Breaking the Word

Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. 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. 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. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear. (Mt 13:36-43)

This explanation of the parable speaks about the image of God we have. Does God or the Son of Man sit at the judgement seat and condemn all the evil doers to a torturous suffering because of their evil doings? Is God so cruel as to treat people so badly? But at the same time God cannot be so very kind or grand fatherly to overlook any and every evil that is done by man. 

Listeners of the time of Jesus were very much familiar with the topics of weed and wheat; good and bad; righteous and sinners. This was the language through which the leaders of the people (religion) talked about. They talked in this language to speak about the people who belonged to God and those who were against God. They knew who the weeds were and who the wheat was.

This passage also looks back to the image of the Son of Man in Daniel 7. Son of Man was there to judge the ruler who oppressed the God’s people (Dan 3) with a fiery furnace. It is about the judgement of God on the evil rulers who were not belonging to God. So we can say that the judgement is about ‘belonging to God or not’.    

 He proposed another parable to them. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'" He spoke to them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened." All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation (of the world)." (Mt 13:31-35)

Parables are not direct answers to the questions of life. No direct answers can be given to life situations. Parables are stories in different ways, speaking about God’s sovereign rule over the world and how the kingdom works in the world. Parables are the stories through which Jesus spoke about the basic truths about the kingdom.

 One of the truths about the kingdom is that it works in simple and small ways. Kingdom does not work in spectacular ways. It is like a mustard seed which is the smallest of all seeds. Kingdom also is the smallest of all God’s revelations. Like the mustard plant, the kingdom becomes the dwelling place for many.

 Another truth about the kingdom is that it works its way through without being noticed. Like the yeast which leavens the flour over a period of time and leavens the whole quantity of flour, so also the kingdom will develop and extend to the whole society without being noticed and it will complete its activites.