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

On Saturday, we were given two more parables in Christ's preaching.  Chapter 13 of Matthew's Gospel is one in which Jesus begins this practice of preaching in parables, and He gives us His reasons for it.  He taught:   "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."

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!"  Again, as with the parable of the Sower, Jesus preaches in parables to the big crowds, and when He is with the disciples, He explains their meanings.   In Friday's reading and commentary, we went over the parable of the Wheat and the Tares and discussed its implications.  Here, Jesus elaborates Himself -- this parable is about the end of the age.  It's also a picture of the time in which we live, the age inaugurated by the Incarnation.  Jesus' seeds have been sown, but coming soon after is the "enemy."  There are many images offered of just what the Antichrist is, but what we can note from this passage is that the spirit of the Antichrist is linked to the devil.  Again we note that the tares are weeds that closely resemble the wheat; it's hard to tell the plants apart.  So it is with falsehoods, with sophistries:  things that sound good but are misleading.  Jesus' focus to His disciples in explaining the parable is about the Judgment, the end of the age, the separation of all that follows one way, from the other.

 Jesus speaks of "those who practice lawlessness."  Let us remember Jesus' time and place.  "Lawlessness" is given in the context that includes the whole history of  Jewish Scripture, the Law of Moses.  But always, there is a deeper context to "law" for Jesus than the literal laws of Moses, and certainly more than the traditions of the elders, to which the Pharisees hold so strictly.  There is the law written on the heart, also spoken of in the ancient Scriptures and given to us by the prophets.  See, for example, Jeremiah 31:33, which teaches about a new covenant:  "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people"  (NKJV).  Lawlessness, then, becomes the province of those who cannot worship in spirit and and in truth,  without this law in their minds and hearts.  Again, as Jesus repeats over and over again, reflecting the words of another prophet, Isaiah, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  These are the spiritual eyes and ears of the "heart," so to speak, the true center of a person, where spiritual perception takes place in the intersection of spirit, soul, mind, and strength.  How we perceive becomes so important in this context.  It's all connected to the heart, which in Scriptural language is the true place we receive understanding, the word, these seeds of Christ who is the Sower.  Isaiah (in the same verse above, Isaiah 6:10) speaks of hearts grown dull, also quoted by St. Paul in Acts 28:27.  This word for what has happened to the hearts of these people is variously translated as "calloused," "stupid," "hard," "dull."   In both the Greek and the Hebrew, the word is "fattened," meaning thickened, coarse, hardened -- indicating an inability to perceive.  Psalm 119:60 sums up Jesus' juxtaposition of the lawless with those who can perceive:  "Their heart is covered with fat, but I delight in your law."   So those who perceive or care about such law, and those who do not, live side by side in the time in which we live now.  We grow together.  Jesus places Judgment solely in His own hands, those of the Son of Man, and His angels whom He will send out.  In the meantime, we all grow together.  How is the seed planted?  How do we provide good soil in the heart?  Jesus will speak of the greatest commandment as that which teaches we are to love God with all the heart and soul and mind and strength (and the second one, like it:  to love one's neighbor as oneself).  Let us think about how what we love and nurture in the heart is ultimately related to how we perceive and who we become -- the love of God linking those who would be "neighbors," like the good plants in the field.  All is linked to what we do with our hearts, how we nurture the love of God so that we grow in that love, and most importantly, how we are open to that love and wisdom God will plant.  A hardened heart, waxed with fat, is one that cannot receive and cannot feel.  To whom does our heart respond?