Appropriate for the prolificness of the garden right now, we are in the agrarian parables section of the Gospel. Chapter thirteen of Matthew is all plant parables all the time. Last week we heard the parable of the sower and Jesus’ subsequent explanation of the parable to his disciples. The parable itself focused on the expansive nature of the sower, who throws seeds with abandon and though the seeds faced hurdles still they produced grain a hundredfold, sixty, thirty. But to the disciples, though Jesus still called it “the Parable of the Sower,” he focused much more on the places the seeds landed, challenging the disciples to focus less on where the seeds were sown and more on the ground that was to receive them. What kind of soil are you, Jesus seemed to be asking the disciples, and in the ministry you have been about, what kind of soil are you creating?
What kind of soil are you is undoubtedly a great question because it challenges us the disciples of Jesus to consider whether or not we are creating space in our own lives for the kingdom of God to grow. But it can also be a dangerous question, inviting us also to consider, and make judgments about, the kind of soil others are creating in their own lives. And Jesus used parables to disrupt the categories in which his disciples saw the world. So it seems right in Jesus’ pattern to follow up a parable about considering categories with this parable about confusing them.
After explaining the parable of the sower to his disciples, Jesus followed up by putting before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field…” Now, as a fun fact for future reading, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to” becomes Jesus’ signature start to telling a parable. “May be compared to” is not a direct connection: this is this. Rather it speaks to the expansiveness of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus spoke in parables because these multi-faceted stories captured more in fewer words than a direct statement ever could. But even parables, with their various entries of meaning, are not broad enough for the depth and the breadth and the majesty of the kingdom of heaven. So Jesus used many parables to give windows into this grace. Explanations and parables of the kingdom of heaven are like the difference between describing the Grand Canyon, photos and video, and actually standing at the rim looking down into the expanse. Descriptions give a bit, photos and videos tell even more, but only by standing and peering into it can you begin to comprehend just how little you can know.
In this parable, Jesus told of a farmer who sowed good seed in his field. But when the plants grew up, it was discovered that someone had come and sown weeds among the wheat. Most commentaries agree the “weeds” in this parable are probably a plant called darnel. Darnel is a plant that is common in the same growing climate as wheat, and it is tricky because it looks almost exactly like wheat as it grows. The difference is only really clear at the very end of the harvest when the wheat stalks develop heads of grain and bend. So the farmer’s concern that the slaves would pull out the wheat with the weeds was legitimate, it really would have been next to impossible at such an early stage in the plant’s development to tell the two apart. He could have rid his field of the weeds, but would have lost much of his harvest in the process, way more of his harvest than if he allowed the plants to grow up together and dealt with the problem at the end. Unlike the sower in the first parable, who seemed to not understand good agricultural practice, this one seems to make sense.
So again the disciples pulled Jesus aside and were like, OK, now explain this one to us. And again, Jesus rattled off the analogies. The sower of the seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of heaven; the weeds are the children of the evil one, the enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Jesus doesn’t say it, but I think we can imply then that if Jesus is the sower of the good seed, then the slaves of the household, the ones who wanted to go out and weed all the bad out of the field, are the disciples. Especially coming on the tails of the parable of the sower and the questions about the kinds of soil. So I think it’s interesting that Jesus tells a parable to tell the disciples about how they are not to weed the field. Yes, there are weeds amidst the wheat, but you can’t tell the difference so just leave it all alone and it will all turn out just fine.
This is great advice because we humans really don’t have great track records when it comes to being able to tell what is good from what is bad. Think about our relationship with the Law. God was like, you folk are going to have some trouble getting along, so here are some laws to help you all play nice with each other. And we humans are like, great, thanks God. You’re right, the law is super helpful. See I’m following it and you’re not so you can’t be my friend, and you can’t be my friend, and you can’t be my friend… The wheat / weeds parable offers an important corrective to the disciple’s natural tendency to get distracted from the abundance of the sower to concern about the soil. You are too rocky, you can’t be my friend, you are too thorny, you can’t be my friend, you are too birdy, you can’t be my friend, I and I alone must be the good soil. Good thing Jesus has me, since I am so great!
