Trending
Did you know there is an example of bioterrorism in the Bible?
In Matthew 13 Jesus told this parable: "the Kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away... then the servants asked him, 'do you want us to go and pull the weeds up?'"
In Jesus day, sewing weeds in a neighbor’s field was a common way folks had of getting even with each other. Instead of spray-painting graffiti on the wall or egging the neighbor's chariot, they would sow Bearded Darnell into their neighbor's wheat, corn or barley.
It had become such a widespread practice that the Roman government actually passed a law against it. And get this, the seeds of the Bearded Darnell were poisonous. They make you sick. The symptoms of eating Darnell grain were dizziness, slurred speech, vomiting and diarrhea. It was bad stuff.
The Parable has two responses to combat what the enemy has done.
First, there are the workers, who become alarmed at the sight of the weeds sprouting among the wheat. They want to take matters into their own hands and pull the weeds out to maintain a pure crop.
Second, there is the householder; now he doesn’t seem surprised or agitated about the weeds, and he urges the workers to be patient. He knows what to do with weeds -- turn them over to the harvesters who at the end can properly separate them from the wheat.
Unlike God, we cannot know people’s hearts or where their lives might take them or their potential for redemption. God has not equipped us with the insight necessary to weed the garden.
Jesus tells us that only in the harvest will purity be possible, and any attempts to achieve it now will prove disastrous and would destroy the good with the bad.
So the Kingdom of God is a mixed bag, in which it’s not always clear which is the wheat and which are the weeds. The other thing to remember is that when it comes to human nature, none of us is ever completely a Saint or a Sinner, but a combination of both. And if we want a more saintly church, perhaps the best place to start is by praying that God would grant us help in remembering that our discipleship is faulty, too.
Jesus tells us that only in the harvest will purity in the church be possible. We would do well to apply that principle of forbearance to those outside the church even more graciously.
The church's greatest sins -- the inquisitions, witch hunts and pogroms against Jews, have been committed in the interest of purifying the world.
Instead of taking our energy to criticize and tear at others, we should rather invest the energy in growing ourselves instead.
-- -- -- --
Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This week's column comes from Pastor Taylor Camerer of Great Island Presbyterian Church, Lock Haven.