Matthew 13:36, commentary and pictures

Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house to a retired private place, where His disciples came to Him asking Him to declare the parable of the tares of the field. The Sower of the good seed is the Son of man, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the children of the wicked one, the enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. At the harvest He sends His angels to gather out of His kingdom all that offends and those who do iniquity to be cast into a furnace of fire with wailing and gnashing of teeth, while the wheat ripened for God is gathered into His garner and the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The wheat and the tares, the righteous and the wicked, remain together in the world and in the church until the harvest at the end of the world, for men cannot read the heart or reliably tell them apart, and no man has the right to separate them, that work being given to Christ and His angels who gather without error. Its instruction must be studied carefully with the Holy Spirit for clear perception of future destiny and the character required to stand acquitted, teaching humility and distrust of self rather than judging and condemning others.

Setting and Explanation

Then Jesus dismissed the crowd and went into the house to a retired private place, and there His disciples came to Him asking Him to declare to them the parable of the tares of the field. This withdrawing after public teaching to give further instruction in private is His manner of work with those who seek to understand more fully. The request opens His direct explanation of the parable that follows.

He who sows the good seed is the Son of man, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the children of the wicked one, the enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. This identification gives the fixed meaning of each figure in the parable.

At the harvest the Son of man sends forth His angels to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity. The wicked, ripening for destruction, are gathered and cast into a furnace of fire, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. The wheat, ripening for God and for His garner, are gathered in for eternal life, and the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

The parable also pictures Satan secretly sowing evil and error and false doctrine in human minds in opposition to Christ sowing truth in the heart. He is a diligent sower, never out of his field, never idle, ever at his plow. His sowing puts away Bibles and books and the light of the gospel, puts down Christ's cross and God's word and care for clothing the naked and helping the poor and helpless, and puts up candles, beads, purgatory, the decking of images, and men's traditions and laws. Those seeds of sin multiply and produce harmful results, crowd out the good, leave the heart unfruitful, and spread sin to others.

It shows divine and satanic agencies in decided opposition and vital conflict continuing until the close of earth's history. That closing conflict comes when everything that can be shaken will be shaken that what cannot be shaken may remain, when God tests and proves His people. It reveals how long God has borne with men who provoke Him by stubborn self-indulgence, while His living Word works to sanctify those who receive it and to gather the wheat for Christ.

Wheat and Tares Together

The wheat and the tares are the righteous and the wicked, who grow together in the world and in the church until the harvest at the end of the world, when they are clearly distinguished. The tares are not changed into wheat but remain wicked and are destroyed, while the wheat is gathered into God's garner and the righteous shine forth in their Father's kingdom. The Son of man sends His angels to remove from His kingdom all that causes sin and all who practice iniquity, casting them into fire with wailing and gnashing of teeth.

For a long time the tares so closely resemble the wheat that men cannot read the human heart or reliably distinguish them by sight, including who are wise and who are foolish. To uproot them prematurely would harm the faithful, so good and evil are left together until the harvest. No man has the right to measure the characters of his fellow men or to attempt their separation. Judgment has been given only to Christ, because He has lived humanity and He alone can understand human weakness and human striving to attain Christian perfection, and the true Watcher never makes a mistake in His estimate of character. At the harvest the angels, commissioned to counterwork those who fight against the truth, will gather the wheat from among the tares without error or mistake, knowing each one by fruits, when the door is shut.

The present church is the church militant composed of wheat and tares, not the church triumphant. In every church there are counterfeit Christians, hypocrites, and defective characters, and mere membership or claim to be sons and daughters of God does not prove a person a genuine Christian. Those who really believe are genuine without pretense, true to one another in heart and soul and action. The presence of tares does not mean that Christ's church will be erased, disorganized, or broken apart by human efforts, for the final separation belongs to the angels at the harvest.

The parable rules out a temporal millennium in which the whole world is converted and the church triumphs before Christ's second coming and the end. The work of separating the wheat from the tares and binding and sealing the wheat for the heavenly garner is the third angel's mission, to command full attention. God does not approve corrupting church associations or tolerating evil in Christian assemblies, for evil can work beneath appearances to deceive those connected with God's Word. The tares picture warns of spreaders of doubts and questioning who set up a false issue like a man of straw to attack, and of workers who at first appear interested but later become dissatisfied, complain, and spread suspicion, so not everyone who joins the work can be trusted.

Study and Obedience

Matthew 13 belongs to a warning whose instruction must be heeded and studied carefully, with the Holy Spirit impressing the minds of those who desire a clear perception of the parable. It directs attention to future destiny and to the unstained character required in order to stand acquitted at Christ's judgment and be saved. That warning must not be obscured by human sophistry or by mocking that blasphemes the Holy Spirit.

Christ welcomes sincere inquiry and gives more definite instruction to those who desire to understand, so that those who study His Word with hearts open to the Holy Spirit receive clearer understanding of its mysteries. When understanding is unclear they may ask Christ the great Teacher for enlightenment, and anyone with enough interest to ask what His words meant is welcomed. The questions He answered and the lessons He explained privately to the disciples after the crowds dispersed are essential for people today to understand and practice as practical godliness.

After sowing seeds of truth publicly before large multitudes, He continued His lessons in a retired place where the disciples could seek further instruction, going apart with the limited number who wanted better understanding into a quiet room enclosed with walls or some retired spot in the country and giving fuller explanation of what had been spoken in public. Public instruction must be followed by such private teaching in special seasons of seeking the Lord and studying His Word for younger workers and apprentices, including in publishing houses, for learners in whom truth is abiding in the heart and who receive light from God's Word. Those in charge are to follow the same way by taking apart apprentices who need teaching and saving, and the disciples afterward helped listeners understand and correct misunderstandings by explaining what Scripture said.

The parable teaches humility and distrust of self rather than judging and condemning others, for being in the church does not prove a person a Christian. Believers must not look at defective members, make them the theme of conversation, or feed with a critical spirit on their real or supposed faults with habitual seeing and talking of evil, lest they themselves be ranked among the tares with a false contentious experience that does not obey the truth but obeys unrighteousness. The sins committed by professed Christians, though hypocrites as tares among the wheat are in the churches all through the land, are no excuse for any soul and do not justify blaming Christ and His ministers, for Christ gave His life to save all who believe in Him. Those who really believe are genuine Christians without pretense, true to one another in heart and soul and action, feeding on Christ alone as the perfect pattern of Christianity, while the true Watcher who never mistakes the characters of men will after a time separate the tares from the wheat.

Wrong actions sow tares, while faithful actions sow the good seed of the kingdom and can help draw people to Christ. Good principles must be planted in children early and guarded from harmful influences, because evil can grow and become difficult to remove.