The Parable of the Tares of the Field
Matthew 13:24-30
October 2, 2011
As you know we are presently in the midst of
Exploring the Kingdom of Heaven.
Matthew 13 is a chapter of 8 parables,
All meant to further explain the realities of the kingdom of heaven.
We also know that these parables were given
To explain the kingdom to those who are a part of it.
In fact, Jesus spoke it in parables to purposely disguise the truths
From those who are outside the kingdom.
(It is His own secret code – if you will)
Jesus actually saying in verse 11, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.”
So Jesus is explaining the mystery of the kingdom of heaven,
And He is doing so in a way
That only those who are in the kingdom can understand.
That means that we count it privilege to have this insight.
We are blessed for knowing these things.
In fact Jesus said to the 12 in verse 16-17, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.”
Let that sink in for a moment.
The very truths we are about to study are truths that the saints of old
Desperately wanted to know, and yet they never did.
1 Peter 1:10-12 “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.”
Not only did the righteous men of old want to know it and yet never did,
These are the truths that hold angels captive.
Let me put it to you another way.
When Jesus started teaching these parables and truths of the kingdom,
All heaven went silent, and angels pressed their faces against the glass
These truths are absolutely priceless.
This information is most sought after information of all history,
And very few have ever been granted to understand it.
That puts us in privileged and elite company this morning.
Jesus is explaining the mysteries surrounding the kingdom of heaven.
We have already had one of those mysteries explained.
If you wanted to state the mystery, I suppose it would have been something like this:
WHY DO ONLY SOME [and not all] WHO HAVE THE GOSPEL
PREACHED TO THEM ACTUALLY ENTER THE KINGDOM?
The answer Jesus gave: THEIR HEART IS BAD
It isn’t the fault of the sower, it isn’t the fault of the seed.
Some hearts are too hard to even understand the gospel.
Some hearts are too shallow to fully grasp the gospel.
Some hearts are too weedy to even take the gospel.
So those who go out and sow the seed, mustn’t get discouraged, it is not their fault when people don’t respond, it is simply the result of bad hearts.
This morning we get to parable number two.
Often called “The parable of the wheat and the tares”,
But that is a little inaccurate.
Matthew 13:36 calls it “The parable of the tares of the field”
For this parable really isn’t about the wheat at all.
This parable is all about the tares.
And if you want to know the mystery we are dealing with here, it is this.
WHY ARE THERE TARES, AND WHY DO THEY REMAIN?
Put more clearly.
WHY ARE THERE NON-BELIEVERS, AND WHY DOES GOD LET THEM HANG AROUND?
Perhaps you’ve wondered something similar to that before.
• Today they tell us that Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion.
• There are more false than you or I can even name.
Unbelief is everywhere.
That is troubling to us.
But even more troubling is the fact that God seems to let it remain.
WHY DOESN’T HE JUST SQUASH ISLAM RIGHT NOW?
Those are puzzling questions.
Jesus gives the answer in this parable of the tares of the field.
Let’s read it again this morning before we break it down.
(READ VS. 24-30)
Now, before we dive into it, let me identify the symbolism for you.
(This will cause us to double up some next week, but I would rather double up than cover it all too fast and miss something)
Matthew 13:37-39 “And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and 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; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.”
That now unlocks the parable to us.
Four things
#1 THE FARMER’S PLANTING
Matthew 13:24
Here again we have “another parable” from Jesus.
It was meant to conceal truth from the disbelieving,
And reveal truth to those who did believe.
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.”
And so let’s take our key and clarify it.
• The man is Jesus Christ.
• The good seed is believers (those in the kingdom)
• The field is the world.
That alone helps us clear up one common misconception.
People often quote this parable in response to unbelievers in the church.
(I even have at times in the past)
That is problematic on a couple of levels.
First, because Christ clearly revealed that the “field” is not the church,
The “field” is the world.
This parable is not about the world in the church,
But is about the church in the world.
There are passages that speak about lost people infiltrating the fellowship of believers (Jude 1:3 – “crept in unnoticed”) but this is not one of them.
The “field” is not the church, it is the world.
The Second problem is that when people try to make the “field” the church they trap themselves into bad theology.
