Experts in jewelry can tell the difference between an expensive diamond and imitation glass. Most of us, however, are not able to do so. From a distance a cheap necklace and an expensive one look about the same. Sometimes it takes the eyes of an expert to recognize the authentic from the counterfeit.
Today Jesus talks about people being seeds. He explains that there are two different kinds (Matthew 13:36-43).
“His disciples approached him and said, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.’ He said in reply, ‘He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom.’ The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.”
Jesus came to earth to rescue us from the Devil’s prison and incorporate us into the Kingdom of God. Those who entered the Kingdom are so radically different from those who do not that St. Peter said they become a “chosen race.” Jesus established a new “race” within the human race. St Paul explained this transformation by saying that “if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation.” Not all choose to turn their lives over to Jesus and thus remain in the kingdom of the world. In the parable of the wheat and weeds, Jesus likened the difference between “Kingdom people” and “non-Kingdom people” as the difference between wheat and weeds.
From a distance weeds and wheat may appear to be the same. A farmer, however, easily recognizes the difference between the two. At harvest time he separates the wheat from the weeds and stores it into his barn.
God, for some reason, allows the good seed of his children to coexist with the bad seed of the Devil. We are puzzled that he doesn’t just uproot the Devil’s weeds and allow the world to be filled only with his wheat. Why does he wait till harvest time? Maybe there is hope that some of the weeds, influenced by the witness of the wheat, will be converted and receive the gift of eternal life within them as well.
Jesus explained that,
“The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
Thus is the destination of the Devil’s seed.
In our world there are people who cause others to sin and try to lure them away from God. On the outside these people may seem well-intentioned. They may be better dressed, smoother in their speech, and richer in what this world has to offer. Though they may prosper in this life, in the end they will be tossed into the fiery furnace as worthless weeds.
Those who are baptized have become new creations and the Kingdom life lives inside them. If faithful to their baptismal promises, at harvest time they will be gathered together by angels and taken into the Father’s house forever. They are God’s wheat who endured the annoyance of neighboring weeds and grew to full maturity.
Let us not lose sight of our identity. Let us not be so influenced by the values of this world that we surrender our inheritance and join the weeds on their pathway to eternal destruction. Daily we are challenged to continue to live the “Kingdom life,” and be like lights shining in the darkness. Daily we make choices that will help deepen the life of Christ within us. When we go through struggles to maintain our faith and fight against temptation, we look ahead and remember what will happen at harvest time.
