Bad Seeds
Once again we have a man sowing seeds.
He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, '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.'" - Matt. 13:24-30
In this parable, Jesus attempts to explain how God reacts to the bad things that we people do.
The plan was not to sow seeds of weeds. That was man's action, not God's.
"An enemy has done this", Jesus says in the voice of the Master. But rather than pull out the weeds which might harm the crop, the Master chooses to leave the weeds, to let them grow.
The wheat, which is favored, will be saved at harvest time, while the weeds will be burned.
Now we can dig deep into this parable and argue the benefits of the wheat being saved for flour, versus the weeds being tossed aside, and we can compare these things to what happens to us when we die, but I think the real value in this is God's method, as shown by the Master.
God lets those who do harm live.
We may not agree with that approach. We don't trust God to act swiftly enough for us, and we get angry when more people die at the hands of those who are not punished for their actions.
So, what do we do?
Do we live with evil among us and hope that eventually those who do these things will change?
That question is at the heart of all debate today, and we don't have a way to reach agreement on the bad seeds growing among us.
We pray about it. But do we gain insight on what to do about it?
More to come...