A very important aspect of the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, one that is easy to overlook, is the wisdom and maturity of the servants. If they had been immature or reckless servants, this parable might have ended in a different way, such as this:
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 then the owner replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.” And one of the slaves answered, “Not me, Master! I know exactly the difference between wheat and weeds!!” And he went out and began to pull out the weeds but some of them turned out to be wheat, just as the Master had foretold.
I think too many Christians today are like such over-zealous servants who cannot tolerate the weeds. In their zeal to serve God, they go on a crusade against anyone they perceive as evil with the intention of cleaning up the church, the nation, or even the world. In the end, they often discover they have made a mistake.
Why then did the farm owner stop the servants from pulling out the weeds? We can think of two reasons.
First, the owner knew that the wheat would survive in spite of the presence of the weeds. The weeds might inconvenience the wheat temporarily but they would not choke them to death or take over the farm. Second, and this is crucial, he knew how difficult it is to distinguish between the wheat and the weeds.
They look so much alike. Only at harvest time could they be distinguished for sure by their fruits. If it were possible to distinguish with accuracy the weeds from the wheat he would probably not have prevented them. But he prevented them for this one reason, “lest in pulling up the weeds you dig up the wheat along with them.”
Jesus then went on to explain to his disciples that “the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one. This makes it clear that one of the lessons of the parable is that Christians don’t have to worry about judging who they think are the “good” or “bad” people of the world. Judging is for later, and judging is for God.
Sometimes, we just must allow what we think as good and evil live side by side in the world until the day when they will be known for sure by their fruits. We may have to be content just let what we think are “good and bad” people live in the same house, the same apartment building, the same convent, the same neighbourhood, the same country and in the same world, for the simple reason that we cannot absolutely identify, without error, who is “good” and who “bad.” That is God’s job.
Of course we all have our ideas of who the good and the bad guys are but, like the servants, we could be wrong. Faithful servants of Jesus are those who recognize this possibility, that they could be wrong, and so are prepared to stop judging. Intolerance, the desire to get rid of who we think might be “bad” people, around us, breeds fanatics who ultimately, end up being unfaithful servants.
Sometimes we spend so much time trying to find and get rid of the weeds, that we lose sight of the wheat. Jesus tells us: don’t worry about judging the weeds and the wheat. God may be alive and working where you and I, today, just cannot see it. Jesus and his angels will separate weeds from wheat.
You and I must work on being, good wheat.
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 then the owner replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.” And one of the slaves answered, “Not me, Master! I know exactly the difference between wheat and weeds!!” And he went out and began to pull out the weeds but some of them turned out to be wheat, just as the Master had foretold.
I think too many Christians today are like such over-zealous servants who cannot tolerate the weeds. In their zeal to serve God, they go on a crusade against anyone they perceive as evil with the intention of cleaning up the church, the nation, or even the world. In the end, they often discover they have made a mistake.
Why then did the farm owner stop the servants from pulling out the weeds? We can think of two reasons.
First, the owner knew that the wheat would survive in spite of the presence of the weeds. The weeds might inconvenience the wheat temporarily but they would not choke them to death or take over the farm. Second, and this is crucial, he knew how difficult it is to distinguish between the wheat and the weeds.
They look so much alike. Only at harvest time could they be distinguished for sure by their fruits. If it were possible to distinguish with accuracy the weeds from the wheat he would probably not have prevented them. But he prevented them for this one reason, “lest in pulling up the weeds you dig up the wheat along with them.”
Jesus then went on to explain to his disciples that “the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one. This makes it clear that one of the lessons of the parable is that Christians don’t have to worry about judging who they think are the “good” or “bad” people of the world. Judging is for later, and judging is for God.
Sometimes, we just must allow what we think as good and evil live side by side in the world until the day when they will be known for sure by their fruits. We may have to be content just let what we think are “good and bad” people live in the same house, the same apartment building, the same convent, the same neighbourhood, the same country and in the same world, for the simple reason that we cannot absolutely identify, without error, who is “good” and who “bad.” That is God’s job.
Of course we all have our ideas of who the good and the bad guys are but, like the servants, we could be wrong. Faithful servants of Jesus are those who recognize this possibility, that they could be wrong, and so are prepared to stop judging. Intolerance, the desire to get rid of who we think might be “bad” people, around us, breeds fanatics who ultimately, end up being unfaithful servants.
Sometimes we spend so much time trying to find and get rid of the weeds, that we lose sight of the wheat. Jesus tells us: don’t worry about judging the weeds and the wheat. God may be alive and working where you and I, today, just cannot see it. Jesus and his angels will separate weeds from wheat.
You and I must work on being, good wheat.
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