Wheat and Weeds

7th Sunday after Pentecost

Today's Readings: Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Last week we heard Jesus tell the parable of the sower. This week Jesus goes on to tell the parable of the weeds, which (I don’t know about you, but) I find a bit harder to digest. If you remember from last week,

I talked about how God created and sowed the seed.. and because God created the seed it is righteous in and of itself. This week Jesus is doing the sowing and has planted a field of wheat, but SOMEHOW (perhaps by the planting of an evil outside source) weeds have found their way into this field. And so the workers of the field come to Jesus and not only ask how the weeds got there, but what they should do about them. They want to pull them up and get rid of them! But Jesus says wait. Wait, you cannot pull up the weeds without pulling up the wheat also.

Now the weed that is used as an example in this parable is something called darnel or, the word they would have used ‘tares.’ This weed looks almost identical to wheat, making it hard for anyone to know the difference between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ crop. We, like the workers, are often eager to categorize and draw lines in the sand in this life. ‘These people are good.. these people are bad.’ But good people and bad people all look the same. How can you tell the difference? Just like all of the seeds used looked the same and were all righteous in their origin, we too are all righteous in our origin, in our being. It is what grows from that seed that makes all the difference. What springs forth and grows? Is it wheat or weeds? Is it love, peace, and joy or is it malice, hate, and devastation?

Perhaps we must even question the strong binary pretenses of this parable, for isn’t it true that no one is PURE goodness or PURE evil? We are all a mixture of both – good and bad, wheat and weed, sinner and saint. How can we tell if someone is wheat or a weed? We can’t. We cannot tell the difference between a good person and a bad person, no more than we can determine why the bad exists in the first place. The good news is… we don’t have to. Jesus the sower, tells the workers of the field to wait.. to stop worrying about the weeds or plotting how to get rid of them. Why? Because it’s not their job. The Creator.. GOD.. will sort that all out later. But for now.. let it all ‘grow together until the harvest.’ (v. 30)

‘Okay Jesus’, you might be thinking, ‘that IS good news.. I’m glad it’s not my job to judge, BUT… does this mean we are to just sit back and let evil run rampant in the world?!’ I don’t think so.. for if we were to continuing reading, in Matthew 18 Jesus explains how we should deal with discipline, taking action, when necessary for the healing and wholeness of community (Matt. 18:15-17). In this parable, using wheat and weed is limiting because a weed cannot turn into wheat if it wanted to.. it cannot be transformed.. but we know from other Scripture passages that the Word in fact DOES transform us.. that we are able to be ‘renewed’ again and again because of the cross of Christ and the love and grace of our forgiving God.

We know and Jesus clearly knows, that bad/evil coexists in this world with the original Creation that God called GOOD. Jesus tells us to love anyways, for to eradicate evil, to get rid of it completely, would be to abolish literally everyone. Uprooting the bad will also uproot the good. So when we go to war against evil.. without recognizing the weeds that infect our own souls.. we are inadvertently harming ourselves in the process. No one wins. Nothing is ultimately accomplished. So what’s a child of God to do? I like what the Rev. Dr. Theodore Wardlaw had to say.. “God.. models for us an infinite patience that frees us to get on with the crucial business of loving, or at least living with, each other.”

Until Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead, we cannot tell if the person we encounter today is ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but we can remember that just like us, they are a mixture of both. And, more importantly, just like us, they are a righteous creation of God, bearing the image of God. In this way we relinquish the burden of being judge and jury and are freed to treat them with love and kindness – always giving our neighbor the benefit of the doubt. In this way we reaffirm that wheat is growing, that the seed IS good and CAN transform into something beautiful and life-giving.

On the cross, Jesus does not threaten his enemies, but forgives them and welcomes them into paradise. This is the God from whom we have our salvation, this WORLD has it’s salvation, and whom we are called to imitate. ‘Pick up your cross and follow me. Listen to what I say. Do as I have done to you.’ Our attempts to live our lives in imitation of our God will always be imperfect. We are not God. We are the created – the seed – the single acorn from which an entire forest can grow. Every time we interact with the world with love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness.. we bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit with resides in is, yes even among the weeds. And when we bear fruit, when we replicate LIFE given to us through God, it then falls to the ground (or on the heart of the person we are interacting with) and has the opportunity to reproduce and bear its own fruit.

When this happens it is a witness to the kingdom of God which HAS BEEN SOWN HERE on earth. It points to the in-breaking of the kingdom here and now. It screams, ‘LOOK! God is in our midst, dwelling among us! God IS HERE! The kingdom IS AT HAND!’ This is all that is asked of us. To be who God created us to be. To bear fruit and give the glory to God. In this way, we can let go of our fears and our questions about evil and be reminded that God IS at work, making good on God’s promise to never leave us and to one day bring the kingdom to it’s fullness. For now, it is hopeful enough to see the wheat exist among the weeds and to know that more wheat is sown every time we participate in the work God is doing in and through us, God’s children, all throughout the world.

I can’t wait to see the kingdom in all it’s glory. And I know that one day we certainly will. Because God promises that it will be so. Just like we heard from the prophet Isaiah last week, God’s Word will not return to God empty, but will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent out. Our God is faithful. Our God is trustworthy and true. Our God is good.

I leave you today with these words from the Rev. Patrick J. Willson,

“Jesus did not say that the kingdom was like a rock, fixed and solid and firm and unchanging. Jesus did not

say that the kingdom was like a giant machine, that you put some things in and you get some things out and that what you get out depends upon what you put in. He said it was like an enormous tree that grows out of a tiny seed. A tree that grows so enormous that all the birds of the air can come and find shelter in its branches, even strange little ducks like you and me. He said that God was like a housewife who puts a smidgen of yeast in the three measures of flour and that yeast yields its life into the whole batch of dough. That is the way that the kingdom is, growing from the very beginning into all that God has intended.. From the foundation of the world, the very first moment of creation, it is the kingdom that has been on God’s mind, and God is infinitely patient as it grows.”

Amen.