24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
Matthew 13:24-30
The Parable of the tares and wheat are stated by Jesus in Matthew 13:24-30 and then it is explained to the disciples in Matthew 13:36-43. Jesus is telling us that not everyone who claims to be a part of the church is. In this parable, the wheat represent the children of God and the tares represent those of the earth who are ruled by Satan. These grow together and that until the wheat form a head of grain they are difficult if not impossible to tell apart. This suggests that there are counterfeits in the church who claim to be believers but are not. Jesus said that these two will be allowed to grow together until the very end of the age or the harvest when the tares will be destroyed in eternal fire.
It may be surprising to the reader today how many times Jesus refers to the eternal fire of judgment for those who don't call him Lord and Savior. There are some denominations and church which seek to suggest that any punishment that a person experiences in eternity will be temporary or the person will be annihilated in the end. There is nowhere in scripture that supports such a view. Jesus spent an enormous amount of his time talking about eternal punishment where the fire is not quenched and the worm doesn't die. Jesus talks more about this in the parable of the sheep and the goats mentioned in Matthew 25:31-46. In the end, one group goes off the eternal punishment while the righteous go to eternal life. Scripture doesn't minimize eternal punishment.
We see the corruption of the church also in Jesus parable of the leaven. Leaven was a symbol of evil and sin. The birds mentioned in Jesus parable of the mustard seed typically symbolize evil such as in Jeremiah 5:26,27 and Rev 18:2. These parable are talking about the fast growth of the church both externally and internally. As with many other things, evil people sought to use the church for their own purposes and it did not take long after Jesus' life and death and resurrection for people to come along and peddle their own version of the gospel for their own evil purposes. If you read about the history of the church you will see that soon after the apostles are gone there is much corruption of the church. The birds, those who are evil, seek the safety and shade of the church to try and corrupt it. Jesus, John and Peter all warned that there would be false teachers who would arise after Jesus' resurrection.
Years ago, when I spoke a message at the church in Philippi, WV about the absence of leaven in the Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciple. I hadn't really intended to speak about it and it wasn't emphasized in my notes and seemed that the church there had never heard that lesson before. Someone who was in the back of the room who had been on the communion committee mouthed the words "sorry". I didn't understand why she was apologizing until we lifted the lid off the bread for communion and there was normal bread there. When Jesus ate the Passover meals with his disciples and later at the Last Supper no leaven would have been present. Leaven represents sin in the story and the absence of it speaks about how we are to be separate from the world.
31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” 33 Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three [c]measures of meal till it was all leavened.” Matthew 13:31-33
The parable of the mustard seed that Jesus gives in Matthew 31-32 is very interesting. It would be normal for a mustard seed to grow the size of a bush. It would be unnatural and extremely unusual for it to grow the size of a tree. This grow is also shown in the parable of the yeast that Jesus mentions in verses 33. The woman who mixed the large amount of flour with yeast is mixing enough flour to feed about 100 people or 40 litres. It was unusually large and symbolizes the institutional church that became corrupt soon after Jesus walked the earth. G Campbell Morgan said about this that the leaven represents the paganizing influences brought into the church.
Having said all of this, God always reserves a remnant of the true church for himself. Elijah thought he was the only one left of all the believers in 1 Kings 19:14-18, yet God told him that he had reserved 7,000 believers in Israel for himself. I think there is some practical guidelines to take from these parables that I will mention briefly
1. I think this calls on us individually to examine ourselves and our faith rather than tradition or simply going to church on Sunday. Do you love God and hate sin? Are you truly following Christ or just another man? Have you taken up your cross and followed Christ? Are you a tare or wheat?
2. The church today will have some level of corruption in it, so that means we are responsible to be in the word of God for ourselves and not just to believe whatever we hear from a pulpit or a preacher or evangelist. You are responsible not to be lazy and get into the Word of God yourself.
3. You need to test what you hear from teachers and those who claim to be preachers or evangelist (1 John 4:1). Does their words line up with what scripture says? Does the teacher emphasize the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus? Much of what is taught in the modern church today resembles psychology and positive self talk rather than the gospel.
4. Not everyone who you see in church will you see in heaven. The tares are growing these days with the wheat. So, don't be surprised if at times the church and its programs resemble the world. People go to church for all sorts of reasons and not always the right ones.
