Matthew 13

²⁴ He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵ but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. ²⁷ And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

³⁶ Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to 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 is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons 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 gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, ⁴² and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

There was a bit of a scandal in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo when a French marathon runner named Morhad Amdouni appeared in a video to be knocking down all of the water bottles on the front of a table while running past it so that no other runners behind him could get any. He was quickly condemned by many and was defended by a few. Some days after the incident Amdouni addressed the issue and claimed that the bottles were slippery and he was not trying to knock them all down. You can go watch the video for yourself and form your own opinion. I will simply say that the video is not a good look for Mr. Amdouni.

The outrage over the act—intentional or not—can be attributed to the apparent cruelty of it. “Temperatures were hovering around 30C and humidity levels hit more than 80%, meaning conditions were tough for the runners,” Yahoo News reported.[1] In other words, the video appeared to show Amdouni intentionally sabotaging a critically important hydration station simply so that the other runners could not drink.

As we come to Jesus’ next parable it is hard not to think of this recent scandal. Jesus sows good seed into the world and the devil, vicious and cruel, runs by and seeks to destroy the crop of the Kingdom with the weeds of his own wickedness. There is a legitimate question over whether or not the French runner did what he did on purpose. There can be no doubt that the devil does what he does on purpose. The devil is always running by the table and knocking over what God intends to bring life and vitality to the world. He is always seeking to ruin what should be a source of goodness and hope.

Let us consider the words of Jesus. He presents the parable in Matthew 13:24-30 and He explains it in 13:36-43. We will work through each part of the parable along with its explanation as we go.

The Kingdom of God is present in the world in the rule of God among His redeemed people.

In this parable we turn again to the picture of a sower and seed.

²⁴ He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field”

³⁶ Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to 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. ^38a-b The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.

First, let us notice that Jesus says the parable is going to explain what “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to.” The “kingdom of heaven” is the same as “the kingdom of God” used elsewhere in the gospels. Matthew prefers “kingdom of heaven.” And what is the kingdom of heaven like? It is like “a man who sowed good seed in his field.” And what is “his field”? “The field is the world,” we are told in verse 38. And who is the sower? “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,” we are told in verse 37. And what is the seed? “[T]he good seed is the sons of the kingdom,” we are told in verse 38.

So let us put all of this together:

• Jesus sows seed.

• The seed is His church, that is, His followers.

• The church is sown in the world.

• The church is to be a reflection of the Kingdom.

We are the good seeds of God sown in the field of the world in order to represent the Kingdom here and now. In a charming move, St. Augustine, preaching on these verses to his congregation, said, “Listen, Christ’s precious ears of wheat; listen, Christ’s dearest corn.”[2] I love that! We are indeed “Christ’s precious ears of wheat.”

It is a beautiful picture and, I dare to say, a fairly easy picture to grasp. The church is in the world as a good expression of the Kingdom of God.

It is all the more tragic, then, to see in Christian history a long tradition of bad interpretations of this parable to very bad effects.

For instance, the venerated commentator Matthew Henry (who I otherwise very much like) surely stumbled when he wrote that “[t]he visible church is the kingdom of heaven; though there be many hypocrites in it, Christ rules in it as a King; and there is a remnant in in it…” and then later, “the world here is the visible church, scattered all the world over, not confined to one nation.”[3]

My objection to Henry’s words is not the argument that the church has hypocrites in it. Surely it does. My objection is to Henry’s argument that (1) “the visible church is the kingdom of heaven” and (2) “the world here [i.e., in the parable] is the visible church.”

Both of these are wrong. The church depicts the Kingdom, is part of the Kingdom, and should be an accurate and powerful reflection of the Kingdom, but the Kingdom of God is greater than the church, even on earth. The Kingdom of God is God’s rule wherever it is to be found. You cannot conflate the church with the Kingdom, as important as it is.

But I consider the next mistake to be most tragic. Henry (and many, many others) interprets “world” to mean “church” in verse 38. But it most certainly is not! The “field” and the “world” in the parable is the world!