Now, don’t get me wrong, there will be a judgment. Jesus was quite clear about that in both the parable and the explanation of the parable. There will be a judgment, but we are not the ones who do the judging. Notice that while Jesus did not come out and directly say who the slaves of the household were, he was very clear about the reapers. The reapers are not the disciples; the reapers are the angels. The slaves of the household, whom I think we are to assume are the disciples, are specifically told NOT to try and separate the weeds from the wheat, but to let them all grow together. To tend the weeds as well as the wheat, for only by doing that could they ensure a good harvest for the reapers.
And here’s another cool thing I was thinking about with this whole don’t weed but tend angle that Jesus seemed to be giving the disciples. Now, bear in mind, I’m from the city, and my agricultural knowledge is limited, but if the land was very well tended, it seems like it could stand to reason that the wheat could overcome and choke out the weeds. The thorns did it in the parable of the sower, because they had a head start on the seed. But if the two started together, why couldn’t the wheat win? Again, not a farmer, but I did a little bit of research on this, AKA I Googled it, and there is such a thing as no-till farming and it seems to sort of be that. So I wonder if the message for Jesus to us the disciples is don’t worry about the judging, because you’re just not very good at that. But tend everyone equally, love everyone, care for everyone, and the good seed will thrive. In fact, it may even grow so hearty that it chokes out some of the weeds on it own. People of God, there is good work for us to be doing in the fields of the kingdom, we are to care for the crop.
But there’s even good news for us in the judgment. Especially as we read this from our Lutheran worldview. One of the key principles of Lutheran theology is this idea of saint and sinner. As Lutherans, we believe that no one is every truly a saint, truly right with God in every way, but neither is any one ever truly evil and always on the wrong side. Instead each of us is both saint and sinner, one-hundred percent of both, all of the time. Which means that in the parable, we can see not just the world but also ourselves as the field. The Son of Man sowed good seed in us, but because of sin, because even though Jesus justified us, made us right by God through grace, we are still in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves, there is still weeds that grow in us. It’s not like we were baptized and then we never again did anything wrong, ever. That’s why we start our worship with confession and forgiveness every Sunday, it’s why we end each worship by gathering around the table, it’s why Luther encouraged us to remember our baptism daily. We do this because we need to remember every day that there are weeds in us, to identify those weeds, and to give thanks to God for forgiving us and helping us to root out those weeds, that we might be more able to shine like the sun with the righteousness that God has created in us.
But even with all this, even with confession and forgiveness, with communion, with remembering our baptism, with prayer and community and with effort, those weeds within us are persistent. Just a couple weeks ago we heard that super complicated sentence from Paul, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” This continual struggle of self-improvement can be exhausting. And so, I don’t know about you, but it feels like some pretty good news to hear that in the end, God will send the reapers to get rid of the weeds. That my failed attempts to curb my pride, my anxiety, my need to judge, all these frustrating and negative parts of myself that I cannot seem to manage, that in the end God knows I cannot weed them out my own, and God will remove them from me, that I may shine like the sun in the kingdom. Maybe this is further proof of my judgmental weediness, but there’s something super satisfying about thinking about the petty judgmental part of myself weeping and gnashing its teeth while my better self, my stronger self, my real self is finally free from its power.
And so, dear people of God, dear servants of the household, tend the field you have been given. Labor in love over every plant in your presence, even if you suspect it might in fact be a weed, because we don’t have a great track record on telling these things apart. And even if it is, we can be a bit ham-handed with these things and will very well pull out the good with the bad. The good work God has for us, the work which God created us to do, is to tend the whole field, to nourish it, to care for it, and to watch it grow. Tend the field, and do not get discouraged when no matter how carefully you tend, the weeds still sneak in. Acknowledge, repent, hear God’s promise of forgiveness and get to the work of tending again. Because there will be a harvest, and God will send harvesters way more skilled then us, who will carefully separate the weeds from this good harvest, and we will indeed shine like the sun. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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