This is a simple tale, isn’t it? Or, so it seems. But there’s actually more to Jesus’ story than meets the eye. If you and I were to look down the page just a few verses, what we would find is Jesus’ explanation of this parable and what it means. As he lays it out, he himself is the farmer who plants his field with good seeds, and the enemy – the saboteur, the one who comes in the night to sow seeds of destruction – is the devil. The good seeds that Jesus sows represent the children of the kingdom, and the weeds are the children of the devil. At the time of harvest, you have the reapers, who, in Jesus’ explanation, are the holy angels. And, of course, the harvest itself is the point toward which all the action moves. It represents what Jesus calls “the end of the age” and what the Bible often refers to as “the day of the Lord” or “the Last Judgment.”
The harvest, then, is a kind of dividing line. It separates “the present age,” the whole of history leading up to the Judgment, from “the age to come,” the future that God has planned for all the redeemed. It is that future that Isaiah describes when he tells us how “the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together…, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox” (Isa. 11:6f.). John describes “the age to come” as the time in which God “will wipe every tear from [our] eyes” and “death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain,” he says, “will be no more, for the first things [will] have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).
By “the first things,” of course, he means the present age. And what about it? In the book of Titus, Paul describes this “present age” as a time of “impiety” and “worldly passions.” It is a period characterized by a climate that is hostile to kingdom values. It is an era that makes it difficult at best to “live lives that,” in Paul’s words, “are self-controlled, upright, and godly” (Titus 2:12).
So what we have here is a view of history. Right? And the Bible’s view of history is one of two ages, “the present evil age,” as it is described in the book of Galatians (Gal. 1:4), and “the age to come,” as Jesus frequently calls it (Matt. 12:32; Mk. 10:30; Lk. 18:30). And what is more, during the present age, the time in which we are now living, those who belong to the kingdom and those who do not are mixed together, but in eternity, there will be a great separation. And the dividing line between the two eras is what Jesus calls here “the harvest,” or what the Bible calls elsewhere the Day of Judgment.
So, let’s look at this present age, and, as we do, let’s keep in mind the coming harvest. Did you notice in the parable how the farmhands offered to go and clear the field of weeds? “Do you want us to go and gather them?” they asked. It seems like the logical thing to do, doesn’t it? After all, weeds tend to use up the soil’s moisture and nutrients and, because they do, they threaten to damage the intended crop.
But look what the farmer says. He tells them, “No.” Why? “For in gathering the weeds,” he says, “you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest.” And that’s the way it is in this present life. The redeemed live side by side with the lost – in the workplace, on the field of play, in the home, and even in the church.
Does it surprise you that I would say, even in the church? That’s what Jesus implies here in his parable. He says that, “at the end of the age,” “the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers” (Matt. 13:40, 41, emphasis added). Out of his kingdom! Some of the most disturbing words that Jesus ever spoke appear in his Sermon on the Mount, where he says: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 7:21). Our Reformed heritage distinguishes between what it calls the “visible” church and the “invisible” church. The visible church is made up of all who profess faith, along with their children. Many of these, but not all, make up the invisible church. They are the ones who, through no merit of their own but only by God’s mercy, are in the state of grace.
The wheat and the weeds, then, grow side by side – and will, until the harvest. Then, according to Jesus, there will be a separation. The weeds will be collected and thrown into the furnace, and the wheat will be gathered into the barn. And God’s children “will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43).
Now, how should knowing this affect us? Let me suggest a few ways. First of all, we should not be surprised by opposition to the work of the kingdom during this present age. Until the harvest, wheat and weeds will grow together. In fact, the Lord of the harvest has so designed it. Evil will continue to have a strong influence in this world until the end of the age. So, we should expect the Christian life to be one of struggle and conflict.
Which means…what? that, as a defense, we should be diligent to put on the whole armor of God, exactly what Paul urges us to do in Ephesians, chapter 6. But listen! When it comes to offense, we have to remember that, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human” (2 Cor. 10:4f.). No! We engage spiritual battle “with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left.” And what are “the weapons of righteousness”? According to Paul, they are such things as “purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God” (2 Cor. 6:6ff.). Jesus says, “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). If we don’t engage the battle this way – if, instead, we seek to inflict harm and resort to the use of force – we will have chosen the way of evil, and we will have denied the power of God.
Let me suggest another way that we may apply this parable to ourselves. Since the wheat and the weeds grow together – since, as Presbyterians, we acknowledge that “all that hear the gospel, and live in the visible church, are not saved” (Larger Catechism, Q/A 61) – we need to make sure that we are! In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul says: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test!” And in 2 Peter 1:10, the Apostle Peter says, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble.”
So, get alone with God, and prayerfully seek to know: Is your profession of faith a mere profession and nothing more, or, to paraphrase the Westminster Confession, have you truly accepted and received Christ, and are you resting upon him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, relying only on God’s grace and not on any merits of your own? Sandra Wilson has written, “We don’t always live what we profess, but we always live what we believe.” Do you know Christ in your head but not in your heart? Then acknowledge that and, with humility, turn to him in repentance and faith. The Apostle Paul spoke about what a heartbreak it would be one day to learn that, “after preaching to others, [he himself] should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27, ESV). So, let us seek assurance in this matter.
One last application, if I may: Since in this present age, the wheat and the weeds grow together and since there is coming a day of separation, what Jesus calls here “the harvest,” let us use this as an opportunity all the more diligently to engage in “the proclamation the gospel for the salvation of humankind” (Book of Order, F-1.0304). Our Presbyterian Book of Order says that God’s mission, in which we are to participate, is “the transformation of creation and humanity by proclaiming to all people the good news of God’s love, offering to all people the grace of God at font and table, and calling all people to discipleship in Christ” (F-1.01).
So, let’s put our resources as a church behind this great effort. Instead of rooting up weeds, let’s invite people to embrace the transforming grace of God. Let’s look at our neighborhoods, our classrooms, our shops, our offices, our gyms, and the places we play – let’s look at our whole world as a mission field, peopled with those whose deepest longings will be met, like ours, with nothing less than the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is a day coming – a day of ingathering, a day of harvest. Let us prayerfully labor to be sure that we ourselves are gathered in and that we take as many with us as we can. “The harvest is plentiful,” Jesus said, but he also said, “the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:37).
Let us then pray to this end, and let us go – each and every day – for this purpose. The Apostle Paul once wrote, “[Let us make] the most of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16). Let’s not allow ourselves to lament the fact that weeds are growing in the garden. Instead, let us race to gather in the wheat before the harvest is ended.
