Parables that Harm
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Parables that Harm
Herb Montgomery | July 17, 2026
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the Gospel of Matthew:
(Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”
Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)
Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds in our reading this week has often been interpreted as a story about separating the righteous from the wicked. Yet one of the most important ethical lessons of the parable is frequently overlooked: human beings are explicitly forbidden from deciding who the “bad seeds” are and attempting to eliminate them. The servants immediately want to pull up the weeds, but the landowner refuses. The servants’ certainty about who belongs and who does not is precisely what Jesus challenges.
Throughout history, societies have repeatedly identified groups of people as “weeds” that threaten the health of the whole community. Ethnic minorities, immigrants, religious dissenters, political opponents, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and countless others have all been portrayed as dangerous contaminants that must be removed for society to flourish. But once people are classified as inherently bad, every form of exclusion becomes easier to justify. Discrimination, segregation, incarceration, deportation, economic exploitation, and violence can all be defended as necessary acts of preserving the “good crop.”
The danger of this is not limited to physical destruction. Even when people postpone judgment until a future divine reckoning, they may still treat others as though they have already been condemned. The belief that certain people are destined for destruction can produce social practices that isolate, dehumanize, or neglect them in the present. One need not literally burn the weeds today to start treating them as less worthy of compassion, justice, or dignity than those deemed “good.”
Jesus’ response resists this entire framework. The servants in the story assume they can distinguish between wheat and weeds perfectly, but the landowner recognizes the limitations of human judgment. Pulling up the weeds prematurely also risks destroying the wheat. This warning extends beyond agriculture into every community where people’s certainty about others’ moral worth becomes the justification for exclusion. History repeatedly demonstrates that campaigns to eliminate perceived threats almost always harm innocent people alongside those being targeted.
So the parable attempts to call communities away from systems that sort humanity into fixed categories of “worthy” and “unworthy.” Instead, it encourages patience, humility, and a recognition that every person bears immeasurable value. Justice is not achieved by identifying expendable people but by cultivating conditions in which everyone has the opportunity to flourish.
The parable of the wheat and the weeds is less a guide for identifying the wicked than a warning against assuming that role ourselves. In this parable, Mathew’s Jesus places judgment in God’s hands while calling his followers to practice patience, adopt a posture of waiting while practicing mercy, protecting the vulnerable, and resisting every ideology that divides humanity into those deserving of life and those destined for destruction. In a world still tempted to solve its problems by sacrificing those deemed undesirable, the parable invites us to choose patience over quick action and certainty about others.
Yet there is a deeper layer to this parable that is deeply troubling and immensely problematic.
The interpretation of this parable presents one of the most difficult ethical tensions in Matthew’s Gospel. In Matthew’s explanation, the “good seed” becomes “the children of the kingdom,” while the weeds become “the children of the evil one,” destined ultimately to be gathered and destroyed. Read through the lens of justice and human dignity, this interpretation risks reinforcing a dangerous way of seeing other human beings not merely as people who do harmful things, but also as people whose very identity is evil.
The problem is not recognizing that injustice exists: in the gospel stories, Jesus consistently confronted oppression, exploitation, and violence. The problem emerges when evil is relocated from systems and actions into the essence of particular people. Once someone is identified as “bad seed,” our imagination begins to shift. It’s not enough for us to say, “Yes, they are bad seeds, but Jesus tells us to leave them alone.” No! Whomever we label as “bad seeds” destined for eventual destruction instantly becomes disposable rather than neighbors to be loved, enemies to be prayed for, or people capable of repentance. Throughout the centuries, various religious communities have labeled heretics, enslaved peoples, other ethnic groups, political opponents, LGBTQ persons, immigrants, women, and adherents of other faiths as threats to God’s purposes. Regarding a group as fundamentally corrupt stands in tension with the broader ministry of Jesus. Jesus repeatedly refused to reduce people to fixed moral identities. He ate with tax collectors, forgave those who crucified him, welcomed those his society labelled as sinners, restored those his society deemed unclean, and called his followers to love their enemies. His ministry assumed that every person bears the image of the Divine. In that context, then, no one ever should be considered a “tare” that will eventually be gathered up and burned in fire. Even those who opposed Jesus in the stories remained objects of God’s love rather than candidates for human contempt.
A more life-giving reading of the parable understands the weeds not as categories of people but as destructive patterns that grow within individuals and societies. Greed, domination, prejudice, violence, and hatred threaten God’s harvest. These realities must indeed be overcome, but their destruction is not the destruction of persons. But then the part the part of the parable of waiting till some mysterious point in the future to uproot these simply doesn’t work in the story. The sacred work of the Divine is not to leave injustice alone until some time in the future, but to engage right now by uprooting injustice while preserving the humanity of everyone involved, today.
The ethical danger of labeling human beings as “bad seed” is that it authorizes exclusion rather than inclusion or restoration. We must begin from the conviction that every person possesses irreducible worth, even people who perpetuate harm. Accountability is essential, and injustice must be confronted with courage. Yet confronting evil is fundamentally different from declaring that certain people are themselves beyond redemption.
If Jesus’ kingdom is characterized by restored humanity, justice, compassion, reconciliation, healing, and restorative justice, then no person should ever be viewed as a bad seed. Ever! People are never weeds in the field of our world. The weeds are the systems, ideologies, fears, and choices that distort our shared humanity. And, those are not to be left along till some time in the future. Those are what must be gathered up and done away with, today, so that every person may have the opportunity to flourish.
A community that labels people as irredeemable closes itself to change. The Jesus of Matthew’s Gospel consistently sought out those whom respectable society had already written off such tax collectors, sinners, Samaritans, Gentiles, and others deemed morally or religiously suspect by the wealthy and powerful elite. His ministry repeatedly transgressed societal norms in favor of the worth and dignity of every person. That means that the parable we encounter in this week’s reading is inconsistent with the Jesus we find in the rest of Matthew’s gospel. Regardless of one’s view of sacred texts, inspiration, or any other lens that would cause us to choose infallibility over the well-being of vulnerable people, my conclusion this week is simple: No person ever should be labelled as a bad seed. Period.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How does our reading this week inform your own justice work, today? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.
My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
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Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 3 Episode 30: Parables that Harm
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Throughout history, societies have repeatedly identified groups of people as “weeds” that threaten the health of the whole community. Ethnic minorities, immigrants, religious dissenters, political opponents, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and countless others have all been portrayed as dangerous contaminants that must be removed for society to flourish. But once people are classified as inherently bad, every form of exclusion becomes easier to justify. Discrimination, segregation, incarceration, deportation, economic exploitation, and violence can all be defended as necessary acts of preserving the “good crop. Regardless of one’s view of sacred texts, inspiration, or any other lens that would cause us to choose infallibility over the well-being of vulnerable people, my conclusion this week is simple: No person ever should be labelled as a bad seed. Period.
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/parables-that-harm
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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