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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
Jesus' ministry has entered the phase in which He has begun to speak in parables to the crowds. This began in our readings with last Tuesday's reading, in which Jesus told the parable of the Sower. In Wednesday's reading, Jesus explained the purpose of teaching via parables, after His disciples asked, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" Thursday, He explained the meaning of the parable of the Sower (Therefore hear the parable of the sower) to His disciples. On Friday, we read that Jesus gave a new parable, that of the wheat and the tares, or weeds, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field." On Saturday, we read yet more parables given by Jesus: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches." Another parable He spoke to them: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened." All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world." Today's reading contains the explanation for the parable told in Friday's, that of the Wheat and the Tares.
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." Once again we notice the private explanation, and the publicly told parable. The disciples aren't perfect in their understanding, but the desire to know, to learn from the Teacher, is there, in their hearts. It is this response to which the mystery in the parables calls.
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!" Again, for the original parable, see Friday's reading. Jesus introduces a powerful teaching here regarding the end of the age, on Judgment. It is in the shadow of what comes at the end of the age that the Son of Man comes sowing the good seed. It's an indication of a powerful choice put before us, a choice that digs down into each of our lives and is seemingly contained in each moment. It forms and shapes a path, a kind of awareness of what we must be about. In a way, the consciousness of Judgment becomes a teaching tool for the many dimensions of our lives that come into play here. We might ask, why is Jesus in the world, as Incarnate Son? Why at this time should He sow this "good seed?" The end of the age, and the time of judgment, not even He knows. But His coming into the world, His preaching, and the prophesy of the end of the age are all tied together. It sounds a note to us about our choices and their importance, and that we take our lives and the power of choice seriously. The parable teaches us that we all grow side-by-side, that our inner lives are hidden and really known only to God who is the true judge. Judgment is left to God, and not to us. The emphasis again becomes therefore placed on the only thing we really have any jurisdiction over: our own choices and how they contribute to the state of the world around us. Do we take in the seed of the word He sows? We don't have to understand perfectly. Like the disciples we may need all kinds of explanations. It may take a long time before we understand anything. But the desire for the good seed, the endurance in the word -- that which can bear the difficulties, the sophistries, the temptations, even the "deceitfulness of riches" (as Jesus put it when He explained the parable of the Sower) -- it is this desire in the heart He really seeks, our capacity for a strong rootedness. It all comes down to what we love, what we treasure, what we cherish. Life will always ask us to make that choice. And love is the greatest mystery of the Kingdom, perhaps its greatest treasure, the strong root we really need.