Namely because the Lord will clearly indicate that the tares
Cannot be removed until the end of the age.
This would clearly contradict His teaching in chapter 18
To remove the immoral man from your midst in the church.
So understand what we are dealing with.
We are dealing with Christ sowing His kingdom in the earth.
Another thing we must make sure we notice is that
The seed here is different from the seed in the previous parable.
In the previous parable the seed was “the word of God”,
And it spoke of the preacher spreading the gospel.
But in this parable the seed is not the word of God,
It is “the sons of the kingdom”.
Christ is not here preaching, Christ is here planting His children.
This parable isn’t meant to answer why unbelievers don’t respond,
This parable is meant to answer
Why a sovereign God allows them to remain.
And the final thing you need to see is that everyone He planted is “good”
He “sowed good seed in his field.”
Christ never “sort-of” saved anyone.
His salvation is a true one, a sure one, a complete one.
And so we have here Christ taking His true sons of the kingdom
And planting them in the earth or in the world.
And that we understand, in fact that is not mysterious at all.
The Farmer’s Planting
#2 THE ENEMY’S PLOT
Matthew 13:25
Here have the villain of the story.
“But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.”
I have in the past made reference to the sleeping men as partly to blame,
But this parable doesn’t really bare that out.
In fact we don’t even know who “his men” are in this parable.
The believers are the seed…
The angels are the reapers…
So we don’t even know who they are, let alone assign them with blame.
The parable simply indicates that the “enemy came and sowed tares”
At an opportune time for him.
He came when no one would be there.
He came in the middle of the night.
And then he “went away”, seeking to absolve himself of all blame.
He did this in secret so that no one would know it.
We may not see a lot of this today, but it was = so common in Jesus day
That Rome actually laws forbidding such behavior.
As a means of revenge, people would commonly do just that.
They would sneak into an enemies field and sow tares in his wheat.
This would dilute his crop, and even weaken the actual wheat
(that is what weeds do)
Now there again, because of our key, we know what Jesus refers to.
The “enemy” is the devil, and as he saw our Lord planting His sons
Satan instantly went to work as well.
He came during the night and also infiltrated the earth with his own sons.
We even know how he did it.
No, Satan did not create humans and place them on earth.
Satan simply went to Eve and deceived her,
And ultimately led the entire race into sin.
God didn’t create it that way.
God created everything good.
God created everything perfect.
But the enemy crept in and contaminated what God had made.
The Farmer’s Planting, The Enemy’s Plot
#3 THE SLAVE’S PROBLEM
Matthew 13:26-28
And here is where thy mystery reveals itself.
I know the slaves are not revealed to us by Jesus either,
But the point is fairly clear to be made.
The “slaves” are actually the disciples.
The “slaves” are any who seek to understand this mystery.
These are the people who spot the tares
And don’t know why they are there.
Notice what happened.
“But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.”
So for a while no one knew what the enemy had done,
But eventually his handy-work began to reveal itself.
When the fruit came, the tares began to become obvious.
And that caused confusion on the part of the slaves.
They didn’t understand why the farmer would have tares in his field.
That is the confusion we spoke of earlier.
WHY WOULD GOD LET FALSE RELIGION REMAIN?
WHY WOULD GOD LET UNBELIEVERS CONTINUE TO MESS UP THE EARTH?
There has been many a believer heavily confused by this reality,
Certainly the slaves are here.
Now notice the assumption of the slaves.
“Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?”
Their assumption is that this was the responsibility of the owner.
(He was the sower)
The accusation actually attacks the effectiveness of Christ’s salvation.
Are we to say that His salvation may or may not make a man righteous?
Are we to say that His salvation sometimes goes dud?
Certainly not.
If Christ plants it, it is good seed.
If Christ makes it, it is good.
If Christ saves it, it is saved.
But you understand the mystery.
The slaves don’t know why the tares are there.
And so Christ answers that question.
(28) “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’”
If you wonder where all the unbelievers came from today,
They didn’t come from God, they came from the devil.
If you wonder where false religion came from today,
It didn’t come from God, it came from the devil.
He is the usurper.
He is the liar in the garden.
He is the deceiver.
The tares are the sons of the evil one.
