The Tare-ible Parable

The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds

He presented another parable to them: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. The landowner's slaves came to him and said, 'Master, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?'

" 'An enemy did this!' he told them.

" 'So, do you want us to go and gather them up?' the slaves asked him.

" 'No,' he said. 'When you gather up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I'll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but store the wheat in my barn. ' "

Matthew 13:36-43

Jesus Interprets the Wheat and the Weeds

Then He dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached Him and said, "Explain the parable of the weeds in the field to us."

He replied: "The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world; and the good seed—these are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Therefore just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin and those guilty of lawlessness. They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen!

Today’s reading from the lectionary is the second reading taken from the 13^th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Last week’s lectionary reading was Matthew 13, verses 1-9 and 18-23 more commonly known as the Parable of the Sower.

As we begin our journey into the thirteenth chapter of Matthew which recounts a day of teaching in parables by Jesus, let us prepare by following the instructions that Christ gave to his audience from the outset. It is a single, unequivocal word - behold. The Greek word is an imperative, not a request, not a suggestion, but a direct instruction from Jesus to his faithful followers. The literal translation is Behold - exclamation point. It is a call to pay special attention, a call to prepare ourselves to receive the Gospel. Jesus is telling us, as his listeners, to actively and attentively prepare our minds for his teaching. PREPARE. Prepare your eyes to see, prepare your ears to hear.

A few things you should know about me. First of all – my name is Claude George Tatro III. Claude translated from Latin means ‘Lame’ George has Greek roots which when translated mean ‘Tiller of soil’, so my name literally means “lame tiller of soil.” Secondly, I am a vermiculturist. A vermiculturist is a person who recycles household wastes with worms. I have a three tiered bin designed specifically for efficient composting by worms. For two year the worms have been breaking down the vegetable and fruit scraps that would otherwise end up in the landfill into nutrient rich soil. Just a couple of tablespoons mixed with potting soil makes a wonderful medium for sprouting seeds. The third thing is that I am a novice vegetable gardener and every year I plant Blue Lake Bush Beans and heirloom tomatoes that I pickup from Galloway’s Hardware across from the Doraville Marta Station.

When Matt told me that I would be preaching this Sunday I was elated because something had happened that tied in with the parable of the wheat and the tares, also known as the wheat and the weeds. You see, back in May, I was preparing my Blue Lake Bush Beans for this years planting. I had decided that I was going to start the seeds in trays so that I could control all the variables just to see how good the worm compost really was. I had added my vegetable scraps, shredded newspapers, dryer lint, and dirt for over a year. I had watched the worms work through this material, reducing it to its barest elements, turning it over and over until it was a rich, dark, and fertile compost. So I got two seed trays, each with 18 individual sections for starting seeds. Into each section I put a layer of potting soil, a layer of worm compost, and a layer of potting soil on top. Into each section I put two Blue Lake Bush Bean seeds and I watered it down. Two weeks later I saw the beginnings of my harvest. By week three the trays were filled with green seedlings. But something was wrong. Not all of the seedlings looked the same. Some had serrated leaves and some had spade shaped leaves. It was my wife who first asked why I was growing tomatoes in the trays. Master, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Of course I knew better, I had not bought any tomato seeds, tomato seeds are small and dark, these were Blue Lake Bush Bean seeds, oblong and white. I had planted them myself. They had to be beans. I decided to take the seedlings to the office where I could plant them without facing the scrutiny of unbelievers. When I got to my garden spot in front of the office with my tray of beans, James, the maintenance supervisor for the apartments pulled up in his 97 Chevy and rolled down the window. What are you going to do with those tomato plants? I quickly informed him of his mistaken identification, after all, I had planted good seeds, they had to be beans. James looked at me and said “Boy I bet you $10 right now that them are tomatoes, I’ll take em to Galloways and prove it.” Well it dawned on me right then and there that I had a parable on my hands. I was the sower, I know I planted good seed, yet out of 36 trays only one was a bean plant, the rest were tomatoes. After much consideration I determined that the only way that this could have happened was that I had tossed tomatoes into the composter and that the worms had composted them in the soil. When I put the compost in each section I had also inadvertently put in tomato seeds. But how did each bin get only one tomato seed? How could they be so evenly distributed? And what happened to the bean seeds? This parable played a role in my decision to plant the tomatoes with the beans just to see what would happen. When asked what to do about the weeds, Christ responded: Let both grow together until the harvest. What would become of this unexpected crop? Would it, could it bear fruit? The parable of the sower, which was last week’s lectionary reading, is about preparing the ground to receive the word of God so that it has the best chance to produce yields of 100, 60, and 30 times what was sown.

What does the parable of the wheat and the tares means for us as well prepared listeners?

It begins: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. Jesus interprets the parable for his disciples saying: The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; and the good seed—these are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the Devil.

Jesus continues his interpretation saying: The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Therefore just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin and those guilty of lawlessness. They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen!

But if we were listening, something is missing. If we are careful listeners we hear Jesus interpret verses 24-26 and verse 30, but He says nothing about versus 27-29. What is it about verses 27-29 that they require no interpretation? Hear these verses again:

The landowner's slaves came to him and said, 'Master, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?'

" 'An enemy did this!' he told them.

" 'So, do you want us to go and gather them up?' the slaves asked him.

" 'No,' he said. 'When you gather up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them.

In these verses we find ourselves. Norcross Presbyterian Church, Presbyterians, the community of the faithful, the Church. We are the servants of Christ. We see evil in the world and even in the church. It is as close to us as the tares are to the wheat. It brushes up against us and we are afraid that somehow it will infect us as well, changing our character, keeping us from producing the fruits of the kingdom. We find it unbearable and we want it gone. At times we can think there is no other solution than to root out all of the weeds, whether the wheat is damaged or not. As Paul would say “we do the very thing we know we should not do.” The question of what to do with the tares or weeds is the axis around which this parable revolves and is a question that we need to closely examine. Christ tells us that we are not even to attempt to root out the weeds lest we destroy the wheat as well. Is it our carelessness that will destroy the good with the bad, or is it that we - limited by our humanity - are unable to discern what will ultimately be good or bad, wheat or weeds, much less even Blue lake Bush Beans from tomatoes. We should count ourselves blest that Christ has taken this responsibility from us. Could it be that what we perceive as a weed actually has the potential to produce the most abundant harvest, 30, 60, or even a hundred times what we will produce in our lifetime? Do we make the mistake of focusing on the weeds to the point that we neglect to nurture the growth of the wheat and it dies from our neglect?

How does this relate to our interactions with family, friends, relationships within the church, and in the community at large? What did it mean for the Prodigal Son? Our job as servants of Christ is to cultivate our hearts so that the word, when it reaches our hearts, can take root and flourish. It is to nurture relationships so that when the word reaches our relationships it will take root and bear the fruit of the Kingdom of Heaven. Our job as servants of Christ is to tend to the field until the time of the harvest. Now is not the time of the harvest, the harvest is at the end of ages. Ours is not to take in the harvest anyway, ours is to nurture growth in the field. The soil is prepared, the good seed planted; the blue lake bush beans that I planted are bearing fruit. The tomatoes are green and there are about 11 of them growing on the bushes that I planted at my office garden. While it may not be the fruit I intended it to be, it is the fruit that God intended it to be.