The Harvest Is Coming

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.