Claire Boot

According to Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is, at the current time, something of a mixed bag. It’s a field of wheat and weeds; it’s a net of all kinds of fish, good and bad. Now, I don’t know about you, but at first reading I’m not altogether happy about this.

To my mind, the kingdom of heaven should be all about good wheat and good fish.
Other stuff shouldn’t be allowed in. If we limit the options, then there’ll be no weeds and no bad fish to catch anybody out. People will choose the wholesome, nutritious stuff because that’s all there is to choose from. Perfect. So I’m right with the servant who says, “Shouldn’t we go and pull up the weeds?” And I have trouble understanding why the mster farmer says “No.”
When it comes to art, media nd entertainment, I know what I consider to be wheat and what I call weeds. I don't like sensational images of guts and gore, I hate language full of gratuitous swearing, I resent explicit sex scenes, and so I choose to avoid these. In fact, I’d like to pull all these up and toss them away, so no one else can choose them either.
But Jesus has got another way of thinking. Don’t pull up the weeds, he explains, because you might damage the wheat before it’s ready to be harvested. Don’t mess about with the net while you’re still at sea, he sayscause the good fish might get away with the bad. Trust that good will out in the end and, in the meantime, allow each individual to exercise the free will given them by God to make their own choices.