Have you ever wondered, “What is heaven like?” Some people have written books about near-death experiences and the visions that they have experienced. I am not going to encourage or refute them. Some people find these books to be helpful – and if they are in keeping with Jesus’s commandments to love God and love the neighbor, then God may be using their words to encourage others.
But if you are really curious about what heaven is like – read the parables. Jesus tells many parables about what the kingdom of God is like. A parable is defined as “a teaching aid cast alongside the truth being taught” and they are meant to stick in your head, to rumble around in your soul, to bug you in your dreams – and not be easily explained or dismissed.
In the parable of the wheat and the weeds, Jesus tells us that God is like a farmer who sows good seed. But the “enemy” sows weeds into that same field. The field hands want to weed the field but the farmer refuses to pull up the weeds around his wheat plants for fear of damaging the tender wheat.
What is the truth sown alongside this story? One of the things that God is like the compassionate farming, caring for the vulnerable and not wanting to risk uprooting even one stalk of wheat or one of God’s beloved children. And, there is evil in the world now – but that evil will not endure. God’s righteousness will prevail.
Jesus goes on to tell several other parables about the kingdom of God – setting one alongside the other to get a bigger picture about who God is and what God’s kingdom – God’s heavenly dwelling place is like. But the parable of the wheat and the weeds is stuck in his disciples’ heads. Notice, they are mostly concerned about the weeds. They ask Jesus for an explanation.
It might be because they are taking Jesus’ parable too literally regarding gardening practices. Last summer, I decided to not weed the garden in back of my house. I was curious what would come up and I thought I should let it be wild. Well… I learned the hard way, that if I leave a vine called “Virginia Creeper” in my garden, it will crawl up my raspberry bushes, wrap itself in a death grip around my flowers and even try to strangle the trees. So this year, I got a plant identifying app, and now if I’m not sure if a plant is a weed or not, I scan it, and if it is a weed, especially if it is invasive like “Virginia” or buckthorn or nightshade… out it goes.
The parable is clearly not giving gardening advice but Jesus’ explanation is kind of like another parable – it only raises more questions! Who or what are the “causes of sin and the evildoers” who are going to be thrown into the fire? And what about us? And what does Jesus want us to do about it?
But before we go looking at pointing the finger at someone else, someone or some group that you or I disagree with, it would be good to do a little introspection. What are the weeds within my own heart and in my own life that keep me from growing closer to Christ? Let us tend to the garden of our own heart. For one thing in Jesus’ explanation that is clear, is that the judge is not you or me. The judge at the end of the age is Jesus, the Son of Man. And the reapers who are doing the sorting are not us either – they are God’s angels.
So how do we tend the garden of our own heart?
For that question, I often look to the Psalms. The Psalms are the prayerbook and songbook of Jesus and have been and continue to delight, instruct and inspire people of faith in every generation. So let us look to the Psalms as we seek to tend the garden of our hearts.
Psalm 139, our Psalm for today, has long been a favorite of mine – ever since I was a child. It’s probably because my mother read a children’s story to me called : The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown and with delightful pictures by Clement Hurd. In this story, a little bunny announces to his mother that he is running away. She replies, “If you runaway, I will run after you.” Undeterred, the little bunny said, “If you run after me, I will become a fish in a trout stream.” His mother replied, then “I will become a fisherman and fish for you.” The little bunny imagined becoming many things – a rock on a high mountain, a crocus in a hidden garden, a bird that flies far away, a sailboat, a tightrope walker, or even a little boy or girl (as my mother read it to me). But for each of the bunny’s ideas of what he could become in order to run away, his mother’s response showed that she would be with him – no matter what he did or where he went.
This book was inspired by Psalm 139 because this is God’s relationship with us. The Psalmist writes, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.” God knows you. God knows your heart. God knows where you are and even what you are thinking. It’s too wonder-full that it is beyond our ability to comprehend.
So what is the instinct when something is beyond our understanding? Like the little bunny, there is a temptation to run away! But… the Psalmist also wonders – where could I go? For if I go to the farthest point – the moon or even Mars – God is there. For God is with you and me in the deepest valley and God is with us on the brightest, hottest day and in the darkest and coldest night.
As I was studying this passage in my Bible at home, I noticed that I had drawn an arrow from verse 18 to verse 23. These are part of the Psalm that we skipped.
Curious, I read the missing verses: “O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil! Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with a perfect hatred; I count them as my enemies.”
I obviously didn’t like these verses and…now you know why the lectionary skips them. And yet, these verses speak to our human condition. We have righteous anger at times. And…it is right to be angry when a gunman shoots schoolchildren, it is right to be appalled that some people go hungry while others feast, it is righ to condemn injustice and cruelty, it is right be angry when anyone – regardless of who they are – is treated as “less than” a beloved child of God. But…what do we do with our “perfect hatred?”
The Psalmist gives us a good path. In the beginning of the Psalm, he noted that God has searched me and knows him. But after acknowledging the hatred that he carries, instead of acting on his anger out of the power of his own rage, he prays: “Search me out O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts.” And then he seeks direction from God: “Look well whether there be any wickedness in me and lead me.” Friends in Christ, we would do well, when angry at whatever injustice we hear or see, to first pray: “God search me out and then lead me forward”. For this is how we tend the garden of our own heart before we act. And then, we invite God to lead us.
For God is not only all-knowing but God’s wisdom is beyond our understanding. As the Psalmist declares, “How weighty to me are your thoughts O God! I try to count them – they are more than the sand; I come to the end – I am still with you.” Ps 139: 18
This is the conclusion of the Runaway Bunny too. After the little bunny said that he would become a little boy, the mother responded, “If you become a little boy and run into a house… I will become your mother and catch you in my arms and hug you.” To which the bunny replied, “Shucks… I might just as well stay where I am and be your little bunny.”
Beloved children of God, as you tend the garden of your heart, may you always remember that you are God’s child and that God is and wants to be with you always, loving you and leading you in God’s way. Amen.
1Thayer's Greek Lexicon, STRONGS NT 3850: παραβολή
Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane + Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran + July 19, 2026