The Adult Interpretation of the Parable (7-23-2023)

July 23, 2023

Eighth Sunday After Pentecost (A)

Isaiah 44:6-8; Psalm 86:11-17; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

As Jesus explained in last Sunday’s gospel passage, his parables are not intended to be easy-to-understand, practical illustrations of an abstract point he’s trying to make. They are stories that are intended to make us think, and then to think again. Sometimes in ways that take us outside our comfort zones.

Parables are sort of like those kids’ movies that preschoolers like to watch about 40 times over. And the wise distributors of these films put in little lines, or plot twists, that are meant for the parents who have to watch the movie 40 times with their kids. There’s a dimension that goes right over the kids’ heads but keeps their parents sane when they’re watching the movie the 40th time through. Or their grandparents, for that matter, as I’m sure some of you have done.

In today’s gospel Jesus tells another parable – and when the disciples ask him for an explanation, Jesus gives them what I think the kids’ version of the explanation. The kids’ version isn’t wrong, but there is a whole other level to this parable that the disciples were not ready for the first time around.

The parable is this: Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a rich and wise farmer who sowed wheat in his field. His servants came to him and said, We don’t know how this happened, sir, but the field is full of weeds. Don’t worry, the farmer said, I know it’s not your fault. My enemy is responsible. Well, the servants said, we can fix this. We’ll go pull out all the weeds. But the farmer said, No, if you pull out the weeds you’ll damage the wheat too. Let them grow together; we’ll sort it all out at harvest time.

Now, if you’ve done a little gardening, this is kind of a head-scratcher. As gardening or farming advice, letting the weeds go is generally a very bad idea. The weeds compete with whatever you’re trying to grow – they compete for sunlight and water. Once they mature they send out seeds and you have weeds to deal with forever. They really bring down the quality of the crop. Which is why the servants assume the farmer will want them to pull out the weeds – not because weeding is a fun job, we know it’s not. But they’re servants and they figure it’s what they’re supposed to do. But the farmer says no. Why? The disciples hear this story, and they understandably are confused.

So the disciples ask Jesus for an explanation. And he gives them a very simple, straightforward explanation. The field is the world. The wheat are the good guys planted by God, the weeds are the bad guys planted by the devil. The servants of God think it’s their job to get rid of the weeds – but God says no. If you try to kill the weeds you’ll do damage to the crop. I will take care of the weeds, God says, in my own way and in my own time. In the end I’ll see to it that the wheat and the weeds are separated – the weeds will get burned up and destroyed and the wheat will be gathered into the barns where they belong. Don’t worry, I have this under control – so you, do no harm, leave the weeds alone. Because I’m not confident you can tell the difference between weeds and wheat.

This is a very common theme throughout the parables Jesus tells, especially in Matthew’s gospel. The very last parable in the gospel of Matthew is also a parable of the final judgment, the sheep and the goats. And among the striking things in that parable is that everyone is surprised to find out who are the sheep and who are the goats. Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food? When did we see you thirsty and not give you drink? We don’t know who are the sheep and who are the goats. Of course we won’t know who are the weeds and who is the wheat. Because it’s not for us to judge, Jesus says. Leave it to God.

And you know, I don’t think Christians have understood even this simple version of the parable very well. I mean, if only Christians had listened to this simple version, the world would honestly be a much better place. So many of the worst parts of Christian history – the Crusades, the burning of heretics, the witch hunts, the ways even today people are excluded and harassed by some Christians for being gay or being divorced or asking too many questions, or any number of other things. All of that start with Christians thinking it’s our job to get rid of the weeds – to get rid of the ones we think are weeds, and usually we get it wrong. If only we had absorbed the kids’ version of the parable, it would be so much better. It’s never too late to start. And so Jesus wants to make sure that his disciples understand at least this much of the parable.

But – as in all parables – there are more levels. Jesus probably knew that these aspects of the parable would go over the disciples’ heads, at first. Which is probably why he gave them the simple explanation. That was more than enough for them to handle, then and for quite a long time to come. Yes, we should not take it upon ourselves to root out weeds. We should not take for ourselves God’s role as judge. That’s for sure.

But it’s also true that leaving everything for God to sort out in the end can breed a sense of complacency. When people are being harmed here and now, we might be tempted to say – well, standing up for what’s right is actually kind of difficult. It’s a shame this is happening, but who am I to judge, let God figure out what to do. That would be a problem too. And God doesn’t insist that the wheat and the weeds always have to hang out together. God does not insist that the abuser and the abused sit next to each other because we want everyone to get along for Christmas. We aren’t meant to be helpless while we wait for God’s final judgment to set the world right.

And – perhaps most importantly – we all know that the world is not neatly divided into good guys and bad guys, into wheat and weeds. The dividing line between wheat and weed, the line between sinner and saint, runs within each and every single one of us. We are all, every one of us, created in the image and likeness of God. None of us was planted here by the devil. Every one of us is planted in this world by God in hopes of a fruitful harvest. Everyone, without exception. And there are things in each of our lives that are opposed to God, opposed to our own true selves, parts of us that are turned in on ourselves and away from our neighbors and God.

If we take this, more mature, starting point, what does this parable tell us? If there are wheat and weeds inside of each of us, we might think our job is to get rid of our weeds. To fix ourselves. To make our field more presentable. I think Jesus wants to tell us, it’s probably a bad idea for us to try to fix ourselves. For most people I know, our best qualities and our most annoying habits are frequently simply two sides of one coin. The person who is most passionate for standing up for what is right is often the person who is the most impatient. The person most skilled at finding common ground and making peace is often the person who can’t set clear boundaries for themselves. It’s a challenge for all of us to learn to make friends with our shadow sides, to live together for the time being, trusting that God can in the end fix everything in us that we cannot fix for ourselves.

It is good news, perhaps, that God will – in God’s good time, not necessarily on our schedule – but that God will set all things right, including us. That the purifying fire of God’s love will be able to accomplish what our work of weeding can never do – to remove everything in us that is false, to redeem and repair everything in us that is broken, to make right all the hurt we have caused others, known and unknown, and all the hurt that has been done to us. So that we may in the end become the fruitful harvest that we were created to be.

Someone once asked the famous Trappist monk Thomas Merton, Do you think I will go to heaven. Yes, Merton told him, but not very much of you. Some of who each of us has become s not of God, is not true to our real selves, and all of that gets burned away in the presence of God, but not in a destructive way. The fire of God’s love purifies but never destroys what God has created in love – and so it is nothing we need to fear. The fire of God’s love is less like punishment and more like a root canal – not necessarily pleasant in the moment, but ultimately healing and restoring.

And if that still sounds scary – well, you’re not alone. There’s a reason Jesus started the disciples off with the easy version of the parable’s explanation. In fact, I doubt the disciples could have fully grasped what Jesus was saying until Jesus allowed himself to be pulled up as a perceived weed that needed to be thrown out – that us, until the cross. When human authorities decided Jesus was a menace to what they thought were the fields they were called to tend and that Jesus should be pulled out by the roots and cast away. Jesus allowed us to do that to him – confident in the will of God never to abandon the ones whom God loves and in the power of God even to raise the dead.

And when the disciples of Jesus had experienced the cross, the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, and then experienced his resurrection, then they were old enough to understand the adult version of the parable. That judgment is coming for all the weeds – and not just for those bad weeds over there, but for the bad weeds in me too – and that judgment will not harm us but heal us, purify us, make us right, and make us shine like the stars of heaven. And even though it may take a lifetime, and maybe more, to get used to that idea, we can begin to experience death and resurrection even now, and come to trust that it is a source of healing, life, and strength.