The Good And The Bad

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

Today’s parable is one that might help answer a few questions that many of us have. Or not. But let’s try to understand it in the context of real life situations. A woman once came to me for counsel. She was very upset about the state of things in her life: things weren’t good at all. But she was even more upset because it seemed very unjust. She led a good life. She never hurt anybody. She prayed. She even tithed. So, she couldn’t understand why things were so messed up in her life. Was there a curse operating against her? Was somebody doing black magic on her? I am a sure a lot of us would identify with this lady. 

In today’s parable Jesus speaks about a man who sowed good seeds in his field. However, while everybody was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds. When the plants came up and bore grain, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves were shocked. ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?” they asked the owner. Of course he did. They saw him do it. “Where, then, did these weeds come from?”, they wanted to know. It was the woman’s question. She did everything right. So how did things get so wrong? And why? She wanted an answer, an explanation, something that would help her to make sense of why she was going through such turmoil. 

Surely somebody was responsible. It would be nice to have a name; then steps could be taken to protect herself. The person could be punished. We can identify with that too, can’t we? But the owner simply says — we are back to the parable — the owner simply says, “An enemy has done this.” Period. He doesn’t say who the enemy is, where he may be found, what his motive might be, what action could be taken against him. Nothing. Just: “An enemy has done this.” The slaves are confused. “Then do you want us to go and remove the weeds?” But the owner tells them to let them be. And that is shocking too. Isn’t the owner going to do anything?

These are our questions too, aren’t they? Why is there evil in the world? Why does God let it continue? Why doesn’t the just vaporize all the bad guys? Haven’t you asked these questions? Do you want an answer? You see, if he does that— if God vaporizes the bad guys — he might have to vaporize us too. Because there are times when the best among us act evil. Godly men and woman — and sincerely godly, not pretend — can act like very terrible people sometimes. We have a bad day or a weak moment, and say things or do things we would never do normally. We expect God to understand, no? Let us extend a similar understanding towards everybody.

God tells us to wait for harvest time. This is in order to get our act totally together. It is also a way to let the bad people become good. Weeds cannot turn into wheat, but that’s a botanical truth, not a spiritual one. The “bad” can become “good”. And because God doesn’t want anyone to perish, he is patient with us, giving us all time to repent (see 2 Peter 3:9). The time will come, of course, for the harvest — for Judgement Day — when we will all meet our fate, but let us pray that it be a good one for everybody.

As for the other questions we asked, as long as the enemy is around, we can expect to face difficulty in life. But one day, he too, will meet his fate. For eternity. And then everything will be different.

Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here youtu.be/_5gPNN36Um8