Harvest-Minded People: Weeds, Wheat, and Laborers
There are two Parables that Jesus told that are of special importance to us, as we think about what it means to be harvest-minded people. They are both familiar, I am sure. As familiar as Jesus’s parables are to us after centuries of hearing them interpreted in church, when Jesus first spoke them, they were meant to be an indictment of sorts - Jesus’ parables would have made the hearers uncomfortable.
The first parable is the one of the weeds among the wheat. We’re told a farmer has planted his field with good seed, but while he and his servants were asleep, an enemy crept in and planted weeds among the good seed. When the weeds started growing alongside the wheat, the servants asked the farmer if they should go and pull out the weeds. The farmer says no - to let them grow together, and then he’ll handle the separating when it’s time to harvest.
The second parable is the one of the laborers in the vineyard. A landowner went out one morning to find some workers for his vineyard. He found some, and they agreed to work for a set amount of money - let’s say $100, for easy understanding. Several times throughout the day, the landowner went back out and found more workers; he made the same agreement with them, offering to pay them $100 for the days’ work. At the end of the day, those who’d been working since early morning were a little irritated that those who’d only worked a few hours had been paid the same $100 they’d received. The landowner tells these workers to calm down, “I haven’t been unfair - I’ve paid you the $100 I told you I would pay you. Go on your way, and don’t worry about how I choose to spend my own money.” The landowner wanted to pay all of his workers $100, and he was free to do so.
Do either of these parables make you feel uncomfortable? Probably not right away - we’re so used to them, they’re like old friends. Where is the indictment in these two stories?
“Sometimes it’s hard to understand the unending grace and unwarranted generosity of God.”
Well, in the first, the servants wanted to go out into the field and start pulling up weeds. Do we do that? Are we sometimes ready to write-off those we see as weeds - those members of society that we can’t imagine ever being of use to the Kingdom? How quickly are we to pass judgment on those who think or believe differently than we do?
In the second parable, how many of you would also have been irritated to have worked all day in the hot sun - back aching, sunburned, hands blistered - and to have been paid the same as someone who didn’t work long enough to break a sweat? I would. How quick are we to grumble that someone we think is unworthy of it received a good thing? Say you found out that, a day before their death, that the person you think of as the worst, most heinous, person had repented of his or her sins and given his or her whole heart to God. How would you feel about that? Would you rejoice? Or would you have some questions for God? To be honest, I might have some questions. I’d want to know if God was really sure about giving this particular person the same grace he offers everyone else.
If these parables make you uncomfortable, good. They were meant to. Harvest-minded people know their place. They don’t claim to be God, nor do they claim to be fit to do God’s job. Sometimes it’s hard to understand the unending grace and unwarranted generosity of God.
Harvest-minded people simply plant seeds faithfully, water those seeds with enthusiasm, wait for harvest and let God handle all the rest.
May it be so with us.
