Not being a green thumb, my knowledge of weeds is limited. I recognize dandelions, chickweed, and crabgrass. They stand out on any lawn like eyesores but some weeds are deceptively attractive. They don’t even look like weeds to me, so I presume them to be some uncommon plant until someone tells me that I have been duped.
The weeds Jesus mentions are not just any ordinary weeds. He is talking about darnel; a noxious, poisonous weed that closely resembles wheat until both have ripened. At harvest time, the difference becomes obvious. Wheat stands tall and golden while darnel is shorter and its grains are gray.Likewise, certain sins can seem attractive at first, but sooner or later, their ugliness becomes apparent.
Granted, no farmer is ever delighted to find weeds mixed in with his crops, but he knows there is no way to sort the darnel from the wheat until after the harvest. The presence of weeds doesn’t surprise the farmer for weeds are as much a part of his landscape as evil is a part of human nature.
What is Jesus getting at here? Is he suggesting that evil people be given the license to do whatever they wish? Hardly! That would defy common sense so what gives?
Before I answer that question, let me ask another question. What is half of eight? Would you think I am wrong if I told you that half of eight is zero? Now before you dismiss me as being hopeless in math as I am in the garden, let me explain. Imagine the numeral eight; the figure is made up of two zeros, one on top of the other. Can you see that one half of eight can be zero? A different perception invites another way to look at any given situation.
Jesus is cautioning us that just as God doesn’t expect perfection, nor should we. His harshest critics did. The Pharisees believed that in God’s kingdom, there would be no room for sinners, so they refused to associate with them. Much to their chagrin, Jesus did. Likewise, Jesus was annoyed that the Pharisees were intolerant of anyone whom they labeled a sinner.
Their attitude prevails to this day, among some Christians, Catholic and Protestant alike, who have forgotten that Jesus founded the Church not for saints but for sinners; those who recognize their need for repentance and forgiveness.
We act like the Pharisees when we refuse to forgive or repent. When we pass a life long sentence on a person who makes a serious mistake or commits a wrong, we are forgetting that life is meant to be ongoing and ever changing, hopefully for the better. When we scorn someone as being beyond redemption, we act unjustly, unlike God.
If a farmer can’t distinguish the weeds from the wheat until they ripen, how can we distinguish whom God judges to be saints or sinners in our midst? The moment we judge others, we are denying the freedom God gives us to change our hearts and grow closer to the Lord, that is, repent.
The good news of the readings is summed up in our response to today’s psalm, “Lord you are good and forgiving.” That message should be as refreshing to us as a cool breeze on a hot day because all of us are a mixture of saintly and sinful, thus at times in need of God’s forgiveness.
The one thing the gospel adds is that sooner or later there will be a day of reckoning. Just as the farmer will destroy the darnel, Jesus cautions that at the end of the age, when the final judgment takes place, the children of the evil one will be thrown into the furnace, that is, hell, “where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” God is not waiting to punish us; rather our actions have consequences, and we have to be responsible for them.
God isn’t judging us now nor has God predetermined our fate. Rather, God is patient and lenient, giving us many opportunities to repent until we take our last breath. Our ultimate destination after we die, heaven or hell, is up to us. Until that moment arrives, we can either become bitter or we become better. God leaves the choice us to us.
It is through the give and take of life with other inconsiderate, selfish sinners that we can learn to be understanding and patient, tolerant and forgiving, just as God is. This same God has gathered sinners together into a church where we can become holy. While we distinguish between good and evil, we must also aim at being understanding and tolerant of others just as God is for now is the time for conversion, not judgment. People can change. We can change.
A Jesuit in Sacramento wrote a long poem entitled, “Litany of Contradictory Things.” Here are some of the verses: “Wheat and weeds: let them grow together. Arabs and Jews in Palestine: let them grow together. Documented and undocumented aliens: let them grow together. People of God who wound and heal: let them grow together. Let those whose thinking is similar and contrary: let them grow together. Doubt and faith: let them grow together. Virtue and vice: let them grow together. Contemplation and action: let them grow together. Giving and receiving: let them grow together.” His litany points us away from our differences to the way we will live together, if not now, then hopefully someday in the kingdom of God.