July 21, 2002 -- NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST -- Proper 11
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Color: Green
Title: “Parables”
The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat
24 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And 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?’ 28He answered, ’An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ’Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29But he replied, ’No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let 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.’ "
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
31 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
The Parable of the Yeast
33 He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."
The Use of Parables
34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. 35This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:
"I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world."
Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds
36 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." 37He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
Jesus is in the midst of his “parabolic,” discourse. This section has three parables- the weeds, the mustard seed and leaven- and an explanation of the parable of the weeds.
The Parable of the Weeds verses twenty-four to thirty, has an attached explanation verses thirty-six to forty-three, and sandwiched between them are two parables, the Mustard Seed and the Leaven, verses thirty-one to thirty-three, both making the same point that the small beginnings of the kingdom cannot hold a candle to the great results at the end of the process. The Parable of the Weeds and its explanation makes much the same point as the Parable of the Sower, chapter thirteen verses one to eight, that once the word is sown it grows on its own despite any and all obstacles. While this Parable of the Weeds is found only in Matthew it seems to be a rewriting of the Parable of the Seed Growing Secretly in Mark 4: 26-29. This “reworking” or “rewriting” along with the two explanations, that of the Sower and the Weeds, indicates how the original teaching of Jesus could and would be adapted to various circumstances, situations, settings, and problems. Whether these adaptations were done by Jesus or by the evangelists or by someone else is an open question. Likely, it would be a combination of all three possibilities.
24 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; the kingdom is compared to the whole picture drawn in verses twenty-four to thirty, not merely someone. Its nature is very much like that of a seed and the process by which it grows to maturity.
25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. The New Testament uses sleep as a metaphor for death or spiritual lethargy. Here it has no such connotation, but is simply part of the story. That the sower’s workers slept does not mean they are to blame for what happened. It is the enemy, the devil, who acts in secret and obstructs growth.
Weeds: The Greek zizanion refers to a poisonous weed, probably darnel, lolium tremulentum, which in its early stages actually resembles wheat so much that it is difficult to distinguish between the two. When the ears form and both have headed out it is easy to tell them apart, but not in the earlier stages of growth.
28He answered, ’An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ’Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ By now it is also easy for the reader to tell who stands for whom in the story: the householder is Jesus, the slaves are his followers, the weeds are their opponents and the enemy or “evil one” is Satan. The text is quite clear in identifying the “evil one” as a “hostile human being,” indicating that Satan may be behind evil but it comes into the world through human agency. The parable teaches how the disciples are to react to the presence of evil between now and the close of the age, the final judgment time.
30Let 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.’ " The householder, Jesus, prefers tolerance of evil in the present and for the time being rather than the possibility of human error wrongly accusing wheat, good folk and good deeds, with being weeds, bad. That sorting out of good and evil is to wait until harvest and to be done by the harvesters duly appointed. “Harvest,” is used here as a metaphor for final judgment. The text says that for now the disciples are to “leave them alone.” The verb, Greek aphiemi, means “let be,” “allow,” and is also the word used by Matthew for “forgive.” Clearly, this is not an approving tolerance or letting be, but an acceptance of a situation beyond human authority. Jesus is not, however, teaching against legitimate policing and imprisoning dangerous people.
To be burned: In Palestine wood was scarce. Weeds would be cut and bundled together and used as fuel. Grain would be stored in large pottery jars or in pits lined with brick.
31 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
The Parable of the Yeast
33 He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in withd three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." Parables are frequently twinned or paired in the Synoptics. The two following ones make the same point: small beginnings yield great results. The first, that of the mustard seed, would appeal to men, while the second, that of the leaven, would appeal more to women. Subtly, Matthew, Luke, not so subtly, overcomes his Jewish propensity to rate men above women or even to exclude them from mention. The message of Jesus was just too inclusive.
v. 31 like a mustard seed: The disproportionate magnitude between the beginning seed and the final plant-tree highlights yet another feature of the kingdom of God-heaven. The mustard seed was proverbial for its smallness, though not, in fact, the smallest of all seeds. Yet it grew to become larger than any of the other garden plants to the size of a veritable tree some eight to ten feet high. Its size attracted the wild birds, which would come and eat the black seeds of the “tree.” The point, of course, is that the kingdom may start out small but that it will grow to enormous size. Taking the long view, the eternal perspective, Jesus counsels his followers, a tiny minority at this stage, not to be intimidated by the size of the opposition or any other obstacles.
v. 33 is like yeast: Yeast is a fermenting agent added to a batch of dough and causing it to rise and expand. Usually yeast is used as a metaphor for evil, seen as having a corrupting influence by virtue of its gradual permeation of the mass of dough. Here, it has a positive meaning for the very same reason, its permeating and penetrating quality. Normally a small piece of dough kept from a previous baking would be allowed to ferment and placed in the new batch, causing the dough to rise over a period of time. Bread could be made from yeast or leaven, but the continuing use of leaven from batch to batch increased the chances of disease, infection or corruption over time. Thus, once a year all leaven was to be destroyed (Ex12: 14-15) for hygienic as well as religious purposes, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread marked a new beginning.)
