Title: The Curse of the Weeds
Before loading up the van with kids and luggage for vacation, I quickly looked through the lectionary reading for today. I noticed that the parable in Matthew was familiar—I had tackled it once before, a fresh perspective was in order. This fresh perspective hit me right between the eyes.
The day before leaving, bombs delivered by terrorist shook London to the core. Scenes of carnage, destroyed lives, confusion and chaos looked eerily familiar—a bad dream being played over and over again. Another case of the curse of the weeds taking the form of destructive terrorism.
If that was not enough perspective, I was reading the paper the other day, which has become a recipe for bad news. Yet another suicide bomber struck.
But this time, this madman drove his vehicle into a throng of children who were receiving candy and toys from American soldiers in Iraq.
In a flash, countless children lost—families wailing in grief and disbelief. The world stunned again by the horror of yet another evil act. This curse permeates throughout Iraq in its daily struggle to rid itself from these insurgent weeds.
This ongoing struggle captures the harsh reality of evil spoken of in today’s parable. The curse of the weeds so prevalent among us…
The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat
24He 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 servants 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 servants 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.’”
Here you have a story of a farmer who worked diligently in the field—making sure only the finest wheat was planted. When he was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed seeds along side the wheat.
By the time it was discovered—the weeds and the wheat were growing side by side. At this point, the natural thing to do is root out the weeds. Yank them out and get rid of them.
The servant of the household made the suggestion, but the owner had a much different idea. Let them grow together until the harvest—for we do not want to jeopardize the good wheat by pulling out the weeds.
William Barclay points out “the pictures in this parable would be clear and familiar to a Palestinian audience. For farmers, they battle the dreaded bearded darnel, which the weed was called.
And it would not be out of the realm of their experience to be victimized by someone bent on destroying another man’s crop out of vengeance. There were laws in the land written to protect against such crimes.
One interesting fact about this parable is that the bearded darnel weed and wheat cannot be distinguished until the head of the grain is exposed. By the time one distinguished between the two, the roots are so intertwined that the weeds cannot be rooted out without removing the wheat.
Barclay informs us that the grain of the bearded darnel is slightly poisonous. It causes dizziness and sickness and is narcotic in its effects, and even a small amount has a bitter and unpleasant taste. What does this reveal about the nature of evil?
First, it seems to suggest that evil can be an external reality—a hostile power eager to contaminate the good wheat growing in good soil—an enemy ready to infiltrate and corrupt when one least expects it.
It’s the analogy of those London commuters hopping unto a train to go to work like any other day, only to encounter an explosive act of terror ripping apart any sense of security and normalcy.
It seems killer weeds can crop up anywhere—no place appears to be safe. Like the darnel weeds, these Killer weeds are difficult to recognize and almost impossible to stop. What can one do? That’s the perplexing question…
A colleague made this comment about the parable… “It’s a frustrating story, weeds and wheat together. But it’s also real. You raise your children, and you pray for them. Your take them to worship — you surround them with good friends, good influences.
And then they go off to school, and they come home with words that you hoped they’d never hear. And they experience a world of extramarital affairs and uncommitted relationships where rape, abuse of drugs and alcohol are common. And it’s like wheat being surrounded by weeds.
It’s real, and what we would pray to God is this: “Take the weeds away!” Take away the evil and the temptations and the anxieties. Pull those weeds. Take away the wars and the human hunger.
Take away the divisions between humanity. Yes, our prayer would be no less than Jesus’ prayer, “Father, if it be your will, take this cup from me ....”
But the kingdom of God is here on earth and wheat and weeds grow side by side, lest in pulling out the weeds we disrupt the wheat as well. Weeds and wheat — growing side by side. We are not afforded a monastery —where we could get away from the problems of this world.
And our church does not give us the option of saying, “This one stays, but this one goes.” “Judgment is mine, says the Lord.” So where does this leave us? Wheat, weeds, together.
We all witness daily painful reminders, that none of us can completely isolate ourselves from the far-reaching destructive tentacles of evil.
As the parable suggest, some forms of evil cannot be easily distinguished from the good. There is often an insidious subtlety about the nature of evil—which cannot be easily detected.
For example, the London suicide bombers surely did not fit the profile—they were completely off the radar screen of prospective terrorist. No prior record, no known connection to terrorist groups…but in the end
They were willing to die for some helter-skelter religious and political ideology that offers the promise of eternal rewards for taking and destroying the lives of others. This act of terror was done in the name of the worst kind of evil. It’s my opinion that Jihad is just another name for killer weeds.
