This Sunday we have the story of the sower who sowed good seed and the enemy who sowed weeds. It is a parable that Jesus used to tell of the Children of God and those of evil who will co-exist in the world until the end of their lives when they will separated and judged accordingly. Sadly, in our modern world, there are many who think of themselves as wheat when really they are weeds.
It is not hard to tell the two apart in our world. The wheat tend to produce a good harvest of kindness, peace, love, gentleness, compassion, and empathy. The weeds tend to produce a harvest of hatred, bigotry, anger, entitlement, and self-centeredness. It is so easy to tell them apart that we came up with catchy names for the weeds: Karens and Chads.
So many of these weeds sit in the church pew every Sunday and look like wheat. That is why Jesus said to just leave them rather than try to pluck them out. You see, on Sunday morning they look, act, and seem to be good Christians. They appear to be producing good fruit when they are around their pastor or their friends in the church. Yet, when they leave and head to Walmart or to their favorite restaurant, suddenly the weeds begin to show.
So we leave them planted with the wheat and allow the sower of the harvest to deal with them at the appointed time. You see, Jesus’ other message in this parable is a simple one, but one that is also hard to live. Jesus is telling us that it is not our place to try weed out those who are not really Christians. We are wait until Jesus does that at the end of our lives. Jesus will weed out those who were not really Christians and say to them, “I never knew you.”
It is our responsibility to take care of ourselves. We are to “work out our salvation daily.” Not our neighbor’s salvation, and certainly not the weed’s salvation. Just our own. In John 3:17 Jesus reminds us that he did not come into the world to condemn it, so who made you better than Jesus?
Let us continue on our journey of salvation and let the weeds worry about themselves.
Pax et Bonum!
Bishop Greer