We are now into the kingdom parables. Matthew focuses quite a bit on the kingdom of heaven and shares several parables from Jesus regarding “what the kingdom is like.”
The first one you’ll read today is sometimes called the parable of the wheat and the tares. (Tares is a word for what we would call weeds.)
This parable has an interesting conclusion from Jesus - the landowner (a kind of God-figure in the parable) tells the servants not to separate the weeds and the good grain plants. Often we feel like we are to separate ourselves from the world as Christians. Or, we assume that its our job to eradicate evil.
This parable sets the opposite.
It suggests that our impulse to sort, to divide, to purify, is premature, and perhaps not even our responsibility at all. The landowner cautions the servants: You might uproot the wheat when you gather the weeds. In other words, our attempts to root out evil might damage what is good. The growth of the kingdom, it seems, must coexist for a time with that which opposes it.
This certainly isn’t a call to moral laxity or indifference to injustice. But it is a sobering word about patience, humility, and trust. Judgment belongs to God, not to us. Our calling is to grow faithfully in the field where we are planted, to bear fruit even in the midst of what feels like confusion, opposition, or chaos.
Later in today’s reading, the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast reinforce this. The kingdom doesn’t come through swift victory or grand displays—it grows slowly, quietly, often unnoticed. And yet it transforms everything.
This is “what the kingdom of heaven is like.”
Matthew 13:24-43
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like someone who planted good seed in his field. While people were sleeping, an enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and went away. When the stalks sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.
“The servants of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Master, didn’t you plant good seed in your field? Then how is it that it has weeds?’
“‘An enemy has done this,’ he answered.
“The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them?’
“But the landowner said, ‘No, because if you gather the weeds, you’ll pull up the wheat along with them. Let both grow side by side until the harvest. And at harvesttime I’ll say to the harvesters, “First gather the weeds and tie them together in bundles to be burned. But bring the wheat into my barn.”’”
He told another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in his field. It’s the smallest of all seeds. But when it’s grown, it’s the largest of all vegetable plants. It becomes a tree so that the birds in the sky come and nest in its branches.”
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through all the dough.”
Jesus said all these things to the crowds in parables, and he spoke to them only in parables. This was to fulfill what the prophet spoke:
I’ll speak in parables;
I’ll declare what has been hidden since the beginning of the world.
Jesus left the crowds and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
Jesus replied, “The one who plants the good seed is the Human One. The field is the world. And the good seeds are the followers of the kingdom. But the weeds are the followers of the evil one. The enemy who planted them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the present age. The harvesters are the angels. Just as people gather weeds and burn them in the fire, so it will be at the end of the present age. The Human One will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that cause people to fall away and all people who sin. He will throw them into a burning furnace. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Those who have ears should hear.”
Psalm 37:1-7
Don’t get upset over evildoers; don’t be jealous of those who do wrong, because they will fade fast, like grass; they will wither like green vegetables. Trust the Lord and do good; live in the land, and farm faithfulness. Enjoy the Lord, and he will give what your heart asks. Commit your way to the Lord! Trust him! He will act and will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like high noon. Be still before the Lord, and wait for him. Don’t get upset when someone gets ahead—someone who invents evil schemes.
Prayer (from Augustine)
God,
Give me yourself, O my God, give yourself back to me. Behold, I love you, and if my love is too weak, make me love you more strongly.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.