A short reflection on Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 , the Gospel lesson for Proper 11a, according to the Revised Common Lectionary.

The wheat and the weeds are so incredibly close together, that one cannot be uprooted, without uprooting the other.

I know this. Not because I have lots of evil neighbors. But, because the goodness in me, and the evil in me, is so close together. The person who I judge to have evil intent, also has good in them.

This parable is about how gray the world is. How what’s good, and what’s bad isn’t so easily separated.

“Bad” people don’t live “over there” anymore than the “good people” live “here.”

I really liked Disney’s new movie “Maleficent,” because of this exact same point. Maleficent is the wicked character in Sleeping Beauty, but the new movie makes her – and the other characters – more complex. She is capable of great evil. But, she is also capable of great love and compassion.

It’s also one of the things which made Breaking Bad so compelling. A “normal” lower-middle-class high school chemistry teacher with a relatively “normal” life has it in him to become a drug kingpin and murderer.

And, that same dichotomy is in us all.