The Parable of the Weeds in the Field (Mat. 13:24-30, 36-43)
24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
This second parable introduces us to the ambiguous character of the kingdom. It is also in this parable that it becomes clear that Jesus is not talking about some far-off heavenly kingdom
of the future, but rather the church of today because this story of the enemy sowing weeds among the wheat makes no sense in a millennial or heavenly setting. The story closes with the judgment; also indicating it is not set in the future kingdom. On both counts, it is clear that when Jesus speaks of the kingdom he is talking about what the Epistle writers came to call the Body of Christ and what we know today as the Church.
Jesus also offers an interpretation of this second parable, which can be found in verses 36-43:
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
Before we consider this parable I want to return to the previous Parable of the Sower (Mt. 13:1-9-18-23). In the explanation I called it a Parable of Time and even a Parable of Prodigal Time. But there’s another facet to that parable which is significant in relation to this Parable of the Weeds in the Field. The Parable of the Sower describes several enemies of the Kingdom of Heaven. Of course, the evil one himself (v. 19) is the most obvious enemy, but Jesus also mentions “trouble and persecution” (v. 21), which can lead a person to fall away. Some of the enemies are not ominous at all. Family, work, taking care of the lawn, helping when disaster hits the community. All of these can become the enemy of the kingdom if we allow them to become “the cares of this world.” Like weeds creeping into the field from the roadside, these “cares of the world,” along with the “lure of wealth” (v. 22) can choke out the word of the kingdom.
But not all enemies are external to the kingdom. There are other weeds which get sown within the kingdom itself. Until these weeds are mature it is difficult to differentiate them from the good seed. Jesus said there would be hypocrites in the church, except, rather than “hypocrites,” he calls them “children of the evil one.” These are the enemies of God within the gates. But as true as this may be, rooting out the enemies of God is not the point of this parable. This parable takes judgment very seriously, but in this serious and foreboding context, we hear the wonderful message of grace.
Again in this parable we come face to face with the mystery of time. While we may be in a hurry to make things right, God seems to have time on his hands. God seems not to worry about the purity of his kingdom. We are to wait. God is confident that the children of the evil one cannot seduce the children of God, or in other words, that weeds are completely incapable of transforming wheat into weeds. We are to wait. Let them mature together. And then in the end – after the passage of time – when there will be no confusion which is which, the wheat will be separated to the harvest and the weeds will be burned in judgment.
One of the curiosities of human sensibilities is that we often assume, given enough time, our commitment will fail and we will fall away from God. (At least it has been my experience both as a pastor and in my reading that this is what we assume will happen.) Our life experience tells us that relationships naturally decay. We dare not trust the permanence of our commitment.
But one can only come to this conclusion when thinking about the church from the side of fallen humans who are spiritually dead in their sins. Christ gives us new life. This relationship with God does not grow out of death, it grows out of life. There is an immutable difference between wheat and weeds. Wheat in the midst of weeds will not become a weed merely because weeds are growing side by side with it. There is therefore no reason to assume that, given enough time, our life in Christ will wither and fade like the grass.
Authentic kingdom thinking (as presented in this parable) is that when we enter into the kingdom (or, when we become Christians, to use more contemporary terminology) there is no need to fear falling away or losing our salvation or rejecting Christ, because the very nature of new, divine life is that it is not only persistent but permanent. It is the weeds that reveal themselves to be weeds. The children of the evil one will dry up and fall away. Their pretense of being followers of God (when they are, in truth, servants of themselves) will eventually be shown for what it is.
In this parable we discover that true life – kingdom life – is so durable that God can afford to be graciously and even prodigally patient, waiting until the very end (the harvest) before separating out the children of God from the children of the evil one. The children of the evil one can’t draw members of the kingdom away any more than weeds can turn a wheat stem into a weed.
The good and merciful kingdom exists in a world that is at enmity with God. This is the first parable. The gracious kingdom seemingly includes the children of God and the children of the evil one, so that it also appears (until the final judgment) that the world-at-enmity-with-God exists within God’s kingdom itself. This is the second parable. From an earthly perspective there seems to be overlap between righteous and unrighteous because (1) God doesn’t want to miss anyone that ought to be there, so the word of the kingdom is spread in a profligate manner, without thought to limits or propriety, and because (2) the reality of new life in Christ is so durable and sure that the real and the false can exist side by side until the final judgment with no fear of wheat transmogrifying into weeds and being lost to the kingdom.
This expansive and durable character of the kingdom is the good news of the Gospel.
