Gathering Tares from Wheat, in the stony Fields of Bethel, Palestine (looking south).
“In the harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.’” [Matthew 13:30, WEB]
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
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OBSERVE:
Jesus tells another parable of the Kingdom of Heaven using an agricultural metaphor. The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a farmer who sows good seed in his field.
But, as with most good stories, a conflict is introduced, as well as an antagonist — a bad guy:
while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away. But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.
Darnel is a weed that looks uncannily like wheat until it is fully grown. Only then can it be clearly differentiated by sight.
In the days before crop-dusters and herbicides and farm machinery, the servants offered to go through the field and pull all the weeds by hand. But the farmer says no, because of the risk of pulling up the wheat as well. His plan counsels patience — let the wheat and weeds grow up together until harvest, then they will be sorted, with the weeds bundled and burned, and the wheat gathered into the barn.
In the following verses, (31-35, which are not included in today’s lectionary Gospel reading), Jesus tells two parables, and then explains why he tells parables for his instruction. The two parables compare the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven to a tiny grain of mustard seed and a small bit of yeast. These are both slow-growing and yet have a great impact when they grow to maturity. The grain of mustard seed becomes a larger tree, and the little bit of yeast permeates and leavens up to three measures of meal (about 3.9 liters or a little more than a bushel).
And Matthew, the narrator of this account, reminds us that Jesus tells all these things in parables in part to fulfill the Scripture from Psalm 78:2:
I will open my mouth in parables;
I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.
When Jesus has finished speaking, he returns to the house where he’s staying in Capernaum. Now, the advantage of a disciple becomes apparent. Those who stay close to him can ask questions:
His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field.”
So Jesus interprets the parable to them. Again, it does seem to have allegorical qualities in that the different figures represent specific spiritual applications.
- He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, i.e., Jesus himself.
- The field is the world.
- The good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom.
- The darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. Are these the demons, or humans who reject the Son of Man?
- The enemy who sowed them is the devil.
- The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
Ultimately, what Jesus is describing is the difference between the present time and the eschatological end of the age. Jesus is saying that the farmer/Son of Man doesn’t bring judgment prematurely. The good and the evil are permitted to coexist until the end of this age.
At that time the angels will go out into the world and will:
gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
This is a stark description of Judgment, and part of the source for our impression of hell as a fiery furnace, where the damned wail eternally. In contrast:
the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.
Jesus concludes this teaching to his disciples by exhorting them:
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
In other words, Jesus has explained his teaching as carefully and clearly to his disciples as he possibly can. Now, it is up to his disciples to hear and apply his words to their own lives.
APPLY:
On its surface, the scene that Jesus describes of judgment is worthy of Jonathan Edwards. Jesus describes the time of harvest as the end of the age, when the angels:
will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
Rev. Edward’s sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (published July 8, 1741), uses far more lurid language:
The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his Wrath towards you burns like Fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the Fire; he is of purer Eyes than to bear to have you in his Sight; you are ten thousand Times so abominable in his Eyes as the most hateful venomous Serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn Rebel did his Prince: and yet ‘tis nothing but his Hand that holds you from falling into the Fire every Moment.
[from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.]
However, Edward’s depiction leaves out several important details. He neglects to mention the patience that Jesus’ parable suggests. The Son of Man is in no rush to separate the wheat from the weeds. Part of that patience is because he is aware that attempting to separate wheat from weeds would likely result in doing more harm than good to the wheat itself.
But there is another reason for this patience. Jesus began his ministry by calling for repentance (Matthew 4:17). And when Jesus is criticized by the “righteous” of his day — the scribes and Pharisees — for his tendency to fellowship with “sinners,” Jesus says this:
Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:12-13).
It seems that in his parable of the wheat and the weeds, the purpose of Jesus isn’t so much to terrify as to warn the sinners, and describe God’s patient love. He doesn’t burn the field, or tear it up, but waits until the end of the age. Is this in order to give the weeds time and opportunity to repent? I hope so.
RESPOND:
Years ago I read a novel called The Damnation of Theron Ware. It is the story of a young, promising 19th century Methodist preacher who finds that his own understanding of the faith is somewhat shallow — but when he begins to discover a wider world of culture and intellect, it shakes his spiritual and moral foundations.
When he finds his faith wandering, and even his marriage in trouble, he flails helplessly and yet finds it difficult to admit his own mistakes. In one scene, though, he confides to a more experienced travelling evangelist, a woman named Sister Soulsby, who is far wiser than the young Theron Ware. He tells her that he is considering something dramatic — leaving the ministry. At this time, she believes that there is still hope for him, and she tells him not to breathe a word of that thought to anyone. She counsels him to be aware of those around him, fulfill his obligations, and keep his more dangerous thoughts to himself — in a word, be wiser than he has been hitherto. And then she says this when he casts doubt on the Christian doctrine that he has been charged with preaching:
“See here!” she exclaimed, with renewed animation, patting his shoulder in a brisk, automatic way, to point the beginning of her confidences: “I’ll tell you something. It’s about myself. I’ve got a religion of my own, and it’s got just one plank in it, and that is that the time to separate the sheep from the goats is on Judgment Day, and that it can’t be done a minute before.”
What she seems to believe is that Theron Ware is still developing, and it is premature to make a pronouncement of judgment until the end.
This is an important lesson to us. It explains why good and evil coexist. Because of God’s infinite patience, he delays judgment. This is certainly the view of the Apostle Peter. When he speaks of the inevitability of the coming of the end of the age, he says this:
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
The delay of the end of the age is for our benefit, and the benefit of those we love and those with whom we share the Gospel. We are all to repent while there is still time.
Lord, sometimes it is difficult to understand why good and evil coexist in your world. The devil and his minions seem to be robustly at work in our world. But then you help me realize that you are infinitely patient, and that some of those who are now weeds might well become wheat before the Harvest at the end of time. Help me to do what I can to bring in the good harvest. Amen.
PHOTOS: "Gathering Tares from Wheat, in the stony Fields of Bethel, Palestine (looking south)" by Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, UofT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.
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