Weeds

“My Lord and my God…” (John 20:28).

The Parable of the Sower (Harold Copping)

I have been considering the parable that Christ told about the man who sowed weeds among the wheat while the owner was asleep.

“A man sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.’” (Matthew 13:24-30).

This is a very important parable because it reveals a number of important things…

Firstly, this concept of the weeds among the wheat is a very important one that we can barely understand in our modern and usually urban lives.  If someone sowed weeds among the wheat it was a catastrophic act.  You see, the wheat and weeds looked identical as they grew and it was only upon maturity that the farmer would be able to see that there were weeds among his crop.  Importantly, if there were weeds littered liberally throughout the crop then the entire crop of wheat would be destroyed.  And this is an important concept.  You see, in order to determine which stalks of the plants were wheat and which were weeds, the farmer had to be willing to sacrifice an entire crop (an entire growing season) on the CHANCE that some of the wheat would be salvageable.

In the parable we are told that the farmer chose not to destroy the entire crop right at the beginning (and start again) because he did not want to risk destroying good wheat when he was eliminating the bad weeds.

And I have been thinking about that today.  You see, that parable is like the fall of humankind.  When Adam and Eve first sinned, they scattered the weeds of sin amongst God’s perfect creation of humanity.  And ever since those sins have multiplied and grown.  And God – in His INFINITE GOODNESS – chose not to destroy all humanity in retaliation (and start again with a fresh batch of creatures who would not offend Him in His INFINITE goodness) but He chose to give us a chance so that if some of us are good (wheat – so to speak) we have a chance of being “harvested”…

And I have been thinking about the cost of that to God today.  In the parable, the farmer would have lost his livelihood.  Perhaps the experience of allowing the crop to ripen despite such a risk of contamination would have resulted in his financial ruin?  Imagine the tireless work the farmer would have done to keep the crop watered and trimmed and well maintained?  And in all of this, God too does all these things.  He is INFINITELY invested in each of us – in my and in you too.  And the result of this is that HE GIVES EVERYTHING for us.  There is nothing that He will not give – even unto death on the Cross – so that we could have a chance at Salvation, even despite the weeds that we have become.

And I have been thinking about that today as I pray in gratitude the words of Saint Thomas the Apostle who said, “My Lord and my God…” (John 20:28).

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.