Three measures of wheat flour: How much flour this represents can only be guessed. One estimate is that it is enough to feed about a hundred people. The exaggeration is intentional. It makes the same point as the parable of the mustard seed: the disproportion between the beginning stages of the kingdom the small amount of yeast and the final outcome the large amount of flour it can influence and bread it can produce. This parable adds the nuance of the pervasive action of the kingdom’s growth and its inevitable effect on human society.
v. 34 to the crowds: Commentators make too much of the fact that Jesus stops teaching the “crowds” at this point and turns to the private instruction of his disciples. First of all the matter is not as clear as some would like us to believe. In Chapter 13: 10-13 Jesus is speaking privately to his disciples, yet here in verse thirty-four, Matthew, says Jesus was still speaking to the crowds and only in verse thirty-six, does he dismiss them and speak only to his disciples. Matthew is really more interested in distinguishing between those who listen to Jesus with an open mind and heart than distinguishing between who are “disciples” and who are “crowds.” No doubt many in the crowds did become disciples. Jesus did not teach some esoteric group. His message clearly was for everyone “who has ears” verse forty-three. Nonetheless, although the disciples are given “knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven,” verse eleven, they still need Jesus’ help to understand the fuller implications of his teaching.
v. 35 to fulfill…through the prophet: Jesus repeats why he speaks in parables by quoting this time from Psalm 78:2. Some ancient manuscripts erroneously ascribe this to Isaiah. To call a psalmist, in this case Asaph, a prophet is consistent with the belief that the entire Old Testament is a prophecy pointing to the coming kingdom. 2Chron29: 30 actually refers to Asaph as a seer or prophet. Jesus speaks in parables because the Scripture says he should and will. Not only do individual events in his life and ministry fulfill Scripture, even his teaching methods do. The crowds could easily understand plain teaching about the kingdom as a political entity, but as a religious-spiritual one was another matter. To the unbeliever the parables, wise sayings and stories of a pictorial kind, are heard as riddles and enigmas; to the believer they reveal truth existent from all time. This is essentially the same point made in Chapter 13: 14-16, only abbreviated.
In verse thirty-six, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field: It seems that by the time of the writing of the Synoptics the original parables of Jesus had acquired titles, like this one, “The Parable of the Weeds in the Field”. While most modern commentators feel they can demonstrate that the explanations of the parables are the work of the evangelist or, at the very least, not the work of Jesus himself, this position seems to be losing ground. The evangelist, be he the author of Mark or Matthew, may well have re-worked an original parable, that does not rule out that Jesus himself was the inspiration for explaining on another occasion a sermon, including parables, he gave on a prior one. There is nothing unusual for students to ask a teacher at a later date to clarify or expand upon an earlier lesson. Certainly the parables of Jesus in their “pure,” form contain the seeds of allegorical interpretation, a detail in the story stands for something or someone else outside the story. It is true that such centers of learning as Alexandria in Egypt applied allegorical meanings to too much of Scripture, ignoring their historical basis altogether, but that does not justify the conclusion that Jesus himself did not intend his parables to be more widely applied that the immediate context in which they were originally uttered. Also Jesus had a dual perspective, including the present and the future, seeing the future, outcome, end result, as simultaneously present if not entirely visible and complete. Thus a teaching, including a parable, can both look to long-term future and yet apply to the present. Thus the emphasis in the original parable on allowing the wheat and weeds to grow up together in the present, for the time being, and waiting patiently is glossed over and the focus now shifts in the explanation of it to emphasizing the future outcome, the final judgment.
In verse thirty-eight, the field is the world: Ordinarily, one would plant mustard seed in a garden, not an open field. Matthew shows a predilection for “field,” using the word sixteen times, more than anyone else in the New Testament. “World,” here means the entire population of the planet.
In verse forty-one, the Son of Man will send his angels: “Son of Man,” alerts the reader that we are in apocalyptic territory
Side bar: See Matthew 16: 27; 24: 31 and the eschatological time zone.
