Parables - Kingdom of Heaven - Good v Evil

We’re back to some agricultural parables.

But these are a little different.

Wheat and Tares

Matthew 13:24–25 NKJV

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

Last time, the kingdom of God was compared to seeds and their growth,

Here however, it’s described as seeds being sown.

We have a man sowing good seed.

Then the man’s enemy comes along and sows tares, bad seeds.

Sometimes, we do good work, we sow good seed.

But someone doesn’t like that, so they sow bad seeds to cover our “crop”.

We try to do what is good, but it comes up bad.

We share the word of God, then someone else corrupts it.

But is this what Jesus is talking about?

He explains the parable later in the chapter:

Matthew 13:37–39 NKJV

He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

So we see a slightly different view of this parable:

Jesus is the sower, the field is the world, and we are the good seed.

God sends us throughout the world, even here in Middle Tennessee,

To spread the good news,

And to be salt & light.

But there is someone who doesn’t like that idea.

The devil is the one who sows the tares,

And those who follow him are the tares.

Even though God may send us throughout the world to do good work,

We are often competing with the sons of the devil.

What are we to do?

Matthew 13:26–27 NKJV

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

When things don’t come out right, we try to figure out what we did wrong.

But sometimes, we did nothing wrong.

John 9:1–3 NKJV

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

We are sown as good seeds, but bad seeds come up as well.

You teach someone the truth and someone else teaches them a lie.

You try to bring the light of God’s love into the world, while others try to stamp it out.

What are we to do?

Matthew 13:28–29 NKJV

He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

Our first reaction is to go and pull up the bad seed.

To argue, debate, even chastise the person teaching error.

Maybe even to get uproot them, get them pulled up and thrown out.

But if you do that, you may actually damage the good seed you have planted.

So what do we do?

Matthew 13:30 NKJV

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

One view of this passage is that we wait until the person we are talking to is more mature,

Better able to understand the differences.

Better able to deal with conflict,

Then God can pick up the tares in that person’s life, without destroying the good seed.

God can separate the wheat from the tares.

Burning the tares, then gathering the wheat.

And trust me, God is much better at separating good from bad than any of us are.

Again, is that what Jesus is talking about?

Matthew 13:40–43 NKJV

Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

We see here that the separation of the wheat & tares doesn’t happen today, but at the end of the age.

At the end of time, when Jesus returns, then He will send his angels to gather up the sons of the devil.

We often ask, why do bad things happen.

In part, because of the tares that have been sown among us.

Or we ask when will evil be punished?

When Jesus has the angels take care of it.

Notice, it is not the seed that gathers up the tares.

It is not out job to remove the works of the devil from this world.

Jesus and His angels will do that when the time is right.

We are to grow where we are, even if it means growing up between the tares.

We will have to live with the fact that evil lives among us.

Jesus doesn’t remove them from us, because it may damage us.

You want to know why evil still exists in the world?

Because removing it would damage us.

Dragnet

Matthew 13:47–50 NKJV

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Here again, we see the kingdom of heaven being described as starting with a mixture of good and evil.

Here we see a net being cast, that gathers up the good and the evil.

Jesus says the kingdom of heaven will be like that,

This catch will be separated, the wicked from the just.

And again, it is not we who will separate the wicked from the just, but the angels.

Furnace of Fire

Notice that in both parables, the wicked are cast into a furnace of fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 13:42 NKJV

and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 13:50 NKJV

and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

The word furnace kaminos /kam·ee·nos/, is a kiln.

Kilns can be used to change the chemical structure of certain materials,

They can also be used to burn off unwanted dross.

What we see here is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Crying, seems simple enough.

Grinding of teeth.

Sounds like a thoroughly unpleasant and painful experience.

While we normally think of a kiln as something used to purify a substance,

Here we see it used to punish.

Which is probably why the translators used the term “furnace of fire” rather than the more literal “kiln”.

Conclusion

What can we learn from these parables?

First, we should see that there is good an evil in the world.

Many people act like we can get rid of all the evil,

But we cannot.

As if we can purge the evil from the world,

But not only are we incapable of doing so,

If we tried, we’d end up destroying ourselves in the process.

Must we punish the good in order to restrain the evil?

Must the innocent be damaged, even destroyed, in an attempt to get the evil?

I see this all the time today.

Where rules and laws that are supposed to restrain evil actually restrain the innocent instead.

We also see that in the kingdom of God, judgement isn’t a question of if, but when?

Did Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mau Tse Tung “get away” with their evil, simply because they did not face a human court?

Or will the angels separate them and cast them into the fire.

Jesus never said the life of a disciple would be easy,

He never even said it would be fair.

But he does say that justice is coming.

The question for us is, are we the wheat, or are we the tares?