Today I’m going to talk mainly on the gospel reading as we are in this season of Jesus teaching using parables. Last week was the well-known parable of the Sower, all about the amazing harvest we can reap if we can be the good soil – and today’s reading is the parable of the weeds, another parable based on farming and agriculture, which isn’t quite so handy when we live in the middle of a city, but I’m sure many of us picked up quite an image during that reading.
As most of you will know, I’m a teacher and at school, I often hear the shout ‘you’re a baddie so I’m going to chase you’ yelled across the playground – even after all these years, the game of baddies versus goodies is still being played out in schools around the country – and this week’s gospel message appears to be a bit of a goodies versus baddies story, with people characterised as either wheat or weeds. However, life often isn’t quite so defined, and I’m sure each of us would probably struggle to put ourselves into one camp or the other as we each come before God with our faults and foibles.
In the field, which represents the world, the farmer plants good seeds, the enemy plants bad seeds – the two thrive side by side, the sinful and the virtuous. God seems to accept that there will always be evil around us, and the two co-exist – if God accepts it, is it our job to weed out the bad? I’m sure many people have said to you, as they have me, ‘There’s no God; if there was, there wouldn’t be all this evil and hurting.’ We do live in a hostile world where apparently undeserving people prosper, where war, sickness and disaster are ever present, I can imagine how people struggle to believe. But in this parable, we are taught to wait patiently, and we’re told that justice will come.
Apparently, this act of sabotage, sewing darnel seed among wheat, was quite common, so much so that the Romans had a law against it. Darnel is quite bitter and can be toxic. Its roots intertwine and in the early stages of growth it resembles wheat, so is impossible to pluck out and is often left until it’s fully grown – as happened in our reading – or separated once the grains are ready for milling, when the two look quite different.
Anyway, the fact is, that they had to let it grow, patience was needed as they were forced to let the weeds suck the goodness away from the wheat as they waited, otherwise they could so easily have pulled out the good stuff along with the weeds. Maybe this too is a message to us, that meddling and getting involved can create more problems, and we can easily destroy the good things that are developing – especially in this secular age, where morals appear to be diminishing and values are fluid. It often takes time for people to see that the direction they are travelling isn’t the right way. Therefore, patience, watching and waiting whilst walking alongside someone, can reap a truly beneficial outcome.
If we do proceed with ‘rushing in to make things right’, we risk becoming proud and resentful weeds, fit only for the fire ourselves. Sin can start casually, appear well meaning – certainly to ourselves, but with time it grows and strangles our soul. Thankfully we live in the promise of salvation through the grace of the risen Jesus, so we are not simply the wheat or the weed – we are much more complex and can rely on being lovingly tended by our creator.
If God can love us, care for us and forgive our sin, is it possible that we can do the same for each other? Can we not love each other, weeds and all? Or are we sometimes a little quick off the mark to judge, to suggest that of course our way is best, or to feel offended when our way isn’t accepted rather than approaching situations with the grace God allows us? Surely, we who hope to receive grace, must also be willing to extend it?
Unlike God, we have no way of knowing what is really going on in someone’s heart or mind, what might have happened in their life, or how despereatly they might want to change. God hasn’t given us the insight to weed the field, but he tells us that on that final day, when the harvest is gathered, purity will be possible. If we attempt to do that now we risk destroying the good along with the bad.
Therefore, our job now is to be the wheat where we can, serving God and others by sharing the good news of all that God offers, so that when the day comes those that are currently the weed have at least been made aware that they can become the wheat, and as our reading says, ‘shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’. What an amazing offer!
This beautiful statement is in incredible contrast to the terrible image of the inside of the furnace that’s given in the reading, ‘where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’. This must surely act as a warning to anyone considering evil acts! I personally find it quite a shocking statement from a humble Lord Jesus who offers love and grace and gave up so much for each of us. I’ve also long been uneasy with the suggestion of burning the chaff – who will the chaff be?
But Jesus is offering choice. It’s up to us to recognise that we serve either Christ or ourselves, righteousness or impurity. Will we be that field of wheat or the patch of weeds, sucking out all that is good but never bearing fruit? We are responsible for our own choices. Jesus knows the intentions of our hearts, even if we don’t always get it quite right. It’s also worth reminding ourselves that this parable was explained to his own disciples, who, amongst themselves, denied, betrayed and doubted! I’m sure that we need to simply do our best.
When we are confused by the tangle of wheat and weed, when we’re confronted by life’s hard choices, Jesus gives us a simple, fool-proof rule: Always choose love. If we follow Christ’s love in all things we’ll never get lost in the weeds.
Amen
Service: Reverend Rebecca Yates – 23rd February 2023
Referenced Scripture: Isaiah 44:6-8, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30 & 36-43