The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints Boise
Proper 11A
July 23, 2023
Oh, look, it’s another parable that gets explained because the disciples don’t understand it and the early Christians wanted a nice and tidy explanation of the parable. Notice also that there are verses left out of today’s Gospel reading – but this time, it’s because we’ll read those verses next week because they’re some very short parables that don’t get explained. Today it’s all about the wheat and the weeds.
And weeping and gnashing of teeth. It’s also about that.
For some Christians in history, a parable like this was a story of vindication. When they were around people they disagreed with morally, or perhaps the “wrong” kind of Christians, or frankly anyone they didn’t approve of, then, if they were feeling charitable, they could lean on a parable like this. They might say, “Oh, well, I guess we have to tolerate those kind of people, but God’ll get ‘em in the end, and then they’ll know that we were right.”
Pretty much the wrong take-away for this parable, really. Being smug and judgmental isn’t Christian behavior. Plus, the weeds are taken first; if we’re plants in that field, we’re going to be asking ourselves whether we’re wheat or weeds all the way until the last weed is taken. Being taken is not some kind of rapture in this parable – it is God’s judgment.
So what might we learn from this parable?
Recall the insight we learned from last week’s parable: the behavior seems a little careless, carefree. The owner of the field in this week’s parable is concerned that the wheat might get pulled up if the weeds get taken out. Sure, the weeds will take up water and nutrients. But the owner of the field is more concerned that the act of weeding may uproot the wheat.
The enslaved people who work for the owner of the field give a reasonable response: shall we weed them? Sure, this type of weed looks a lot like wheat until it bears grain, but surely better to pull up some of the wheat than to allow the weeds to grow unimpeded?
And the owner of the field gives his strange response: I would rather that we leave them both to grow to the end, so that every grain of wheat has a chance to grow.
That is some strange logic, isn’t it? The guy’s wealthy enough to own and enslave other human beings, and yet he cares for each grain of wheat. Someone has sown look-alike plants in his field, plants that may be toxic, if they are darnel seeds which still plague farmers in countries to this day. The owner of the field realizes that this was no accident, this was intentional, this was the work of an enemy. And the owner is not enraged. He does not yell for the plants to be uprooted. The weeds will grow, a living reminder of someone’s malice toward him.
Do you see how strange the parable is? Even with the explanation Jesus gives his disciples, we still need to step inside the world of the parable and let its strangeness embrace us.
The logic is strange: instead of demanding purity and perfection, instead of demanding a swift end to the weeds, the owner of the field wants the wheat to have a chance to grow, even if that means letting the weeds grow, too.
God is not interested in moral perfection and purity. God does not want us to impose our vision of moral perfection and purity on others because we would also uproot the good in them. God looks upon us as a field and we are a mix of wheat and weeds – and God would rather we let the good grow mixed up with weeds than to uproot the whole thing. We are all a mix of wheat and weeds, and if we spend our time uprooting others, we uproot ourselves. The interpretation of the parable is a bit simplistic – aren’t we all a mix of good and bad, a mix of wheat and weeds? Jesus’ early disciples always wanted it simplistic and clear-cut. We’re all a mix of things, and it’s good to keep that in mind lest we judge others.
We’ve all seen people on campaigns of moral purity and perfection. It always ends the same way: those who love to impose their moral standards on others are the quickest to magnify others’ faults and to explain away their own moral failings. This is what we call hypocrisy, and Jesus has never had kind words for hypocrisy.
On the other hand, God is interested in letting the good grow. God knows that the enemy has sown weeds in the field. That has already happened. It’s too late in the growing season to sow more seeds, and the enemy has left. The damage that the enemy has done is done. But the good can still grow. The owner’s original intention – to bring in a good wheat harvest – is still possible. God will focus on that original goodness and care for it and nourish it because that’s the goal. The goal is the wheat’s flourishing, not the weeds’ punishment.
God is most interested in the good that is in you, in us, in all of creation – you know, the creation that God has made and sustains every day and said, “It is good.” God sees that and wants it to flourish.
It is a cosmic vision, not just us. The whole creation is groaning with desire to live out its original goodness. To grow, to flourish, to give praise and delight in God’s very being.
In our spiritual and community life, we should nourish the good. We can name the weeds, of course. Weeds of selfishness, ignorance, hatred, racism, greed, sexism, violence, homophobia, transphobia and all the other weeds. Name them. They may be there, but we do not ignore their existence and pretend everything is good. But as we name them, we also name the good and we nourish that. The stronger and more deeply rooted and watered the good is, the more it will flourish. It can crowd out a weed. Plants are not weak, passive things, you know.
Nourish the good. God sees that good, and God wants us to nourish that goodness. Water it, rejoice over it, let it grow. God will sort everything out perfectly in the end – in the meantime, let us cherish the good grain that God has planted in us and in all of creation. Amen.