I found the Parable of the Tares particularly encouraging [Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43]. Sadly some translations will fail to describe what to me is essential in this story. The word “tares” is loosely read “weeds” in some versions which is unfortunate because the actual word speaks to a species of wild grass, darnel, that looks a lot like wheat. It was scattered among the wheat seeds the night after the farmer planted the wheat; so, they germinated and grew together—an important point [Matthew 13:24-25].
A blade of wheat or ryegrass [another word used to describe it] would appear similar. According to Matthew 13:26 it wasn’t until the plants were nearing harvest time that it was evident that this wild grass was inseparably mixed in with the wheat. In Matthew 13:28 the man’s servants wonder if they should go through the field and uproot the wild grass, but the farmer advised against this because it would be impossible to do without disturbing the wheat [Matthew 13:29]. The were told to wait for the harvest.
The farmer in this parable represents Jesus, Himself, [Matthew 13:37] and the seeds according to Matthew 13:38 are you and I, the believers. That was unexpected! In the previous parable of the Sower, the seed was the Word of God. Here it is the Word taking root in our lives! So then, what or who is the wild grass seeds? They are the “children of the evil one” [Matthew 13:38]. The enemy that scattered them among us was the devil [Matthew 13:39]. Can you get the picture?
The Lord’s message to His church is that He will deal with this matter at the harvest, at His return “at the end of the world or the age” [Matthew 13:40]. (Some copyist anxious for Christ’s return—as they should be—added the word “this” [the end of this age). Amen.
How does this encourage me? Foremost, Jesus told us in this parable that we cannot determine who is who is this world until He returns. There are a number of persons who now appear to be children of the evil one but like the thief on the Cross next to Jesus that asked to be remembered, they turn out to be wheat! Jesus is the expert horticulturalist who can recognize darnel or wild grass from wheat while it is still growing.
Speaking of growing, the seeds of such evil that we might identify today were probably planted generations ago. I always thought things were much nicer in gramma’s day—but maybe not. The evil in this world in a real sense has in this age—as in previous ages—we might say—been developing along with the Savior’s ministry. And the encouraging point is that some, prayerfully: many, who now are violent [like Nineveh in Jonah’s time: Jonah 3:8] will repent and turn to the Lord. They will prove to be wheat and we were too quick to tear them from the ground and through them on the fire!
There are some who participate in or associate with the worse of the worse perhaps because they knew no other life or they lacked the advantages you and I had growing up in Sunday School or Catechism. On Golgotha’s Hill that day: there was something about that dying thief’s heart that didn’t match the actions that put him on that Roman cross. I think that he asked Jesus to remember him because this message of the kingdom of God had been circulating in Judea during the time of this thief’s rampage and somehow he knew there had to be something more, something real, about our Savior regardless of how things appeared.
Pray for those who riot and destroy things. Many have been academically poisoned in their thinking, but we pray the day will come that they, too, will be introduced to the “Man on the middle cross.” I am also encouraged knowing that our Lord who knows the heart may yet open many [Acts 16:14].
And be encouraged for the harvest can’t be far away [Luke 21:28].
