When I heard Cara’s sermon last Sunday, I considered filing mine away for another day. Because both are about parables, both about planting, both with agricultural themes. And Cara had an illustration—that beautiful tree by the old Hebron Church. But then after I thought about it for a while, it seemed the Lord’s lesson in today’s parable was different, going in a different direction.
Parables don’t seem to be as popular today as they were in ancient times, but they do turn up from time to time, as in the Gospel of Matthew reading we heard today. Like allegory or analogy, fable or symbol, parables are literary devices that require a certain amount of committed study and interpretation to really get at the heart of them.
You might want to read the whole of Matthew 13 to find out what the disciples thought of all this “parabolizing.” They asked Jesus why he spoke to the crowds in parables. Why make it so hard for them to understand? Jesus answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. The reason I speak to them in parables is that seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” He goes on to say that their hearts have become “dull.” Their ears are hard of hearing; they have shut their eyes and do not understand with their hearts.
Our Lord was a master of the parable, telling short stories or anecdotes about common, everyday things in a way that challenged his listeners’ conventional or superficial understanding of the law and the prophets, or total ignorance.
As he walked the hills of Galilee, this charismatic teacher was closely followed by a mixed lot. Some were just curious. Some were trying to get close enough to touch the fringe of his garment to be healed, some to be redeemed, some to learn what this learned Rabbi was teaching about the kingdom of heaven. For no one before had proclaimed the kingdom of heaven as he had:
“Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
Periodically he and his followers would sit to rest and enjoy the lilies of the field, the picturesque hills around the sea of Galilee. But there were always weeds, some destructive and even poisonous, and always those crowds. We can imagine that, gathered around him, his disciples grumbled about the make-up of the crowds, which included scribes and Pharisees. The disciples had been specially chosen by the Lord. Why extend this honor to crowds of unknown riffraff, even the ill-intentioned? They must have asked themselves.
Perhaps this was a teaching moment. Perhaps it was his disciples’ negative attitudes that led Jesus to tell the parable we are looking at today.
Jesus often used agricultural themes and settings to appeal to his rural audiences. In what became known as the Parable of the Weeds, he recalls how a landowner or householder had overseen the planting of good, healthy wheat seed in the good Galilean earth. And with just the right amount of sun and rain, the seeds began to sprout.
But weeds were also popping up. And these were not your ordinary garden variety kind of weeds. Some Bible translations call them “tares.” My Bible offers this footnote: The weed known as bearded darnel grass is pernicious, poisonous both for other plants and humans. It is also difficult to distinguish from wheat, which was a vital food crop for the Galileans.
As the growing season progresses and these weeds grow vigorously along with the wheat, one of the slaves, scandalized by the weeds and fearing the householder’s punishment, asks the householder meekly about the source of the darnel seeds. “Did you not plant wheat seeds?” The field workers generally agreed, after consultation among themselves, that it was a deliberate act of vandalism that happened while all were sleeping, unfortunately on their watch. The householder has his own theory. He blames an unidentified enemy who sowed the darnel, then disappeared into the night without a trace.
And now the parable takes an unexpected turn. The slaves offer to pull up the darnel. But the householder says by no means. In gathering the weeds, you may also gather the wheat. Let both of them grow together, and at harvest the reapers will separate them—the weeds to be burned and the wheat to be taken into barns. We will take care of the separation at harvest time. In other words, now is not the time for judgment.
The householders’ instructions are unexpected, like many of Jesus’ parables, often puzzling, even mysterious, like the dark stranger’s nighttime raid. The parables are meant to capture the listeners’ attention and raise challenging questions. Hence the refrain, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Jesus enters a house, perhaps for respite from the crowds. There his disciples clamor to hear more about the parable. This is what he tells them:
“The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.”
Let’s consider that Jesus is speaking to us about the world we live in here and now, describing the world as it is, what we experience day by day. The darnel grows alongside the wheat, threatening the vital food crop. The devil’s children compete with the children of the kingdom for good soil and rain. But most importantly, the devil escapes to come again some other time.
However, I can’t imagine Jesus pointing out to his disciples, or encouraging them to do so, particular members of the crowd in order to pass judgment. Remember that Jesus has met with these sorts of folks, dined with them, healed them, given them another chance for redemption. In short, he has loved them rather than judged them. And remember Bishop Curry’s mantra that if it is not about love, it’s not about God.
I was flipping through a garden magazine last week when I came across this advertisement for a weed whacker. The ad read, “Effortlessly tackle tough weeds with braided carbon steel blades. The trimmer tackles tough weeds effortlessly. Save time with easy set-up. Keep every space looking its best. It can handle anything outside, giving you a beautifully maintained garden you can be proud of.”
Makes it sound easy, doesn’t it? A perfectly manicured and weedless garden. Well, not perfect and certainly not weedless. That will not happen. Until the harvest time according to Jesus’ eschatological vision, when the darnel and the wheat will be separated—at the end of the age.
But what about now? How are we to live? Jesus teaches that the kingdom is not yet fulfilled. That is yet to come. In the meantime, the world is complicated, with many questions unanswered or unanswerable. We live among the good and the evil and the somewhere in between. There are the redeemed, the believers, and the committed. There are also the unredeemed and the uncommitted.
But who are we to judge the human heart? To separate the wheat from the weeds? That will be up to the Sower, the Son of Man. Jesus teaches that the kingdom of God is a gift of divine grace offered to all of those willing to receive it and commit to it. Thriving in God’s garden among the weeds, our own included, with unexpected visits from the unidentified enemy, requires our patience, forbearance, acceptance of God’s grace, and above all, our love—all that he modeled when our Lord lived among us.
So let us truly see in order to perceive, truly listen in order to hear, truly keep our hearts alive and able to understand the eternal message of the Lord:
“Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
— The Rev. Shirley Ruedy, Deacon, Trinity Episcopal Church of Staunton
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost, July 23, 2023
Reading: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
