The evil & the good!

Matthew 13:24-30

24 Jesus told another story. "God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25 That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. 26 When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too. 27" The farmhands came to the farmer and said, 'Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it? Where did these thistles come from?' 28 "He answered, 'Some enemy did this.' "The farmhands asked, 'Should we weed out the thistles?' 29 "He said, 'No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too. 30 Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'"

Food for thought!

We began this week with this passage (last Sunday) and we are ending it with the same passage (today Saturday). It may well be said that this is one of the most practical parables Jesus ever told. It teaches us that there is evil in the world, co-habiting with goodness, seeking and waiting to destroy goodness. The lesson is that we must be for ever on our guard.

It teaches us how hard it is to distinguish between the two, those who are good and those who are not. A man may appear to be good and may in fact be bad; and a man may appear to be bad and may yet be good.  Only God can tell. We are much too quick to classify people and label them good or bad without knowing all the facts.

It teaches us not to be so quick with our judgments. If the reapers had had their way, they would have torn out the darnel together with the wheat as well. Judgment has to wait until the harvest time. It means that we be judged, not by any single act or stage in our life, but by our whole life. Judgment cannot come until the end. We may make a great mistake today, and then tomorrow redeem ourselves and, by the grace of God, atone for it by making the rest of life a lovely thing. Or we may live an honourable life and then in the end wreck it all by a sudden collapse into sin. No one who sees only part of a thing can judge the whole; and no one who knows only part of a person's life can judge the whole person.

It teaches us that judgment does come in the end. Judgment is not hasty, but judgment comes. It may be that, humanly speaking, in this life the sinner seems to escape the consequences, but there is a life to come. It may be that, humanly speaking, goodness never seems to enter into its reward, but there is a new world to redress the balance of the old.

It teaches us that the only person with the right to judge is God. It is God alone who can discern the good and the bad; it is God alone who sees all of man and all of his life. It is therefore God alone who can judge. So, then, ultimately this parable is two things: it is a warning not to judge people at all, and it is a warning that in the end there comes the judgment of God. Because of this, St. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 13:5

Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it.