In the Parable of the Weeds, we are told a story about a man who did evil against another man and the way he did this was through planting weeds in the man’s garden. The seeds of grain grew, but so did the weeds that the evil man had planted.
Jesus may have used this example because the hearers would understand how difficult growing a crop was for a farmer in Palestine and the message would be widely received and clearly understood.
There is an old story about the rocks of Palestine. It is that when God created the world that he gave two angels the sole responsibility of placing rounds around the world. As the angels began their route, one whole bag of rocks meant for the whole world dropped on Palestine. Palestine’s soil could be hard, the sun unrelenting, and the ground full of rocks. This parable exposes the truth that there would be little optimism that the crops would make in the first place because of the conditions in Palestine. The harvests of the crops looked dismal due to the rocks, the lack of rain showers, the sun, and the threat of the evil that existed.
In this parable, we are told about a man who faithfully sowed his seeds referring to Jesus and the small band of followers he selected to be his disciplines. We see in the midst of these seeds being sown, evil and resistance presents itself. Jesus is describing his own ministry, which as he and his disciples preach the good news of salvation, was met with much evil and resistance.
This parable is easy for us to understand today. There are many evils in the world and many people who do horrific things as their way to express themselves. We see people who are angry and they take out their anger toward innocent people. At times, people are so intent on doing harm to another person that they will do it at any cost to themselves. Today when we turn on the television, we hear reports of some sort of violence. People just go to about any lengths to express their anger. If they don’t like something or the outcome of something, they take the matters in their own hands. At times, there seems to be little trust, fairness, or respect toward one another.
There was not anything different about that in the days of Jesus except that it was a little quieter, more subtle. This story, which we have just read in the Gospel of Matthew, reflects every farmer’s fear in the 1st century. Palestine was known then and now as a place where there really is not much workable land and there was not much abundant water.
The people in Palestine who chose to hear Jesus were peasants. These peasants tried to make a living by farming. Palestine was flooded with refuges and there was always more demand than goods available. There was not a concept of an abundance of food. You raised just enough food to feed your family during the winter months. Rarely was there anything left to sale. It was every farmer’s fear that his or her crop may not make it this year.
In Palestine, there were two periods of rain – the former rains came in the fall and the latter rains came in the spring. Both were necessary. After the long, hot, dry summer, if the former rains did not come, the seed would be planted in the ground, but it would never even sprout because there was not enough moisture.
If the former rains in the fall did come and the grain did sprout, and the latter rains in the spring did not com, the grain would simply dry up in the field. All of those were realities and every Palestinian’s farmer had to deal with those realities. In those days, there were no insurance policies. There was no one to bail them out. If the crop did not make for whatever reason, you stood in danger of starving to death or certainly losing your family land, as you would have to borrow money to survive.
What is represented in this story is not a violent scene like we see so often now when a person is evil; it is a quieter evil. A farmer sows his field and at night, when everybody is asleep, his enemy comes quietly. He comes in the dark when no one could see him and he casts the seed of weeds. The Palestine’s had their versions of Johnson grass and Bermuda grass and Kudzu and all the pesky weeds that we have to deal with today. They had their versions of the same thing.
Here he is, this farmer’s enemy, sowing those weed seeds in that freshly planted field. No one can see it in the morning. No one knows that anything has happened to that field. He goes away and then, the grain begins to sprout and so does the weeds.
The servants noticed the weeds and they go back and report to the owner that he has weeds in the fields. The weeds are everywhere. They are these pesky weeds that no one wants. Your crop is literally filled with them. How can that happen? You planted good seeds. Of course, the farmer here probably knew who did it. He says, “My enemy has come at night and he has sowed the fields the second time with weeds. The servants were incensed. Doesn’t this make you made? Shouldn’t it make us mad when people do bad things against us – hurt us for no reason other than they can or want to? The servants want to do something about it. They want to respond to this horrible act of evil that this enemy has done, so they say, “Do you want us to go out and pull those weeds up? Is that what you want us to do? They are gun ho. They are ready to respond to this wrong – this horrible, colossal wrong that has been pulled by this enemy.
The farmer surprises them. No, I don’t want you to pull out the weeds. The roots are tangled together. While your motive is good, if you pull up the weeds, you will pull up the grain. Wait – harvest is coming. When harvest comes, I will instruct the reapers to pull up the weeds first. See by that time, pulling up the weeds will not hurt the ripen wheat.
They had their days in the sun and now it is time for them to be pulled up and bound together and burned. Because that is what you do with weeds. After the weeds are pulled, I will instruct the laborers to harvest the grain – after all, the grain is what I planted in the first place. That is why I sowed this field down. I wanted ripen grain that I could store in my barn. It will sustain us in the winter and provide seed for us again next year. All of this, Jesus says, is what the kingdom of heaven is like.
