Can Weeds Turn Into Wheat?
Posted on Jul 14, 2026 by Shari Van Baale
What is your first instinct when you see a weed in your garden or on your lawn? It probably is to pull it. After all, weeds are usually not very attractive, and you might be afraid that it would spread to other parts of your garden, lawn, or your neighbor’s lawn.
In this week’s Gospel, Jesus tells the crowds to let the weeds stay with the wheat.
“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.’ ” (Matthew 13:30)
I love this analogy. Let the weeds exist with the good crops. Just like in the world, people all exist together and the children of the kingdom and evildoers exist together.
“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. … Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matthew 13:37-40, 43)
I know nothing about agriculture, but according to an AI search, “Because weed roots physically intertwine with wheat roots, manually pulling the weeds disturbs the soil and uproots the delicate wheat plants.” So weeds must stay with the wheat. Manual removal would damage the wheat.
Perhaps in this parable, if you leave the “weeds,” the “wheat” can help the weeds become children of God.
In the agricultural world, weeds cannot turn into wheat. But those who are for the enemy can definitely turn into children of the kingdom.
Shari Van Baale
Salem Communications Coordinator