Wheat Or Weeds

Are we wheat or weeds? That is a question worth asking. Are we the faithful ones who will enter the kingdom at the time of judgement, or are we those who will be gathered up like weeds and tossed into the furnace? No single question is more important than this. At the end of time, we will either be in heaven or hell forever: period.

Gospel - Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.

“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man

who sowed good seed in his field.

While everyone was asleep his enemy came

and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.

When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.

The slaves of the householder came to him and said,

‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?

Where have the weeds come from?’

He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’

His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds

you might uproot the wheat along with them.

Let them grow together until harvest;

then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,

“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;

but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Scriptural Analysis

Jesus next presents a parable that utilizes a real scenario that first-century farmers would often face. So much in fact that there was actually a Roman law that forbade the sabotaging of your fellow farmer’s crops by planting a weed known as darnel. Darnel resembles wheat. Its roots will become intertwined with those of the wheat crop, making it extremely difficult to remove without damaging the wheat.

A man sows his wheat crop, but then an enemy sows weeds throughout his wheat. The householder instructs his servant not to pull up the weeds, fearing they might damage the wheat crop. Instead, they will collect the weeds at the harvest, tie them into bundles, and burn the bundles (the only redeeming quality of darnel is that it could be burned for fuel).

Jesus does not provide an immediate explanation for this parable. It comes later in verses 36-43, which are not part of this Gospel passage. However, I will provide the explanation now. In this parable, the weeds and the wheat exist together in the same field. So will it be with humanity: the wicked and the faithful will exist together until the final judgement. Just as the weeds can be hard to distinguish, so too can the evil be hard to differentiate from the faithful. However, at harvest time, the time of judgement, to Son of Man will send his angels to take care of the weeds: to identify all of those who commit sin or cause others to sin. The faithful have to be patient with the wicked in this world, knowing that they will face a severe judgment in the end.

Daily Application

Two things come to mind when reading this parable. First, the day of judgement will come. That is an inevitable fact, and we cannot escape it. At the end of our lives, we will be judged by our Lord, and we will either spend eternity in heaven or hell. This should animate our lives: the knowledge that our time on earth is but a drop in a bucket when compared with eternity. Yet we spend far more of our energy on the drop and not on our eternal destination.

Second, while we are on this side of the grave, there is still a chance for us to amend our ways: to repent and turn to the Lord. The parable breaks down in that the weed, the darnel plant, can’t change and become wheat. However, the evil man can change his ways and become a man of great faith. History is filled with examples of men doing just that, including many great saints in the Church. Saint Moses the Black was a murderer, but he repented, turned to Christ, and now he is in heaven for eternity.

This is why determining whether we are wheat or weeds is critical for us to do now. As long as we are still breathing, we have a chance to amend our ways: to repent of our sins and turn to the Lord. However, once we have drawn our last breath, it is too late. Furthermore, none of us knows when we will draw our last breath. This past week, we saw four pop culture celebrities pass away: Ozzy Osbourne, Chuck Mangione, Malcom Jamal Warner, and Hulk Hogan. None of us knows the state of their soul upon their passing, and thus we have an obligation to pray for them as we do for all the dead. While some of these people were ill, for others, their passing was a surprise. What I know for sure is that none of them knew in advance the exact moment they would take their last breath.

May the news of their passing serve as a lesson to us all. We have now: tomorrow is never guaranteed. We need to get right with God now. If you are carrying around any unrepented mortal sin, get to confession now. The time to get right with God is now. Don’t settle for being a weed when you were created to be wheat.