The harvest will come – the weeds like this evil person who committed this evil act – will be pulled up at harvest time – the good grain [people] will be separated from the bad – and the bad weeds will burn.
Now Jesus came preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven simply means the kingdom of God – the Jews would not speak the name of God. All the people who heard Jesus talking about the coming kingdom believed it and expected it. However, they expected that kingdom – they expected that kingdom to rush into the future. There were many understandings of it from the Jewish literature, but the understanding was that God is going to make things right in a dramatic way. He is going to send the Messiah and the Messiah is going to judge the Romans and we are going to be restored to our fortunes as a nation again. That day is coming they must have thought.
Jesus says, when teaching about the kingdom, yes, it is but the most perplexing thing he says is, yes, the kingdom is coming in the future, but in me, it is already here. It is present now. They found it very hard to believe that. You see, the kingdom of God means the rule of God. They looked out at their world and they saw what we see when we look at our world today. There is not a whole lot of evidence that God is ruling. They look out their doors and they were an occupied nation. They lived in an oppressive and corrupt Roman government who was literally trying to push them out of existence through excessive taxation and use of power.
We look out our door and there is very little evidence that most of us can see that God is running this world; that God is in control; that his ways are winning out. Not much evidence that I can see – I doubt much that you can see- that the Kingdom of God is ruling. But Jesus said, the kingdom is not just something to come in the future, but it is here and now. God is ruling even now.
When we look at our own personal lives, we perhaps see even less evidence. Our friends and loved ones are dying of dreadful and painful diseases; we look at all the problem areas of our lives and the problem areas of the lives of those people whom we touch. The incredible brokenness, the incredible sadness, the incredible suffering that is not physical that so many people experience in their lives on a daily basis. We sit back, and we care, pray, and hope, but often, things do not change. Not much evidence that I can see that God is ruling.
It appears that unrighteousness is alive and well. There is a healthy crop of weeds. It appears that the gross abuse of power and privilege, which is so common in our day and even in our daily lives with whom we work, is alive and well. A flourishing crop of weeds, and we seem to be able to do nothing about it.
Our tendency is to want to pull those weeds up. And we should where it is appropriate. We should not just go through life with some sort of passive idea that although I don’t agree, it is okay. God holds us accountable. He does not put a premium upon a lack of courage, which we need to have. Where there are wrongs and injustices and forms of evil, we do need to respond and to speak and attempt to change, even if it requires personal cost and personal sacrifice, which almost always it certainly will.
There is absolutely no permission here or elsewhere for us to go through life without courage and refuse to correct that evil when we can. But the truth of the matter is, there is a lot that is beyond us. We have to know when to allow the weeds to grow as they will be separated out at harvest.
The reality in life is that there are weeds in life. They flourish. There are injustices and there is unfairness and there is hypocrisy and there is abuse of power. It manes and cripples, and the people who do it seem to get by. While there are times that it is necessary for us to respond, there are other times when we simply need to grit our teeth and endure the weeds that are there.
And we can wait, as there is a harvest coming. It is surer and more certain that anything in our existence. The words of Jesus here are very hard for us to take. We have got to wait. You cannot give into bitterness and anger and disillusion. We cannot give into the world in which we live and just go out and manipulate the manipulators. We have to wait. We have to wait until harvest time.
The owner said, when harvest times comes, I am going to send my reapers into the fields. I am going to tell them to go and get the weeds first. Pull them up out of the ground. They have had their moments in the sun. Cut them down, bundle them up, and throw them into the fire. Because that is what you do with weeds and that is finally what will happen to every single weed. Then, I will tell the reapers to go back into the field and harvest the wheat. It was good seed that was sown, and it will be a good harvest. The wheat will be harvested, and I will place it in my storehouse. The harvest has come. The weeds are gone. The grains are safely stored in my house.
In the meantime, we have got to wait. You have got to live among the weeds and see their glory in the sun and their arrogant and their self-centeredness and their fakeness.
Failures exist in life. They can be persuasive and overwhelming, but faith steps in with resources. Faith points forward to exciting, hopeful results. The parable of the Sower invites preachers and witnesses to continue sharing despite setbacks because there is a good ground for doing so. Persons haunted by brooding despair can look beyond their own private resources toward God.
A minister emigrated from England to American in the 17th century. Friends forecast a bright future for this scholar, but he died within a year of landing on the American shore. He left a personal library of two hundred books and seven hundred pounds of English money to a new college. The school today maintains greater than two thousand professors and a student body of more than 30 thousand. At the time of his death, John Harvard’s effort and promise seemed completely frustrated, but God had not finished. Harvard University is thriving as a result of John Harvard’s contributions.
Face failures realistically. Decide to take charge of your life rather than flounder. Count on the God who specializes in harvests. And wait, for the harvest is surely coming. That is the most sure thing of your and my existence.
