An enemy has done this

The devil’s favorite thing to do is turn us against each other. In Jesus’ parable of the weeds and the wheat the servants of a master find that the wheat field has lots and lots of weeds growing in it. They come to the master and say, “There are weeds sown all throughout the wheat. What should we do? Shall we pull the weeds?”

The master says, “No.”

He also says, “An enemy has done this.”

Remember, parables are short stories told by wisdom teachers meant to disrupt our normal way of thinking and perceiving life, in hopes that we will ask new questions of ourselves or take up a new stance toward our neighbors that we might love more deeply. I like to say that the best thing to do with a parable is to let it happen to you. That is, let it wash over you and have its way with you.

As I let the line, “an enemy has done this,” happen to me it strikes me that what the enemy has done is label some of the plants of the field weeds, then convince the workers that some of the plants are bad and less-than or undesirable.

Maybe there are no weeds. Maybe all the plants are wheat. It’s just that the workers have been tricked by an enemy into thinking that some don’t belong. The reality with Jesus is that everyone belongs.

Thus the parable has me taking a look at the people in my life whom I have labeled as weeds. I have to look at them again and again and again until love corrects my eyesight and finally I see a field full of beloved wheat.

What do you see when you let this parable happen to you?