The Parable of the Weeds

The Parable of the Weeds
Matthew 13 v 24-30, 36-40

When I first read this passage I thought I had such a task on my hands. Jesus had already explained it all. But let’s put it into some context…

As we know Jesus has just told the parable of the sower to the crowd who are listening ask he speaks from a boat. The previous parable is long and repetitive, but it would have hit the right note with the crowd. There may have been farmers in the crowd nudging their mates saying “That really happens, you know”. Then he explains that story … while they are processing that he hits them with a shorter story, but one which had just as much relevance.

I think Jesus might have paused for a second to let the crowd catch their breath and maybe do that “I need to get into a more comfortable position” shuffle.
So go ahead, shuffle as much as you like.

Are we all sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…

When I was little there was this person who always used to follow me around. She used to be wherever I went; some times she copied me and dressed the same as me. When we were really little we looked so similar that my mum had to tell us apart by writing our names on our birthday cakes and putting us in different shoes. In one picture they can only tell us apart because I’m being held by a lady called Karen. ‘She’ is of course my twin, Liz.

When we were growing up, we had our own personalities, but because we looked so similar my mum and dad had to resort to dressing us differently to tell us apart. Now that we are older and hopefully wiser, my parents know us inside-out and can tell the difference 99% of the time.

The identical twin analogy is much like this story. There isn’t a lot in it when distinguishing between wheat and weeds in the early stages of life. They look very similar, as did I and my sister. You may be aware that we now look completely different, even though we say the same things and hold the same posture. Growing up people always used to joke about who the ‘evil’ twin was. I can never imagine my dad casting one of us into the fire just because we’d been an extra be naughty that week. It’s not for him to decide. We’ll both have our moments, but I hope that we’ll be wheat at the end of the day.

We’re lucky in this one we get the story and the explanation to the story, the real insider information. We get to go into ‘the house’ and hear what Jesus says to the disciples about this story. However, even when we have all the information we can still hear what we want to hear. Many times this story has been told as though directed to the Church. We are the field, the wheat and the weeds. I’m not about to disagree with Jesus, who says in his explanation ‘the field is the world’. He never mentions anything about the Church.

Here we have this great communicator, someone who has all the knowledge of the world, yet we disagree, have our own take, and spread it around like it’s something to rejoice in. We talk all the time about the Jesus who came down to earth as a vulnerable baby, but what about Jesus as a grown man showing us a glimpse of the end of time, the kingdom of God and the final works that he will do? How can someone so right be taken so wrongly?

I think that it is mostly down to our humanness on a large scale… here Jesus has painted this wonderful picture AND explained it, but we still misinterpret it. I wonder if you have ever had a moment where you are half in a conversation on a really busy afternoon and as a consequence have forgotten what you are supposed to be doing, or managed to double book your self? Yeah, good, me too!

Even in our silliest and dumbest moments God still speaks to us. Here Jesus has given such a clear story, but the disciples still say ‘can you explain it to us please?’ Later on Jesus says to them ‘do you still not get it?’ I’m not saying that the disciples were stupid, but that Jesus has the skill to explain all the stories we’ll ever come across. Let’s give Jesus the opportunity to explain this and the other parables we’ll hear this summer, not just in the generic way, but in our own hearts and minds.