Weeds in the Wheat

The Parable of the Weeds in the Wheat.

The weeds in this well-known parable is probably the Eurasian ryegrass, darnel; aka poison darnel, darnel ryegrass, cockle or false wheat. The CABI Invasive Species compendium reports that darnel seeds are remarkably similar in size and weight to wheat grains and other small grain crops, which makes separation
difficult. It is widespread in temperate regions, and the seed contains alkaloids toxic to humans and livestock; although the plant itself may be used as animal fodder, up to seed set. The plant itself can play host to a number of crop diseases.

So, the tale is not about just a few relatively harmless weeds in the crop. The impacts on agriculture can be significant. Theophrastus (ca 300BCE) mentions darnel in his De causis plantarum. Æthelred the Unready complained that all the Danes had sprung up like cockle amongst the wheat and ordered the St. Brice's Day Massacre (13 November 1002) of all the Danes in England. It almost goes without saying that William Shakespeare knew darnel.
Cordelia assesses King Lear’s madness in these words:

As mad as the vexed sea;
singing aloud;
Crowned with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds,
With hordocks, hemlock,
nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow.

In this parable, it is perhaps easy to overlook the significance of the grain that is sown. The seed was (is) a
universal symbol of birth, of hope and future abundance; the ear of wheat a symbol of spring, of nature awakening, conquering the darkness and immobility of winter (death). As divine gift, it represented food for the spirit.

We are sowers. Like phosphorescence in the wake of a boat, we leave seed in our wake. It will settle
wherever; and it will flourish wherever. Bishop Giancarlo Bregantini, former factory worker, long time prison chaplain, champion of the unemployed and outspoken critic of the Italian mafia, remarked: “When a child is born an angel puts a kernel of wheat in his hand. If he tightens his fist and keeps it closed, the
kernel will become mould. If he opens his hand the kernel will fall down into the soil … it will multiply. If the kernel is mine, I am sad; if I give the kernel … open my fist, I realize that my problems are small in
comparison to other people’s problems.”

 Rev Doug Bannerman