The Parable of the Flaming Bag

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 13th Chapter

Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the 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 causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! 

David Weatherill was my best friend growing up in Florida.  Pouring gasoline into fire ant hills and lighting it on fire was honestly, only a tiny part of what we did as kids.  The vast majority was much less dangerous.  We didn’t hurt people or property... at least not on purpose.  We THOUGHT about it, and sometimes planned out every detail of the operation that we WOULD do if our consciences were just a little less naggy, but we didn’t do them.  

One we THOUGHT about but never did was a prank that went this way... We would take a paper lunch bag and put in that bag a giant, fresh, pungent pile of dog poo.  I had a big dog named Duke, so raw materials were NOT a problem.  With the poo in the bag we would sneak up on someone’s front porch just after dark, light it on fire, ring the doorbell and run.  The person opening the door would see the fire and instinctively try to put it out using the only means they had... they would stomp on it!  Of course stomping on the bag would spread that giant, fresh, pungent pile of Duke’s finest all over their shoes and the porch and the mess would be exponentially bigger than if they had just let the bag burn itself out.  For two preteen boys, the thought of poo violently spread everywhere was almost perfect... the thought that it would be violently spread not by us, but by the victim of our prank, elevated this prank-we-never-pulled to perfection!  

Why Jesus chose to tell the parable of the weeds rather than the parable of the flaming bag of poo, I don’t know.  Maybe Jesus didn’t have a big dog... or paper lunch bags.  Maybe his neighbors didn’t have doorbells or maybe Jesus just had way more class than two preteen boys named David and Erik.  But no matter which story you tell to illustrate the point, the truth behind both stories remains the same.  When you and I, who are both saint and sinner... when you and I who have both wheat and weeds in our own hearts... when you and I who are servants of the Kingdom of God and not the Kingdom’s Creator try to stamp out evil, even with the greatest good in mind, even with the most precise means available, even with the best of intentions in the world, we WILL end up making things worse, even while we intend to make things better.

In Jesus’ parable, the enemy comes quietly at night and spreads weeds in the field where the farmer has carefully planted wheat.  In the Greek, the enemy plants a specific weed... a grass that looks JUST LIKE WHEAT when it’s growing.  The enemy knew that.  The prank is carefully planned and the biggest part of the prank is counting on servants like us, in our zeal to get rid of the evil, to make a bigger mess... to pull up both weeds and wheat, doing more damage than the weeds could ever do on their own.  Remember, it’s the stomping on the flaming bag that creates the bigger mess on the front porches of our lives! 

We all know what it’s like to find that someone has planted weeds amongst our wheat… to find someone has done something destructive in our lives.  We all know what it’s like to open the door and find a little paper bag on fire on the front porch of our lives… we all know how it feels to have someone bring their drama into our lives.  We all know what it looks like... and a big part of how we know what weeds and flaming bags of poo look like is that we all have taken our turn playing the part of the enemy... planting weeds in someone’s field or leaving a flaming bag of poo on someone’s porch.  We’ve all brought up “that” subject at Thanksgiving dinner, knowing Uncle Joe would take the bait and it would lead to an epic Thanksgiving argument.  We’ve all taken unresolved hurts from other people and places and consciously or unconsciously sown those hurts into the lives of unrelated people in unrelated places.  We’ve all felt our control of some situation slipping away and decided to put a flaming bag of poo on someone’s porch so we wouldn’t be the only one in crisis... the only one dealing with a mess.  We’ve all found a reason to invite a friend to join us in our indignation over some slight, real or imagined.  It happens in families.  It happens at work.  It’s happening now in Israel and Gaza and Ukraine and it happens in every single church I’ve ever known.  

So what’s the answer?  What do we DO when someone plants weeds among our wheat?  What do we DO when someone leaves a flaming bag of poo burning on our front porch?  What do we DO with the Hitlers, Putins, Pol Pots and terrorists of our world?  What do we DO with church bullies, conflict stirrers, hurt sharers and antagonists?  

You’re not going to like the answer... the answer, of course, is love.  

Just as the farmer suggests that the weeds and the wheat be allowed to grow together, each receiving the same sun, rain and nutrients from the earth.  You and I are called to love the easy to love in our lives in exactly the same way we are called to love those who make loving them really, really hard.

You know what the people who sow weeds and light bags of poo on fire really need, because, like it or not, you and I have been those people.  When we played the part of the enemy... what we needed deep down was to be heard, we needed patience, we needed healing, understanding, grace, forgiveness and most of all love.  The more someone is causing trouble, sowing weeds and putting bag after bag of flaming poo on your front porch, the more and more and MORE they need to be pulled into the wide embrace of unconditional love Jesus showed us all how to give one another from the cross.  

Our call is to resist the urge to rush in and start pulling weeds.  Our call is to let the bag burn itself out and resist the urge to stomp out the fire.  Our call is instead, to love.  One final note though, about love.  I’ve found that often we Christians confuse that call to “love” with a call to be “nice.”  “Nice” isn’t the same as “love.”  “Nice” avoids conflict, ignores trouble, shies away from confrontation, distances us from difficult people and situations and hopes it all just goes away.  Love, on the other hand, dives in deeper into the relationship when there is conflict.  Love takes the time and energy to look for the deeper hurts.  Love listens not to respond but to understand.  Love creates clear boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not and love insists that those boundaries remain firmly in place.  Love confronts promptly when boundaries are breached but never abandons the relationship.  Love is firm but never hateful, love is clear but never vengeful.  We are called to love.

So, who has sown weeds in your wheat this past week?  Who's wheat have you sown weeds in this past week? In this parable Jesus reminds us, the weeds, both the spreading and the pulling are none of our business.  Our business is to stretch out our arms in radically inclusive love… As I have loved you, Jesus said, so also you should love one another… and remember how much Jesus loved us?  To death… and right back to life again.  Amen.