There are five discourses or sermons by Jesus in Matthew and now we are in the middle of the third of these five discourses or sermons (Matt 13). This third sermon or discourse has seven parables. Last Sunday we heard the parable of the sower. Today we hear another three parables and next week the remaining three.
In the parable of the sower last Sunday, the sower was generous and sowed seed everywhere, even where it was unlikely to ever produce fruit and it challenged us to think about our response to God’s word. Today we have another parable about sowing seed but this time the challenge is different: today’s parable asks us to be patient with those who are not making progress in the spiritual life like we would wish. Jesus’ ministry was sowing seeds. The devil was also busy trying to disrupt everything Jesus did, symbolized by the darnel in the parable. The slaves in the parable asked the Master if they could pull up the darnel but he didn’t allow it because they might also pull up the wheat. In the early stages of growth, darnel resembles wheat and can only be distinguished from wheat when it gets near harvest time.
We might sometimes be impatient and wish the Lord would do something about evil, but the parable is asking us to be patient and let judgment to God at the end of time. Over zealousness or misguided zeal could cause problems. Of course we have to say evil is evil and wrong is wrong, but we leave judgment to God. In the meantime, we have to remember that God loves all people even those we don’t like and Jesus died for everyone, even those we don’t like. We see Jesus’ patience in his ministry. When Jesus and his disciples left Galilee to go to Jerusalem, he sent two messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival there. The Samaritans would not welcome Jesus because he was going to Jerusalem—there was a centuries old dispute between the Jewish people and the Samaritans. The apostles James and John asked Jesus if he wanted them to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans, but Jesus rebuked them and they went to a different village (Luke 5:51-56). The darnel was allowed to continue to grow.
We see another example when Jesus was in Gethsemane. When the soldiers from the Sanhedrin came to arrest Jesus, there was a skirmish and Peter used his sword to cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest’s servant. Jesus healed his ear (Luke 22:47-51; John 18:10-11). The darnel was allowed to grow.
Darnel is darnel and wheat is wheat. Darnel will never become wheat, and wheat will not become darnel, but people change. The people symbolized by the darnel could change. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus told a parable about a fig tree (Luke 13:6-9). A man planted a fig tree in his orchard, but it produced no fruit. He told the gardener to cut it down because it had not produced fruit for three years, but the gardener asked to leave it for one more year to give it a chance to produce fruit. While darnel will never become wheat, and the parable about the darnel is asking us to leave judgment to God, people can change and I think Jesus’ parable about the fig tree shows his hope for people who are like darnel, that they will accept his teaching and welcome his kingdom and produce fruit. And if they do, they are the better for it and have much happier lives.
We see a very moving example during Jesus’ last hours. There were two thieves crucified with Jesus, one on either side of him. Perhaps we could say they were like darnel but one of them said, “we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” (Luke 23:41) Then he said to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” and Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43) Darnel will always be darnel, and we are to leave judgment to God, but people can change. The good thief, as we call him, was a living example of the fig tree producing fruit at the last moment and changing spiritually from darnel to wheat.
The first reading from the Book of Wisdom reminds us of the possibility of conversion and repentance that God has given us:
though you are master of might, you judge
with clemency,
and with much lenience you govern us . . . (12:18)
you gave your children good ground for hope
that you would permit
repentance for their sins. (12:19)
We might sometimes be impatient and wish the Lord would do something about evil like James and John when the Samaritans would not welcome Jesus. But the parable of the darnel asks us to leave judgment to God and we hope that before judgment those who are like darnel spiritually may receive the grace of God to welcome his kingdom into their hearts and grow like the mustard seed becoming the largest of plants or the yeast leavening all the flour.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2026
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Sixteenth Sunday Year A
Only good things come from God 2023
Remove your weeds instead of judging others’ weeds 2008
Stories: Weeds among the wheat: God’s infinite mercy (a dialogue)