Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field

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 13:36-43

Similarly to Jesus' discussion of the Parable of the Sower, this parable - of the Wheat and the Tares - appears in two sequences. First we are given the parable as preached to the crowds ("the multitude"), and then we are given Jesus' private explanation to his disciples, after he "sent the multitude away and went into the house." For the readings of the Parable of the Sower, see Why do you speak to them in parables? and Therefore hear the parable of the sower. For the first part of this discussion of the parable of the Wheat and the Tares, as Jesus preached the parable to the crowds, see The Wheat and the Tares. As with the parable of the Sower, the parable of the Wheat and the Tares was also accompanied by Jesus' explanation about parables and their usage, in yesterday's reading, Things kept secret from the foundation of the world. There is an interesting pattern of "doubling" in Matthew's gospel, not only with this pattern of the parables, but also in stories that appear in other synoptic gospels: the Gergesene demoniac, for example, appears as two men healed in Matthew's gospel.

In The Wheat and the Tares, I shared a note from my study bible that also applies to today's reading, Jesus' explanation. I'll repeat again, with an added note that applies to this section: "The parable of the wheat and tares builds on the previous parable of the sower. Here Christ gives attention to the work of the enemy, the devil, who comes to sow his own seed after the fruits have multiplied. Falsehood comes in after truth: after the prophets came false prophets; after Christ will come the Antichrist. The devil fashions falsehood and heresy to resemble the true Faith: the weeds look somewhat like the wheat. The evil one also comes while everybody is asleep. While the devices of the evil one do not extend into heaven, in this age he intermingles the counterfeit with the Kingdom. This parable explains why the Church does not expel her nominal members. To weed out the tares is to disrupt the wheat. Those who are watchful and remain faithful will shine forth as the sun (v. 43, above) forever."

It's important that we understand the concept of "watchfulness" as noted about the last verse (above, in the note from my study bible). We are to be awake, not asleep. We are not blind followers, but those for whom "the law is written on our hearts" as in Jeremiah 31:33: "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." We are responsible to learn discernment, to be watchful. In this picture of the Wheat and the Tares, in which the tares (a kind of ryegrass which closely resembles wheat) seem to be like the wheat, we are challenged to discernment, to understand from the heart what we are to follow, and what snares we may be tempted toward that we wish to avoid. This is the picture that Jesus gives us.

The judgment is at the end of the age. We are not to practice that judgment - it is beyond us to understand. That is up to the Son of Man, and his angels, the reapers. Jesus clearly refers to himself here as judge - the Son of Man is a messianic title from the book of Daniel. Jesus tells us that at this time of the judgment, "then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." It seems to me that this, therefore, will be a time when discernment is easy, the time of trial and confusion is over -- and it will be obvious which "sons" are truly sons of the Father. But until that time, we are in the here and now of the current age. We are all in this together, and we are in a time where there is yet time, in which the whole process expressed through the parable of the Sower: where some seed takes root, some is choked by the cares of the world, some taken by difficulty and tribulation, and some is never understood at all, is still happening around us and with us. This is our life, our current state. We are meant to be those who persevere in righteousness.

Christ makes it clear here that he knew perfectly well what kind of world we live in, now or then. Life isn't always easy, and we live side by side with the myriad ways there are of interpreting these words. We live with those who appear outwardly righteous and are not - as he warned many times in his own gospel message, preaching against the hypocrites, and those who are "wolves in sheep's clothing," whom he also said would come in his name. We live in a world where all is not black and white, where the unrighteous may resemble the righteous. We live in a world where the righteous were treated as criminals, and the one who calls himself Son of Man here was crucified. We are to be awake, and we need discernment, and perseverance. It is at the end of the age when "the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." But not in the present time; in the present time, we persevere, we cultivate the laws written on the heart and in our minds, we seek to understand and to grow the good growth of the seed of the kingdom. This is our job now.

Many people find it distasteful and frightening to speak of judgment. Certainly these passages have been misused, and by those whom he called "wolves in sheep's clothing." But to have an awareness of the importance of discernment, wakefulness, is extremely important. To have an awareness of judgment in the sense in which our choices are important means that we are not blind sheep, but rational sheep. We have responsibility. As human beings, we are not blind creatures without choice, but upon us is conferred the choice of what sort of world we wish to live in, what sort of world we create. Do we follow the Father who is love? Or do we seek "the enemy" which sows hardship, cruelty, hypocrisy? These are the questions we ask ourselves and to which this parable points. They are questions written on our own hearts, for each of us to choose and to seek to understand for ourselves, so that we make our choices. God who is love also sends a fire of love which is cleansing, to cleanse each of us - as in the fire of the burning bush, which burned with fire but was not consumed. The saints throughout history have written about this burning fire as a fire of love. The apostles on the way to Emmaus spoke of how their "hearts were burning" as Christ opened the Scriptures to them. It is also that fire of love that teaches us what needs to go, which ways we need to change and what things we need to discard from our hearts and minds, so that we are healed. I think of this fire as that fire of love with which the angel burned in the midst of the bush. It is a holy fire. And hence, we make our choices: do we choose that which does not burn but lives in the fire - or that which perishes in the fire? It is up to us. God is love - and the very nature of judgment, therefore, is love. It is up to us to choose that love as part of ourselves and our identity. In this way we will be the righteous, those who shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.