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How Does Your Garden Grow?
by Chris Duncan
July 20, 2008
[Matthew 13:24-30]
When I was younger, my family had a large vegetable garden in our backyard. This vegetable garden was more to my family than just landscaping. This garden was a family project. Within the family vegetable garden, my older brother and I were each given our own section to till, plant, and care for. Because I was only a young child at the time, my parents decided I should grow a plant that would be easy for me to care for in my small section. So radishes were going to be my vegetable to grow. I labored for hours in my section of the garden. I took my gardening very seriously or at least as seriously as a young child can. I took time to mix and till the soil. Then I used my finger to make little holes in the dirt, at just the right depth. Finally, I dropped one little radish seed in each of the holes.
About two weeks after I began my farming venture, my parents became worried. They were worried because while the rest of the garden was beginning to sprout, grow, and bloom, my garden was bare. There was not a single living thing sprouting up through the soil. My concerned dad came to me. He asked me to show him what I was doing to care for the garden. So I showed him. I began by going outside and watering the soil, not too much but not too little. Next I would remove any rocks or other materials that did not belong. This did not seem to be the problem either. But then in anticipation of the future fruits my garden would produce, I would go to each spot where a seed was planted and dig it up. To my surprise, every time I dug into the dirt, I found something creeping out of the seed. Not understanding what this was, I would remove the seed and plant a new one in hopes that a radish would grow unharmed by the mysterious green thing. It turns out that the green thing creeping out of the seed was not a disease or weed as I had suspected but rather my new radish plant. I just did not know. In my young mind, this was just another obstacle that could ruin things. I did not know that every one of those radish seeds was in fact a good seed.
As humans we have a hard time being patient to allow things to unfold. This is true not just for young children, but for adults as well. We have an even harder time when we have to rely on someone else, even when that someone else is God. In today’s Gospel reading, this wheat and weeds parable reminds us that we have to be patient for all things happen in God’s time.
This wheat and weeds parable is the first in a series in Matthew that begins with the saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to.…” And in this parable of the kingdom of heaven we are given two people who sow seeds and two different kinds of seeds, good and bad/wheat and weeds. The first person goes out to sow what we are told is good seed. The second person goes out in the darkness of the night to sow weeds among the good seed. The servants realize there is a problem when to their surprise their cash crop is being overrun with weeds. In the servants’ haste to make right this wrong, they propose a solution. The solution is to go collect the weeds now and be done with them forever. After all, weeds are troublesome, and things would be much better with them out of the picture. Now if you have a garden that has ever become overrun with weeds, then you know the problem with this idea. In a field full of weeds, the root systems of the good and bad plants intertwine. Therefore, if you pull up the weed you would either severely damage the wheat or even kill it. There is also the high possibility that the servants might not make the right judgment needed in separating wheat from weed. This particular weed that is being alluded to is a weed that looks just like wheat as it matures. In plucking out what looks like weeds, the servants may very well be pulling up wheat instead. Even as adults we do not know everything and we don’t always make the right decisions. But, the master being a good farmer knows this all too well. And here is where the proper solution is given. Wait until the harvest so that they both can be collected. The wheat is placed in the barn and the weeds are destroyed.
In other words, the Master is saying to his servants, “Have patience for I know what is right.” The weeds have their moment to grow, but they will not overrun everything. But what about the weeds hurting the rich soil? Patience! But how will this affect the wheat crop? Patience! But why can’t we just destroy the weeds now? Patience!
The Master’s patience is grace. The Master is patient and kind. The Master waits until the crop is ready for harvest and then goes out to collect because he does not want the wheat damaged or mistaken as weeds. The Master knows how to properly care for the wheat. The Master knows what is right.
In our own lives today, we haven’t gotten much better at telling the difference between the wheat and the weeds of life. Shimmering behind this parable is our own experience in the world, a world that is not an entirely trustworthy place. True, the world is full of beauty and wonderful places, but there are also alleys of cruelty. Families bring great joy to one another but cause deep pain as well as. The Christian Church as a whole can be inspiringly courageous one moment and then be petty and faithless the next. The world steals and cheats in order to get ahead in life. The world allows people to starve to death. The world fights wars and commits genocide. In such a broken world, we are left asking ourselves, where did all of these weeds come from? We are surrounded by weeds. We even plant weeds in our own lives and in the lives of others. Still, this parable contains God’s promise that weeds are temporary. The parable of the wheat and weeds leads us to a place of joy and hope.
“Let both of them grow together until the harvest….” We can follow the example of the Master and be more patient. This is a call to be patient with the world, with one another, and ourselves. We are to approach all people and all things in love. This patience requires faith in God. This can be hard when so many weeds surround us, but Christ is with us and loves us always. We can choose to be hasty and pluck the weeds ourselves, or we can step aside and allow God to be in control of our lives. When we allow God to be the Master, then we don’t have problems of the wheat being plucked from the soil.
But there is a warning that goes with this parable as well. The Master forbidding the servants from pulling the weeds is not a call to passivity. Allowing God to be the Master is not a call to sit back and do nothing. When I was a young child in my garden, I did not stop removing rocks, sticks, and other unwanted materials that fell into my section. I did not stop watering and fertilizing the soil. Just the same, God does not call us to stop caring for the world around us. We are not called to be passive Christians. We cannot and should not ignore injustice, violence, hate, and prejudices. Rather we are reminded that we do not have the ability to remove the weeds on our own. We need God’s grace. Each one of us can do great things through Christ. We are reassured this in our Epistle reading today when Paul writes, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.” We are children of God and we have been adopted through Christ. When we take things into our own hands we can cause more harm than good just as pulling the weeds on our own time would damage the wheat. But when we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit of God we act according to the call of all Christians, in faith, hope, and love. Several times a year, we reaffirm our faith by answering a series of questions from our Baptismal Covenant. Five of those questions are…
1. Will you continue in the apostles’ teachings and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
2. Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
3. Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
4. Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as your self?
5. Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
And we answer saying: I will, with God’s help...
We live in an imperfect world, but we can be confident that God’s harvest is plentiful and sure. Our task is to live by the Spirit of God faithfully and obediently following Christ’s example of love and patience. And we will, with God’s help!