Sadly, the curse of the weeds grows, grows and grows—the fields of every Nation are vulnerable to its destructive ways. The parable stresses that the reality of evil co-exist and thrive right along side with the good wheat—sharing the same soil—even intertwined with the good roots of the wheat—making it very difficult to separate out the good from the bad until the harvest.
Troubling reality—that no spiritual weed killer can be applied to take care of the problem. We want life to look more like a manicured lawn—with picture perfect flowerbeds. Weeds are not welcomed in our picturesque view of what we want the world to be!
When killer weeds rear their ugly head, we yearn for justice today? We want to eradicate these pesky weeds from messing up our lives and the lives of others? We want a solution to these perplex problems!
The ongoing war on terrorism has and will tax every nation. Battles will be won but can such a war be won clearly and decisively. The wisdom of Scripture seems to suggest otherwise.
Yet, the interpretation of the parable paints a picture of a cosmic and earthly battle between good and evil. We are told, there will be day of reckoning—a Day of Judgment—God will have the final say.
Unabashed evil will not go unchecked—justice and righteousness will prevail—enemies of God will be tried, sentenced and brought to judgment. Let’s listen to Jesus explanation in verse 36...
Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds
36Then 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!
In the sovereign reign of God—we would expect nothing less than a day of vindication. Yet, this does not take away the sting from the long reaching tentacles of evil—but this is the way it’s going to be—though not the way we would have designed it or wanted it.
Nonetheless, we should not remove ourselves too quickly from the truth, which lies below the soil of this parable. We cannot be to quick to separate ourselves from the real evildoers—those who commit the crimes and do the time.
Though we recognize evil and it many manifestations on a large scale—it’s in our daily living that we must own up to our human frailties clothed by our sinful nature. Even the best of families—
Those who have the best of intentions are not immune from exposure to the contaminants and pollutants inherent in the living environment, which our lives are rooted. Good wheat exposed to the gnarly presence of sinful weeds.
Scott Peck, author of the Road less Traveled wrote a compelling book called “People of the Lie.” A powerfully insightful book, which looks at evil under the microscope.
One of the key points he brought out, was that people who cannot or do not recognize their sinful nature are the one’s who tend to perpetuate evil. Evil thrives in a state of denial—perpetuated by deception and lies—thus the title of the book.
Evil acted out in what the Scriptures define as sin thrives under the guise of self-justification for every action—protecting one’s self interest at all cost.
Peck wrote, “What is so great about feeling down about yourself—about having a guilty sense of personal sin? This surely flies in the face of the feel good prosperity Gospel, which people clamor to hear.
Yet, let us remember the plight of the Pharisees. They were the spiritual fat cats of Jesus day. They did not feel humble in spirit.
They felt they had it all together. They were the ones who knew the score—who deserved to be the culture leaders in Jerusalem and Palestine.
And they were the one’s who ordered and demanded that Jesus be executed. The humble in spirit refrain from such acts of evil. Typically, people who feel uncertain about their righteousness, who question their own motives, who worry about betraying themselves, do not commit such acts of evil—though not immune from sin.
The atrocities of evil committed are often the Pharisees of our own day, the self-righteous who think they are without sin defending some self proclaimed noble cause—unwilling to suffer the discomfort of significant self-examination.
Unpleasant though it may, it’s this strong sense of our sinful nature that precisely keeps our sin from becoming a weed-infested garden. Though painful at times—a conscious under God is relegated by a healthy dosage of humility and a much needed slap of guilt to get our attention.
As Scott Peck reiterates, “this is the safe guard against our proclivity for evil. Our conscious under God is the moral guide, which not only identifies the weeds growing in our soul, but also provides a remedy to remove them.
The poet Samuel Coleridge had a conversation with a man who believed that children should receive no formal religious instruction---in fact children should be free to choose, under no influence from adults, their own religion when they reach adulthood.
Coleridge did not openly disagree, but he later invited the man into his rather unkempt garden. “You call this a garden?” the visitor exclaimed. “There are nothing but weeds here!”
“Well, you see,” Coleridge replied, “I did not wish to infringe upon the liberty of the garden in any way. I was just giving the garden a chance to express itself and to choose its own production.”
The parable--Left to our own vices without God—the curse of the weeds will appear and overrun our lives and choke off the good wheat.
J.R.R Tolkein, famous writer leaves us with this profound thought. “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.
What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” In essence we have a moral responsibility to uproot the weeds in the spiritual field of our lives—the evil that we can control and leave the rest…the harvest (judgment) to God.
In the sovereign mystery of God, God indeed has the final say, in all matters under the sun—that’s the way it should be. That’s the way it is…
