The first painting tells about a good and bad deal, the second about a small seed that grows into a large tree, and the third about yeast, which gradually transforms the entire dough. But one important thing can be noticed: of the images that Jesus uses, they carry three positive messages. Wheat, mustard seed, and leaven are images of goodness, life, growth, and transformation. Only one image includes the message of evil—tares.
Perhaps it is also important in our view of the world. Sometimes (and maybe even legitimately), we live as if the whole world is just tares. As if there were only evil, danger, disappointment, wars, manipulation, sin, corruption, hatred, and decay around us. Of course, evil exists. Jesus does not deny him, nor must we. He even talks about him very seriously. The tares are real. The enemy exists. Evil can harm a person and the world. But evil is not the whole story.
Jesus also talks about the wheat. He talks about a mustard seed. He talks about leaven. And maybe he reminds you, “Don’t forget to notice the good.” Don’t forget that the world is not just a place where evil works. It is above all the world that God created, that God loves and in which God still acts.
When we look at the world only through negative news, through conflicts and scandals, it may seem to us that evil is greater than good. That’s not true. Evil is loud. Goodness is often quiet. Evil screams. Evil often simply acts. Evil makes the front pages. Many times goodness is revealed to the world in complete silence, but it always finds addressees. Wheat grows… although tares grow alongside it.
Wheat can remind us of all the earthly goods that we need and that God gives us. God did not create man as a being who should despise the world and all that is in it. We need food, home, work, friendship, family, health, beauty, relaxation, entertainment, nature, relationships, inspiration, justice, goodness, watches, mobile phones, electricity, cars, or running cars. We need many things, many good things God gives us as gifts. Some we have to: some, others we receive as an undeserved gift.
We humans sometimes, in false modesty, claim and pretend as if everything earthly is automatically evil and spiritual is only what is as far away from earthly things as possible. But beware! God created wheat. God created the earth. God gave man the ability to work, create, build, love, and enjoy., And so the problem is not that we have earthly goods.
The problem is when good things become our gods or if we abuse earthly good things and focus only on them. What is extremely good and necessary. But one must not forget who is the Lord of the field.
Then Jesus talks about the mustard seed. It is small and would seem almost insignificant. If we put it in the palm of our hands, we might shake our heads at it. What can such a small seed do? And yet it is precisely from it that a large plant can grow. How much good in this world began as a small seed?
One short prayer. One sincere decision to forgive. One person who said, ” I’ll try. ” One small gesture of true love. One visit. One encouragement. One person who decided to devote his life to God.
One mother who patiently raises her children every day. One father who tries to be a good father. One young person who decides not to succumb to cynicism and does not radicalize his heart and political worldview. One student who chooses to be honest, even though it would be more worth cheating on.
One politician who does not need to promise and lie, corrupt and be corrupted, but really serves. Only you. And one me. Exactly in this case, a mustard seed says, “Don’t worry about being small.” Maybe sometimes we feel too small to change anything. But the kingdom of God often begins precisely where a person stops waiting for ‘appropriate conditions’ and begins to act.
Unobtrusive, almost like that mustard seed. When we put it in the dough, we don’t see it. But he starts working. It slowly, covertly, and persistently transforms the entire dough.
A Christian should not, and even must not, be a person who separates himself from the world in the belief that everything around him is bad. A Christian should be leavened. He should enter the world and let Christ work in it. Not by force, not by shouting, not by hate, not by constant condemnation. But the reality of Christ.
To surprise the world is to put oneself fully at the service of the practical gospel. It means aligning one’s heart to Christ’s heart and letting his love reach others through us. After all, yeast is not lost in order to disaptots lost in order to trans
„We need to change our perspective. Focus less onwhat’ss wrong and pay more attention to where wheat grows ““
Yes, we still have tares left. Jesus does not call to naivety. Evil exists. Sin exists. There is injustice, hatred, violence, and malice. Sometimes we ask, “Lord, why don’t you rip it off immediately? Why do you allow tares to grow with wheat?” Jesus says, “Let both grow until the harvest,” and not because he is indifferent to evil. But because God sees deeper and further than we do.
We would often like to divide, mark, judge, and tear out. However, God knows the heart of man. He knows that even those who live like tares today can still turn their lives around tomorrow. Therefore, the first reading from the Book of Wisdom says, “You, mighty ruler, judge kindly and govern us very leniently; after all, you just have to want it, and you have power at hand.” And then a wonderful sentence: “By doing so, you taught your people that a righteous person should be human, and you gave your sons good hope that after sin allows repenting.” This is a very important lesson:” A righteous person should be human.”
Sometimes we can think that being fair means being tough. That faithfulness to the truth means having no compassion. That fighting evil means hating. Unfortunately, this is also partly a Slovak reality. But God shows us another way.
We can name evil as evil and at the same time not stop loving a person. We can disagree with sin while believing that the sinner can change. We can desire justice and at the same time not forget mercy. Why all this? Because God gives an opportunity, a repentant, righteous man should be human.
Perhaps this is where the greatest hope of today’s gospel lies: tares do exist, but tares do not have the last word. Evil will never be greater than God. How many powerful people in history have tried to bring other people or all of humanity to destruction? How many dictators thought they would rule forever? How many ideologies thought to destroy faith, truth, and hope? How many people tried to silence God? And yet they passed away. Their power is over. Their names became chapters in history textbooks. Tragic chapters. God endures. His love is greater than any malice of the world and man, and His goodness is greater than all our hatred. His light is brighter than any darkness.
Friends, a Christian should not look at the world through the eyes of a defeated person. We are not to live in constant fear, pessimism, and think that everything is falling to ruin and that goodness no longer has a chance. Wheat grows. A mustard seed can grow. Yeast can transform the whole dough. And the tares, though real, will never be greater than the Lord of the field.
History does not belong to the tares. They belong to God. And at the end of history there will be a promise that the “righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” He who has ears, let him listen. He who has a heart, let him trust. And whoever understood, let him act.