Why does this matter? It matters because if “the world” is “the church” then the parable can be used to justify a worldly, corrupt church since the removal of weeds is only to happen at the end of all things and must not be attempted prior to final judgment. Stanley Hauerwas correctly observes that “[t]his parable has often been used to justify, in this time between the times, a comprised church” and that “Reinhold Niebuhr…drew on this parable to justify the compromises that Christians should make to act responsibly in the world.” But Hauerwas is also correct when he writes that “[t]he problem with Niebuhr’s understanding of the parable of the wheat and tares, a widespread interpretation to be sure, is that…it contradicts Jesus’s explanation of the parable of the sower.”[4]

Now, is it the case that the church is compromised by virtue of the sinfulness of man? That is true. But the church, by definition, consists of followers of Jesus who are seeking to bring themselves and to help one another beneath the banner of Christ. If “world” means “church” then the Baptist idea of “regenerate church membership” can be rejected and we will be tempted to say, “Well, it just is what it is!” Whereas the Baptist picture of the church as a regenerated body of loving and mutual accountability will not let us rest in the fallenness of the church but rather will call us all to holiness.

On the other hand, if “world” means “church” in the parable then something like the state-church model—whereby if you are born in a certain area and baptized as a baby in that area then you are a de facto part of the church—can be allowed to stand unchallenged. Then you have a worldly church.

It matters how you interpret this parable! No, “world” means “world.” The church is separate from the world but is sown into the world as a “good” source of salt and light calling the nations to Jesus. The church is imperfect, but it is not to rest in that reality as if it cannot be challenged and pushed against.

The Kingdom of God is opposed in the world by the devil and all who advance his cause.

So followers of Jesus are good Kingdom seeds in the midst of the world. But, in the world, the devil will not stand to see these seeds grow in fruitfulness to the betterment of the world, so he strikes.

²⁵ but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. ²⁷ And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ ^28a He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’

^38c The weeds are the sons of the evil one, ^39a and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.

Satan hates the good work of God in the world. He hates the church. So he seeks to thwart fruitfulness and, indeed, to destroy the crop. At the beginning of Matthew 13, in the parable of the sower and the seeds, Jesus also alluded to the destructive work of the devil.

¹⁸ “Hear then the parable of the sower: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.

He is “the evil one” in verse 19 and also in verse 38. He is called “the devil” in verse 39. Satan hates the church because the church is to be a life-bringing body of proclamation and power in the midst of the decay of the fallen world. The 5^th century Bishop of Ravenna, Peter Chrysologus, said:

…the devil loves to sow heresies among the faithful, sins among saints, quarrels among the peaceful, treachery among the simple, wickedness among the innocent. He’s not doing this because he is interested in the weeds, but so that he may ruin the wheat…The devil doesn’t care about seizing sinners—they’re already his slaves!—but he does take the time to stalk the righteous.[5]

That is beautifully put. In John 10:10 Jesus says of Satan, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” We must be aware of the fact that there is an active agent of destruction called the devil who is seeking to kill, to steal, and to destroy what God is planting in the world.

The Kingdom of God will one day be removed from all that opposes it.

But the child of God must not think that struggle and pain will be the forever lot of the people of God. No, one day God will indeed deal with the life-choking weeds sown by the devil.

²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’

^39b-c The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰ Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, ⁴² and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Let us note that the destruction of the weeds is not the business of the wheat but rather the business of the angelic hosts sent by God at the end of all things to bring judgment. In other words, the church is not to desire the judgement of the lost or the destruction of the lost. The posture of the church is to be one of grief leading to evangelism. The job of the wheat is to call the weeds to abandon their coming destruction and be wheat instead!

Only in God’s perfect timing will God bring judgment. God alone is able to do this. We cannot do it “lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.” We do not truly see and know the hearts of human beings. But God does.

Notice, too, that it is the weeds that are first dealt with, that are snatched up for destruction, not the wheat. While we must be careful with reading too many eschatological details into a parable, the fact is that the wheat is not depicted as being snatched up and away but rather the weeds are: “Gather the weeds first…”

Above all, however, we note the coming judgment and the ferocity of it: “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned…” The weeds will be “throw[n] into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” But what of the wheat in judgment? They will be brought through it and “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

The harvest will therefore be a time of great woe for the objects of God wrath and a time of great restoration for those who are saved.

The church must not lose heart. God will save His church. But the lost must know that their time is short. And the heart-cry of the church is that they be saved, that they flee the wrath to come by repenting and calling on the name of Jesus.

Jesus does not desire the destruction of the lost. He desires their salvation.

Indeed, “He who has ears, let him hear.”

 

[1] https://news.yahoo.com/olympic-marathon-runner-water-bottle-outrage-breaks-silence-175635981.html

[2] D.H. Williams, trans. and ed. Matthew. The Church’s Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018), 267.

[3] Matthew Henry. A Commentary on the Holy Bible with Practical Remarks and Observations. Vol. V (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, ___), p.108.

[4] Stanley Hauerwas. Matthew. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006), p.131-132.

[5] D.H. Williams, p.267.