Hold the Sickle and Choose Not to Strike
Geburah of Malkuth Day 44 of 50 · Strength within Presence
The Wheat and the Darnel: The Kin-dom That Waits for the Right Judgment at the Right Time
The forty-fourth saying of the living Christ as spoken by Mary Magdalene:
In the field of the world, the faithful workers sow the good seed by day, and the enemy sows the darnel seeds by night. The wheat will grow and feed the people, but the darnel, which resembles it, is poisonous. When the faithful desired to uproot the darnel, the householder told them to wait. The roots of the darnel entwine with the roots of the wheat, “They are bound together until their fruit grows.” When the time of the harvest came, the householder sent workers into the field to pull up the darnel first, then to bind them in bundles and cast them into the fire before the wheat was gathered1.
The kin-dom is patient, and does not rush to judgment. Sin rushes to judgment to either justify itself or condemn others. The accuser speaks with sincerity, making eloquent arguments, but his discernment is grievously wrong in its timing and certainty.
When the workers notice the darnel, they are certain they know which plants are wheat and which are not, even though they look so similar when they are young. The accuser is always certain. His call is always the same, “Purge the impure.” What is impure? Impurity is everything that falls outside the shadow of the idols they have built. God does not want our purity, but our love. To rip out the darnels when they are young destroys the wheat. It is not until the harvest that they can be separated.
Purity is not an obvious sin. Its wickedness is its lack of forgiveness and patience. Both of which are hard to see from their absence. The evil is not the poison of the darnel. The accuser planted them to tempt the righteous into a rush to judgment. This willingness to harm the innocent to protect their purity is a shadow obscuring the light of God.
Patient discernment can watch the field without swinging the scythe before the harvest comes. In the fullness of time, the Holy One will gather the people and set the sheep to his right and the goats to his left for how they have treated the least of their neighbors. While the Holy One waits for the harvest, the empire cannot wait. The empire needs a pure field. They cannot allow opposition to them to grow.
Strength has not abandoned the kin-dom. It is the power to hold the sickle and choose not to strike. The accuser’s strength is rejected. The kin-dom’s strength arises from its patient discernment. This discernment must be formed in us, and not performed for the approval of others. The householder does not pretend there is no darnel in the field. He cares for the wheat, trusting it has the strength to grow alongside what troubles it.
Patient discernment does not abolish judgment but teaches it to wait so it is not distorted by anxiety or rage. Premature certainty will destroy every relationship and hollow out the soul.
We learn that true strength is not rash to separate, but patient to wait without declaring a false peace or taking premature action. This strength heals the soul. We restore the world by not doing more damage weeding the field than the weeds would do on their own.
Our work is to tend, not to purify the field.
Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43
Matthew Fox calls it 1+1=3: one tradition meeting one life makes a third thing no one expected. Creation’s Paths: A Creation Spirituality Primer is that third thing and an invitation to find yours.
