The Weeds and The Wheat

Today we approach another of Jesus’ parables in the Gospel of Matthew. The parable of the wheat and the weeds is also a well-known parable but it is one that has been used in problematic ways throughout Christian history particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries as a way to separate Christians and non-Christians and distinguish the groups in an ever-opposing “us and them” situation.  It has been used to persecute others who think differently from the “right type of Christian” and used as an excuse to perpetuate fear and coerce conversion in people using the threat of hell.

I always find it difficult when I read passages like this in the Bible and I often ask myself whether these are reflective of an all-loving, all-gracious, and all-merciful God. But then again, I also realized that it is ok to feel uneasy that because we have been taught to interpret the Bible through a very literal and historical sense. This is, though, really not the purpose of the Bible. The Bible as a document was written to inspire hope, first among its original readers and then for the generations who come after. So, I encourage all of you to keep this in mind when approaching Scripture. What hope do we get out of difficult and problematic readings. How then should we interpret them?
Well, the first thing we should do is to approach reading any theological text with what my Bible professors call a “hermeneutic of suspicion”. We need to be suspicious of the text and continue to critically ask ourselves if the text really means what it says. This brings me back also to English Literature classes where we critically analyze poetry, prose, and plays from the past. I mean, we read Shakespeare plays to enjoy them for political intrigue and social commentary, not seeing plays like Julius Cesar or Henry V to be absolute historical fact, right? So why can’t we approach the Bible in the same light?

So, let’s break down this passage in the context of the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew was written not long after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple at the hands of the Romans. The Jewish people were exiled from their homeland once again. The Gospel was aimed at the early Jewish followers of Jesus Christ – Christians who kept kosher. The book was supposed to allow them to find hope in a world of exile and destruction and to give them a purpose to continue pursuing God and remembering God’s covenant. If we understand this, we can then interpret this particular reading in the light of resisting empire. We start to see the kingdom of heaven as mentioned in this reading as the Jewish community in Judea, fed by the words of God in the Torah and the prophets. The evil one becomes the Roman empire, sowing seeds of distrust and destruction amongst the Jewish people, poisoning them with ideals of empire. The slaves of the householder can be seen then to be the disciples of Jesus Christ, the householder himself, whom he explains the meaning of the parable to.

The Gospel writer then is giving his readers hope in Christ Jesus. In a real-life situation – it is impossible to remove empire, their ideals, and the people they affect in the community by turning them away from their family and friends. Also, it would not be wise for the people to divide themselves up. This would cause more disunity and disharmony in the long run so the Gospel writer is almost giving the readers hope by telling them that God is the ultimate judge and that at the end of the day, empires will be destroyed and those who uplift them will be purged in fire just like the burning of garbage outside the city walls. It is a parable to uplift the spirits of the recently exiled Jews and to tell them that because God has become one of you in Christ Jesus, a human being, God knows how and what you are feeling. But, keep the faith, hold on strong to God’s word in the Torah, live like Jesus and his community because at the end of the day, you will reap benefits. God knows who amongst you are sowing discord and working in the ways of the empire. They will eventually be judged.  

This parable, thus, if read in this way, has so much more meaning to us in today’s world. We turn on the TV to news of political chaos in our country, wars and conflict around the world, and to an economy which exploits the least of us while uplifting the super-rich. These are the marks of empire in today’s world. And we are also reminded that empire is not in a country far away but in ours as well. The system nation states are built on support the politically powerful and economically rich at the expense of the least of us all. Though these things divide us, it is difficult for us to solely call for the destruction of who we identify as the “weeds” because the more we think of it we all have a part to play in uplifting empire. We give ourselves up to and live in a system which unfortunately exploits. But if we were to get physical and purge who we think are the weeds, we fall further victim to the division of empire. So, all we need to do is hold faith and trust God but to work on ways that do not remove people but to bring people together. To do what the Prophet Micah reminds us – do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God and with one another. In the end, Jesus tells us that love will win out always as empire is destroyed. As we look at the world around us – great empires never last. They rise and fall but what always remains is love.

So, now let’s turn this inwards to ourselves. All of us have wheat and weeds in us but if we are to concentrate on God’s word and love other unconditionally, at the end of the day, God will burn away the hatred and sin in us all, purifying our souls and spirit. We let Go cut out the bad in us if we practice love. If we contemplate and pray. If we engage in spiritual practice. We do not need to go around condemning others because they might be different from us. It is not up to us to remove the weeds for we do not know them and we do not know God’s will a hundred percent. All we can do is love each other and let God work. Everyone has weed and wheat in them and who knows what kind of trial and tribulation another person is going through? To walk humbly with God is to also remember what Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus said: Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’

Let us do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with one another. Love one another as God loved us first. Amen.

​the Rev. Dr. Ollie Lim