Matthew 13
Our recent years have seen the rise of what I call an ‘instant labelling culture’. Daily we witness this cultural, social, and political phenomenon. This seems an upgrade from ‘political correctness culture’. As soon as people hear someone speak, or, more commonly these days, read someone’s social media post, they like to put a label such as conservative, socialist, sexist, feminist, racist, misogynist, homophobic, and so on. Without any effort to know the actual person, people simply throw a person into a category within a few seconds. Once a person is labelled, the person is assumed to have been like that label all his life. And it is also assumed that the person will be like that label for the rest of his life.
Most of these labels carry very negative notions with emotional rejection. And somehow many of these negative labels are associated with one another. Once one label is fixed to a person, other associated labels often follow. For example, if a person is labelled ‘conservative’, this label is likely to bring a train of labels such as homophobic, racist, climate change deniers, pro-life, sexist, and so on.
In this new culture, once a negative, or, more accurately, a hateful label is affixed on a person, people commonly demand that the person should lose his livelihood. Whether the label is moral or social in nature, the person who bears the label is to be retaliated economically or financially. There is hardly any mercy or forgiveness in this culture of instant branding.
As this new culture of instant labelling grows, many people feel fearful to express their ideas and opinions. Especially your words stored online, whether they were of a decade or two, can be picked up today and ruin the rest of your life, even if you changed your mind a long time ago and moved on. Under so many hateful labels, many people wonder if there is freedom of speech any more in our society.
On this Sunday, Jesus tells us the parable of the wheat and the weeds. At the request of his servants to remove the weeds, the owner of the field tells them to wait until the harvest time. It’s because they might pull out the good wheat by mistake if they hurry to remove the weeds. The kingdom of God expands in the patience of the Lord. The mercy of the Lord works primarily as his patience with us in this life. He gives us life and provides good things for us throughout our life. Even when we make mistakes and commit terrible sins, he does not label us “weed” or “damned” right away. He still grants us good things and waits for us to return to him. When we change our minds and hearts towards him, he gladly accepts us. The culture of the kingdom of heaven exhibits patience, benevolence, and gentleness. Aren’t these fruits of the Holy Spirit? Christians cannot be a part of the instant labelling culture. The Lord is patient and merciful to us. Then, we can also be a bit more patient and merciful with one another.
