Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” …..
…Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! - Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
-----------------------------------------------------
The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares
This week we have another agricultural themed parable, whose telling, the gospel writer Matthew places immediately after the Parable of the Sower. Similar to last week, and for the same reasons we saw then, this parable was not explained to the multitude but was for disciple consumption only. Again, we are blessed to have our Lord’s explanation of it – so we don’t have to stretch to understand the imagery – but the implications of what has been explained are fairly dramatic – and so we will spend some time on those riches!
Following what should now be a familiar process – Context – fairly simple. Told to the multitudes in general, and explained in detail to the disciples during our Lords earthly preaching and teaching ministry. Probably (like the gospel writer has it) given as a set of stories told on multiple occasions.
Main point? – again we will pause here and ask you to think. Please do play along with us, this exercise is really helpful in training the mind to look beyond the obvious – Righteous people go to heaven and the wicked get punished in Hell? If that’s what you got, that is almost correct… the final destinations of the wheat and tares are indeed prominently featured here - but there is something that is big and central to the whole parable that you might miss… or not………
Here it is: The wheat and tares are allowed to grow together till the time of the end!
This is the atypical behavior exhibited by the Master of the field that has His servants scratching their heads. The wisdom of the reasoning is apparent and clearly called out – if you uproot the tares while the wheat is still growing – you might injure what is valuable in the process of rooting out the valueless.
This is HUGE! What a key to understanding what we all struggle with – the prosperity of the wicked and a God who appears to be doing nothing about it! Why the wicked enjoy all the benefits of life and this planet just as much as the good do! We can also extend this to understand why Christ’s return is so long in coming – apparently there is still a lot of wheat that He desires to grow between the days of His ministry and His return… but that is going where the parable is not taking us… rather let’s go back and look at it in a little more detail…
We see two Sowers here. One seeding the world with the sons of the kingdom, and the other (the enemy) doing his sowing “while men slept” and then “went his way”.
The enemy works when people are not aware – or are lulled into a sense of false security – “there’s no such thing as the devil, he doesn’t exist!”… oh yes he does. That’s the best trick he has pulled, so that you are not aware of his actions. It’s also very interesting to note that the enemy does not show any ownership or concern for his tares, they are just a means to spite the person who owns the field! Having done his work, he moves on….what a picture we have in just a couple of words!
Two types of people spring up. You may think that they are indistinguishable but they are not – when the wheat begins to grow (bear fruit) the difference between the wheat and the tares is obvious, and indeed, is noticed by the servants.
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. – Matthew 7:15-20
Which brings us to controversy. Are there two types of humans? Sons of God and sons of the Devil? Is that why the Bible is so concerned about genealogies? Is there a race of humans that are secret mutants? This is not a new controversy, and we will take some time to go into this in a little more detail and that will involve looking at Old and New Testaments.
There are a few that hold a (frankly) rather disgusting view that Cain was the son of Satan. Scriptures twisted to cite this are “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.” – 1 John 3:12, “thy seed and her seed” Genesis 3:15. They point out that fallen angels cohabit with earthly women – creating Nephilim/fallen ones… Genesis 6:2, Jude and even this parable! Google Kenite, Seed of the Serpent and you will see arguments for and against this – all we will say is that Genesis 4:1 says - “ And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.” Adam was the daddy of Cain – end of story.
The Nephilim thing is interesting – because we know angels can and do take human form – but we would be willing to argue that most of those science experiments were destroyed in the Flood, and those angels chained (per Jude). Are alien abduction stories repeating that happening all over again?... maybe.. we cannot say for sure.
There is no separate line of Cain that is Satan fathered vis-à-vis line of Seth that is God fathered. We are all His creation – only He can give the Spirit that gives Life! Man was created BETTER (and temporarily inferior) than Angels because he was given a BODY… something that even GOD HIMSELF TOOK ON in the Incarnation, KEPT, and RAISED in the Resurrection – and we get to keep a body when we come to life again! Evil spirits may inhabit our soul, but having a body is a completely unique thing!
It gets more complicated, because we, as Christians, are BORN AGAIN! Those that were not sons are now made sons by the Will of God, by the agency of the Holy Spirit. We know the Jews were the sons of Abraham – yet Christ called out some of them to be the sons of their father the devil – even if they could trace their lineage all the way back to Seth! Even Paul, a Pharisee of Pharisees, had to undergo the new birth before he could inherit the kingdom, let alone us gentiles – that can claim no such direct genealogical descent!
The Answer - Being a true spiritual descendant is by faith, not by biology.
Consider the following verses which speak of spiritual identification. "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God," (Rom. 2:28-29). "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God," (Rom. 8:14)."The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him," (Rom. 8:16-17)."That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants," (Rom. 9:8).
“Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God “ -1 Jn 3:7-9
There is a last valuable lesson here. Tares are to be found everywhere, but especially in church – and you will know them by looking at their fruits! Dealing with them requires wisdom to discern if the actions taken to root them out will impact the decent people there, or if careful surgery can excise them. The enemy’s intent in planting tares is to pollute the field – and if we try wholesale purges, we may well throw the baby out with the bathwater – which is what the strategy is all about! That is why so much of the apostle Paul’s writing is counsel to a growing church – because dealing with this kind of subtlety requires Spiritual discernment and guidance! The battle and enmity are real folks… and the tactics are absolutely topnotch – requiring us to bring our A game!
Which brings us to what we should take away from this parable. Don’t worry about the wicked. You will see their poison (tares were poisonous to humans) all around you (just look at the news!) but they exist only because GOD CARES FOR YOU! That should give you reason to rejoice in and of itself! Rest in the peace that your hatred of sin, and desire for righteousness bears witness that you are a child of God!
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is -born of God- and knows God. (1 Jn 4:7) – Hallelujah!