The Parable Of The Wheat And The Tares Series

The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Like… – Part 2

The Parable Of The Wheat And The Tares

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Before we begin today, let’s make sure we are all clear about what a parable is and what the difference is between a parable and an allegory. Anyone care to give me their understanding of what a parable is? How about an allegory?

Okay, let’s go over our definitions once more, just to make sure we are all understanding this the same way:

A parable is the placing side by side with or comparing of the earthly truths expressed with the heavenly truths to be understood. The starting point of Christ’s parables is that man is made in the image of God, and that there is a God-ordained and God-created continuity between the human and the divine. The strength of Christ’s parables lies in the very real connection imprinted by the Creator on His creatures, the physical characterizing and demonstrating the higher spiritual and moral world.

An allegory, on the other hand, is figurative and symbolic, not descriptive. An allegory is a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically express a deeper meaning, often spiritual or moral.

This would be a good spot to discuss the phrase the kingdom of heaven. We didn’t focus on it last time because I wanted to make sure that we understood the concept of parable as opposed to allegory. I also wanted to make sure that we got at least a fundamental understanding of the first of the parables of Our Lord, as recorded by Matthew.

At first glance, the phrase the kingdom of heaven might seem to mean the kingdom of God up in Heaven. In fact, this phrase, which is used thirty-one times in Matthew, is interchangeable with the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Christ. There are many views on what these phrases mean, and all they do is confuse the matter.

We get a solid indicator of what God means in Holy Scripture when He used the phrase kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God or kingdom of Christ, from Paul’s summarizing the reason we don’t let squabbles over food and drink divide the body. If we look very pointedly at Romans 14:17, we read these words: “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

The kingdom of heaven is not the kingdom of glory that reigns in heaven now and that will one day be the kingdom that rules and reigns everywhere and at every time after the return of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven has to do specifically with where the Gospel is preached and accepted and takes root and grows and flourishes, first within the heart of each individual, then within the community of believers that will inevitably follow, which we call the church.

We see this initially in the parable Jesus began with in this section of Scripture, the Parable of the Sower. The three types of soil, the three types of heart where the seed did not take firm root and grow and become fruit-bearing is where the kingdom of heaven does not reign.

That is not to say that the spiritual laws of that kingdom do not apply. On the contrary; Jesus’ parables and their explanations demonstrate clearly that the laws of the kingdom are always in force. What I mean is that only where there is a heart or collection of hearts that have been given over to Jesus Christ and in which the Holy Spirit works intricately and regularly are members of the kingdom of heaven.

In our first parable today, we see another example of this. In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, we again have seed being sown. This time, however, we have a good man and an evil man both sowing seed in the same field. Both types of seed bear fruit; one to righteousness and one to hypocrisy.

Let’s read the parable in Matthew 13:24-30, then read the explanation that Jesus gives and that is recorded in Matthew 13: 37-43. There is a parable in between these two parables, and we will discuss that a little later.

One of the first things that I found interesting was that the workers in this parable identified are the reapers at the time of the harvest and they are the angels. I also found it interesting that they will be so intimately involved in the separation of non-believers from true believers on the Day of Judgment.

What I also noticed is that the workers, the master’s slaves who are there daily tending the field are not identified. Most everyone assumes that those of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ and are ministering for Him by using our spiritual gifts in whatever venue He has placed us, but especially within the Body, are the workers since that is one of the two ways that Jesus uses the term when speaking of His kingdom.