Daily Reflections ...

Something seems a little unfair in Jesus’ parable of the weeds and the wheat. It wasn’t the weeds’ fault that they grew in the wrong place. It was ‘the enemy’ who planted them in the wheat field. And the weeds didn’t chose to be weeds instead of something useful in the first place! 

So we need to dig a little further – pardon the pun! As a gardener, I know that it’s always best to pull out weeds as soon as they appear, but here the landowner tells his servants to wait until harvest time. The parable describes two groups of people in the world – children of the kingdom and children of the evil one – whose destinies are fixed from the beginning. We know, however, that all things are possible with God and, given time, weeds may turn to wheat. 

And it is the angels – not any human beings – that the Son of Man will send to separate the weeds from the wheat. This is a reminder that it is not up to us to take matters into our own hands. Just as it is not so easy to tell darnel, a noxious weed that is plentiful in Israel, from wheat, we are in no position to judge who is evil and who is righteous. God alone knows what is in a person’s heart.

That means we can leave the weeding to the angels, and get on with the mission Jesus has given us – proclaiming the Good News that the Kingdom of God is at hand!

by Elizabeth Harrington