The Wit of the Wheat and Weeds

Sermon on Matthew 13:24-30;36-43

In Matthew, parables of Jesus often begin with the phrase “The kingdom of heaven is like … …” The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. I believe these parables would be of interest to many of us because we often wonder what heaven is like. Imageries of heaven are not new. We often see images of heaven with a background of fluffy white clouds. I have no idea why this particular background of clouds is so prevalent. Maybe in heaven, we’ll all turn into Carebears (*show a picture of Carebears in clouds*). Other popular images also include a halo above the head, tiny wings at the back and white robes. Let’s see a clip on a humorous but common interpretation of heaven.i I don’t know about you, but I don’t find such images terribly exciting or comforting. They feel like daydreaming. Fortunately, most of the imageries of Jesus are nothing like these. This year we will study them in detail. You will find that, in most cases, the imageries of Jesus about heaven are extremely down to earth. They make references to everyday life. Sure, they are apocalyptic in nature, meaning that they are metaphors of end times. But as illustrations, they are also simple and familiar to his listeners. This in itself should be a good reminder to those of us who see end times only as wildly catastrophic or destructively unnatural events. Instead, let us return to the images from Jesus himself. Avoid the Hollywood caricatures of a dreamy paradise or a horrific disaster like the movie 2012. Instead, let our understanding be renewed and refocused by the parables in Matthew. These are imageries of everyday life. They are about farming, fishing and other household matters. Of course, subjects like farming are no longer familiar to us, the modern urban Christians. But my point remains valid. Images that remind us of heaven should be concrete and life-based. These are the true realistic images from Jesus.

Today’s passage is yet another farming metaphor like last week’s sermon. It is a familiar setting to the original listeners because they live in an agricultural society. The beginning of the imagery is easy to understand. “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.” Simply put, the kingdom of heaven begins with the spreading of the gospel. The sown seeds will eventually bear fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. The analogy so far matches our expectations of the kingdom of heaven. We see Jesus sowing the seed; the disciples and the countless Christians that follow are the fruits of his labour. But this imagery then takes an unexpected turn. We are told that among the good seeds, an enemy has also sowed weeds. How can this be? Isn’t this the kingdom of heaven? How can there be weeds in the kingdom of heaven? This was the surprise element for the original listeners. They were expecting a revival of the kingdom. With miracles and healings and the crowd that followed Jesus, they were also witnessing the revival. They have seen the sowing. They have seen the growing. They are just waiting for the bumper crop that will happen with the harvesting. This is the work of God. How can there be weeds in the kingdom of heaven? This is Jesus’ surprise for them hidden in the parable.

But what is a surprise to them is no surprise to us. For nearly two thousand years of church history, the people of God have always lived alongside weeds, the enemies of God. The situation is the same today as it was in the days of Matthew’s church as Matthew was writing his gospel. Over the years we have encountered every form of heretical Christians, every kind of strange teachings and every shade of opposition to Christian work. We would have wished that the development of the kingdom of heaven is smooth sailing and ever successful. But the reality as foretold by Jesus is that there will be weeds growing alongside the wheat. The kingdom of heaven is not instant paradise; it is not a disaster movie. The kingdom of heaven is a process. And just like all things in life, even the things of God, there will be difficulties, there will be trouble, and there will be enemies. I appreciate this imagery of Jesus, because it is realistic and it is honest. This is what church work feels like: the sowing of the seeds, the watering and the fertilizing, and you would be truly naïve if you think there are no weeds. The original listeners must have been surprised to hear that the kingdom of heaven is described in this way. They thought the messiah would destroy the Romans, and the kingdom would be glorious in an instant. But for many of us who have involved ourselves in this massive gardening work of God’s kingdom, we are not surprised. We have seen the seeds on the path and the shallow ground. We have felt the choking of the thorns. And when we find our gospel message twisted and perverted, masquerading as the truth, we learn the hard truth: there are weeds in the kingdom of heaven.

This parable of Jesus goes beyond just revealing the truth about the weeds. It is a revelation to the original listeners but it is hardly any news to us. For us, it is a discipleship issue. How do we deal with the weeds in the kingdom of heaven? We want to resolve it because the weeds are crowding and competing with the actual wheat in the field. It is at this juncture that the parable becomes a surprise to us. Jesus says “Let both grow together until the harvest”. Don’t pull up the weeds. The weeds will grow together with the wheat all the way till harvest time. That is the surprise to us. Leave the weeds alone? Let it grow? How can this be? We find this difficult to accept. But you know something? What is a surprise to us, is no surprise to the original listeners. To them, this is perfectly rational. Jesus’ answer is precisely the answer they would expect from the parable. This is precisely why Jesus used this parable to show the answer to our problem of the weeds. To understand the rationale of the parable, to see what the original listeners see and know as part of their daily life, we have to know the background of this parable.

