On more than one occasion I have been driving and been passed by someone who was traveling much faster than I.  I think to myself they must be in a hurry, maniacs, they should have their license suspended.  We don’t have time for the full list of things I think to myself in these situations because truth be told there is no end to it as I chastise the speeding driver and pride myself for driving so safely by comparison.  Makes me feel better about the four or five miles over the speed limit I am doing and all the cars I have passed.  Then it happens, five ten, fifteen miles down the road you see it in the distance.  Flashing blue and red lights on the side of the road… the police have nabbed the car that passed me.  As I drive by I feel no remorse for the reckless speed demon.  Serves them right I think, there is justice in the world after all.  That is except for the couple of occasions when it has been my car pulled over by the police officer, but that is beside the point.  I suspect that maybe just maybe some of you have experienced similar situations and felt as I did.  Truth is we have a very keen sense of right and wrong and we rejoice when the wicked are punished, when the unrighteous are mowed down, when the weeds are uprooted in the garden. That is why the passage of scripture we just read is so startling at first.  The owner of the field seems to be soft on the weeds.  We, like the field workers want the weeds out of there, not left to soak up the precious water and sun that the wheat needs to grow.  However we have the satisfaction that the field owner is not totally off his rocker; he does have a sense of justice in the end and we are relieved to know that the weeds are gathered and bundled and thrown into the fire as we think they ought to be, serves them right those no good weeds.  But if all we take away from this parable is the satisfaction of knowing the weeds get what is coming to them, that the wicked will be made to pay for their transgressions…if all we get from the parable is a warm and fuzzy feeling about being wheat instead of weeds then we have missed the point all together.

           Harry Ironside, pastor of Moody Memorial

           Sometimes it can be tough to tell the difference between the wheat and the weeds. More than once I have seen good plants pulled up because others thought they were weeds.  In defense of those who have done this and in defense of myself when I have done this, sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between the weeds and the desired plants, especially early in the growing cycle.  One has to be an experienced gardener to make these determinations, especially when a lot of plants look sort of the same; best then to leave the weeding to a professional.  That is what Jesus is trying to teach us that is the real point to this parable; not that the weeds get what they deserve but that we should leave the judgments to him. He knows that we are consistently off the mark when we try to make an accurate assessment of the moral character of a friend or a neighbor, and so he orders us to put our energy elsewhere.  More over when we try to judge between wheat and weeds usually more harm than good is done.  In our weeding efforts we are likely to uproot some of the good stuff.  So better for us to not worry at all about the judgment between the two for now; let the wheat and weeds grow up together so as not to disturb the wheat. 

          The challenge for us is to put our energy into being good wheat, instead of trashing the weeds around us. Rather than erecting walls, building boundaries and trying to purify our community of faith, our job is to grow up healthy and strong — and leave the judging to Jesus. The problem with trying to pull up weeds is that we might grab some wheat by mistake, and hurt ourselves and others who are part of the good-seed set.  As Christians we are called to spread the good news, we are called to live differently, and we are called to renounce sin and evil to walk rightly in the way of Jesus the Christ.  Our primary assignment however is not warning, but welcome. We are called to issue invitations for people to live the only life for which they were created.  Christians should be known for carrying good news–the gospel itself–out into the world; telling others of God’s redeeming love. Disciples of Jesus have so many positive things to say that there should be little time for focusing on the bad or droning on forever about dangers.

           This is not to say that following Christ we ought to be blind to the world’s injustices. In Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds, the patient farmer is not blind to the weeds growing in his field. He can easily tell a weed from a wheat stalk. How to deal with these intrusive weeds is the question he faces, not whether they exist. The farmer in this parable wisely decides that it is better to leave the weeds growing among the wheat until harvest time, rather than disturb the tender roots of the growing wheat stalks by trying to rip the weeds out of the growing field.  So it is not that we are blind to the injustices in the world it is just that it is not our place to make judgments about others based on what we see because we don’t see with God’s eyes. 

          We are pretty sure we know weeds when we see them. But do we? In nature, the distinction between what is a “weed” and what is a useful, valuable plant is less clear than first meets the eye. A dandelion growing in your yard is a weed. But a dandelion growing in your garden is a delicate flavorful green.  So much of the distinction between desired plant life and weeds is in they eye of the beholder.  A while ago my brother and I recalled together the philosophy of our Grand Father Bowers who seemed to be way ahead of his time.  Even before it was popular to think green and avoid using a lot of chemicals to control weeds in lawns because of the negative side effect they have on wildlife and the ground water he refused to use these products.  His reasoning was not that he was trying to save the earth but instead he would wonder aloud “God gave us all of these pretty little flowers to look at and enjoy, why would we want to eliminate them from our yards so that all we had to look at was green?”  I have to agree with him God gives us a lot of things to enjoy and we don’t appreciate them and sometimes we even try to destroy them. 

          Queen Ann’s Lace and Corn Flowers are common weeds but in my estimation produce some of the prettiest flowers there are to behold.   In nature it can be quite difficult to distinguish between plant and weed because there are some good looking weeds out there. The same is true in the garden of humanity.  In God’s garden the rules are different, the weeds are allowed to stay, and in the end it is only God who makes the distinction between wheat and weed. 

           One final note about this parable if God is the field owner and the laborers are the Holy Spirit and Jesus, or some other heavenly beings that do God’s bidding then humans, you and me we are either wheat or weeds.  I think we automatically assume we are the wheat Jesus is talking about and hopefully we are, but my point is this it is not like plants get to choose what kind of plant they want to be.  If we are indeed wheat, and I choose to believe we are, but we are not wheat by our choosing.  We are wheat because that is the way God made us so there is no room for boasting about being wheat instead of weeds because if it were left up to us to decide we would be weeds too. 

          Our calling as messengers of the Good News is not to jeer at the weeds no matter how easy the cheap shots may be to make. Instead, our mission is to proclaim words of acceptance, love and welcome as far and wide as possible. We are called to be neither jeerers nor jurors. If we are indeed the wheat the let us not focus on the weeds, let’s leave that to God.  Instead let us focus on growing into the fullest most productive stalks of wheat that we can.  Pulling the weeds is not the church’s business; growing wheat, growing bread for the world is.  Thankfully Separating wheat from weed, valuable from worthless, harmful from harmless–all that is the responsibility of the divine Judge, the Son of God, the judge judged in our place, Jesus the Christ. Amen