Among the Weeds

​A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, July 23rd, 2023:
The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Matthew
13.24-33

Jesus put before the crowds a parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.

“So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

​Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Why won’t God just wipe out all evil and suffering in the world? The parables from this reading offer us an answer.

First, there’s a farmer who plants grain in his field. As the grain begins to sprout, so too do weeds, planted by the enemy. The farmhands offer to remove the weeds, but the farmer refuses, citing the risk to the grain. But that’s not how farming works. If you’ve ever had a run-in with mint in your garden, you know that even this most fragrant plant can quickly choke out every other seed at the root. In that view, the farmer not weeding his field seems odd. It’s common sense to anyone who’s done even hobby farming that weeds must be removed so they don’t choke out the intended crop.

Why is Jesus giving such bad farming advice? Some would read that the good and bad seeds refer to individual people. Some are naturally good. Some are naturally bad. God doesn’t need to weed because the good souls would grow as intended regardless of the actions of the bad souls, but that aggressive weeding might harm some of them.

The parable of the yeast shows more clearly the heart of the Father. Yeast is mixed into flour and grows over time. Flour is just dust until it’s mixed with yeast and water. Only then can it become bread. Just as the farmer plants the seed in the dirt and adds water so it can sprout, so the baker plants the yeast in the flour and adds water so it can leaven. If the field has too many weeds, the good seed can be choked out. If the flour has too much salt, it can keep the yeast from expanding. 

And so does the Father plant good in us and add the water of Baptism so we can grow into images of Christ. Because of the Fall, we are like a field with weeds, or flour with too much salt. The weed planted in us by the evil one is our ability to sin. To entirely pluck out our ability to sin also risks plucking out our free will, annihilating the good being done in us by the good seed. We are not indestructible seeds, but rather complex beings, created with the ability to accept love and give love, not out of some compulsion or programming, but rather out of our free will. For the Father to pluck out our ability to sin, He would also have to pluck out our ability to choose love. That free will is the salt that gives flavour and richness to our growing love. By surrendering our entire selves to God, even the salty, weedy bits, we can grow into something beautiful.

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Stéphanie Potter

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