Who Weeds the Garden? Musings about the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat, Matthew 13:2-30, 36-43

Who wants to weed the garden?
"I will," volunteered the lady in the large hat with a screeching voice that sounded like a fingernail on a chalkboard.

"I will," volunteered the quiet young man. "I will," volunteered the preacher whose harsh words had run many a seeker out the front door.

"I will," volunteered the Crusader, who was always looking for a new cause to beat with his Bible.

The gardener looked up at the crowd that had gathered around him while he stooped to cover the roots of a seedling with moist soil. "Why ya'll want to weed this garden?" he asked without standing. He hadn't asked the question, but he had certainly heard them talking about it as they approached him.

"Gertie," he said to the woman with the large hat, "I remember when you last tried to weed the garden. You couldn't tell an onion from a dandelion!"

Laughter.

"And, John," he said to the quiet young man, "your eyes are always closed; you keep them closed so much that regular light seems to blind you. I'd be afraid to let you weed my garden."

Laughter.

"And you preacher," he said with a laugh, "unless you mistook 'pluck grapes' for 'preach gospel,' maybe you should leave the gardening to me."

More laughter!

Finally, the gardener stood and cautiously looked the Crusader in the eye. "If you had it your way," he said, "there would be no plant in this garden that you did not plant; and you would pull all the plants that were not the same height!"

Silence.

"Who weeds this garden?" After a long pause, the gardener said:
"Onliest person gets to weed this garden is God!"

With that, he turned from them and walked toward his barn to feed the animals.