Weed-Pullers or Grace-Givers?

"Let both of them grow together until the harvest..."  - Matthew 13:30

Jesus was a storyteller. His stories (parables) emerged out of the fabric ordinary life. He told stories about lost sheep, lost coins, lost children; travelers on dangerous roads; great banquets; seeds and soil; hidden treasures; merchants and pearls; nets and fish.  Jesus began many of his stories not with “Once upon a time…” but with the phrase, “The kingdom of God (heaven) is like …’”

I need to say a word about the phrase “kingdom of heaven.”  In Mark and Luke Jesus always says “Kingdom of God” and in Matthew Jesus always says “Kingdom of Heaven.” The two are interchangeable.  The reason for the difference is that Matthew, writing his gospel to a mainly Jewish congregation substituted “heaven” for the word “God” because many Jews considered it irreverent to say God’s name aloud. 

 Also, “kingdom of God” is not merely a reference to an afterlife – that’s a gross misunderstanding. Its meaning is far more down-to-earth.  The people to whom Jesus primarily spoke, the peasant and poorest classes, would have heard the word “kingdom” in a very different way that we hear the word “kingdom.”  When we 21^st century people hear the word “kingdom” it probably conjures up something like Disney’s Enchanted Magic Kingdom or the realm of fairy tales.

 But in Jesus’ time “kingdom” was a word that carried heavy political baggage. Kingdom” referred to the oppressive political system under which the people lived; a collaboration between the powerful Roman Empire and the native wealthy elites, which included the leaders of the temple in Jerusalem. 

 So, when Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God his hearers would have been immediately aware of a contrast.  They lived under the Kingdom of Herod and Caesar.  They knew and experienced first hand how harsh and cruel life could be living under their domination.  Jesus came along and taught about a different paradigm for life – a different vision for the way God meant life to be – called the Kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God was what life would be like on earth if God were king and the rulers of this world were not.  The Kingdom of God was ultimately about God’s passion for justice and shalom to take root in this world in contrast to the systemic injustices bred by the rulers of Rome and their collaborators. 

 In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus said pray, “Our Father... Thy kingdom come.”   He didn’t teach “Our Father, remove us from this harsh world and whisk us into heaven.”  On the contrary he taught, “Thy kingdom come… on earth…”   The kingdom of God was God’s vision for this life and this world.

 So today we hear Jesus tell a story- that the Kingdom of God is like a great field that has been sowed with good wheat seed.  But something went very wrong.  While everyone was sleeping an enemy was sneaking around in the field sowing bad seed – weed seed.  After awhile when the seeds were ripening into mature grain, the weeds appeared as well.  When the servants saw the weeds among the wheat they went to the master and questioned him as to the origin of the weeds.  The master told them it was the result of the work of an enemy.  The workers assume the master would want them to immediately go to work in that precious field and pull out all those weeds and save the wheat!   But the master stopped them dead in their tracks, and told them, in no uncertain terms, that pulling the weeds would also uproot much of the wheat; the good with the bad would be lost.  “Let it go,” he said, until the harvest.  They would be separated then. 

 The word used for “weeds” in this parable is significant - in Greek zizania.  Zizania was not just any weed, but it was a weed that so closely resembled wheat it was hard to distinguish from the wheat. It wasn’t until the wheat ripened that the difference became discernable.  By that time it was too intertwined with the wheat to pull it out.

This story metaphorically illustrates that, in the world, the weeds and wheat (good and bad) grow very close together, and even become intertwined, and often are impossible to distinguish from one another.  By trying to eradicate what we perceive is bad, we run the serious risk of jeopardizing much that is good. 

In Jesus day there were religious people who attempted to discern the difference between the wheat and the weeds and lived their lives on that basis. They weren’t bad people. They took God’s law very seriously, and were committed to living according to their understanding of God’s law. Some withdrew from mainline society to live the desert. (Essenes)  Others remained a part of the social structure but lived in a way that separated them from others. They were called Pharisees and they were the disciplined religious people.  They lived as though they could discern between the wheat and the weeds.  They had disdain for Jesus and his followers because, in their view for a variety of reasons, Jesus’ disciples more resembled nasty weeds, than good wheat.

For me there is a powerful contemporary parallel.  We all face a huge temptation that is easy to cave in to.  I see Christians living as though they have special insight into the weeds and the wheat. I have heard Christians literally write off as weedy infestations, whole nations and various groups of people including, undocumented workers, gay and lesbian persons, people of various national, racial, and ethnic origins, as well as political persuasions. I hear language used that categorizes, pigeon-holes and oversimplifies a complex and ambiguous world.  (examples:  "illegal aliens"  "axis of evil")

So Jesus comes along with his little story and makes the stupendous and scandalous suggestion that the way his followers should deal with much of what might be perceived to be weedy infestations is to “let” them be!   The farmer told his workers in no uncertain terms, “No.”  It’s too ambiguous - too intertwined - too complicated.  If you start pulling up wholesale what you perceive to be the weeds, you are going to pull up a whole lot of goodness right along with it. He told them they simply were not capable of that kind of discernment.  In other words when it’s hard to tell, defer to grace.  (And the point is, "It's hard to tell.")

“Let them grow together,” says the master in Jesus story.  The Greek word for “let” is “aphete,” and it’s a very interesting word.  It can mean “to allow” or “to permit.”  But in the New Testament when that very same word is applied to debts, sins or trespasses, in the English it translates out to “forgive.”  When it’s hard to tell, defer to grace!  

 What is true about the weeds and wheat growing together in the field of the outer world is also true of the inner world.  Perhaps a lack of recognition of this truth lies at the root of many of our world’s problems?  I don’t know what it’s like for you and your inner world, but when I look at the inner field of my life I see both wheat and weeds growing side by side.

I see the wheat of humility, but I also see the weeds of self-righteousness growing nearby.

I see the wheat of compassion for those who suffer, but I also see the weed of apathy and indifference.

I see the wheat of generosity, but I also see the weed of self-indulgence.

I see the wheat of true honesty growing next to the weeds of duplicity.

I see the wheat of forgiveness intermingled with the weeds of the anger that withholds forgiveness.

I see the wheat of confession growing among a patch of weedy excuses.

You see that’s where this parable finally gets highly personal - cuts to the quick - gets in the soul and rattles things around a bit.  In confessing that I’m both wheat and weeds, I know that I cannot sufficiently weed my field to satisfy God’s demands, let alone the field of the outer world!

So what am I to do?  So what are we to do? To whom can we turn?  We turn to the Divine Weed Puller, our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who defers to grace – even and especially when it comes to you and me. 

We could say that Jesus’ cross stands in the middle of the great wheat field: the wheat field of the outer world and the wheat field of the inner world.  Through the grace that flows from that cross God removes the weeds. God floods the field with grace, and in so doing he calls us, as his followers, to abandon the whole vain enterprise of trying to be heroic being weed-eaters and weed-pullers, and calls us to walk on his path of being grace-givers.