“Groaning for Redemption” (Romans 8:12-25)

Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30,36-43

Listen to Sermon

Pastor Tom Johnson, July 23, 2017

One of the great comforts of Scripture is that we are allowed to groan. We can complain to God. We have permission to tell him what we think is not right and not fair. We are allowed to cry out about our injustices, hurts, and our losses. We are going through the book of Exodus in our Wednesday noon Bible study. That’s what the people of God do over and over again. They grumble. They groan. They become bored and impatient. They let Moses and God know they are not happy.  Our Gospel reading is a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. And the question is why God would allow both weeds and wheat to grow together until harvest—why God would allow good and evil to coexist in the world. The workers question the master, “Do you want us to go gather the weeds?” “No,” the master says. This parable is one of a string of parables. It is one aspect of being a member of God’s family but still living out our lives in a world plagued by evil. It’s okay to question it. It’s normal to wonder why God does not end evil today.  We have permission to groan and yearn for the day when God will right every wrong, bring life where there is death, and righteousness where there is sinfulness. That’s what we all long for and pray for: for Jesus to come back and make all things new.

But the problem is not just with what is out there in the world. It is not enough to groan about what others do. Our groaning and our struggle is also with and within ourselves. In 1970 it was cartoonist Walt Kelly who said famously, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” It is a sober reminder that even as the children of God—as those who have been baptized into God’s family—we are both simultaneously sinners and saints. As the Reformers coined nearly 500 years ago: simul justus et peccador “simultaneously justified and sinner. We have in the field of our hearts both weeds and wheat growing. And it is normal and even desirable that we groan for the redemption of our bodies—that we yearn to be free not only from suffering, persecution from without but also our own sinful nature from within. One I was asked by a stranger, “Are you saved?” I knew what they were asking. They were asking if I believed in Jesus and had the assurance of forgiveness and eternal life. But I could not resist. “Am I saved?” “Yes, but I am being saved daily by God’s Spirit. And I am not yet ultimately saved until Jesus comes back to make all things new.”

If we are not groaning for the redemption of this world, we are either in denial or are in critical need of compassion and empathy. How many shootings need to happen right here in Chicago before we begin to groan and cry out? How many persecutions all over the world? How many innocent lives lost in war? How many injustices ? How many weeds threatening to rob the wheat of precious soil, water, and sunlight? If we are not groaning for the redemption of our own bodies—our own selves, we are also either in denial or in critical need of self-reflection and what Paul calls "the Spirit who bears witness with our own spirit."

When we hear the Word of God and the Holy Spirit works in our minds, hearts, and lives, God shows us that we are both sinners and saints. The Spirit shows us that we have both weeds and wheat growing in the fields of our hearts. We are children of God. We cry out “Abba! Father!” We have forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. But we are also still part of this world and part of creation itself that groans for redemption. We join God in grieving over the brokenness of our world and the evil that continues to threaten us from without and from within—the weeds out there and the weeds right here in our relationships together and in our hearts. The good news is that our groaning is legitimate and validated. Our sense that things are not right in the world and within ourselves is correct. God is also grieved and saddened. But he is not just complaining about it or tolerating evil. He sends his Son to be born into the world, to suffer and die, so that he would redeem us—and the whole world. And we are redeemed—bought—purchased “not with perishable things such as gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet 1:18,19). And so Jesus makes all things new. He transforms our complaining to thanksgiving, our suffering into victory, and our groaning to shouts for joy.