Wheat and Tares

The wheat grows in the midst of the tares, but the tares will not choke it.  Man is called to battle against evil, to fight for his own spiritual survival, uprooting the seeds of evil not in the people surrounding him, but first and foremost in himself.

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.4 - The Parables of Jesus, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Matthew 13: 24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

This parable of wheat and tares (or weeds) follows immediately after the parable of the sower.  Many similar images are employed: seeds, a sower, the field or soil, and plants from seeds.  While the images are similar, the focal point of this parable leads to a different theme.  It is the first parable of six in a row (in Matthew) that begins with some version of “the kingdom of heaven is like…”.

In the previous parable, there was one sower, who sowed only good seed.  The issue was the condition of the soil on which the seed landed.  Here, we have two sowers, one sowing good seed, the other bad.  The two types of plants grow together – and are left to grow together – culminating in a harvest of distinction.

Jesus offers an interpretation of this parable: the sower of good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the tares are the children of the wicked one – the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the harvesters are the angels. 

The word for the tares in Greek is a term that indicates a type of weed that can hinder a good harvest.  The plant that grows looks like wheat superficially, but contains substances that can be poisonous to man.

The external similarity between these two plants forces us to recognize that evil is always a counterfeit of the good, and the devil always mimics God. … In the mouth of the devil, evil masks itself as good, just as the tares mask themselves as wheat.

John Chrysostom comments on the order of the sowing – the man who sowed tares came after the man who sowed good seed.  False prophets come after true prophets; false apostles after true apostles; the antichrist after Christ.  He writes:

Many of the prelates, I mean, bringing into the churches wicked men, disguised heresiarchs, gave great facility to the laying of that kind of snare.  For the devil needs not even to take any trouble, when he has once planted them among us. … For at the beginning they disguise themselves, but when they have gained much confidence, and someone imparts to them the teaching of the word, then they pour out their poison.

Chrysostom saw in this parable the idea that heretics should not be killed.  Jesus did not have the tares taken out prematurely; their time would come in the end:

And this he said, to hinder wars from arising, and blood and slaughter.  For it is not right to put a heretic to death, since an implacable war would be brought into the world.

This war would harm the wheat just as much as it would harm the tares.  Chrysostom continues:

I bid you wait for the proper season. …if you are to take up arms, and to kill the heretics, many of the saints must also needs be overthrown with them; or that of the very tares it is likely that many may change and become wheat. 

As noted, the field is the world – the field is not limited to Israel.  We know later that Jesus commissions His disciples to go into all the world.  Even early on in His ministry, this was the vision. 

…the representatives of Israel are the sons of the kingdom by birth and calling, but not by the way they responded to that call.  After Israel failed to meet God’s expectations, the sons of the kingdom became determined not by birth, but by faith.

In fact, the sons of the evil one would be identified by Jesus as the scribes and Pharisees – the representatives of Israel:

John 8: 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

In this parable, Jesus preaches of a universal judgment – a judgment of the whole world at the end of the age, a separation of the righteous from those who commit iniquity. 

The idea of the separation of the righteous from the others is a central theme of Jesus’ teaching concerning the dread judgment…

Finally, we are reminded that the devil is at work just as God is – both working at the same time, sowing their seeds. 

Conclusion

Well, what is God waiting for?  We see all around us the unrighteous, and the harm to the righteous.  This speaks, first of all, to the patience of God.

Ezekiel 33: 10 “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ 11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

While the sinner lives, he may repent.

2 Peter 3: 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Man shouldn’t assume the role of judge, of who is wheat and who is tares.  It isn’t our place, nor do we know God’s plan.

…it is sometimes difficult to tell which plant is which.  It is even more difficult while weeding out the one, to avoid harming the other.

The wheat will grow in the midst of the tares, and the tares will not harm the wheat.  In this we might see the most important lesson: if we are wheat – if our faith and hope is in Christ – the tares, no matter how prevalent, cannot harm us.

Ultimately, we have enough to do to pull the tares out from ourselves….