19 July 2026 8th Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 28.10-19a   Psalm 139.1-11, 23-24   Romans 8.12-25   Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43

Again, Jesus introduces his parable with the words ‘the kingdom of heaven is like…’  And we will have more of these in the coming weeks.

 Let me ask you, have you ever wondered, or heard someone ask: ‘why does God allow evil in the world’.  And have you ever wished, like the slaves, to ‘take matters into you own hands’ and ‘root out the evil’.  But, as this parable indicates, it is not necessarily as easy as it seems.  For starters, the wheat and weed are not always easily distinguished from each other.  For another, the roots are so intertwined that if you tried to remove the weed, you will disturb the wheat and compromise its growing.

 What is not necessarily easy for us to understand is, the ‘weed’ Jesus refers to was probably ‘darnel’, which looks the same as wheat until they both bear seed.  The wheat head droops, the darnel head stands upright.  So, the safest option is to allow the two to grow together and only separate them ‘at harvest’.

 In the explanation of the parable, Jesus identifies all the elements – the master is the Son of God, the wheat are the children of God, the weeds are the children of the evil one, the evil one who sowed them is the Devil, the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels.  The Son of God tends the field, knowing there are both wheat and weed, satisfied that the two will be separated at harvest.  But this definitive explanation seems to suggest two groups of people, children of the kingdom and children of the evil one and that their destinies are fixed from the beginning.  So how do we understand that in our own context.  Are we either one or the other all the time?  Are our destinies ‘pre-determined’?

 I do not hold with ‘predetermination’, so how do I relate this parable into my life here today.  One of the problems for us is we try to determine - who are wheat, who are weed, as if they are, in fact, one or the other, but I think we are ‘both/and’.  Like the young wheat and weed, we cannot tell ‘by looking’ who is good or who is not.  Appearances can be deceiving.  Sometimes the most evil in society ‘shine like angels’ and those who ‘look suspicious’ are actually angels.  I think we are both wheat and weed at different times.  Jesus said, by their fruits they shall be known.  Sometimes we bear fruit, sometimes we don’t.

 And it is not up to us to judge the world, that is God’s job.  It is not up to us to decide who is good and who is not, that is God’s job.  Our job is to live the best life we can, trying at all times to ‘bear fruit’ while recognising that sometimes we do not.  But we still try.  Unlike the weeds and wheat, where ‘once a weed always a weed’ and ‘once wheat always wheat’, we are both wheat and weed at different times and at the ‘end of time’ all peoples will have the choice to ‘chose God’ or ‘not choose God’.  We all have the choice and ability to ‘choose good’ or ‘choose evil’.

 In other Matthean passages, Jesus refers to those who ‘put a stumbling block’ for ‘little ones’ and says they would be better having a millstone tied round their neck and drowned, or if your eye, or hand, or foot, causes you to stumble, or sin, it would be better to ‘cut it off’ than be thrown into ‘hell fire’ with body intact.  This type of language suggests that maybe evil is within a person rather than the whole person.  Sin comes from within the heart, the inner self, mind, and will.  And we cannot pluck out the inner self.  So maybe what the angels will collect and burn, at the end of the age, is everything within us that causes us to sin.  It doesn’t quite fit the parable, but it is in line with other texts in Matthew about stumbling blocks.

 Remember Jesus told Peter to ‘get behind me Satan.  You are a stumbling block for me’, but Jesus did not give up on Peter, he entrusted the future of his mission with him and the rest of the disciples.  So maybe we should not be too ‘black and white’ ‘literal’ about this parable.  We know wheat cannot become weed, but they can ‘grow together’ having different roles in the one life, and this story offers hope for those who stumble, even those called stumbling blocks.

 When you look at our media and the reporting of crime, it is not hard to find some ‘overzealous weeders’ who would happily ‘root out’ all evil.  We often assume we ‘know’ the difference between weed and wheat, and so we can easily ‘deal with’ the weed.  Unfortunately, this is played out too often within the church as well.  Those who wish to remove any who do not agree with the ‘right’ interpretation of Scripture, or liturgical practice; those who pronounce judgement on people ‘outside’ the church, or those of other faiths, and judge them as destined for eternal damnation.  This does serious damage to the church and its mission.  And Jesus makes it clear that we cannot be certain who is ‘in’ or who is ‘out’; that God is the only one with judgement over these matters.  And quite frankly, I am happy that it is not ‘up to me’, or ‘you’.  God’s infinite and indiscriminate mercy will prevail, Thank God.