Weed Your Fields!

26 July 2025  Matthew 13:24-30

“Gather the weeds first, and bind them in bundles to be burned….” Matthew 13:30

A pretty standard interpretation of the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat is to point out that God is patient and exceeding kind, and is willing to wait a really long time for people to repent, but don’t take too long, because He is not willing to wait forever. A Day of Judgment is coming, so don’t abuse God’s patience.

It is a very nice interpretation. Unfortunately, it is not Jesus’ interpretation.

When Jesus explained the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat to the disciples (Matthew 13:36-43), He didn’t say anything about God being patient, and willing to wait a really long time. He didn’t say anything about patience at all. He said that the weeds, meaning all the causes of sin, all the evil spirits and other ministers of the devil, would be gathered and burned.

So how should we understand the householder’s direction not to pull the weeds? – “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them” (13:29).

Well, for one thing we could conclude that the householder is a pretty lousy farmer. What kind of sloppy farmer doesn’t weed his field? The only thing that can happen that way is that the weeds will crowd out good growth, and by using up nutrients in the soil diminish the good growth that manages to survive. Don’t weed your garden, and all you get is poor harvests and a hungry family. And since the weeds are a metaphor for evil spirits and the other causes of sin, the only thing that can happen if we don’t deal with them is weak churches that are helpless in the face of sin and temptation.

The householder feared that wheat might be pulled up with the weeds, and that is why he advised that the wheat and weeds should grow up together.Once again, however, it is a pretty sloppy farmer that can’t tell the difference between weeds and wheat, and it is a pretty sloppy church that can’t tell the difference between temptation and the divine Word. If you can’t tell the difference between weeds and wheat, between temptation and the divine Word, then learn. And then, for heaven’s sake (quite literally for heaven’s sake), weed your field.

Let the weeds and wheat grow up together is the counsel of poverty and hunger. It is terrible advice. So, the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat can be read as Jesus advice to the faithful – learn to discern the difference between temptation and the divine Word. Sure, temptation can be subtle, but the differences between it and the counsel of Jesus are real, and can be spotted by people who mean to be careful, who read Holy Scripture closely and teach others to do the same. Root out the causes of sin while they are still small, because if you let them grow, they will crowd out wisdom. Churches where wisdom is vanishingly rare can wind up being one of the causes of sin, and all the causes of sin have fire as a destination.

The Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat is not about divine patience, about God being willing to wait a very long time for people to repent. It is about Holy Fire. Holy Fire consumes sin and all the causes of sin, and it provides energy and light to everything else. So weed your field. Root out all the things that interfere with that Energy, and that Light.