The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way

 

 Another parable He put forth to them, saying:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.  But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.  So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?  How then does it have tares?  He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.'  The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?'  But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

 

- Matthew 13:24-30 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus taught,  "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.  Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.'  And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.  Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.  So shall it also be with this wicked generation."  While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him.  Then one said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You."  But He answered and said to the one who told Him, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?"  And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother."

 

  Another parable He put forth to them, saying:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.  But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.  So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?  How then does it have tares?  He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.'  The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?'  But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"  Today's lectionary reading skips over the beginning of chapter 13 (Matthew 13:1-23), in which Jesus told the parable of the Sower, and introduced parables as a way to teach and preach in His ministry (see this reading, and this one, give at the beginning of May).  It's important that we review the foundational parable of the Sower, because today's parable builds on the parable of the Sower.   Here Christ shifts His attention from the Sower who sows the seeds of the gospel, to the enemy who has sown his seed among the seed of Christ.  Tares are weeds that closely resemble wheat, but their grain is indigestible for human beings.  My study Bible notes that, as falsehood came after truth and false prophets came after the true prophets, so the Antichrist will come after Christ.  Just as the weeds first appear similar to wheat, so the devil fashions lies to resemble the truth.  This is an illustration of heresy, something that seems like the truth but deviates from it, or perhaps is what we might call a half-truth.  My study Bible also notes that the devil sows while men slept -- indicating that heresy and lies creep in where people are apathetic.  Additionally, we are told that this explains why the Church neither condemns nominal members, nor judges those who are outside the Church (1 Corinthians 5:12-13).  Just as wheat would be destroyed in weeding out the tares, my study Bible says, so also many people who might ultimately find salvation would otherwise be lost if condemned before Christ's judgment. 

 

 We have observed over the course of the past few readings, as Jesus disputed with the Pharisees who have now begun to plot against Him, a dire warning to those whose hearts and minds are so closed as to rule out the capacity for repentance.  These men rejected the healing miracles of Christ, calling them demonic, or asking Him to produce a "sign" on demand for them.  As this 13th chapter of Matthew begins, Jesus turns to teaching the crowds in parables.  A parable invites the hearer to think more carefully, to pay a particular kind of attention.  Oftentimes a parable will create reflections within us, pinging upon memories, or giving a particular kind of light to some circumstance in our lives, opening up insights.  And the same parable, heard at different times, will bring different reflections, or add a different kind of light to yet another detail that becomes important at that time.  All of this is related to how we see and how we hear spiritually, related to our capacity to open hearts and minds to the truths Christ is telling us, to His word, and to Him.  The parables invite us to open our hearts to the deeper truths hidden in the simple stories of every day life for an agrarian society, where planting, sowing, and harvesting were familiar to everyone.  But today's story of the wheat and the weeds give us additional characteristics to notice in the context of Christ's disputes with the Pharisees and scribes.  They teach us that it's important to pay attention, that we're responsible for the truths we're offered.  It also teaches us that we need to look closely, to discern, to be aware of what is truth and what is a half-truth, and not to be complacent or apathetic.  If our digestion depends upon looking closely at the difference in a crop of grain, then we need to think about what our minds will "digest" and about the outcome of something good and nutritious or something that really doesn't feed us well.  Jesus gives us the parable of the Wheat and the Tares (or Weeds) to teach us that we need to look closely, to evaluate what we see and hear, and to hold firmly to the truth He gives, because it is the standard by which we judge what else is offered.  St. Paul writes, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify" (1 Corinthians 10:23).  We might start with this understanding of discernment, if only to grasp that what sounds good on the surface might not actually be helpful or good.  The parables teach us that Christ wants those who will be awake and alert to the spiritual truths He gives us, and also for us to be paying attention.  Those who respond care enough about what He offers to open our minds to His truth, and grasp it well enough to separate truth from misleading appearances.  Let us not be asleep or apathetic to what goes on around us.

 

 

 

 

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way

Wheat cropping, Byzantine manuscript miniature, Skylitzi archive

 Another parable He put forth to them, saying:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.  But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.  So the servants of the owner came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?  How then does it have tares?'  He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.'  The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?'  But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

- Matthew 13:24-30

In yesterday's reading, Jesus explained to His disciples the parable of the sower (which we read He preached to the crowds in Tuesday's reading):  "Therefore hear the parable of the sower:  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.  This is he who received seed by the wayside.  But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while.  For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.  Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.  But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

Another parable He put forth to them, saying:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.  But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.  So the servants of the owner came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?  How then does it have tares?'  He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.'  The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?'  But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." ' "  My study bible comments that this parable builds on the previous parable of the sower.  In the parable of the sower, Jesus spoke of the difficulties that get in the way of the production of good fruit from the word, the seed cast by the sower.  But in this parable, Jesus gives attention to the enemy, who has sown his seed among the seed of Christ.   My study bible says that as falsehood came after truth and false prophets came after the true prophets, so the Antichrist will come after Christ.  Just as the tares, or weeds, first appear to be similar to the wheat, so the devil fashions lies that in some sense resemble the truth.  That these are sown while men slept indicates that heresy and lies creep in when people are apathetic.  Moreover, it gives us a sense of our own need for "wakefulness," awareness.  My study bible adds that this parable also explains why the Church neither condemns nominal members, nor judges those outside the Church (1 Corinthians 5:12-13).  Just as wheat would be destroyed in weeding out the tares, so also, many who might ultimately find salvation would otherwise be lost if they are condemned before Christ's judgment.

