Matthew 13:24-43--The Parable of the Weeds

​Matthew 13:24-43 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.13.24-Matt.13.43
The Parable of the Weeds
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.”’”

The Mustard Seed and the Leaven
31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

Prophecy and Parables
34 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. 35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables;
    I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

The Parable of the Weeds Explained
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.

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Like last time, this passage is a little longer than normal because I wanted to make sure to include the interpretation of the The Parable of the Weeds given by Jesus along with the parable itself.  Because Jesus explains this parable's meaning, I won't spend as much time on it as other parts of the passage.

I made reference to this parable a while ago when I talked about the two harvests that would come at the end time.  In the book of Revelation there is a harvest of wheat and a harvest of grapes.  In this passage the "good harvest" is a harvest of wheat still, but the "bad" harvest is a harvest of weeds/tares.  These weeds are impostors who infiltrate the Church and look and talk like a real Christian, but they live and work for the evil one.  At the time of the harvest (the time for judgment), God will separate the "wheat" (the authentic believers) from the "weeds" (the false believers) and will collect the grain unto Himself in heaven and will burn the weeds us--a symbol of the lake of fire that they will be cast into.

Then Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven was like a mustard seed which was the smallest herbaceous seed, but it grew into a massive bush/tree.  In the same way the gospel spreads far beyond what is sown and gives comfort and shelter to those come under its protection, even if they only receive this secondary blessing by living among Christians while they themselves are not saved.  It is truly God's will that everyone would be saved, but God's blessing spills out on those around us in the same way that it did with Abraham when God made the promise to him that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed..

Jesus then told another short parable about a woman who hid some leaven (yeast) in three measures of flour (about 1.125 bushels or 144 cups of flour).  This parable seems to be meant to be shocking in the sense that yeast is almost always equated with sin and we are warned that "a little leaven ruins the whole lump" for instance, but now Jesus seems to be saying that God is putting this principle to work where He has hidden something small like the gospel inside something extremely large (maybe the current religious system of Judaism, or maybe the entire world) and that the gospel would go forth and "corrupt" the entire batch.  Even more offensive to the people to that day possibly was that the kingdom of heaven was being compared to a woman doing common household work.  It would have been a hard pill for the religious people to swallow that the woman in this story could have been God at work in a mysterious way that they did not understand.

We again see that Jesus is now speaking in parables to the people in all things now both to conceal and to reveal, but now we also find out this is in order to fulfill prophecy about the Messiah, as it was foretold that He would come speaking in parables and reveal that things that had been hidden, but as we learned last time there would be people who would not want to see or hear what He was saying and would therefore not be given the understanding or interpretation.  As we move onto the interpretation of the Parable of the Weeds, let's pay attention to the fact that the parable was spoken to the large crowd, but the interpretation was given only to the disciples, and only after they asked for it.  In the same way we often "know not because we ask not" and we must ask believing that we have a Good Father who loves His children and is not the author of confusion and is ready, willing, and able to share the truth that we are ready for with us in His way and in His time (usually through His Word, but sometimes through other means as well).

Are we like the kingdom of heaven in these parables?  Are we part of the genuine crop that will be gathered into God's storehouses, or will be be burned up with the weeds?  Have we let the gospel grow and permeate every area of our lives individually and as a culture so much so that everyone around us is affected and experiences the secondary blessing of the gospel? (Notice the similarity of the mustard seed parable to that of the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar about his kingdom in Daniel 4).  Do we have ears to hear and eyes to see the truth that Jesus is trying to reveal to us or do the parables conceal the truth that we've decided that we don't want to see and hear?  Are we preaching the gospel to the world knowing that there is a two-fold harvest coming?  There is a time coming when there will be no more time left to make a decision and that time will come swiftly and without warning (other than the signs that have been given in prophecy).  We must constantly be about the work that Jesus sent us out to do.  To be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it with the gospel.

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