Weeds

 Jesus told them another parable: 

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

The owner’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?”

 ^“An enemy did this,” he replied.

The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”

“No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24-30)

The perfect field, sowed with good seed, and then…weeds. I know the feeling. It often seems as if someone or something is out to ruin my crops by planting weeds. Some of them are useful. Some aren’t. And sometimes, as with my aloe bed, weeding uproots the thing you want there. Life is often a lot like that and sometimes we ask how a good God can allow bad things like weeds and hurricanes.

Today’s passage tells us that an enemy sowed the weeds. Let’s just consider the weeds of sin and doubt sowed in the third chapter of Genesis. Like so many weeds, pulling them out once isn’t enough. I have a great example. I accidentally planted lemon balm in my garden a long time ago. I don’t find much in my yard, but I pull them from both neighbors’ yards. Weeds have been infesting our souls for millennia and spread from one soul’s “garden” to the next.

One of the challenges we face is the fact that we don’t know our weeds. Some of what we are tempted to call “weeds” are companion plants that benefit what we want in our gardens, or plants that are good for us -like Dandelions and Cleavers. Sometimes, the things we think are bad are actually good for us.

Another challenge is the fact that we like to see ourselves as the wheat. We’re the good stuff that needs to be protected. Or we think things in our lives that are weeds are wheat. We  may ask God to get rid of the weeds in our lives, then repeatedly tell him, “Oh, don’t touch that!” Sometimes, God knows that removing a particular weed from its location may damage something He wants to grow in us. We may not understand it, but God uses and works around the weeds in our lives for our benefit. (The hurricane I mentioned earlier is an example. Hurricanes are good for the environment even when they’re bad for us.)

Sometimes, a good God allows bad things in our lives because removing them now would damage us. He also didn’t remove all the nations from the Promised Land before Israel crossed the Jordan because, ultimately, that would have made things worse for Israel. In our simplistic thinking, we don’t understand this, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.