The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

The story of the wheat and the tares is summarized as follows: A man sowed his field with wheat seed, but in the end, the result was not what he expected because an enemy secretly sowed weeds while his workers were asleep, and both plants grew together. The servants of the owner of the field proposed to their lord to pull up the weeds and burn them, but he told them not to do it because it would risk pulling up the wheat plants, too, and it was not yet harvest time (vv. 24-30).

Jesus explains to his disciples the meaning of the parable in vv. 36-40. His explanation was delayed because he wanted to provide it while he was alone with them (v. 36). So, he said the one who sows the seed is the Son of Man (v. 37), the field is the world (v. 38), the good seed are the children of the kingdom (v. 38), the weeds are the children of the evil one (v. 38), the enemy who sowed the weeds is the devil (v. 39), the harvest is the judgment at the end of the age (v. 39) and the reapers are the angels (v. 39).

The parable shows the contradictory but inevitable coexistence of good and evil in the world. Israel in general and Jesus' disciples in particular believed that the arrival of the kingdom of God would be accompanied by radical socio-political and religious changes. However, the corrupted and immoral Roman Empire continued to stand, the Israelites continued to suffer different forms of humiliation and injustices, and the religious leaders of Israel (scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees) maintained their privileged status quo. 

Jesus’ teaching here is that the children of the kingdom will have to wait until harvest time to see evil completely destroyed. This waiting, however, does not imply conforming to the world or indifference to its injustices. On the contrary, the children of the kingdom are called to wait with a combative attitude by undertaking the following tasks: acting as a light that shines in the midst of darkness and as salt that preserves and gives flavor; announcing the good news of salvation by grace in Christ; standing by the side of the poor, of socially minority groups, of immigrants, and of the most vulnerable; sharing their blessings without greed and love of material goods; comforting and encouraging the afflicted; visiting the orphans and widows; praying with faith; using their education and political influence to contribute to a more just society; etc. etc. etc. But the children of the kingdom should do all these things fully aware that evil and injustice are not going to disappear from the world.

I believe this is a warning against socio-political utopias from both the left and right. Paradise will not be on earth but in Heaven. Socio-economic systems will not produce a “new man” nor a “new golden age society.” Karl Marx said, “man’s social being determines his social conscience,” but history has proved him wrong. It is actually the other way around: social conscience determines our social being. Change must happen from the inside out. And while Adam Smith was right about the benefits of economic liberalism, the fact is that rich countries do not necessarily produce fair and good societies. Once men assume political power, they forget about ideals and concentrate on their own personal interests.  

The parable of the wheat and tares has generated an interpretive dispute in relation to whether or not Matthew reflects here the situation of his own congregation. That is, whether the wheat and the tares represent true and false Christians living together in Matthew's community (the church understood as a “corpus permixtum,” to use Augustine of Hippo’s phrase). Ulrich Luz says in this regard:

Here, too, Matthew does not distinguish between the church and the world. The field on which the Son of Man has sown the good seed is the world; in the world, wheat and weeds grow together and intermingle. Surely the crucial experience for Matthew is the experience of evil within his community. Far from being “pure,” his community resembles the world. Both the wheat field (13:38) and the kingdom of the Son of Man (13:41) are the world. (The Theology of the Gospel of Matthew [Cambridge University Press, 1995], 89)

The truth is that there is nothing in Matthew’s description of “the sons of the evil one” that identifies them as Christians. It is true that v. 41 says that the wicked will be plucked out “from the kingdom” of the Son of Man. The kingdom is here presented as encompassing the whole world, but only in the sense that they were in the world, where they had existed alongside the righteous (v. 30), not in the sense that they had been part of the church. For those who wish to delve deeper into this topic, I recommend Petri Luomanen’s excellent article, “Corpus Mixtum: An Appropriate Description of Mathew’s Community?” (JBL 117/3 [1998], 469-480). 

Although the parable has a hortatory tone, its nature is eschatological and refers to the final judgment when the righteous and unrighteous from among the world will be separated eternally.