The angels are the harvesters referred to in verse thirty.
They will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers: Jesus includes those who give “bad example,” or even bad advice to others right up there will actual evildoing.
In verse forty-two, the fiery furnace: This is a common feature of apocalyptic imagery. The phrase is found in Daniel 3: 6 et al.
Weeping and gnashing of teeth: This is a typically Matthean phrase, six times in Matthew, once in Luke, and nowhere else, to refer to extreme misery.
In verse forty-three, the righteous shine like the sun: The contrast between the final outcome for the righteous and that for the wicked is described in traditional terms of light, radiance, and darkness. “Righteous,” points to their acceptability on the last day, not to their meritorious accomplishments.
The kingdom of their Father: Matthew speaks both of the kingdom of the Son of Man, verse forty-one, and of the kingdom of the Father verse forty-three. The former points up the sovereignty given to the Son following his resurrection; the latter is God’s eternal reign which becomes apparent to all, good and bad, at and after final judgment, the “close of the age.”
Sermon
The explanation of the Parable of the Weeds has a different focus from that of the parable itself. The parable counsels patience and tolerance when confronting evil and the evil people do. The explanation focuses upon the final outcome of this mixed and mixed up situation we call “life-in-this-world.” Jesus teaches that since in the final assize God himself will be the sole arbiter of who is in the kingdom, that is, righteous, and who is not, then humans must refrain from pre-empting that decision by prematurely declaring people to be evil and therefore on the outs with God. Clearly, God is not finished with humans, not finished giving us opportunities for repentance, until we physically die. Thus, Jesus gives us a very good example of how eschatology, the end result, motivates ethics, present behavior. Humans are wise not to be too hasty or too zealous to label people as either evil or good, as finished growing. That is God’s prerogative and only his. Inquisitions, witch hunts, purges, expulsions, etc. conducted in the name of God and righteousness are not, in fact, what God wants us to do.
Now, no one parable or teaching of Jesus says it all. While this teaches the same truth as “Judge not that you not be judged” in parabolic form, the teaching does not rule out excommunicating someone temporarily who refuses to live by gospel values and truths Matthew 18: 15-18. The truth this parable brings out is not to be interpreted as being passive in the face of evil, a laissez-faire attitude about injustice. While we are to avoid the extremes of zealous purism and the religious purges that accompany it, we are also to avoid the extremes of passive indifference to evil, of simply withdrawing from responsibility to set right injustices, also by invoking the name of God and this teaching of Jesus. The best way to interpret any teaching of Jesus is in the light of the rest of his teaching, the same principle for interpreting any verse or verses of the Bible.
When a plant grows up in a hothouse, free of weeds and with the ideal environmental conditions, it grows beautifully. However, it is also weak. It cannot cope when the conditions are less than ideal. It quickly withers and dies. Not so the “field” flowers and plants. Because they must constantly vie with and struggle against weeds for soil and nutrients, even sunlight, they become strong in battle, because of the battle. Jesus constantly warns his disciples that he is not inoculating them against struggle or removing them from the world. Christians must grow up alongside of evil and opposition. Indeed, they grow because of it. The premature cleansing of the environment of growth will more likely remove resources for growth than actually cleanse the soil. The weeds were present in the environment, though hidden, long before the servants recognized them. Evil can do a pretty good imitation of good, if only for so long. When their presence was known they were called by their right name, weeds. Christians can be astute at recognizing evil, but also need to be tolerant of it. That is not the same as approving of it or indifferent to it. God tolerates evil for a time. He does not approve of it, nor is he indifferent about it. Jesus is saying we can’t be entirely sure about people, no matter how “weedy” or “seedy” they may appear to us. Any wholesale purge is liable to take wheat along with weeds to the furnace.
Then there is the personal application of this parable and its explanation. Within the “field” of every person there is this mixture of good and evil. While we do not approve of the evil we do, scheme, think and wish, we also need to have a certain patient tolerance with our “growing” status. We have not fully arrived at the end time yet. We are growing. When we recognize “weeds” in ourselves we must stop feeding that part, but we cannot stop growing. Otherwise the wheat will die as well.
Like Jesus’ kingdom and like his Church, not exactly the same reality but somewhat overlapping, we are to begin small, taking first steps first and leaving the rest to God’s great power to grow us despite all obstacles. Jesus never compared the kingdom to a hurricane or tornado which rushes in and completely alters a situation in a matter of minutes. In between the sowing and the reaping there is an extended period of time, known only to God, wherein the inevitable, yet gradual growth, takes place. Amen.
