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| Image from https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org |
Early in my life, I was taught to identify weeds. My mom took me to the vegetable garden and instructed me to pull up the purslane (we called it Fatta Han) and thistles so they wouldn't interfere with the peas and tomatoes. As an adolescent, I got a job hoeing beets during the summer months and many a weed fell under my hoe's blade. But what are weeds, exactly? How do you know whether something is a weed or not? Basically, weeds are classified as undesirable plants that grow alongside desired plants. There is nothing inherently bad about them; they are just in the wrong place, at least according to the farmer or gardener. In forests, ditches, valleys, and meadows, there are virtually no weeds because there is no intentional planting.
Whether a plant is a weed or not depends largely on its location. In a vegetable garden, a dandelion is considered a weed. Yet some harvest dandelions for herbal tea. In a field of wheat, grass is a weed. Yet in a pasture, grass is the main crop. In a grazing pasture, a thistle is a weed. Yet in a setting meant to attract bees, thistles are very desirable.
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a story about wheat and weeds (tares). A farmer sows good seed (wheat) and then an enemy comes along and plants weeds in the wheat. The farmer's servants are concerned about this development and want to pull up the weeds. The farmer informs them that such action would result in pulling up the wheat along with the weeds. He instructs the servants to let both plants grow and wait until harvest time to sort it out.
The Greek word translated as "weeds" or "tares" in this story is zizanion, a wheat look-alike called darnel.[1] It is actually poisonous in large doses and an intoxicant when taken in moderation. It has been added to beer and bread for an extra kick and also used for medicinal purposes (i.e. as an anesthetic, to reduce bleeding). Darnel mimics wheat, at least until it ripens, at which point its ears can be quite easily distinguished from those belonging to wheat. Hence the need to wait until the two plants mature before separating them.
The parable in Matthew 13 ends with the wheat and the darnel being separated at harvest, at which point the wheat goes into the barns and the darnel is bundled and burned. This burning has sometimes been associated with hell and eternal destruction. It should be noted that there was no concept of this type of hell in the first century, so Jesus could not have been referring to eternal punishment. If we stick with the horticultural metaphor (as we should), the notion of burning goes beyond destruction. Burning grass, brush, and other plants is not only a way to get rid of unwanted vegetation but a means of putting nutrients back into the soil. Controlled burning of vegetation has a beneficial purpose within the ecosystem.
For a long time, I thought weeds were bad plants, useless plants, plants with no purpose other than to make it more difficult for good plants to grow. In Christian circles, I was told they were a result of what is often referred to as "the fall," that point in the creation saga where humans defied one of the divine directives. As a result, they forfeited life in the idyllic garden of Eden and incurred a variety of curses on humankind, one of which was the infestation of weeds. However, if weeds are simply plants that are out of place and not evil in and of themselves, perhaps the curses mentioned in Genesis 3 have more to do with things being out of place than with evil invading the earth.
But getting back to the parable of the wheat and the weeds. What are we to make of it? I don't believe Jesus was inviting the hearers of this story to categorize all people into good (wheat) and evil (weeds). The distinction between wheat and darnel is more nuanced than that. More importantly, the main contrast in the story is not between the two plants but between the farmer and the enemy. The farmer plants a crop for food. The enemy plants a toxin among the food.
Darnel is a weed when it infiltrates a cereal grain crop mainly because it should not be ingested as food. It has some value as medicine, but it must be used with care and skill. In this story, it is not the weed that is bad, but the one who sows the darnel among the wheat, poisoning the crop. The enemy in the story seeks to render a crop useless, but perhaps they also mean to poison those who eat the crop. Perhaps the enemy is counting on the farmer and his workers being undiscerning.
Jesus' explanation of the parable in Matthew 13:36-43 has often been interpreted to refer to a final, eschatological judgement where good people are separated from evil people, the former to shine in God's kingdom, the latter to burn eternally. But is this really what Jesus is saying? The point of Jesus' interpretation seems to be that good will prevail in the end and evil will amount to nothing (bear no lasting fruit). It is not a parable meant to give us details about a final judgment. And since the harvesting of people is certainly not literal, neither would the burning be literal. The focus of the story, according to Jesus, is the enduring nature of that which is good, beautiful, fair, and just and the temporality of that which is destructive or done with malicious intent.
I believe this parable is also more than a simple contrast between the end results of good and evil. It seems to be an invitation to practice discernment and patience. Are we prone to judge by early appearances instead of waiting for the fruit to reveal itself? Do we know what is good to be eaten in plenty and what is strong medicine to be taken in small doses? Do we have a framework for honouring different purposes and contexts? Can we discern when something is out of place? Are we generating that which nourishes others or spreading toxicity? Are we like panicked servants, substituting reaction for wisdom? Or are we like the good farmer, patient and steady in our vocation to provide sustenance (physical, spiritual, relational, social, economic) for our community?
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1. Sarah Laskow. "Wheat's Evil Twin Has Been Intoxicating Human Beings for Centuries." Atlas Obscura. March 22, 2016. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wheats-evil-twin-has-been-intoxicating-humans-for-centuries
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