Matthew 13:23-30 - Parable of the Wheat and Weeds (16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 20. 2014)

Gospel:

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.

When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Gospel Trivia:

This is another familiar parable with an explanation provided by Matthew on verses 13:36-43.  The sower is Jesus, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom and the weeds are children of the evil one.

There is a curious thing about this parable however; which is, why did the slaves have to ask whether the weeds should be pulled out or not?

Weeds grow with wheat all the time.  The logical thing to do is for the sower to wait until harvest time and separate the two.  The roots of the weed and wheat are so intertwined that to pull one at an early stage will inevitably pull out the other.

So why did the slaves have to ask what to do?

There are two explanations:

- one is that the number of weeds is so many that the conventional wisdom of waiting until harvest may not apply

- the second explanation is the other message of the gospel, which is directed to those who wanted to form their own exclusive circles of righteous people and segregate themselves from the rest of the community.

The message is this:

The Kingdom of God is a mixed bag of saints and sinners, and it may be that there is a lot more of the latter.  Our role is not to detach but to mix with them so that our own behavior and examples will influence them and attract them to the Kingdom.  It takes patience, tolerance, forbearance and love to convert others, not through words, but through actions.

As St. Francis said: Use all means to preach the gospel, and only as a last resort use words. 

- Nil Guillemette, SJ, Parables for Today (Makati: St. Paul's Publications, 1987), pp. 26-30