“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed…..his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat…” Matthew 13:24

“The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?'”  Matthew 13:28

“But he said, ‘No lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.”  Matthew 13:29

This parable comes amongst the most powerful of Jesus’ teachings and when He first starts to use parables in His ministry.  Jesus has cast out a demon and been accused by the Pharisees of being the prince of demons.  Jesus rebukes them for their thoughts speaking of the fall of a house divided.  Jesus teaches His first parable: The Parable of the Four Soils.  Next, He tells this parable about the tares.

I must admit, having felt such power in the parable and explanation of the four soils, in essence explaining how it is that The Word does not resonate with, does not live within each person equally, that I’ve often overlooked the message of power and mercy in this second parable concerning the tares or weeds.  It had always been for me like:  “Yeah, Yeah, wheat good, weeds bad, wheat ends up in heaven and burn the weeds; got it, moving on.

Yet thanks to Holy Spirit as I was reading the parable again, the true impact of the overwhelming mercy and power came upon me.  First, we understand that God is the sower of the good seed.  Nothing from God can be evil, thus the only thing that can come from Him are seeds that will produce good.

Next, there is evil and an enemy who does evil.  In fact nothing good comes from this enemy.  The only thing the enemy sows is tares or weeds.  Looking into various definitions of the word tares, it appears that this is not just some random dandelion or crab grass; this is a very noxious and poisonous weed which actually looks extremely similar to wheat until it is full grown and you can see the head on it.

So God plants in the world and Satan plants along side.  Wheat comes up from God and tares come up from Satan.  Over time it becomes apparent that not all is right in the field.  There is something else besides wheat growing out there, something that can be distinguished as bad, as weeds.

This where it gets real interesting.  For the way the world would handle it as demonstrated by the servants is to go out and yank out the weeds, the tares.  Remembering that the wheat is growing side by side with the tares, that their roots are probably interwoven together, that taring out the weeds would cause the loss to some wheat.  I was in the military and within each one of our operational plans was an aspect of what we would term “acceptable losses”.  We knew that in doing battle with the enemy, we would more than likely suffer some casualties and as long as the mission was accomplished without completely decimating our forces, those casualties would be acceptable.  That’s how the world would handle the few stalks of wheat, sacrificed for the defeat of the horrible enemy, the weeds.  But God is not the world and does not see acceptable losses in that way.

God is so merciful that He is not willing that one stalk of wheat be lost no matter how many stalks of weeds would be destroyed.  No, God is patient.  He will nurture the wheat and if that means that the tares will also exist for a time, so be it.  The tares will not destroy the wheat.

God is also all powerful.  Notice who is doing the harvesting, God is.  It’s not like Satan comes back to do battle to protect the tares.  No the parable states very clearly, Satan sows the bad seed and then gets the heck out of Dodge.  So God in His Power harvests all.  Remember in His Mercy, He did not allow one stalk of wheat to be uprooted before the allotted time of the harvest.  Now God’s final power is witnessed.  The wheat, the good, are bundled together and brought into the kingdom “into My barn”.  The tares, the weeds are gathered together and burned outside.

Dear Sisters and Brothers, we may often find ourselves dismayed by the evil in this world.  We get asked so often, and in our weaker moments may find ourselves asking as well:  “Where is God in all the evil that is happening?  Why is He allowing it?”  This parable cautions us not to doubt or question.  God is watching out for each and every one of us.  He is not willing to sacrifice even one of us to destroy that evil that is residing amongst us. Yet He is in ultimate control.  He will deal righteously and permanently with evil.  He will spare nothing, to protect until that time as well.

In the end the most amazingly merciful part is what He is willing to sacrifice that we might count ourselves among the wheat instead of the tares.  You see He is not willing to sacrifice us, who are deserving by our sins to be counted amongst the tares.  Instead, He has healed us, transformed us into wheat because He was willing to sacrifice His Only Son that He might not lose a single one of us who call upon the Name of Jesus Christ.

Yes there is much power and mercy in this parable.  There is a call for us to be patient, a call to leave the judgement of time and harvest to God.  To understand the power of God to rightly judge between the good -wheat and the evil-tares.  Finally, there is the mercy which so great that it cost the life of His Only Son, Jesus Christ, which desires that each and every one of us who call upon His name would be counted among the wheat.

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the coming to earth, the teaching and the sacrifice of Your Son Jesus Christ.  We are also so very thankful for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who reveals to us Your Wisdom, Your Power, Your Mercy. Forgive us we pray, when we are impatient and want to take judgement and action into our own hands.  Keep us we pray, from the evil one, allowing us, by the blood of Your Son Jesus Christ, to be counted among the good seed, the wheat, that we might be brought into Your dwelling.  We pray this in the Name of He who brought us these great teachings; Jesus Christ.  Amen