by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Jesus put before the crowd another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “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. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”
—Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
This week we are going to spend some time talking about another of Jesus’ miracles. This one, like last week, involves plant life, namely wheat and weeds. So I thought I would share a quick story about flowers.
A man walked into a flower shop. “I'd like some flowers please," he said to the clerk.
“Certainly, Sir. What did you have in mind?"
The customer shrugged. “Well I'm not sure, I uh, I uh, I uh..." And he wasn’t able to answer the question.
“Perhaps I could help,” said the clerk. “What exactly have you done?"
What exactly have you done? We would assume he has done something wrong, wouldn’t we? Discovering information about right and wrong has certainly been the favorite pastime of a lot of religions and Christian denominations as well hasn’t it? And even more fun for lots of folks is figuring out what sort of a price you are going to pay in the hereafter for having done these evil deeds. And then of course the most fun comes in telling us about it.
The gospel just read is one of the favorites for preachers attempting to scare us to death. In their interpretation of the scripture there isn’t much room for the love of God. All that remains is a heaven impossible to reach, hell, and damnation. I can tell you for sure that as a young person this piece of scripture gave me nightmares. I am certain I am not alone. In reality it is filled with great news.
Here’s the issue. The Bible is a huge book written over many thousands of years by a ton of authors attempting to explain the unexplainable. Additionally, the scriptures have redacted along the way by one society after another. When we take small pieces of the scriptures to study we run the very real risk of misinterpretation. This can lead to the painting of an unrecognizable God that is less than loving and definitely not in our corner. Today’s gospel is a fantastic example of that danger.
Today’s gospel lies in the midst of a number of parables in which Jesus is describing how much God loves us and cares for us. They describe the Kingdom of God in which not one lamb is lost, and the smallest and least significant are as important as everybody else. In addition, we must remember that when Jesus was teaching these parables he was still in the midst of his ministry. The cross and the salvation of every human being on the planet was still in the future. And so I submit to you there was nothing but good news in the teaching of Jesus and within the Kingdom of God he describes.
Taking today’s gospel literally is a mistake. Jesus is using a metaphor to emphasize an important and wonderful point, not trying to scare us to death. It was meant to get our attention however, and it does.
So let’s think about the metaphor he presents. A farmer plants some seeds in his field. He is growing wheat. And up it comes. But wait. As it begins to take on its final shape and develop kernels it is noticed that there are weeds in the field and everybody knows that weeds are not welcome. What in the world is going on? Did the farmer not buy good seed? Should we attempt to pull the weeds out of the field?
No says the farmer. I bought good seed. Something has happened. Somebody else came along and put these weeds in the field. It must have been at night because we sure didn’t see anybody come along or we would have stopped them.
And the farmer continues to answer the questions. No, we can’t pull out the weeds for fear of damaging the wheat. So here’s what we will do. Just let the weeds grow along with the wheat. And when it comes time to harvest we can separate the weeds from the wheat. We can save the crop in that way. Relax. We bought good seed to begin with and we have a great plan to save this field of wheat.
Now we can approach this parable as representing good folks and bad folks and what is going to happen before the final curtain when the good folks get rewarded and the bad folks get punished. But that doesn’t sound like Jesus and it certainly doesn’t sound like a loving God, the God being described in the texts surrounding this parable.
So our light of understanding begins to dawn. Here we go. Each of us is represented by the field. Growing in each of us is goodness along with some things not so good. We know the good comes from God. How about the things not so good? How did those bad weeds get planted in our field?
Well the answer to that question is pretty obvious isn’t it? The world and our society has come during the night and planted some bad ideas within us. Maybe those weeds even looked good at the time. They might have started out as a lot of fun. Smart and respected people might have told us they were the right ideas to hang on to.
Let’s think. What are some of the weeds growing in our wheat? Take a minute. Let’s think. It won’t take long to find them. They don’t look much like the wheat anymore. Let’s each shut our eyes for a bit and think about it.
Photo by Giuseppe Russo from Pexels
Ok, come on back from your weed search. Jesus ends the story with a promise, some good news if you will. Those weeds aren’t permanent. Eventually they will be removed and only the wheat will be harvested. This is the promise we find in the Kingdom of God. No matter what they are, and no matter how much they may be messing up your field right now God is promising you that within our that partnership we are going to be ok someday. We are never lost in the Kingdom, never alone, and always loved. Help is on the way. Those weeds are not permanent. They are going to get cleaned up and we are going to be a lot happier as a result.