There is always so much more to a Jesus parable than the surface meaning. The story of the weeds and the wheat is classic. It forces us all to think about much larger social issues than the farmer’s plantings. A few queries:
- The writers of Matthew’s gospel consistently over-explain Jesus’s meaning. Beware and simplify to get the point. Is it God’s point?
-Check to see whether this parable is reported by other gospel writers. It is NOT. It is unique to Matthew. This is significant, largely because Matthew is the gospel with the strongest agenda about “selling” Jesus’ ideas to Jews.
-Focus on the primary words attributed to Jesus—the basics, not the explanatory elaborations directed to the disciples alone in private. This story is told as an image of the Kingdom of Heaven—God’s territory and charge, that is not the “heaven” we speak of after death. It is NOW.
-Think economics: farm workers (laborers) who work for a “Boss” aka God who is in charge of this kingdom. They naturally worry about the wellbeing of the seeds they plant, the crops that represent their livelihood (Business)
-Heroes of story = farmers (suppliers/supply) and good wheat (product in demand) Think Ukrainian imports in 2023. Think starvation as a looming worldwide threat in 2023.
-Villains = weeds that grow up alongside the wheat, quite a natural process.
-Questions posed: what do we do about the evil weed, evil deeds? It is THEY (humanity not God) who think a secret “enemy” has sowed weeds among their wheat. THEY are sure that THEY should pull up and destroy these weeds as evil enemies.
-Jesus says STOP. Let this unholy mess grow together until the harvest when God will do the decision-making—not us.
What is the central wisdom this parable conveys? The simple NO from Jesus to so many of our human assumptions about morality: what and who is good, and what and who is evil, then creating an EITHER/OR tension—not to mention foolhardy assumptions that any one person or any one group or religion knows God’s will.
Therefore: Biblical Wisdom is not based in morality alone; it is spiritual, mobile, blessed, known alone to its Creator. Our work is to watch the signs and pray.
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Right now the EARTH is crying for Mercy. According to a plea from the 7/23 newsletter from the Sisters of Mercy: “Perhaps this is a time to turn our attention, our spiritual attention to Earth, to acknowledge that Earth is a living being that has given us life. We are part of one living being we call Earth. Will we hear its cry, sense its suffering? Earth desperately needs our love and attention, our prayer.”
