Matthew 13,24-43.
In today’s gospel Jesus tells the crowds three parables about the kingdom. The parable about the wheat and the darnel (weeds), and its explanation, (unique to Mt), takes up most of today’s gospel narrative (13,24-30, 36-43). Its message is that like the wheat and darnel growing together in the field, so the kingdom in its working out in the world and in the Church, is a mixture of good and bad, divine, and human, perfect, and imperfect. In His explanation (13, 36-43), Jesus informs us that the sower of the wheat, (called the householder), is the Son of Man, and the sower of the darnel is the devil. As the wheat and the darnel grow together till harvest time, so in the working out of the kingdom, the good and bad will co-exist, but at harvest- time, the final judgement, the wheat and darnel, the good and bad, will be separated.
The servants of the householder wanted to weed out the darnel from the wheat as soon as they realized that it was growing with the wheat, but the householder wisely advised against so doing, in case they might uproot the wheat with it. They must have patience until harvest-time, judgement, when the separation of weeds from wheat, and good from bad, will take place.
The parable of the mustard seed shows that just as the mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds becomes the biggest of all shrubs, providing a home for the birds, so will the kingdom of heaven, from its very modest beginnings, become a vast worldwide haven for people of all nations and cultures.
Yeast was a symbol of corruption (I Cor 5,6) for the Jews, hence abstention from it at Passover, when unleavened bread was eaten. Yeast pervades the dough and the effect of a small quantity of yeast on the dough is out of all proportion to its size. A small quantity of yeast mixed with “three measures of flour” (V33), [a measure equals 13.3 litres], would produce a mountain of cakes. So will the kingdom, coming in the modest, (hidden from most people), ministrations of Jesus, grow into an inclusive worldwide movement pervading all ages, all cultures, and all nations.
The kingdom, like the parables about it, is paradoxical. It requires of us, believers, a sense of urgency and effort to extend its frontiers into every area of human life, time and space, while at the same time being God’s project, it will happen according to His plans. He is, often, a “God of Surprises.”
We need the patience of the wheat- farmer who can bide his time till the right moment for action, and the humility of the gardener and the housewife, to wonder at what great things can come from seemingly unpromising sources.
The final part of today’s gospel shifts the emphasis from patience to judgement. Harvest-time is a frequent image for judgement in the Old and New Testaments. As the darnel is separated from the wheat and burnt at harvest-time so will the good be separated from the bad on Judgement Day at the end of time. The weeping and grinding of teeth of the evil ones, in the fiery furnace, contrast with the fate of the just shining like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Where would you want to be on Judgement Day?
What do you mean when you say in the Our Father: “Thy kingdom come?”
Fr Geoff O’Grady