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 read that Jesus taught another parable to the multitude, saying:  "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!"  Here is Jesus' own interpretation given to His disciples in their "headquarters" (Peter's family home in Capernaum) for the parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Friday's reading).  

 We note the growth of the seed, the word, into the good wheat.  This gives us some idea of the action of the word of the Son of Man, how it works in us.  As shown in the parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven (above, from Saturday's reading), its effect is growth and transformation, a type of change that affects our substance.  So much so, that Jesus calls the good seeds in the parable the sons of the kingdom.   Sonship not only indicates children, those who belong to a particular household or family (in this case, the family of the kingdom),  but also those who will inherit.  The sons of the wicked one are those who grow in the word of falsehood, suggesting to us that seeds are planted that are misleading, half-truths, meant to resemble truth but missing the mark.  It tells us of the extreme need to be diligent in discernment, and to care passionately about what is true and what is not.  There is a commitment implied here, and not found only in this dimension of faith but also in various examples in Scripture, that tells us that what we choose to make part of our lives becomes a part of ourselves.   We are made for a sort of  connectivity with our world, with ideas, with others -- and so what "connection" we choose becomes as important as who we are ourselves.  The Kingdom invites us to participate in it, becoming its sons (for we all inherit, male and female), but so does that which is not the Kingdom.  We don't remain neutral by denying that we need discernment, because we will always make choices.  This is simply the nature of life itself, the field in which we live.  We are thinking, rational sheep.  That is, we have been given the gift of consciousness.  To be sleeping is to be apathetic, to not care, and to not use the gift we've been given.  It means that we will lose what we have (25:29).  Jesus gives us other examples of those who do nothing with their gifts, and fail by remaining in that "neutral" place (see, for example, the parable of the Talents).  To love and desire truth is perhaps our greatest asset.  This desire within us keeps us loyal to Creator and author of truth, and is so much more than a cold rationality, but demands of us a deeper kind of perception.  St. Basil, commenting on Genesis 1:1, teaches:  "It is He, beneficent Nature, Goodness without measure, a worthy object of love for all beings endowed with reason, the beauty the most to be desired, the origin of all that exists, the source of life, intellectual light, impenetrable wisdom, it is He who 'in the beginning created heaven and earth.'"  The seed of the good word of the Son of Man associates and seeks to unite us with Creator, a sacramental return to this origin, an alliance which leads to sonship in the Kingdom.  The real choice for the love of these good things, of beauty and truth, is in the heart.  It's there that we find the desire for more to life than what we find apart from God's love.