forefront of your mind when He points you to all the gracious blessings you have because of Him. You live in the Kingdom of grace with the most gracious gift of the master himself giving up His life on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins so that you may grow and bear fruit, bear grain for His gracious harvest day to harvest you.
And that great day will be here soon. St. Peter writes, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:8-9). God knows how easy it is to be distracted by the weeds because they are so close to you. You are wheat that will be gathered into His barn. This is the reality for all people. To have comfort in the barn, or to find ourselves being first, reaped into the eternal fire. As serious as this is, this does not mean all is lost. You are pointed to the Kingdom you now live in. The kingdom you do not deserve, but through Christ, you see His gifts every day. This is the Kingdom the world can see through your blessings you care for. Gifts and blessings that will sustain you until you receive the greatest blessing. The blessing where you remain in His kingdom forever. Where, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:43). Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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