A ‘parable’ is a story that Jesus told to illustrate a spiritual truth. We have the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24-30.
Jesus taught His disciples that 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 then went his way.
The ‘tares’ are also called ‘darnel’, the most common being the ‘bearded darnel’, a poisonous grass almost indistinguishable from wheat until it reaches maturity. In Eastern Lands, it was pulled up at harvest time.
In this parable, the servants asked the owner of the field how the tares came to be in his field. He replied, “An enemy has done this”. He then told them to let the tares grow together with the wheat until harvest, lest in pulling up the tares some of the wheat would also be pulled up. At harvest the reapers would be instructed to bind the tares into bundles to be burned, but the wheat would be gathered into his barn.
Later, the disciples asked Jesus to explain to them the meaning of this parable. Here in full is what He said:
“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 13:36 – 43).
Today the enemy, the devil through his agents, is sowing wrong teaching on many fronts. One of the main ones is evolution, denying God as the Creator of all things. Another major one taught by many cults and false religions is denying that Jesus is Lord. Some teach He was an angel, a prophet or a good man, but they will not accept that He is really the Son of God, or that “God was manifested in flesh” (read 1 Timothy 3:16).
They deny that God’s power came upon a virgin girl called Mary, and that she conceived as a result, and that her child was the Son of God (read Luke 1:26-38). They deny His sinless humanity and sin atoning sacrifice so that we can have forgiveness. So they deny “…that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19).
They also deny God’s mighty power in raising Him the third day from among the dead, and that He is enthroned in heaven! But what does the Bible say:
“What is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:19-20).
The key to eternal life is in ‘believing’; but not just anything or everything, but in carefully reading the Bible and its teaching. It says,
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31).
Written: Albert Fairweather
“Parables of Jesus” Series
Photo: Tom Wells