Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43

One of the reasons why I love living where we do is due to its rural locality. We’re close to the earth, close to the rhythms of the seasons and we see the patterns of the farming year as it changes with the dictates of those seasons. So for us, perhaps this parable makes more sense than it might if, say, we were part of an urban church community? And it was the same context, I guess, which explains why Jesus chose to use the analogy in this, the middle of three parables with a similar theme in Matthew 13, of a farmer: so many of the crowd listening to him could relate in their own lives to what he was saying.

And what’s he talking about? Weeds! In this parable, they’re in the wheat but for those of us who have a garden, I’ll bet you’re battling with weeds at the moment. I’ve got them everywhere, but I have to say that in some respects, I’ve made a rod for my own back! Because some so-called weeds are very pretty and I can’t bring myself to pull them up, so I’m tiptoeing through what seems like a field of poppies that is growing in the path at the back of the house as well as wood violets, daisies, aquilegia, Japanese anemones…. I take comfort from the saying that ‘a weed is just a flower growing in the wrong place..’ But like the farmer in the parable, I’m going to wait and see for a while longer, before I decide what can stay and what must go because, as the farmer wisely tells his servants, if they pull the weeds up while the crop is growing, they might pull up the good wheat as well and so both would be destroyed, just as I might pull up a well-loved flower which I have chosen to plant as well as all those that have got ideas of their own…

Back to the parable, and a word of farming explanation: the most likely weed sown by ‘the enemy’ is bearded darnel. Often translated as ‘tares’ in older Bibles, it’s a poisonous grass that is native to the Middle East and it acts as a perfect botanical metaphor in this parable. It was highly feared in the ancient Near East due to several key factors that perfectly align with Jesus’ story: first, not only is it poisonous but it also has a deceptive appearance – in its early stages of growth, darnel looks almost identical to wheat and it is nearly impossible for even experienced farmers to tell the two apart until the plants mature and produce grain heads. Also the roots entangle – as they grow in the same soil, the root systems of darnel and wheat intertwine tightly. Pulling up the weeds prematurely risks uprooting the delicate wheat plants alongside them. But when both are mature, then is the time to harvest the lot and separate the poisonous darnel from the productive wheat because at maturity, it will be clear which is which.

So we wait…. and I think that that is where this parable is leading us. Jesus is telling his disciples that God works in God’s time, not human – or ‘the world’s’ time, so let’s think of that field as representing God’s Kingdom and of ourselves not only as the crop that God has sowed, with all the good and loving things that we do as we mature but also that we mustn’t forget the weeds. We know that we are capable of doing nasty things – mean or selfish things, horrible things that entwine our good intentions and seem to try to bring us down, to harm us and our spiritual development. That’s the work of ‘the evil one’ and, although it might seem counterintuitive, God allows it to be so because we need time to mature. If we look back on our lives, we can see how we’ve changed, how we’ve matured – emotionally, spiritually – and it takes time. It takes time to experience all the marvellous and dreadful things that can happen to us and it takes time to be able to process them in a way that is going to lead us closer to, or away from, our loving Creator, who wisely and patiently tends us as we grow. We need time to recognise our weaknesses and repent of them – turn away from them – in ourselves, through God’s grace, starving the weeds, not allowing the ‘evil one’ to sabotage what God has sown.

As one commentator has said, ‘The devil doesn’t want God to allow this to be so. The intent of the sabotage plan was to get God to try to take vindictive action immediately and damage the Kingdom growth in the process. Instead, God, as the master farmer, trusts his long plan of redemption and will suffer the present sabotage efforts because his plan includes dealing with the bad seed, with finality, on judgement day.’

In preparing for this reflection, I came across a sermon on this parable by the Revd Mike Marsh, whose work I have sometimes quoted. He related an old Chinese story:

‘Once upon a time there was a farmer who lost a horse. It ran away. His neighbours came that evening and said, “That’s unfortunate.” And the farmer said, “Maybe.”

The next day the horse returned and brought with it seven wild horses. The neighbours came back and said, “That’s great, isn’t it?” And the farmer said, “Maybe.”

The next day the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses when he was thrown and broke his leg. Again, the neighbours came to the farmer and said, “Well, that’s too bad, isn’t it?” And the farmer said, “Maybe.”

The next day the conscription officers came looking for people for the army but they rejected the farmer’s son because he had a broken leg. The neighbours came around that evening and said, “Isn’t that wonderful?” And the farmer said, “Maybe.” ‘

‘Maybe’.. is what we’re doing or thinking helpful or harmful? Is it wheat or weed? As I’ve found in my garden, sometimes it’s difficult to tell. There’s a saying – ‘the road to Hell is paved with good intentions’…it’s so hard sometimes to know if we’re helping or harming and there are so many ‘maybe’ times. Every time I’m sure I know the answer to someone else’s problems …do I? Or is that my immature judgement? Maybe I was wrong, maybe they’re right… So I’m very thankful that God works in God’s time and is leaving me to mature until God chooses the time for harvest because I reckon I need all the time that God is willing to give me!

To return to Jesus’s parable: if at first we feel surprise, that the farmer doesn’t remove the threat to the wheat until the harvest, then perhaps we need to trust that the farmer actually knows what he’s doing. Because this parable isn’t a lesson on how we approach evil in the world, it’s about being able to comprehend the bigger picture of the reality that the Kingdom is already here: as Jesus said, ‘the kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke 17) but evil is still present—and will be until God decides in his loving mercy to call his harvest home..

Gerry Ewan (worship leader)