With the evils that rage in today’s world, it is easy to fall into an age-old pattern—to classify human beings as the good or the bad, the righteous or the unrighteous, and to decide that the way to improve the world will be to eliminate the unrighteous. The church in the Middle Ages took this approach when it declared some people to be heretics or witches; and we find the same approach to an extreme extent in the so-called Islamic state today, which imagines that the way to a better society is to exterminate the “unbelievers.”
Jesus sharply critiqued such thinking in his parable of the wheat and the tares, a story in which a field contains wheat and weeds—good and bad—all in a tangled mix. In the parable, the servants come to the householder and say, “Do you want us to go and pull the weeds?” The householder answers, “No, for in pulling the weeds you will damage the wheat as well. Let both grow together until the harvest.” (Matthew 13:28–29)
This parable gives us clear direction for how we should respond as followers of Jesus when we look at a world in which good and bad are all in a mix. Its key messages are:
- Nurture the whole field, and leave the judgment to God. We are not the ones to pass spiritual judgment on others. Human efforts at “weed-pulling” have always created a real mess. We are called to work for the good of all; and so as a church we reach out to all people with the love of Christ, and let the whole field grow in the light of God’s grace.
- Don’t fixate on the negatives; concentrate on the good that is growing. You could have a garden full of beautiful flowers at home, and the one thing that really sticks out to you is the weed. We tend to fret about the negatives; and in the world at large we worry that the bad will overwhelm the good. But the Scripture is clear about Who is in charge of the field. We need to just keep working for God’s purposes, and rejoice in the good that is growing all around us.
- Trust in the harvest to come. The image of harvest says that God is leading us to a good and bountiful destiny. We can trust that the goodness of God will prevail, and we will share in a bright future.
Paul said it well in his letter to the Galatians: “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all” (Galatians 6:9–10)
“Let us work for the good of all” (Galatians 6:10) Share on XSunday’s Scripture Readings:
Matthew 13:24–30
Galatians 6:8–10
