Don't Fear The Reaper

This Sunday's reading from Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 should put the fear of hellfire and damnation into everyone with the exception of your average revisionist preacher and his/her/its congregation.

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And 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?” He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let 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.” ’

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

Once again, this week Jesus provides a clear explanation of his parable. How can anyone mess this up?

I am afraid that all too often I have heard the "weeds" referred to as our "cares and worries that slow our spiritual development" and how wonderful it will be when we meet our maker and all of those weeds are removed from us. There is no mention of "evil doers" because there is no such thing as evil in the revisionist's dictionary as everything these days is relative making it impossible to distinguish between good and evil.

According to the parable, the angels are to be our reapers. Is this something to be feared?

As a Christian, you should not fear the reaper. He will embrace you lovingly when the end comes.

Listen to the classic Blue Oyster Cult hit, "Don't Fear the Reaper", a song that was often misinterpreted as being about suicide due to an unfortunate reference to Romeo and Juliette, but it is a song which the songwriter claimed is about love surviving beyond death, and when you listen, imagine an angel rather than a grim reaper, and I think you might have a new appreciation of the song.