Thursday, February 26, 2015
Today’s Scripture: Matthew 13:24-30
“'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.” (Matt. 13:27b-29)
God is often faulted for creating a world full of suffering and evil. The issue is complex, both philosophically and theologically; but surely it is inappropriate to blame God for a problem He did not initiate, and [that is] in fact, one which He has sought to alleviate, at great cost to Himself. God sent His Son to inaugurate the Kingdom and to "destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2:14). God is not the cause of suffering and sickness; He is its cure! Jesus' ministry and death guarantee this. - George Malone, "Those Controversial Gifts"
This parable is a description of a reality we would rather not admit. Can’t God do something about the enemy and do it now? What is God good for anyway if God can’t see to it that evil is eliminated? The parable of the wheat and the weeds is not told for the sake of action but for the sake of honesty. Our presence in the world as Christians is not about a full-blown plan to get rid of evil at every turn.
Some disciples of Christ tend to believe that their calling is to seek out and purge sin and evil. Frankly, I don’t want that job. I don’t trust myself. But I do trust God. Our presence in the world as Christians is to be the good, loving and compassionate. To live the Gospel. To be the light. To be the salt. Because we are, says Jesus to be his disciples. This should be good news. This parable calls us simply to be. To be the good in the world, even it seems more profitable to be bad. To be light when darkness will surely try to snuff us out. To be salt when blandness and conformity and acceptability seem like the easier path.
God intended His creation as good from the beginning and thereby the Kingdom, but sin, greed, lust, violence, revenge contaminated the good creation. To uproot the bad now would destroy the good. Or, to put this in the language of Jesus, we're going to have to put up with the weeds among the wheat, the phonies among the pious, the false among the true, the fake among the genuine, sinners among the saints.
The good news is that Jesus describes this field, which is the "world" (v. 38), as a field of wheat, not as a field of weeds. When Jesus sees the world, he looks out across not a field of weeds in which there is wheat growing, but a field of wheat in which there are weeds growing. This should be encouraging news for us. We can view the world around us with all its violence, terrorism, and hatred and be discouraged and to believe that evil is all around us, about to overwhelm us and about to win. In fact, Jesus reminds us that there are more of the faithful, more of those who have not bowed the knee to Baal, more of those whose core values are still biblical ones, than we sometimes realize. Yes, the "children of evil" exist and they do damage to the crop, but they exist in a field that is predominantly a field of wheat, not weeds.
Remarkably, Jesus doesn't offer a grand plan for getting rid of the weeds that plague the field of wheat. There's no protocol for waging war on weeds. There are no rules of engagement about marching into a field of wheat to root out the weeds. In fact, Jesus says that we should go about our business. Our job is to be wheat, not weeds. We're not called to be the farmer. Rooting up weeds is not part of our job description. We'd like to rain down hellfire and brimstone, but Jesus counsels us otherwise. Wheat farmers say that at harvest the dry weeds will just blow right through the combine.
Jesus in the parable teaches us how hard it is to distinguish between those who are in the Kingdom and those who are not. A man may appear to be a good man, and may in fact be a bad man. Apparently bad man might in fact be a good man or has the potential of becoming a good man. We must not be too quick to judge or to label them good or bad – redemption is possible.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once put it: “God’s purpose is not wrathful judgment. God’s purpose is redemption, and the road to redemption is by way of reconciliation. Only in that way will the world finally be saved.” The parable reminds us against relying on our human capacity to know fully the mind of God. What might appear good and pure might not necessarily be either.
Jesus makes clear that we simply cannot be certain who is "in" or who is "out." In fact, God's judgment about these matters will take many by surprise (7:21-23; 8:11-12; 21:31-32; 25:31-46). Thank God it is not up to us! We can leave the weeding to the angels, and get on with the mission Jesus has given us, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God drawing near. Jesus came as the cure for the world’s trouble, when he made the point: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV).
Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning: Psalms 27; 147:12–20
Evening: Psalms 126; 102
Deut. 9:23–10:5
Hebrews 4:1–10
John 3:16–21
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