Matthew 13: Wheat and Weeds

This is the first in a series of posts to examine three parables from Matthews 13. Much of the material in these posts is based on the International Bible Series lesson I used to teach Sunday school at Annual Conference.

Matthew 13: 24-30

²⁴ He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵ but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷ 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?’ ²⁸ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let 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.’”

Wheat and Weeds – This is sometimes referred to as the parable of the wheat and tares. A tare is a destructive weed that looks similar to wheat in its early development. Those listening at the time would have understood that they would had trouble discerning the weeds from the wheat because of that.

What are your thoughts about this parable?

It is often preached or taught in a way that leads to three conclusions:

• The preacher and hearer self-identify with the wheat.
• It provides the faithful with permission to judge not only the identity and source of the weeds, but also their ultimate and certain doom.
• It provides counsel to be patient with the self-satisfied certainty that we will be saved and THEY will be burned.

What are your thoughts about that interpretation?

The author of the teacher’s book suggests that we might use the parable as a comparison to church (not as it was originally written, but in a way that we might apply it today). There are those in the church who follow Micah’s instructions – to justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God. And there are those who deliberately harm others – gossip, backbiting, competition, anger or selfish and hurtful behavior. And there are those who are apathetic, and do nothing. And yet we live together.

Questions:

• Are we always the wheat or always the weed? If this is seen as an illustration of a church, then can people change?
• Can we always tell the difference? Are we ever wrong?
• God’s time is the best time – God will sort it out in the end. We believe this to be the case, then what might that mean? Is there an opportunity for God to make changes among us? How does that happen? What is our role?
• If this is calling for patient endurance, then how do we believers wait with patient endurance? What does that look like? What are some examples of endurance and tolerance in the church and in the wider world? (calls for patience with God’s people – how hard is that?)

One of the commentaries I read said this is not a parable about the origin of evil, but is instead one of ethics. We can look at this parable as a reflection of the world as it is. There is good and there is that which seeks to stop what is good. In other words, pure intentions always have to contend with unpure. So the ethical question is what do we do in the face of evil?

Questions: Do we do nothing?  If doing nothing is not the answer, then:

• How do we discern what to do? How can we take action – be the light of Christ in the world – while mercifully withholding judgment?
• Since we cannot always predict the consequences of our actions, how do we avoid unintended consequences?

For example, when the flooding happened in 2016, there were people who wanted to send clothes to the relief effort. These people had lost everything, and surely they needed my extra clothes. But when you spoke to relief workers, clothes were the last things that were needed. They were a burden - and that was certainly an unintended consequence of good work.

One of the ways we can demonstrate the love of Christ is by listening. Listen to those who are in mission work, and then supply what they ask for. Listen to those we are serving, and then serve in the way they need.