The weed and the wheat parable – From a new perspective

Once upon a time, some ‘nice’ Christian reminded me about this parable because I did something he couldn’t agree with. He said that I mustn’t forget that God will burn the weed or bad Christian like me. Yeah, right…

Here’s the scary part where ‘good Christians’ often tell ‘bad Christians’ or other non-believers. You shall burn in hell.

40 As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.

41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

(full passage on the weed and wheat parable on Biblegateway)

Thank God I am not easily intimidated and Christianity to me is not about reward and punishment. It is about serving and having that Nike attitude of Just Do It when you feel God’s promptings. Que sera sera.

The background story of this parable (or story) is the weeds are growing along with the wheat. And when the farmer asked (supposedly Jesus) if they should pull out the weed (or darnel) while they are growing, Jesus said , No, let them grow and during harvest time, then only separate them.

I am glad I had the bad luck or good luck to sit through the same homily which is extra long, but not boring in two masses. The first time, I told the priest the homily is so deep, I can drown. You know, when the homily is delivered, you get that ‘aha, that’s what I think too’ but when you get out of church, you have that nagging feelings that you learned something but you cannot remember what it is anymore.

This morning mass wasn’t a planned one because I went to church to pick my children but their bus was delayed. So, I sneaked in to take notes of this weed and wheat parable. Since I had been slapped with the parable before, I have that vendetta to clear my good name. I wanted to seal that belief in me that in every bad person, they have the potential to be good again.

Anyway, do we need more confirmation? Didn’t the two guys who were hung on the cross with Jesus get their visa to heaven or hell at their final hour? One repented and asked Jesus to help him and Jesus told him, he will be in paradise with Jesus. See?

Here are some notes that I jotted down during Father Fabian’s homily. I may have misquoted him or probably, I added my own theories but I hope to share it to give the Christian faith less of a ‘be an angel (never mind that you may be a hypocrite) or risk getting burn in hell’ image. Christianity is a religion filled with lots of commonsense but that can only be achieved if we hear more, learn more and search more.

Father Fabian likened the field of weed and wheat as our world where the good and the bad co-exist. The purists and elitists (aka the ‘good Christians) will not get to thrive alone. As long as the kingdom is growing, there is a chance the weed will grow into the wheat.

Then, he quoted John Major (I think the British ex-PM?) that the church is a mix of good and bad and the church should never play God by ‘purifying and purging’ the ’so called bad ones’. The church part is to preach repentance.

Next, he quoted some guy, Thomas Long. I didn’t get the second name but I so love the SMUG part. So, I Google It! when I got home.

Thomas Long writes, “It is easy for Christians to look through the church windows at the world and to think of ourselves as God’s special insiders, the ones who will ’shine like the sun’ in the end. We can relish with smug self-satisfaction the thought of worldly types being rounded up at the great finale, collected like weeds and burned up in the everlasting fire. However, we are, ourselves, a mixture of good and evil. Sometimes we are faithful, and sometimes we are not….”

(source)

Ouch, that’s such a slap on the face for each of us Christians, no?

Father Fabian must be on weeds (LOL just joking) and went on to point out more things using this parable. He said the fiery judgement can be seen as purifying of all the things that deaden humanity. Fire may not be a condemnation but salvation.

Next, he quoted Kalil Gibran (yeah, I google the name again) “Our worst fault is our preoccupation with the fault of others.” Another ouch. We can see the trend in our politicians now. See? I just committed one fault like that.

After that, Father Fabian used the example from Carl Jung. By then, my mind was already too saturated so I lost the plot. But he told me to Google it and I learnt about how The Shadow affects our lives and sometimes, become obstacles for us to grow.

The final word, “Our quest for holiness can go the wrong direction if we ignore what is within our own soul.”

This is a very long post but I know, someday I will come back and read and remind myself not to feel too bad about being the weed. Moreover, if I am going to spend one hour of my life each week in church, I may as well gather some useful notes home and try to live my life as righteous as I can.