Turning Weeds into Wheat
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Today we hear Jesus share the parable about the weeds growing amidst the wheat. The wheat represents those who embrace the truth of Jesus Christ and live that truth. The weeds represent those who embrace the ways of the world, things inconsistent with the truth of Jesus.
In the parable, the servants of the master want to go into the field and rip up all the weeds, but the master says “no.” If the weeds are torn up while growing amidst the wheat, much of the wheat might also be uprooted. Scripture scholars say that the weeds described in the parable were a type of weed that in its early stages looked like immature wheat. Thus, it might be hard to make the distinction without allowing further growth. In the parable, the master says wait until the harvest time, when the distinction between the weeds and the wheat will be obvious. Then the wheat will be gathered into the barn (heaven) and the weeds will be burned in fire (hell).
While this parable invites patience, it is a parable and thus doesn’t provide an exact depiction of the reality in the actual human experience. For in the human experience, “weeds” can become “wheat.” What I mean by that is that a person who at some point in their life might be walking in darkness or living in sin can, by God’s grace, turn from sin and walk in the light of Christ. We call it conversion or repentance.
The Church is all about conversion. The Church is charged with announcing the truth revealed by Jesus and inviting others, through our loving and caring relationships with them, to turn away from sin and embrace goodness and truth. We meet our brothers and sisters where they are, sometimes in a pretty “weedy” place. But through genuine and patient friendship, through a willingness to patiently accompany them and by doing our best to give a positive witness of Christian life, we invite them to a better way.
It is important to resist the temptation to prematurely judge others, label people by one or a few failures rather than by their virtues or be quick to condemn but slow to invest time and energy in befriending them. If we believe that we are all sinners, yet, by God’s grace, sisters and brothers in Christ and created in the image of God, then we should be patient, and invest in others, especially grave sinners, so that they, through our friendship and God’s grace, might choose to change from “weeds” to “wheat”.
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life,
