As part of a course I am on, we have been looking at some of the parables. Matthew 13: 23-30, 36-43, on the wheat and the tares is particularly rich, and the Rev. Paula Gooder’s new book on The Parables, throws a particularly interesting light on a parable which has long intrigued me. I didn’t know that there was a Roman law against the sowing of darnel (which is the weed at issue) in a wheat field as an act of sabotage; it suggests that the scenario Jesus was outlining was not uncommon. Darnel looks just like wheat at forst, but as it gorws it produces a black seed and a fungus which is toxic to us; those who heard the parable would have known this, which would have made its message even more telling. The contrast between the good seed and the black seed, the one giving life, the other bringing disease and even death is striking.
The focus in this parable is on our experience of the kingdom in the present, although of course there are lessons for the future. It directs our attention to how we deal with the presence of evil and wrong-doing in our world, not just in the church. I have always taken the ‘enemy’ to be Satan, who deliberately sets out to sabotage the kingdom, and was relieved and pleased to see that Dr Gooder suggests this is a reasonable interpretation. This invites the question of what we are to do in the face of deliberate evil, and here, Jesus surprises us (as he so often does). He does not advise that we go out and root up the tares because we might damage the good wheat in the process. His advice is to let God judge.
That’s a good reminder to all those of us who are apt to think we can help God out by judging who is and who is not in his kingdom; we can’t, and we shouldn’t. C451 is fond of saying that God is the only just judge, and that being the case, we should back off. But it invites us to think about what we should do, because the outcome for the tares is not going to be a good one when the harvest is gathered in.
The two main images used by Matthew are interesting. One, used in Matthew 8:12; 22:13 and 25:30 is ‘outer darkness, but here it is more graphic – and fiery. The suggestion is clear – that there will be a judgement and those who are toxic will be subject to it. How we align that with ‘outer darkness’ is another issue.
What can we do? The kingdom is coming, it is here, it is growing. It grows in us, and criticial here is the water of life and the body and blood of Christ. The one garden we can cultivate us our own, and we should concentrate on that rather than on passing judgment on others.
All Along the Watchtower 
Wonderful article. I’m a firm believer in caring for the plank in my own eye before bothering about the mote in another’s.
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Thank you, Audre xx
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The field might be internal, our own hearts, as well as external, the world. That is, the enemy has sown his darnel among the grains of wheat that Grace has placed there. Here we cannot permit it to flourish, nor do we possess the power to uproot these weeds unless we receive help to do so. There is, though, a little known third option, which is to transform the weeds into wheat.
A sin is an imperfect virtue, it is the perversion of a lawful impulse by misdirecting it or by taking it to the extremes of excess or defect. Through prayer, particularly in my experience prayer to Our Lady but others may have other experiences, we can invite in the power of the Holy Spirit to redirect each of these impulses back within their lawful, healthy boundaries so that they begin to yield a fruitful crop, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
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I love that – something to really chew on, thank you xx
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I am glad you bought a copy too. I have just begun reading it and agree with your assessment. She writes in a very engaging style – unlike much of the material I have inflicted on you of late!
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I would add that one of the points of the parable is not to be naive about the Kingdom, which aligns with being as wise as serpents and not casting pearls before swine. It isn’t good for us psychologically to be constantly upset because we have extreme expectations about things. There will be tares and we should not be surprised. We should accept that, move on, and focus on the good that is within our grasp.
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I agree, Nicholas xx
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