Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
Tares among Wheat
²⁴Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
²⁵But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.
²⁶But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
²⁷The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
²⁸And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’
²⁹But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.
³⁰Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”
The Tares Explained
³⁶Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
³⁷And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, ³⁸and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; ³⁹and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.
⁴⁰So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.
⁴¹The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, ⁴²and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
⁴³Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Devotional
The parables of Matthew 13 show something of the Kingdom of Heaven (Or the Kingdom of God, see eg Mark 4:26; Luke 13:18).
The kingdom of heaven corresponds to… yes to what?
You tend to only look at the next word. But a whole parable follows, and the parable as a whole is meant to show something of the Kingdom of Heaven.
There is one who sows good seed.
But his enemy sows weeds in the night.
It is a special kind of weed, the dolik, which looks a lot like grain and is therefore very difficult to distinguish from real grain, especially at the beginning of growth.
Such is the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven.
There is good seed (the children of the kingdom, Matthew 13:38b), but also evil seed (the children of the evil one, Matthew 13:39a). Satan is there like chickens to disrupt the good work of Jesus.
Wherever Christ works, he tries to destroy.
He works cunningly.
Where good seed is sown, he sows his seed like it. There is no difference in the beginning. Only later does it become clear what is real grain and what is weeds.
Although the seed of the devil grows very luxuriantly in the world, the Lord Jesus does not want to intervene prematurely. He is extremely careful. The farmer’s servants are not yet allowed to remove the weeds. Imagine making an error of judgment! Rather, He waits for the harvest. Then the good seed will manifest itself through the fruit (Matthew 13:30, 40-43).
- From this parable we learn that we should not be surprised if there is still a great deal of evil in the world. The world is still waiting for the harvest time.
- We also learn that much that looks like real faith will turn out to be not real (the tares bear no fruit).
- But we also learn that Jesus does not idly watch over his field. He is patient, He waits to reap the greatest possible yield in the harvest.
Then the divorce will take place.
▪︎ He will gather the tares to burn,
▪︎ but the righteous will shine in their Father’s kingdom.
Have patience, evil will disappear from the earth!
Question
- How should we deal with the evil in the world now? (Compare Matthew 6:9,10; 28:18-20.)
Prayer Suggestion
- Pray for God’s help for all who suffer from evil.
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