There is another name for the parable of the weeds, it is also known as the parable of the tares. What are tares? Tares are a specific kind of weed known as ryegrass weeds or darnel weeds. The unique characteristic about tares is that they look exactly like wheatgrass. You cannot tell them apart. As grasses, they are exactly the same in appearance. This is a very important key to this parable. This is also why my sermon title for this passage is “the wit of the wheat and weeds”. Many of you might not know this, but the parable of the wheat and weeds is one of Jesus’ favourite tongue-twisters (绕口令). It ranks up there with Apostle Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers. I’m just kidding. The phonetic similarity of the words “wheat” and “weeds” is probably not found in Aramaic. But I think it is witty to use the same-sounding words “wheat” and the “weeds”. It is a clever reminder to us that they sound the same, and in reality they look the same. Herein lies the danger of their similarity. Since it is impossible to tell them apart, when you think you are pulling up a weed, you may be pulling up a wheat! This is why Jesus says “while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.” So while we may be very eager to do weeding the moment we know that there are weeds in the field, the original listeners of Jesus’ parable are not surprised by Jesus’ answer. They know that it is impossible to do weeding without accidentally damaging the wheat. It is easy to deal with a blatant evil. It is when evil pretends to be good, that makes any form of drastic action dangerous. Thus we know that the sowing of the weeds is truly clever but evil. It actually makes weeding of the bad weeds dangerous to the good wheat. This is why there is a specific Roman law to prohibit sowing tares among the wheat of an enemy.

But thankfully there is an easy solution, which the original listeners of Jesus also know. The wheat and the weeds are similar in the beginning, but they can be easily differentiated when it is harvest time. “The ears on the real wheat are so heavy that it makes the entire plant droop downward, but the weeds, whose ears are light, stands up straight. The wheat will also appear brown when ripe, whereas the darnel is black.”ii So, when it is harvest time, when all the fruits have been revealed and their true natures shown, you can simply weed out the black weeds sticking out like sore thumbs. Then all that is left would be the golden wheat, in the words of Jesus, “shining like the sun in the kingdom of God”. This is why this parable of Jesus is especially effective. The original listeners of Jesus know in their daily farming experience this is how they deal with the weeds. There is a time for weeding, and it is only sensible to do it when it is harvest time. Any time before that would be foolish, because it would be presumptuous to think that you can tell the wheat and the weeds apart. You can’t. That’s the reality.

What has this parable got to do with us? It has to do with how we do discipleship in church. We know for a fact that there were, there are, and there will always be weeds in the kingdom of heaven. What should be our response? Instinctively, we feel like doing weeding immediately. We want to do the separation now. We want to grow in a weed-free environment. In Jesus’ time, there are those who approach their discipleship this way. “Various groups, like the Essenes, withdrew from the rest of Judaism to pursue a higher level of purity. But, as all Jewish groups agreed, God alone knew the hearts of all people. Only at the end, at the day of judgment, would the righteous and the wicked be effectively separated.”iii Jesus’ parable of the weeds shows us that there is a proper timing to do the weeding. But if you were to be impetuous, then chances are, you will pull out the wheat along with the weeds.

Therefore, what should be our response? “Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can. Found seldom in a woman, never in a man.”iv Those who protest (the women) or cheer too early (the man), you know just how impatient you are. You can’t even wait for the sentence to end. Jesus’ imagery of the wheat and weeds tells us just how important patience is. Patience is wisdom because there is a proper timing for everything. Only a thing done at the right time is a thing done right. “The purposes of God often develop slowly because His grand designs are never hurried. The preacher Phillips Brooks was noted for his poise and quiet manner. At times, however, even he suffered moments of frustration and irritability. One day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion. “What’s the trouble, Mr. Brooks?” he asked. “The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t!” Haven’t we felt the same way many times?” v Today, I share with you, that God is wise because he knows the proper timing. And we would do well, to be patient with the weeds that are growing with us.

What does being patient mean? I want to share from my personal experience after being involved in youth ministry and worship ministry for a long time. I want to tell you that I regret the times I made my judgments too early, and I never regret the times I gave one chance after another. Regrets come from the moments you mistake wheat for weeds but you seldom regret giving one chance too many. If a grass really turns out to be a weed, you would say “well, at least I gave it a good try”. There was once, many years ago, a young pianist was recommended to my band. She was hesitant in her playing and she couldn’t adapt well to changes in a live setting. So I dropped her in favour of another more gifted player. Some time later, somebody told me that she was crying to herself for “failing the test”. This is a regret I carry with me till this day. I wasn’t patient enough for a person who was passionate about serving. I mistook a wheat for a weed. From then on, I tried to do my ministry differently. I lowered the bar for entry and I let everyone carry on as long as they don’t give up. There are some that turned out well, from zero to good players and with the commitment to serve; but there are also disappointments along the way – players I developed with great effort but turned out to be people without commitment to God. But this time, there are no regrets. God does his own weeding in his own timing, and those that are good wheat will withstand the test of time. We just need to be patient.