Mt 13:24-30

My father spent most of the first quarter of his 82 years in the Tagalog-speaking portion of Nueva Ecija. He grew up in a farming town. Waking up to the smell of plants and the sounds of farm animals was his daily experience.

Thus, even though he and my mom raised their children in working-class Makati, he always loved to raise poultry, plant vegetables, and grow fruit trees. A Google satellite picture of the 300 square meter lot where my parents built the house where my siblings and I spent our earliest years shows half the lot covered by trees. You cannot see where the roof of the house ends. Those trees date back to the time when the house was constructed sixty-two years ago.

My dad was a full-time educator: a technical laboratory high school principal and a part-time college instructor; planting remained a major hobby. It was, for him, an excellent stress reliever even after the day he retired. If he were still alive today, he would be called a plant lolo.

One of the many insights I learned from my parents is that their hobbies become their offspring's hobbies. Children who see their parents smoke to relax are likely to learn to smoke to relax. Ditto for drinking, the children get requested or ordered to get an ashtray, bring a loaded ice bucket, and a refrigerated mug.

Both my parents loved plants. Predictably, their six children also learned to take care of their plants. All six of us acquired skills in:

  • preparing a plot,
  • breaking up dirt clods,
  • planting seeds,
  • transplanting seedlings, and
  • protecting them by shielding them from direct sunlight.

After planting came maintenance. That involved:

  • regular watering,
  • cultivating the soil close to the plant for water and nutrients to be absorbed by the plants more easily,
  • removing caterpillars and aphids,
  • exterminating Japanese snails, and
  • weeding.

To children who wanted to play under the morning sun, these tasks were not always enjoyable. The part I least liked was pulling out weeds. Weeds multiplied on loosened soil to compete with the growing plants.

My father's instructions were always clear, "This is how to pull out a weed. Hold it as close as possible to the crown – that's the part closest to the soil. Pull it out slowly so that its roots can also be extracted, but make sure that you don't pull out the seedling with it. After pulling out the weed, make sure that the soil caught in the weed's tangled roots is shaken off. Collect the weeds. We'll put them in a bonfire later."

Thus I can relate to the landholder's instructions even though they differed from my father's directions.

The landowner and his workers were in a more difficult situation: The Greek word used for the weed in this parable is ζιζάνια, zizania. The zizania was growing among the σῖτος, the generic Greek word for any edible grain. It -- σῖτος -- could mean wheat, but it could also mean barley. We are sure that the farmer sowed good seed, the Greek says καλὸν σπέρμα. The translation wheat for σῖτος is appropriate because zizania is so similar to wheat that it is called false wheat!

Zizania could only be differentiated from the wheat at the heading and flowering stage when the kernels and heads emerge. The variety of zizania growing during the time of Christ was considered worthless; only the wheat was worth harvesting. The stalks of zizania stand tall, those of wheat droop. Since the stalks of zizania made them stand out among the wheat, it was easy to collect them for burning. The Greek word used is κατακαῦσαι --- to burn completely. But this segregating could most easily be done at harvest time.

Later, the Evangelist Matthew includes Jesus' explanation for this parable. For the Christian communities for whom he was writing, it may have been a suitable explanation, to stop the zealots and hardliners who would have expelled the 'sinners' with alacrity from the community without so much as a second chance to transform by the grace of God from worthless zizania to fruitful wheat. It reserved judgment to God who will – at Harvest Time – separate the weeds from the grain.

May I now introduce a plot remake?

Each one of us is a field. God planted good seed in us. But we may have let in the enemy who sowed weeds within us. The weeds and the wheat grow within us. The emergence of the heads of zizania, the weeds, is seen in pride when we stand, not to proclaim Christ but to call attention to ourselves and only to ourselves. The example of humility before the Lord, ready to go where He bids us go, is bowing like a wheat stalk.

We have a choice — weeds or wheat in our field.

Lord, transform the weeds in our lives to wheat.

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