A Reflection on Matthew 13:24-30 &36-43

The gospel reading for this past Sunday, taken from Matthew 13:24-30, is commonly referred to as the parable of the wheat and the weeds. You know the story.

A landowner planted wheat in his field but weeds got sown in amongst it by an enemy. The zealous and well-intentioned slaves wanted to weed out all the weeds but the master forbids any pre-harvest weeding for fear that they slaves will unknowingly root out the wheat with the weeds (apparently, this fear was prompted by the fact that the weeds could not be correctly distinguished from the wheat until the time of the harvest, when the difference was obvious by their fruit, a point worthy of further consideration).

What are we to make of this story, particularly of the master’s anti-weeding command, which, for me, is the major point of the parable?

Peter, James, John and the crew were a lot like us. They were excited about the new kingdom that Jesus was heralding, excited about the new way of life that he was espousing, and excited about their place in the new order that he was creating. But also like us, they got excited about judging who was worthy to be in Jesus’ new world order. I can imagine them sitting around and trying to decide who gets to be a part of their crew and who doesn’t. “Don’t let that Samaritan woman in,” I imagine them saying to Jesus, “she is a sinner.” “That guy can’t be a part of our group, he’s an adulterer.” I can even imagine what they would say if they were with us today. “They can’t be a part of our church, they are too different. They are sinful, don’t have the right doctrine…they don’t even know what 728b really means!”

Jesus, however, was not about to be hemmed in by his disciples expectations about who was worthy of his love and acceptance. In fact, I imagine that some of Jesus’ choices for who got to be in the crew were a bit discombobulating for old Peter and the gang; I know it was for his other religious contemporaries – they contemptuously dismissed him as a man who ate with tax collectors and sinners.

But isn’t this the point? The kingdom is not our kingdom, it is God’s kingdom. It is not for us to decide who is a wheat and who is a weed. Sometimes wheat can look like weeds, and sometimes weeds can look like wheat. Jesus seeks to remind us that it is not our job to go weeding in God’s garden. Let God be responsible for making the decision of who is in or out – after all, God is God and he reserves that right for himself. Instead, our job is to simply love all comers.

Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners – he ate with those who looked awful weedy because he knew how special they were in God’s sight. So let the word ring forth that Cahaba Valley is a place that welcomes all people – we will love them all because we were once blind, but now we see…we were once outcast, but now we are home…we once had the smell of weeds about us, but now we are wheat.

Let those who have ears hear.