The Parable of the Weeds
Dr. James Smith
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
17 August 2003
Last week, we began our study of Jesus’ parables in Matthew 13. We found that a parable is a “picture-story” that borrows something known from this physical world to explain something that is deep and unknown from the spiritual world.
And much to the dismay of democratically minded Christians of the 21st century, Jesus made very clear to us in the parable of the sower that not everyone would understand His parables, but only those who were spiritually hungry . . . those who had eyes to see and ears to hear.
Once again, of the gospel writers, we find the largest number of parables in Matthew and Luke (remember . . . the gospel of John contains no parables).
And one of the interesting facts about our Parable of the Weeds this morning is the fact that this parable is found only here in Matthew 13.
It is part of a wider body of material that New Testament scholars call “Special M.” (Another example is the Christmas story of the Magi). Remember that when our gospels were written, the earliest Christians circulated Jesus’ teachings orally.
Matthew it would seem had access to certain stories of Jesus that the other gospel writers either did not have or simply chose not to use for one reason or another.
One other notable feature that the Parable of the Weeds introduces is this phrase that Jesus will open the rest of the parables of Matthew 13 with . . . “The Kingdom of Heaven is like . . .”
From here on out, the parables of Matthew 13 will be like facets on this diamond and each will offer a beautiful glimpse on the preciousness of the Kingdom.
One final textual note is while Matthew refers to the Kingdom as the “kingdom of heaven,” Luke will refer to the Kingdom as the “kingdom of God.”
Matthew as a more “Jewish” gospel uses the word “heaven” as a way to allude to “God” without mentioning the divine name. Luke as a gospel that is more “Gentile” is very interested in portraying Jesus as the Savior of the entire world . . . Jew & Gentile.
Now as I thought about the difference between plants such as wheat and weeds, I naturally assumed that the point was that you could eat one but not the other.
But then my mind traveled back to my seminary days when I was taking a class on New Testament backgrounds and we were studying edible footstuffs and a good friend of mine had been concocting something for a class presentation.
Evidently he had been out picking all the dandelions on the seminary ground for sometime and fermenting them in a big pot in his dorm room. (Scary!)
He came to class and made a presentation on “Dandelion wine” complete with samples in Dixie cups for all the students. Many of the students refused to touch the stuff, but being the broad minded guy that I am, I tried a sip and proceeded to spit it on the floor.
It was some of the nastiest stuff I have ever tasted and I think lighter fluid would taste better.
So I went to Webster’s dictionary to find out what made weeds different from things like wheat and it had these helpful insights.
A weed is “a plant that is considered troublesome or useless, especially if it is growing abundantly in cultivated ground.”
Well . . . dandelions are certainly troublesome and certainly useless as far as beverages are concerned. But what of weeds found in our parable this morning?
I discovered that in an effort to make the application of Jesus’ parable useful for people today, the translators of the NIV have taken a very specific kind of weed and generalized it for us.
The KJV is more specific in calling these “tares” which come from a funny Greek word. Another word for this very specific and troublesome weed is “darnel.”
Now for urban dwellers like us, what is the big deal about weeds in a wheat field anyway? Okay . . . sure we can understand that it might be hard to tell the wheat from the weeds in the early stages but so what?
Well . . . this specific kind of weed called “tares” or “darnel” was a real problem for wheat farmers in Jesus’ day as well as for farmers throughout history.
This was no dandelion in the field. If darnel was not extracted from the field by harvest time, and if it was harvested and ground up together with the wheat, it would spoil the flour.
And in a day when people would live or die with the harvest, this would have been bad enough.
But darnel is also a host for a poisonous fungus called “ergot.” If ergot seeds are eaten together with wheat in the form of bread, it can produced vomiting, hallucinations and even death.
(I might add that there are a number of historians who believe that the young girls who claimed they saw demons influencing the supposed “witches” of Salem, Mass, had consumed wheat bread infected with ergot.
I reject this opinion of some historians because they cannot conceive of the reality of demonic world, nor do they consider the possibility that these were simply bored and repressed young women who caused the death of many innocent people.)
Now in many places in the New Testament, weeds are understood as both useless and troublesome and it is interesting how many times they are associated with the final harvest.
In the case of the parable of the weeds, we have a reminder and a picture of the end times and when God will separate and judge people.
So, the parable of the weeds then is a kind of natural extension of the parable of the sower. We know that there is a direct correlation between the kind of soil in a person’s heart and the fruitfulness of their harvest.
Here more specifically, Jesus explains that He is the one sowing the good seed. The bad seed is sown by Satan and is naturally evil.
The world then, is a field that contains good seed as well as all kinds of useless and troublesome seed.
But just because so much of the seed growing in the world is evil, doesn’t mean that it is ugly or unattractive.
I remember driving down Garfield Blvd last spring and being struck by the fact that the new green-grass was carpeted by colorful yellow dandelions. Actually, it was pretty.
But then I was reminded that just because some weeds produce colorful flowers, doesn’t change the fact that they are troublesome and useless. They seek to choke out the good grass seed and left unchecked, they will completely take over.
The Parable of the Weeds offers a number of truths for us, but one of them is that while we inevitably share the world’s field with seed sown by the Enemy, we are called to spiritual vigilance.
Whenever believers fall asleep spiritually, the Devil will sneak in and spread more bad seed.
This is a key reason why some Christians bear only 30 times the seed, while others bear 60 times.
I have found by experience that if I take the time to apply fertilizer to the church lawns several times throughout the spring and summer, there is a dramatic reduction in the amount of dandelions and other weeds that sprout.
The spiritually vigilant bear 100 times what was sown because they carefully tend their fields and dig out weeds by the roots.
Those of us who have battled with the Queen Anne’s lace on the church grounds have found the importance of digging deep, tearing them out and carefully gathering them together before they drop their noxious seeds into the soil again.
The bottom line is that weeds are troublesome and useless and if you do not succeed in getting them all out of your field, rest assured, in the end God will do it for you.
But the cost will be significantly diminished productivity and return on the precious seed of Jesus’ word in your life.
Careful students of the Bible will notice that God’s Word begins and ends in a garden. So how is your garden and field this morning?
May God give both you and I, eyes that see and ears that hear, what His Spirit is saying each one of us this morning.
Let’s Pray
