Today’s Gospel records not one but three parables joined by Matthew himself, since they are followed by a single explanation. This explanation directly concerns only the first parable, the weeds among the wheat. But placed at the end by the evangelist, this explanation concerns in some way the other two parables, the little mustard seed that grows into a large bush and the yeast that leavens the whole batch of dough.
Like last Sunday’s parable, this one shows a man who has sown good grain in his field. Another person, his enemy, has followed him, “While everyone was asleep,” he has sown the weeds all through the wheat. As the season progresses, the damage becomes apparent; there are among the wheat, growing along with it, these noxious weeds, sometimes hard to distinguish at first, because of its similarity to wheat. But what we have here is a parable of the kingdom of heaven, in which Matthew certainly also sees a parable of the Church, that of his time and that of all times. It is obvious that there are bad and good people, including pretentious leaders. To separate rightly one from the other is an impossible task for those who can judge only by appearances. God alone, who sees what is in the human heart (Acts 15:8), has the power. He alone can, at every moment, remove the weeds without at the same time uprooting the least stem of wheat. But the parable contains another teaching.
“Let them grow together until harvest.” God does not hurry. To sort the weeds from the wheat; he will do that at harvest time. Until then it is the time of growth and hope. God has, if we may say so, a longer experience than his servants. He knows that in the field of the kingdom, vigorous weeds may disappear before reaching maturity, that some wheat seeds germinate later than others, that certain wheat plants develop their ears just before harvest. But he also knows that the wheat plants which have rapidly sprouted may dry out, that others, never growing beyond the stem stage, will not succeed in forming ears, and that some of the ears in ripe wheat grains are poor. The parable of the seed and the different places where it falls has reminded us that all of this is not the result of unpredictable weather. We can blame neither the quality of the seed, uniformly perfect, nor some mistake on the Sowers part; his enemy, not he, has scattered the weeds in the field. Responsibility lies in the human heart that welcomes weeds, that allows the seed to fructify or prevents it from doing so.
God’s patience and delay taught by this parable arise from his perspicacity, from his mercy that never loses hope, and finally from the fact that, until the harvest, he gives to each the grace that can work miracles.
The evangelist places side by side the parable of the wheat and the weeds and another parable that, in the picturesque way, stresses the potency of the Gospel seed; tiny— hardly the size of a pinhead— it develops into a small tree.
We have here an appeal for faith and hope. The kingdom of heaven has begun in a very small way; Jesus sowed the word by preaching for three years, in a tongue regarded as barbaric, to humble people in a restricted geographical area of no value in the vast Roman Empire. Nonetheless, from this minuscule seed a large bush develops, modest no doubt, but where “the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.”
The last remark is not just a way of emphasising the size of the large bush. The symbolism of the tree in which the birds nest evokes the ultimate and great eschatological gathering of all the peoples into the kingdom. The large bush of the parable is large not only in size, without common measure with “the smallest of all seeds” from which it came. What is stressed is the infinite disproportion between the insignificance of the beginning of the kingdom and the unimaginable greatness of the completed kingdom. The parable invites us to consider first the tiny seed then the final stage at the end of its development. We could say here that faith and hope coalesce, because we are invited to look at the seed and its final development in a single glance. When one of the tiny seeds is sown, the kingdom of the last times is already present. Between the moment when the seed falls into the earth and the moment when the birds can take refuge in the branches of the tree, there is certainly a delay. But one hardly notices it, because of the dramatic contrast between the smallest seed just sown and the size of the small tree that can soon be admired in the field.
A lesson for all disciples can be drawn from this pondering, through faith, on the assured growth of the kingdom from such a modest beginning. The teaching could be thus worded: “Do not neglect any opportunity to sow, in the field where you are, even a single one of these tiny seeds. What you should look at is not the smallness of the seed but the bush which you cannot doubt will grow from it “
The third parable conveys the same teaching as the first two, through a comparison taken from daily experience. But it contains an emphasis and two significant features. Again, we have a contrast. A woman puts a little yeast into three large measures of flour, and the whole batch rises. The emphasis is placed on the rapidity with which the effect is produced. The first new feature is that the yeast mixed with the flour is not at all separate from the dough it raises. This is a trait commonly set forth; Christians are “the yeast in the dough.”
