Matthew 13:24-32 NRSVue
24He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, 25but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”
31He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32it is the smallest of all the 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.”
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Reflection on Matthew 13:24-32
Inspiration from 2026-03-17 Daily Prayer
The phrase ‘the best is enemy of the good’ means that by being too idealistic, we may sometimes miss the opportunity to do something good by aiming too high and missing, and subsequently failing to do anything at all. In the parable today, the servants of the master find themselves mystified – they feel they have planted only good seed, but now weeds are appearing all over the field. They want to root out everything, but the owner has the wisdom to restrain them. So too in our lives. It’s not always easy to distinguish good crops from weeds.
Further reflection
The first parable highlights the patient mercy of God. Let me imagine myself standing beside the Lord as he looks at the field he has planted so carefully. Note his sorrow to find weeds there. We talk, and I let him look at me: both of us know that I spoil his good work when I am small-minded and forgetful of his dreams for the world.
But in his mercy he doesn’t call me his ‘enemy’: instead he is forgiving and endlessly patient. I ask him to help me be merciful and patient with those in the Church who fail to heed the needs of God’s people.
Listening to the second parable Jesus’ hearers would have expected God’s coming to be full of mighty deeds as related in the Hebrew scriptures. But Jesus is offering a God who is ‘the right size’ such as they could manage. God is non-threatening; God acts in small and seemingly insignificant ways. He is to be found in the insignificant mustard seed as much as in the mighty cedar.
Lord, help me to notice that your saving presence is revealed in the tedium of my small life, in unnoticed goodness, in meeting the ongoing challenges and diminishments of daily life. In all of them let me respond with quiet love.