He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. 26 When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. 27 The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”
Jesus is speaking about the kingdom of God. The weed that was sown was called cockle and was common in Palestine. It was usually sown secretly out of ill will and was indistinguishable from wheat in the early stages of its growth. It caused dizziness in humans and cattle. When it is discovered it is usually too late to do anything about it because the roots of the weed and the wheat would already be already intertwined. The wheat grows higher than the weed so at harvest, the wheat can be cut without touching the weed.
The field is where the word of God has been sown. The seed is the believers, the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the offspring of the evil one, the enemy of the Son of Man, who attacks him by stealth. The angels gather the weed and the wheat and carry out God’s Judgment sending the weeds to the place of the dammed.
Patience and tolerance are two benchmarks of the Christian life. Followers of Christ live side by side with those who resist God’s goodness and do evil. Both must coexist until they stand before the risen Christ in judgment. Until then Christians should use God’s grace to discern good from evil which can be difficult sometimes. The same evil forces that existed during Christ’s time on Earth continued to pit themselves against the Church throughout history. In spite of evil forces, Christians should be able to lead others to Christ by their words and actions.
Almighty God, you have chosen us out of the world and by your grace, we shall see your goodness even amidst the anxiety of everyday life. Help us to keep our eyes fixed on you and grant us patience and tolerance during our sojourn in this foreign land until we come to your everlasting kingdom. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
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