Incidentally, scholars say only the rich could afford wheat bread in Ancient Palestine. The poor ate barley.
I want to focus on the weeds--masamang damo! Or more appropriately, weeds or tares that look so much like wheat that Palestinians to this day call it “bastard wheat.” You can actually call this narrative the parable of the wheat and the bastard wheat!
The parable is akin to the one about sheep and goats. It's about judgment. God will judge, not us. There will be time to separate the wheat from the bastard wheat, in God’s time.
Why God? Because wheat and bastard wheat are actually sisters and brothers! God created both. So, God will judge. God will separate. Definitely no one else. Only God.
And since God is a God of surprises, God’s judgment will probably surprise both those who self-righteously think they are the good wheat and those whom the good wheat label as bastard wheat.
In the name of the Crucified and Risen One, the Bastard son of Mary, whom we call Lord and Savior.
Amen.
*image from Bernat Casero.
