The servants recognize the weeds.
Before we go any further in exploring this word of God for us, I just want us to stop right there and recognize a clear fact in the parable: the servants who care for the wheat fields recognize the weeds. They can clearly see the invaders that seek to choke out the good wheat planted in the good soil.
So, as the tenders of the wheat field, they ask, “What are we to do about it?”
People of God, you know wrongdoing, evil, and injustice when you see it. You can be heard talking with friends in the halls and at the tables of family events. The dismay in your voices can be heard each time you see children neglected, God’s creation destroyed senselessly, people suffering because of the stupidity of someone else, people struggling with the horrors of addiction, people struggling to put food on the table while others live high off of cheap labor, defamatory remarks toward women or minorities, and other forms of moral depravity that hurts the health of the community.
In other words, I do not need to hold a class on what the absence of loving your neighbor looks like. For the most part, as long as we have not allowed ourselves to be blinded, we know what wrongdoing and evil looks like.
Just to bring the point home, let us take a look at something. We have all heard the sentiment from Timothy 6:10 which says that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” It is very true. How many people are hurt because others are trying to make a fast buck? So, with that in mind, try to guess the top 10 consumer complaints from 2016 according to Forbes magazine. Do you have your guesses? Well, here they are:
1. Auto. Misrepresentations in advertising or sales of new and used cars, lemons, faulty repairs, leasing and towing disputes.
2. Home Improvement/Construction. Shoddy work, failure to start or complete the job.
3. Utilities. Service problems or billing disputes with phone, cable, satellite, Internet, electric and gas service.
4. Credit/Debt. Billing and fee disputes, mortgage modifications and mortgage-related fraud, credit repair, debt relief services, predatory lending, illegal or abusive debt collection tactics.
5. Retail Sales. False advertising and other deceptive practices, defective merchandise, problems with rebates, coupons, gift cards and gift certificates, failure to deliver.
6. Services. Misrepresentations, shoddy work, failure to have required licenses, failure to perform.
7. Landlord/Tenant. Unhealthy or unsafe conditions, failure to make repairs or provide promised amenities, deposit and rent disputes, illegal eviction tactics.
8. Household Goods. Misrepresentations, failure to deliver, faulty repairs in connection with furniture or appliances.
9. Health Products/Services. Misleading claims; unlicensed practitioners.
10. (Tied with the next) Internet Sales. Misrepresentations or other deceptive practices, failure to deliver online purchases;
Fraud. Bogus sweepstakes and lotteries, work-at-home schemes, grant offers, fake check scams, imposter scams and other common frauds.
See, as the people of God, you know greed and selfishness when you see it. It is not as if the weeds are somehow disguised among the wheat. They are right there, ready to be plucked. So, as the tenders of God’s kingdom, what are we to do about the weeds? What are we to do with those who hate rather than love? What do we do with those who tear down rather than build up? What do we do with our neighbor who is clearly in the wrong?
In the parable, the servants tending the field ask this very question.
"Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, "No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.' "
Did you catch the significance of what was said?
Though we can clearly see those who commit evil and injustice out in the field of wheat, it is not our job to pluck them out. It is not our job to destroy them. For if we try, the wheat will probably also suffer casualties.
Just last week I heard of a brand new pastor who saw the evil within a young woman in his new congregation. He saw her actions as evil. He knew her actions were evil.
So, he decided that he was going to get up into the pulpit like a self-appointed prophet and blatantly point a finger at the evil. He decided that he was going to pluck out the evil before it grew and spread. His new church was not going to be infested. He preached his finger-pointing sermon, and the next day he received a letter from a husband and a wife, two of the congregation’s most devoted and loving members.
Before I go into what the letter stated, you have to understand that this husband and wife were those quiet servants who were at every event, setting up the tables, making the food, and hugging those forgotten in the corner.
They were the ones who ran the hunger walk every year which raised thousands of dollars for the most destitute in the world.
They were the ones who people called when they were struggling and needed a loving ear.
They were the ones who probably understood Jesus’ self-giving love on the cross the best.
They were also the parents of the “evil” young woman in the congregation.
These parents were not hoodwinked. They knew the trouble that their daughter had gotten into full well. But, they were also working on another task that Jesus had set out for his disciples: forgiveness.
As the pastor read the letter, he discovered that these two disciples of the congregation were not coming back. Nor, did they think they would go to another church, at least not right then. The hurt that was caused by his callous attempt at plucking weeds was too fresh and too great.
Jesus, are we to go and pluck out the weeds? “No,” Jesus says. “Let them grow with the wheat and they will be separated at harvest time because you may just destroy some of the wheat in the process of plucking.” In other words, it is not your job to pluck. “Vengeance is mine” says the Lord.
It is not your job to pluck.
So, what are the servants of God to do when we see the weeds in the wheat? What action are we to take? Well, actually, Jesus has given us an action that we can take. It is a clear action. There is nothing ambiguous about it. It is the same action that Jesus takes on the cross when he dies in order to save the entire world. The action is simply called “forgiveness.”
The parents knew what they were doing. They were the devoted disciples of the congregation after-all. They were showing forgiveness the seventy seventh time because that is what Jesus told them to do. Plucking is not our job; forgiveness is our job.
For some reason in our society, we think the strong, brave, Godly people are the ones who stand up and boldly pluck away. That thought is wrong. It is easy to pluck. The very hard, but Godly, task is the task of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the strong and brave action of a Christ-like person.
That is a good thing, because if we are honest with ourselves, every single one of us is a field with a little bit of wheat and weed mixed together. There are great things about each of us, and there are rotten things about each of us. But, thank you God, for not plucking us out whenever we fail. For, in plucking us out entirely because of the bad, the good will also be removed.
Plucking does not save us. Forgiveness does.
Lord, may your forgiveness work to make us a clean field that yields grain of love for your kingdom.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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