As Matthew recorded numerous parables that Jesus had presented to the listening crowd, he mentions this one in the list.
In reality, it bespeaks the time in which we currently reside as much as it called attention to kingdom preaching. (Matthew 13:24-30)
Whenever Christ declared His message about the Kingdom, there was no problem in realizing that since Adam and Eve, we live exposed to living side by side, wheat and tares. Since, Jesus had just presented the parable of the sower and how under a variety of exposures, the devil had made an effort to destroy the seed that had been planted.
As a child, I recall how we had our own garden, and we planted quite a variety of vegetables, but never wheat.
We had to pull up many a weed… you probably remember how my old farmer friend said: “You never have to plant a weed.” Such was the problem here!
When the wheat was planted, the tares, (which look identical) came up. (In our garden, we had a weed that looked identical to a carrot.) There was not a matter of choice, you did the same as the farmer and his situation…let them grow together until they were readily identifiable.
As we consider this parable, you cannot help but imagine the frustration that a farmer in this situation must have experienced. I know I would have been somewhat frustrated, but the Lord tells how this frustration was handled. “Let them dwell together. When harvest comes, we remove the darnell first; we burn it, then the wheat.”
One does not have to be a genius to recognize the legitimacy of this method, especially in that era of history.
The farmer speaks: “The enemy probably did it but there is a solution.” He did not re-act, he responded! As we would have said as children: “Cool, calm, and collected!”
Who might we recognize as the winner in this Parable? “Gather the wheat into my barn.” (v30) Getting even may be lowering yourself to the level of the enemy, but the wheat in the barn says it all!
-Ted
ETCetera 