There is a wonderfully complex parable of Jesus about Wheat and Tares (essentially weeds) that is easy to assume is just about throwing people into hell but let's look at it a bit closer. Here is the parable from the NKJV:
24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matthew 13:24-30
It is possible that this is a parable of the Great Judgment but it could be much more multi-faceted. Imagine the wheat and weeds are people. It shows how in this world where in the kingdom of God the good and the bad tend to grow up together. We can't be for certain that we are in the wheat camp or the weed's much as it is hard to recognize the sheep from the goats.
Imagine the wheat is you and everyone else you ever interact with daily. Assuming it is God who plants the good wheat in the ground, what are the weeds that are sowed in the same patch? The sower states that the weeding will damage the wheat if done before the harvest.
What if the weeds are our life experiences that harden us? The instances of betrayal we have gone through. The wrongheadedness that we stick with, the sin in our lives.
Have you ever had a hard time admitting you were wrong in a point of view and it was actually you who was the one believing lies and falsehoods? Imagine every falsehood we believe being suddenly ripped from us. It would be catastrophic. It takes work and grace to gently untangle the messes that were perpetrated on us and/or by us towards others. The work won't finish, we cannot be made perfectly whole in the here and now but we can make those baby steps of healing as we cooperate with the Spirit within.
When we recognize our weeds it can be very hard not to attempt to pull them immediately, to hate them and become reactionary against the damage that they cause. Can they teach you anything? Can you live in your and the world's imperfection? Is it possible to trust that you were a delight from the get-go and the sin and roughness of life contributed to wounding that wounded that beautiful grain as it grew?
This parable can go so many ways. As people once again, the insurrection at the Capitol and calls for civil war seem to neglect the reality that the wheat and weeds are neighbors. What would happen if the perceived wheat (often simply the winners) were to cut out the weeds? It would be a tragedy. This is when hate grows, a truly destructive weed.
Weeds cannot have the final say. Wheat needs nourishment to grow and that nourishment is love, truth and humility. Sometimes the weed grows large and chokes out the good seed and needs the expert care of the gardener and their friends to help remove or at least cut back.
A sadness of wheat and weeds could very well be the disinformation mixed with reality in all the different forms of media. I am human and flawed but I want the disinformation pulled out by the roots but it has been growing together for a very long time and will definitely be painful.
Some weeds are very clear and we must work with the gardener to expose them for what they are. The world saw an ideology that sickens the mind. The weeds of racism and superiority need repentance. Repentance waters the wheat while choking the weeds. Believers must be mindful of our own history of being the weeds doing the choking of the wheat. What we water grows.
Don't ever forget that you too have weeds growing yet your origin is wheat. Repentance is healing.
Perhaps the wheat is the things we recognize as the truth and the weeds are the lies we believe? Whatever the meaning it is good to dig into these stories. Perhaps we can gain understanding?
Keep in mind Jesus said he spoke in parables so that we wouldn't understand. Indeed our Lord can be confusing.
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