John 8:41-47 “You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. “You are ofyour father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
1 John 3:9-10 “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
And so to answer the first question as to
Why God would put so many non-believers and “tares” in His field…
The answer is God didn’t, the devil did.
But the next logical question is that if God didn’t plant them,
Why does He let them stay?
(28) “And 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?’”
That only seemed obvious.
You didn’t plant the weeds, so obviously you don’t want the weeds.
Do you want us to pull the weeds?
Should we go on a cleansing mission?
Now, again understand they are not asking
Should we remove false brethren from the church,
That is an obvious “yes” taught numerous places in Scripture.
Here, they want to know if Christ wants them
To remove all unbelievers from the world.
SHOULD WE GO ON CRUSADE?
“Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?”
Of course you will remember that John,
One of “The Sons of Thunder”, had this very idea.
Luke 9:51-54 “When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
That was the question of the slaves as well.
Should we destroy them?
They didn’t know how the tares got there,
And they wondered why they were allowed to remain.
Why does God let Islam endure?
Why does God let unbelievers live on?
The Farmer’s Planting, The Enemy’s Plot, The Slaves Problem
#4 THE FARMER’S PLAN
Matthew 13:29-30
Here comes the answer to their confusion.
“Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?”
“But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.”
So obviously our Lord did not want a holy war.
Now, many have assumed it is because Christ is so compassionate and loving, and merciful that He can’t bare to watch the tares being destroyed.
Now listen, there is some truth to that.
Earlier when John wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans.
Luke 9:55-56 “But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village.”
Certainly our Lord did not come to destroy sinners, but to save them.
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
BUT IN THIS PARABLE THAT ANSWER IS TOTALLY WRONG
Yes Christ is in the business of saving tares…
In fact the reality is that all the wheat in this field used to be tares…
But this parable is not an evangelistic one.
This parable is meant to explain why the tares get to endure.
And the answer is clear.
“No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.”
WHY DID THE FARMER NOT WANT THEM TO GO AFTER THE TARES?
Because He was concerned about the tares? – NO
IT IS BECAUSE HE WAS CONCERNED ABOUT THE WHEAT.
Carrie and I had a garden.
I messed up and let Bermuda grow in my watermelons.
But I did not remove the Bermuda.
And that is farmer’s stance here.
In this parable he is not the least bit concerned about the tares.
They are of no value to Him.
The ONLY reason they are allowed to remain
Is because trying to remove them now could damage the wheat
And cause it not to bear fruit.
How many times have we talked about non-believers enjoying the benefits that believers bring to this earth?
Sodom could not be destroyed until Lot was removed.
A believer spouse is said to sanctify her non-believing husband.
And today, it is the children of God
That actually save the lives of the wicked every day.
The only thing that keeps a holy God
From unleashing holy war on unbelievers today
Is that His wheat is not yet ready to be harvested.
AND SO HE IS PATIENT.
Romans 9:22-24 “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
That passage is often quoted about the Lord being patient toward the lost,
But who does it say He is patient toward? “you”
Could it be that His patience is in waiting for the fruit to mature, and in that patience a window of opportunity remains for the lost to repent?
Certainly that is the teaching of this parable.
(30) ‘Allow 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.”
That is no different than what Peter said.
2 Peter 3:9-10 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”
John the Baptist said:
Matthew 3:10-12 “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Later in the explanation
Matthew 13:41-43 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
And that pretty much settles the mystery as to
Why non-believers exist and why God allows them to remain.
They EXIST because the devil planted them.
They REMAIN because God doesn’t want to harm the wheat.
But rest assured, there is coming a day when the harvest is ripe,
And our Lord will send forth His angels and gather His wheat,
But the tares will suffer eternal judgment of fire.
And at that point, the kingdom will be like it is supposed to be.
The Revelation reveals it like this:
Revelation 14:14-20 “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, ” Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.”
That is the fate of the tares.
And there is the mystery explained
Why the earth has two kingdoms simultaneously growing at once.
That explains why Christianity and Islam are both enduring.
It is only because the devil planted the tares,
And God is patient,
Not wanting any of His wheat to be wrongly destroyed.
But rest assured the day is coming when this earth will be purified,
And His kingdom will be the only one.
Revelation 11:15-18 “Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
