Thoughts on a Parable

Matthew 13:34-30, 36-43
The Parable of the Weeds and Wheat

I am fascinated by the Bible’s reflections on the land. This is partly true because I grew up on a small farm here in the northwest and I learned very early to love and to respect the land. I think that is true for a lot of us, whether or not we farm, here in the Northwest. This is a land of great beauty and, whether we have lived here for a long time or for a sort time, I think most of us feel deeply connected to creation here, to this place.

Jesus, too, in the parables that we are reading in this section of the lectionary, speaks often about the land and the people who work it. His stories are all about planting and harvesting, buying fields, and fishing. Jesus wanders through Galilee, the place he grew up, preaching from village to village to a bunch of farmers and fisherfolk about the kingdom of God.

In our gospel this morning, Jesus is continuing his series of parables. This chapter, chapter 13, in Matthew, is sometimes referred to as the Sermon by the Lake, because Jesus sits in a little boat on the sea of Galilee and preaches to the crowd that has gathered on the shore. Telling a series of stories.

He tells a story of a landowner whose slaves plant a field and tend to it, and then they find that weeds are growing up along with the wheat in great abundance. Finding that a rival has ruined his field, has ruined his crop, the man orders his slaves to wait until the harvest. He tells them to salvage what he can and burn the rest.

It is important when reading this story, to recognize the social context in which Jesus is speaking.

Under the Roman Empire, the old Jewish law of land distribution was no longer in effect. Land that once belonged to the people, once were small family farms, was taken over by the empire. They did this in several ways: Through conquest and heavy taxation, which would lead to debt slavery (for example, during the time of Jesus, Herod the Great collected 30% of the grain crop and 50% of the fruit and grapes), the majority of the land becomes the property of an elite group of slave owners and landholders. One of the deepest roots of injustice in Galilee was this—people went hungry, people were forced to sell themselves or their children into debt slavery, people were deeply impoverished, in a land of plenty.

Most of the people listening to Jesus probably worked as tenant farmers—sharecroppers—or even as debt slaves of this small elite group. So they knew what Jesus was talking about when he told this story. Jesus himself is a poor artisan, a craftsman—he also would not have access to land.

Now, Jesus has already proclaimed his opposition to this system of landholding that was so prevalent. Jesus is speaking in a long tradition of Hebrew prophets like 1^st Isaiah, like Jeremiah, who talk about using the land justly, and in a long tradition of Jewish teaching. During the time of Jesus, there were many people talking about the Kingdom of God and what it meant. There are a series of books written about the time of Jesus called the books of Enoch that talk in great depth about the kingdom of God and the judgment of God on these landholders, and on the religious and political leaders that made this system possible. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, makes this stunning statement; “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.” That is, in God’s kingdom, the land belongs to you—the slaves, the poor, the peasant sharecroppers. In Luke, as he quotes the prophet Isaiah in Luke 4, he proclaims that part of his mission will be freeing debt slaves.

Jesus represents himself as the sower of the seed in this passage; he is not quite clear, but he might even be representing himself as one of the slaves that sows the seed. But he also claims the title Son of Man, a messianic title. He is the judge and speaks for the God who truly owns all land. And all the causes of sin and all those who oppress God’s people—against these things, Jesus enters into judgment. This is not some parable where Jesus says if you don’t believe the right thing or behave a certain way, you will go to hell. Not at all. It is simply Jesus promising the struggling men and women of Galilee that the kingdom of the world, that the Roman empire, would end—even if it felt that it never would— and God would judge those who enslaved them.