Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 1619
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
At Stanford University in 1971, there was an
experiment to study human behavior and responses. It was a role-playing experiment intended to
be conducted over the course of two weeks but had to be terminated after only
six days because the volunteers got out of hand.
It was a prison experiment. All were paid volunteers, and all who applied
were screened for psychological and physical wellness. Once they were hired, some students were randomly
assigned as guards; others selected as inmates were “arrested” at home before they
knew they had been selected. They were
brought in to the local police station, then blindfolded and taken to the
“prison”.
The authority of the guards was not to be challenged;
they had the duty to control the prison population and maintain order. Because the guards had not been trained or
prepared, they were left to decide for themselves how best to control the
prisoners.
Within only a couple of days, some had already begun
to test the limits (or extent) of their power.
The guards became sadistic, and the inmates began showing signs of
extreme mental and emotional distress.
In order to get the full effect of prison life and the controlled
environment, the prisoners could not quit!
Before anyone got seriously hurt, though – and it appeared to be going in
that direction! – the experiment had to be terminated.
What was most interesting were the reactions according
to assigned roles. Even the
administrator of the experiment serving as “warden” found himself acting
completely outside his personal character!
The guards got the prisoners to turn on one another in efforts to
protect themselves.
Though some may have considered the experiment to be a
failure, analysis revealed that people will generally fall into assigned roles according
to how they are treated. To put it into
the context of Jesus’ parable, it seems if we treat others as “weeds”, they
will learn to adjust to the assigned role.
It may seem incomprehensible that any one of us could
be so easily manipulated by roles or environment, but it is telling that what
had been planned for two weeks fell apart after only a few days. In fact, they were only 48 hours into the
experiment when certain degradations began to show - in guards and prisoners
alike.
What was learned from the experiment is that within us
all is the potential for good … and the potential for evil. Take a good person who would not harm a fly and
give that person absolute power, and
it has been shown that over time that person will soon abuse that power. The philosophical concept that absolute power corrupts absolutely is very difficult to
disprove.
Human nature being what it is, Jesus warns us that
even our best intentions can sometimes do harm.
The workers of the field knew what useless “weeds” looked like and so
wanted to clean up the fields to provide more good soil for the wheat. What they could not see, however, was what
was going on beneath the surface.
And this should not escape notice; the workers meant
well, but it was the wisdom of the “master” that kept them in check.
In their enthusiasm to rid the field of what they
believed to be useless and even degrading to the whole crop, however, the
master revealed to the workers – and to us - the reality of their nature. If they were left unchecked to go and do as they thought best for the whole field
with no mind toward a few stalks of good wheat, they could possibly ruin a
significant portion of the good crop.
No one wants weeds.
They are unsightly; and because they serve no useful purpose and can
possibly take over a whole garden or flower bed, we think nothing of bending
over to pluck a few weeds and hopefully get them at the root. If we don’t, we know it will not take long
before our gardens and flower beds are overrun!
And when the weeds take root and become entangled with the roots of the
good stuff, it is difficult to pull the weeds without doing some harm to that
which we intend to protect.
We don’t often think of this in terms of our society
and our communities, even our churches, but maybe we should. We can often be a little too quick to judge a
“weed” without realizing our quest for our
own sense of purity and order - and righteousness - could possibly do more
harm than any good we may hope for. Think
of this in terms of deciding it is better to jail 100 innocent persons than to
risk letting 1 guilty person go free.
I think the Church, throughout its history, has been a
little too concerned with ridding itself of the “weeds” among us – failing to
realize we were all, at one time, considered “weeds” by someone. Think of the Crusades or the Inquisition. Yet given time and care and concern, we were empowered and led to overcome our own
“weedness” through the faithful work and the witness of the Church acting according to the Master’s wisdom. But it seems that once we overcome our own
“weedness”, we would rather jerk out the other “weeds” before they take over!
In some cases perhaps some of us were “judged” rather
harshly by others; and that judgment served as a serious, spiritual “wake up
call”. There are many more, however, who
were gently guided into – or back into – the fellowship of the Church. It is these who are most likely to stay and
continue to grow and thrive with the rest of us. So when we stop to think about it, the one
response that brings most people back is one of encouragement, not ultimatums.
We Americans who place great value on our liberty and
independence are not likely to respond well to “or else” warnings or threats. Some of us may be prone to go the “or else”
route just to see what it might look like!
Or maybe even as a strict act of defiance to be sure it is understood we
will not be controlled by others.
We can all take a lesson from the Stanford
experiment. If we are randomly thrust
into a certain role without having been adequately prepared for that role, as
the students were – for us it is becoming
disciples before we start trying to make
disciples – we have the potential to do grave harm even as we begin with the
best of intentions. Think of it as being
more concerned about the “speck” in someone else’s eye before
we’ve dealt with the “log” in our own eye!
Tending to the “soil” of the mission field is not at
all about pulling undesirable “weeds”; it is about making sure the soil is
adequate for spiritual growth and maturity.
Though the nature of a real weed cannot be changed, the Stanford
experiment reveals that if we would allow our “weedness” to be assigned a new
and more fulfilling role, it is very likely we will grow into that role. But if we are treated as “weeds” or treat others
as “weeds”, “weeds” we will be.
It is our task to tend the field rather than to decide
who is worthy to be there. If we really
trust our Lord for our own salvation, perhaps we can learn to trust Him for the
salvation of others. And if we will live
fully into our discipleship roles, we can have a hand in that salvation; but we
can never have a hand in judgment and condemnation. As St. James
wrote, “You should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will
save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (5:20).
So let us embrace the Wisdom of Solomon in a common prayer: “Although You, O Lord, are
sovereign in strength, You judge with mildness, and with great [patience] You
govern us; for You [alone] have the power to act whenever You choose” (Wisdom 12:18).
Jesus assures us the final act of gathering the weeds
for burning will be His alone. Let us resolve
to put away the matches and kerosene lest we burn ourselves. Amen.
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