No Need to Weed…
05.05.24
“Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.” Matthew 13:24-29
Anyone that has spent any time trying to manage a garden knows the never-ending battle that comes every Summer… The gardener vs weeds. Even thought you might feel like you’ve won a few battles… you will never win the war. In the words of the Old Testament prophets, in Jesus’ words in his parables, and even the picture we are given for God’s design from Genesis to Revelation, is a flourishing garden. In the above parable, Jesus says what everyone knows about gardens, the need to weed. But Jesus, as he made a career out of doing, turns things upside down and gives us a new and holy perspective on this problem.
In these parables, weeds are used to illustrate the powers of sin that are at work in the world. The impact of sin is felt through people’s willful or ignorant allegiances to sin. When someone gives in to sin, like weeds, it impacts the flourishing of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Weeds take up space, use up resources, and (if ignored long enough) can prevent good plants to no longer thrive. So, if a gardener sees a weed, they know their priority is to get rid of it (by any means necessary.)
With our understanding of weeds, and the patterns of kingdoms of this world, it is almost natural for us to assume the same for sinners. If I have identified someone as a sinner (or MORE of a sinner than me) it is time for them to go. This type of thinking about others does exactly the opposite of how Jesus tells us to live. We are to LOVE our enemies and PRAY for those who persecute us. That is what we see in this parable.
Skye Jethani says this about this parable… “Jesus is telling us not to pass final judgement or declare a person irretrievably guilty. Citizens of God’s kingdom are called to discern but never devalue… discernment is essential to distinguish the wheat from the weeds. However, uprooting and destroying weeds is not our role… to condemn a person means to declare them worthless; to say they do not matter to anyone including God… when we become zealous in our condemnation of others, we unknowingly condemn ourselves.”
Does this mean that it doesn’t matter how we live or that we should live with an attitude that “only God can judge”? Not exactly… God’s will is still the destruction of sin and establishment of a holy kingdom. It doesn’t make much sense to claim Jesus is Lord and encourage living out ways that God promises have no place in eternity. Instead, I think scripture points to us living our lives in such a way that we are fruitful even in the midst of the weeds. If the Church continues to embody the love of Jesus, we will grow both deeper and wider in the impact of our good deeds and leave less room for sin to take root. The fact is, the easiest land for weeds to take over are the ones void of anything else.
When talking about the realities of sin in this world, our takeaway from this parable is this: God is the gardener, not us. So, our role is not to be concerned with the presence of weeds. Our role is to receive all that we can from the Hand of God (Jesus) and do exactly what we were planted (created) to do. Grow and bear fruit.