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From: Matthew 13:24-43

The Parable of the Weeds

[24] Another parable he (Jesus) put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven
may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; [25] but while men
were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went
away. [26] So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared
also. [27] And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you
not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ [28] He said to them,
‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go
and gather them?’ [29] But he said, ‘No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up
the wheat along with them. [30] Let both grow together until the harvest; and at
harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bun-
dles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

The Mustard Seed; The Leaven

[31] Another parable He (Jesus) put before them saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven
is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; [32] it is
the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and
becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

[33] He told them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a leaven which
a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”

[34] All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed He said nothing to them
without a parable. [35] This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will
open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the founda-
tion of the world.”

The Parable of the Weeds Explained

[36] Then He (Jesus) left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples
came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” [37]
He answered, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; [38] the field is
the world, and the good seed means the sons of the Kingdom; the weeds are the
sons of the evil one, [39] and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest
is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. [40] Just as the weeds are
gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. [41] The Son
of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all causes
of sin and evildoers, [42] and throw them out into the furnace of fire; there men
will weep and gnash their teeth. [43] Then the righteous will shine like the sun in
the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

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Commentary:

24-25. “The situation is clear: the field is fertile and the seed is good; the Lord of
the field has scattered the seed at the right moment and with great skill. He even
has watchmen to make sure that the field is protected. If, afterwards, there are
weeds among the wheat, it is because men have failed to respond, because they
— and Christians in particular — have fallen asleep and allowed the enemy to ap-
proach” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 123).

25. This weed—cockle—looks very like wheat and can easily be mistaken for it un-
til the ears appear. If it gets ground up with wheat it contaminates the flour and a-
ny bread made from that flour causes severe nausea when eaten. In the East per-
sonal vengeance sometimes took the form of sowing cockle among an enemy’s
wheat. Roman law prescribed penalties for this crime.

28. “When the careless servants ask the Lord why weeds have grown in his field,
the explanation is obvious: ‘inimicus homo hoc fecit: an enemy has done this.’
We Christians should have been on guard to make sure that the good things
placed in this world by the Creator were developed in the service of truth and
good. But we have fallen asleep—a sad thing, that sluggishness of our heart while
the enemy and all those who serve him worked incessantly. You can see how the
weeds have grown abundantly everywhere” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”,
123).

29-30. The end of this parable gives a symbolic explanation of why God allows
evil to have its way for a time—and for its ultimate extirpation. Evil is to run its
course on earth until the end of time; therefore, we should not be scandalized
by the presence of evil in the world. It will be obliterated not in this life, but after
death; at the Judgment (the harvest) the good will go to Heaven and the bad to
Hell.

31-32. Here, the man is Jesus Christ and the field, the world. The grain of mus-
tard seed is the preaching of the Gospel and the Church, which from very small
beginnings will spread throughout the world.

The parable clearly refers to the universal scope and spread of the Kingdom of
God: the Church, which embraces all mankind of every kind and condition, in eve-
ry latitude and in all ages, is forever developing in spite of obstacles, thanks to
God’s promise and aid.

33. This comparison is taken from everyday experience: just as leaven gradually
ferments all the dough, so the Church spreads to convert all nations.

The leaven is also a symbol of the individual Christian. Living in the middle of the
world and retaining his Christian quality, he wins souls for Christ by his word and
example: “Our calling to be children of God, in the midst of the world, requires us
not only to seek our own personal holiness, but also to go out onto all the ways
of the earth, to convert them into roadways that will carry souls over all obsta-
cles and lead them to the Lord. As we take part in all temporal activities as or-
dinary citizens, we are to become leaven acting on the mass” (St. J. Escriva,
“Christ Is Passing By”, 120).

34-35. Revelation, God’s plans, are hidden (cf. Matthew 11:25) from those who
are disposed to accept them. The Evangelist wishes to emphasize the need for
simplicity and for docility to the Gospel. By recalling Psalm 78:2, he tells us once
more, under divine inspiration, that the Old Testament prophecies find their fulfill-
ment in our Lord’s preaching.

36-43. While making its way on earth, the Church is composed of good and bad
people, just men and sinners: they are mixed in with one another until the harvest
time, the end of the world, when the Son of Man, in His capacity as Judge of the
living and the dead, will divide the good from the bad at the Last Judgment—the
former going to eternal glory, the inheritance of the saints; the latter, to the eter-
nal fire of Hell. Although the just and the sinners are now side by side, the Church
has the right and the duty to exclude those who cause scandal, especially those
who attack its doctrine and unity; this it can do through ecclesiastical excommu-
nication and other canonical penalties. However, excommunication has a medici-
nal and pastoral function—to correct those who are obstinate in error, and to pro-
tect others from them.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.