The second significant feature is precisely this: what raises the dough, is a little dough that one has left out to ferment. But in this parable, the yeast designates the leaven of the kingdom—again the word, the gospel—and not the disciples. It is their responsibility to mix with the dough this good yeast that they themselves are not. For there is some bad yeast, which we must guard against, or even clear out. This bad yeast is an agent of corruption. This last parable is related to the Firestone, that of the wheat and the weeds, it is not surprising to find its explanation last of all.
Jesus speaks in parables to the crowds in order that all may have the opportunity to understand that his teaching is a key to “things hidden from the beginning.” To gain access to this revelation, we must go beyond the imperfect intuition, we must recognise in Jesus the one who personally and uniquely knows the secrets of the Father. “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field,” is an act of faith and not just an expression of curiosity.
“He who sows good seed is the Son of Man.” When one has “ears that hear” , one has already understood this. “The field is the world” this widening perspective would not have occurred to us at first. We must avoid understanding the parable in too narrow a sense, as if it concerned only the Church. No, the Church is not an enclosed yard where the Son of Man concentrates his activity. He sows the good seed everywhere in the world, in the middle of which is his Church. Everywhere there are, “Children of the kingdom”, since the good seed designates them. But everywhere, too—and therefore also in the Church—there are weeds, that is, “Children of the evil one.” Finally, everywhere the devil— the enemy— is at work during the night. We do not have here just an allusion to the underhanded character of his pernicious action. In the Bible, the night designates the present time, in which the seed sprouts and grows. On the day of the harvest, that is, of the judgement, “at the end of the age”, when he will come back to collect the fruit of his sowing, the Son of Man will separate the wheat from the weeds, which will be thrown into the fiery furnace.
In the explanation of the parable, Jesus says that the weeds designate “all who cause others to sin and all evil doers.” These will be rejected for having behaved without bothering with any law, in contradistinction to the just ones. But those “who cause others to sin” who are they, if not those through whom scandal happens and whom Jesus has so vigorously denounced? The Son of Man has received “all power in heaven and on earth”; he will judge all nations. What is said here concerns not only the Church. But Matthew did write for Christians; they, too, will be judged. Woe to those who will have lived in contradiction with the Gospel, to those who will have caused the fall of their brothers and sisters inside or outside the community. Let us always have in mind the prospect of judgement. But let them at the same time bear in mind the glory with which “the just will shine as the sun in the Father’s kingdom.”
This explanation of the parable of the weeds in the field also throws light on the parables of the mustard seed and of the yeast in the dough. These last two in their turn shed light upon the first. In the world today, the kingdom is like a seed sown in the earth, a pinch of yeast buried in the dough. This sowing and this leavening will not fail to produce effects well-nigh miraculous, if we consider the disproportion between the smallness of what has been sown or mixed and the magnitude of the result. But we cannot conclude from these comparisons that it is enough for us to passively wait to see what is going to happen. For the parables use images that need to be correctly understood. We have our share of responsibility in what comes to pass. Good seed gives wheat; but the enemy sows weeds in the field already sown. The bush that we are must be willing to grow and blossom. The dough, as bakers know, does not always rise well despite the quality of the yeast. Small quantities of flour untouched by the yeast are still visible. The Son of Man will judge these results some day and will call each one of us to account. In the meantime, our patient God refrains from intervening in an untimely manner and does not anticipate the time of judgement.
We cannot afford to listen distractedly to this Sunday’s readings because they carry too important teaching. They reveal what is in God’s heart and the deep reason for his apparent inaction. Our conception of judgement is sometimes offended: “Does God not see what is happening?” Does he not see the weeds? Of course he sees, he sees everything, but he is a patient loving God, and we do not think as God thinks but as man thinks. He will come when he is ready and not before, so we should pray to the Spirit to come to the aid of our apparent weaknesses, and, so that we may become the wheat that the Lord wants to harvest. We should ask the Spirit to teach us to pray as we ought, making us always will, what God wills.
“The day of the Lord will come, do not judge before time. Do not despise God’s patience: His kindness calls you to repentance. When God’s judgement is revealed, He will render to all according to their works. On that day the just will be resplendent in the light.”
Amen.
