Coffee With God

Reflection: Matthew 13: 36-43

The evangelist is introducing an application to the parables of Jesus. Jesus is back home with his disciples. The explanation is not given to the crowd but to his small group of disciples. When the scene moves from the original parable of the seeds and weeds to its explanation, there is a difference on the focus. When Jesus said the parable, the seed was understood as the values of the Kingdom and the weeds were the values of the world – of the evil one. But in the explanation, the seeds and the weeds are presented as good and bad people. At the judgement day – the end of the ages, says Matthew – the bad people will be thrown into the fiery furnace. Matthew goes on to explain the horrors that await the evildoers – there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. This explanation was the understanding of the early Christians – a catechesis addressed to the community of Matthew at the end of the first century. Probably, after the first few decades of following the teachings of Jesus with great fervour, the Christians were a bit more relaxed and did not take their faith seriously. The evangelist attempts to shake them up, using the language of the preachers of his time. To make himself understood by his Jewish listeners, he uses the style of other Jewish rabbis and use images which were well understood by his people, such as fire, the fiery furnaces, weeping, gnashing of teeth, the harvest, the angels, the devils. One thing is certain: whoever does evil, ruins his life. But that judgement and punishment in the fiery furnace is not the work of God. St. Paul teaches us that God is the Father “who wants all to be saved” (1Tim 2:4). Gospel according to John makes an absolute statement: “He did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but through him, the world is to be saved” (Jn 3:17). And what about the fire? The only fire that God has, is his Spirit. descended on the disciples during the Pentecost (Acts 2:3). The Risen Lord has handed over the fire of his Spirit as a destructive force of sin (Jn 20:22-23). Remember the words of Jesus: “I have come to bring fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled” (Lk 12:49). It is the unstoppable flame that will burn all traces of weeds in the heart of every person, leaving only the good grain in each person. The fire of God, The Holy Spirit will one day wipe out all forms of evil.