I've recently had occasion to attempt to revive a garden that had been sadly neglected for quite a period of time.  This parable of the tares (or weeds) and the wheat reminds me somewhat of that garden, for the various kinds of weeds that somewhat resemble the desirable plants were so tangled into one another that it was impossible for even a seasoned gardener to separate them.  What were once planted even as decorative plants became invasive, covering over beautiful flowering plants, or intertwining with other bushes.  Just as Jesus recommends through the owner of the wheatfield, the only thing to do, for the most part, was to pull them all up together.  To tear out one was impossible to do without damaging the other.  Maybe it would help for us to understand that the word for tares in the Greek of the Gospel (ζιζάνιον/zizanio) has come to be used for children when they misbehave, as a metaphor for "wild" --- uncontrolled and uncultivated.  In the garden, it is possible for any seed blown by the wind to take root.   In the parable, Jesus gives us a sense of how our world really is:  we'd all like it to be perfect, and perfectly orderly.  It would be wonderful if each of us were handed clear truth on a platter, without the distractions of every other kind of influence somehow mixed in to our lives.  But this is simply not the way that things are.  In the parable of the sower, Jesus spoke of the obstacles that get in the way of the word taking root and bearing fruit within the soil of the heart.  He explained to His disciples that the distractions include the "cares of this world" and the "deceitfulness of riches."   Moreover there are persecutions and tribulation that will come to those who bear the word.  But the fruitfulness of the one who is able to keep and cultivate that word on good ground is extraordinary.  In today's reading, He gives us (and the disciples, of course) more seeming obstacles to the harvest of His word and His ministry.  There is not simply His good seed sown in the world as His word.  There is also seed sown by an enemy.  This is seed of that which distracts and makes life difficult for those who would harvest the good wheat, that which truly feeds the people with what is good and nourishing for them.  Heresy is a kind of half-truth, something which sounds good, but really isn't -- the same way that the tares or weeds resemble the wheat, but are in fact not digestible and not good for human beings.  Moreover, we can see how, especially in the world in which we live today -- where every influence is at our fingertips on our phones or computers or other forms of mass public media -- all kinds of ideas and assumptions proliferate for us to choose from.  There is every influence, and with every possible motivation, streaming into our lives.  Parents are concerned for their children, as immature minds without experience are vulnerable to predators.  So it is, also, with Jesus' message of the wheat among the weeds, which make it hard to distinguish the good from the bad, especially to those without sufficient experience to already know the difference.  No human being is born with perfect knowledge; everything for us is a long learning curve.  And so it is especially with our faith.  For many of us, we have tradition -- such as the early Councils of the Church -- to help to guide us.  We have the saints who came before us, and in particular those are are called the Fathers and Mothers of the Church, who considered every problem that met the faithful in the early centuries of Christianity and along the way.  We have, to guide us, what is called "economia" in Greek theology terminology.  Economia is the practice of mercy in terms of the things we don't clearly and absolutely know within the sphere of our imperfect world.  We do the best we can with what we have and know.   Christ preaches mercy: in today's parable the wheat and weeds must grow together until the harvest, and in effect we are given a perfect example of what economia means.  That is, until the final harvest, the ultimate judgment of Christ at His return, we do the best we can with what we do know and within the default practice of mercy.  We cling to the truth and to the good wheat, we read the Scripture, we pray, we look to tradition and those who came before us with their experience, and we must remember which "manner of spirit we are of" (Luke 9:54-56).  The good and the bad grow together in the world we live in, the false and the true, and sometimes it is very hard to distinguish the two.  What sounds good and feels good is not always good at all.  Let us note that the enemy sows his seeds "while men slept."  Jesus isn't just speaking about the vineyard owner or the workers, but the condition of human beings.  When we're not aware, all kinds of things slip in under the radar, so to speak; that is, while we're not looking or paying attention.  And in His pragmatism for His fledgling followers and the Church that is to come, He advises us that this always will be the case.  So let us not allow the dizzying array of seemingly endlessly distracting weeds, things which require our work and labor to distinguish and learn about, to dissuade us from what we know is good, what we cling to in faith.  Let us continue to understand that this is simply the way He's told us from the beginning that things are, and do what we can to cultivate good crops and our own fruitful harvest.  The importance of our own awareness and the teaching of experience cannot be discounted.  Let us remember that everything is done with the "rule" of mercy, and count ourselves blessed that it is so.