Pentecost 10 – 2026
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Marian Free
In the name of God who holds all people in God’s heart – the good, the bad, the lovely and the unlovely, the deserving and the undeserving. Amen.
To me, the Bible is endlessly fascinating. It is so complex and varied that every time one reads it, it can reveal new insights, or connections that you hadn’t noticed before. Thus, having seen the parable of the sower with new eyes I can see that there is a connection between this and the one that follows – the wheat and the tares (most likely darnell, a grain that is very much like wheat.
There are seven parables in this chapter and it seems that Matthew may have grouped them according to their broad themes. They are the parables of the sower, of the weeds and the tares (inclusion), the parables about the mustard seed and the yeast (unseen growth), the parables about the hidden treasure, the precious pearl (value) and the fishing net (which stands alone). With the exception of the parable of the sower they all begin: “The kingdom of heaven is like.” It is important therefore to try to understand what Jesus is saying about the kingdom rather than trying to find a way to apply the parables to ourselves, to our behaviour or to the present situation.
The number of parables should in themselves tell us that the kingdom of heaven cannot be easily described or defined by a single image, but that it is significantly unlike anything we can truly comprehend that it must be described in a multitude of different ways.
For the moment, we have two parables about sowing and harvesting. Today’s parable of the wheat and the tares presents a very different picture from that of the sower with which the chapter began yet it makes something of the same point – God’s all-embracing, non-discriminatory, unconditional love includes all people. There are also significant differences between the two parables. For example, the farmer in this second parable is richer (he has slaves) and he is much more thoughtful. The field in this instance has been carefully prepared and the seed sown where it will grow not scattered carelessly. The problem is not that the seed lands where it has no hope of growing, but that an external agent has sabotaged the crop by planting weeds among the wheat. There are weeds in both parables, but in the second they play a completely different role in that they do not choke out the wheat but can grow alongside it.
So, Jesus is describing a careful, rich sower, an enemy and the seemingly irrational decision to allow the weeds to grow alongside the wheat and to harvest the plants together. The shock factor lies here. No experienced farmer would allow the darnell to grow. Wheat and darnell (which is the most obvious candidate for the weed) are difficult to distinguish once grown. In fact, darnell is deadly poisonous, and if the darnell seed contaminates the wheat the ground wheat becomes unusable. What is more, allowing the darnell to grow and seed leaves open the possibility that the darnell will spout next year and the year after and the year after. Allowing the two plants to grow together is a much bigger problem than at first appears.
There is a tendency for us to focus on the end of the parable, the burning of the weeds. It can be used (as can the parable of the sower) as an excuse for us to try to distinguish between people, to make a guess as to whom God will or will not condemn. Believing that the end is the point of the parable, allows us to take a certain amount of satisfaction in concluding that those who have hurt us (or others) will get their just deserts (while we, of course, will emerge unscathed). But is that the primary point of the parable, is that the thing that pulls us up short and makes us rethink the way we view the world, the way we understand the kingdom? Surely the shock value lies, not in the harvest, but in the initial, unwise (unthinkable) decision to allow the two plants to grow together until harvest?
Scott Hoetze writing for the Centre for Excellence in Preaching points out that the farmer knows that the weeds are not a threat to the wheat but that the wheat is perfectly capable of growing to maturity alongside the weeds. The issue, he suggests is not the weeds, but how we react to the weeds[1]. Do we, like the slaves wish to preemptively pull up the weeds? Are we so keen to judge between the good and the bad, those who are up to standard and those who are not? Are we sufficiently arrogant as to believe that our careful weeding will ensure an harmonious, bland, devoid of anything or anyone that falls short of our concept of the kingdom? Are we so blind to our own imperfections that we believe that we are entitled to remain while others deserve to be removed? Do we really think that we are in a position to know who is within the scope of God’s love and concern?
Just as the wheat and the darnell are allowed to grow together, so God gives each one of us room to grow, allowing us to change and mature, to draw closer to God and to allow ourselves to be more fully formed into the image of God. The weeds (which may describe us) are not torn out because it is God’s place, not ours, to make the distinction. We are not, and cannot be, the judge of others. Ultimately only God can truly see the good in them and the bad in us.
Just as God keeps throwing the seed with wild abandon, so God is willing to wait until the end to make the decision as to who might or might not be discarded. In the meantime we will all grow together as best we can and with whatever cards have been dealt us.
[1] https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2020-07-13/matthew-1324-30-36-43-2/
Swallowsrest 
Leave a comment