I have to be careful when I travel. I’m not just talking about driving carefully, double checking flight schedules, carrying the medications I may need for a long trip, etc. I’m talking about sports. I am frequently in major cities in the United States: Houston, New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Atlanta, etc. Each city has its own sports teams and I have to be careful about naming, or too-publically cheering, for my home team — when I am in enemy territory!
There is something most of us have in common when we watch sporting events, whether it’s just another seasonal game, or the championship games at the end of the season. When we walk in on people watching the game and we want to catch up with the action, we ask the same question, “Who’s winning?” If it’s our team, we settle in and watch pleasure. If our team is losing, or if it’s close, we sit more towards the edge of our seat and feel a little more adrenaline and edginess in the stomach. And we hope. As the saying goes, “Hope springs eternal.”
What would we do without hope? When there is a need, hope stirs us to make things better. Married couples have hope when they go to a marriage counselor to work through, what seem like, irreconcilable differences. Teenagers have hope when they stay on the basketball court after the team leaves to practice their sets hot over and over again. People trying to lose weight have hope when they make a resolution to go on one more diet and walk 20 minutes a day. Parents looking at their children’s troubles wonder about their future–and hope. Hope gets a person to endure the side effects of chemotherapy.
There are things in our lives and in the world that aren’t right. It is hope that gets us to go up against the odds, ignore the naysayers, roll up our sleeves and do our best to change what is wrong. Certainly Christians can’t be complacent, we do our best to make things better for ourselves and for others. There are a lot of things we can and should fix. We have hope.
But sometimes despite our best efforts we can’t change things–not right away. We live in an imperfect world and we can’t always do anything about it. The parable says it well.
We are like the farmer who carefully sows good seed in the field of our lives. We work hard to raise a good family; make good relationships; help a loved one battling with a disease; fight for better schools, healthcare, peace and the environment etc. And if the world were fair, the good we do would always yield good results. But sometimes–many times (?), the good we work for looks like it’s going to have the life choked out of it.
In the Middle East there is a weed called darnel and, at first, you can’t tell it from wheat–not until both are fully grown. The weed’s roots tangle around the roots of the wheat. If you pulled up the weeds, you would also pull up the wheat. Just as the parable describes. The evil gets destroyed, but so does the wheat.
The master in the parable is right. He tells the servants, who want to rush out pull up the weeds to make things “right,” “let them grow together until the harvest….” How frustrating! To watch weeds grow and you can’t do anything about it! You have to let certain things be for a while, even though you think you know the right and efficient thing to do. It’s an imperfect world and we can’t do anything about it. They’re weeds, burrs and stickers.
Weeds are a good symbol for evil in our world. They are tenacious and they are hard to eliminate. Like weeds, evil seems to have a life of its own. The parable raises the question we often ask, when our best efforts to do the right thing are met with resistance and even opposition. Where does evil come from?
You would think the Bible would have an answer to such an important question! We might have our own, but the Bible is almost silent on the subject. The response the parable offers is, “An enemy has done this.” Not a very satisfying answer to a pressing question. One thing the Bible tells us is: don’t blame God when bad things happen to us. Don’t say, “God is testing me.” Or, “I am being punished for something I did.” That’s not what the Bible says. “An enemy has done this.”
The owner planted good seed in the owner’s own field and the owner is not indifferent to what happens. After all, it’s his field. It gives some people hope and encouragement to know that God isn’t acting against them or testing them; that God is on our side; that somehow God will work things out for the good. The story is quite definite about this: there will be a harvest and good will bear fruit. We can’t prove it to skeptics–but it’s what we believe.
Meanwhile the parable offers us a warning. When you’re dealing with evil, or what you think is evil, don’t be overzealous trying to get rid of it– lest you do more harm than good. You could pull up the wheat. History is filled with examples of the overzealous. Think of all the wars, crusades and book-burnings to wipe out evil. The witch burnings in Salem were done by religious people. How many innocents have suffered and died at the hands of people claiming to do good in the name of religion–right up to the present day? The parable says we can’t be so sure what’s the best thing to do. Don’t be in such a hurry to rush in to solve the problem.
This is not an argument against addressing evils done in the world. But it is a cautionary tale. The bottom line is that we are not in charge; it’s not our field. The owner has invested a lot in this field and will work things out. After all aren’t we the recipients of the owner’s patience and trust? Aren’t we glad we had some time to resolve things in our lives? Aren’t we blessed that the owner had trust in us when we weren’t so sure how things were going to wind up?
Can we hear the grace that the story is offering? It tells us that even now, when our lives are far from perfect, that we are being given time. The parable also assures us that God is not uninterested in the good works we do: when we meet dead ends or when our efforts don’t seem to make a difference; or even when we experience defeat.
God is not unconcerned, but is heavily invested in the world and on our side in our efforts. How serious and committed is God to overcoming evil? One look at the cross will show us how evil may seem to triumph over good, but finally, the cross tells us, God’s love for us and God’s goodness will yield a rich harvest.
Who’s winning? Good or evil? Right now it’s hard to tell. But in the meanwhile, as we wait for the harvest, we’ll keep doing the good we do trusting that God is planting enough good seed in the world to yield a rich harvest. We live in hope.