Wheat and Tare

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

WHEAT AND TARES

Matt 13:24-30

24 Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 "The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 28 "'An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' 29 "'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'" 

NIV

This is not as plain as the preceding parable, however, Jesus does explain it after telling another parable. Yet the truth is available even without His explanation. The world is the field and the gospel is the good seed that is sown. There is no question that we are the wheat or at least we should be the wheat. There is also this enemy who comes in the night, and we know who that is and he sows tares, or a false gospel. In real life, wheat and tares look very much alike but they are far from being the same.

this image shows us how closely they look alike, but the tares represent, in this parable, false doctrines, even false notions of piety, but by presenting his deceptive religion, even deceiving some of the elect. There are churches filled with the deceived, thinking themselves to be wheat, but instead, they are the tares. We are blessed not to be in one of those places with those silver-tongued purveyors of false doctrines. However, there can be a problem, even among the best-intended church, blessed with a great pastor, who preaches the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. Even in a church, there can be some tares. However, Jesus is making more of a comparison of those whose seed is sown and becomes wheat, seeing them as the sons of the kingdom of God, while the tares are the people who please themselves doing evil, those who refuse Jesus but are influenced and deceived by Satan. At the end of the age, Jesus will separate the wheat from the tares and the tares will be cast into the lake of burning sulfur. He could harvest all those tares, those who do evil right now, but that may do damage to the church. Still, because the tares look so much like wheat, we have to believe the physical Christian church might well have tares in it. Those who look like a Christian may even speak a little like a Christian, but are not living in the purity of the gospel and have been deceived into looking to the rules and regulations and good deeds as emblems of their faith. They must be allowed to mingle with the wheat, and maybe, not knowing if it is possible, become wheat. All things are possible with God. We know how blessed we have been exposed to those silver-tongued preachers, and seeing them for who and what they are, rejecting their form of religion because we already had seen the Light of the world.