THE PERSON AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS
THE PARABLES Purpose of Parables and the Parable of the Tares
One feature about parables which needs to be emphasized is that in order to understand them, you must be "in the know." Someone must interpret the parables for you in order for you to understand them. The meaning of the parables is not surface; they must be explained.
Why then does Jesus use parables when you will understand them only if someone interprets them for you? He uses parables both to communicate meaning and also to conceal meaning, to communicate to God's people who have accepted Jesus and His work of bringing the kingdom of God into the world, and to conceal this from those who have rejected Jesus.
"To you [Jesus' followers] it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,
But to them [those who reject Jesus] it has not been granted . . .
The parables build up followers of Jesus while condemning those who reject Jesus. How do parables condemn those who reject Jesus? When those who reject Jesus hear parables, they hear the truth. They don't understand the truth; however, they nevertheless hear the truth. Because they don't respond positively to the truth, the truth condemns them even though they did not understand the truth. We are responsible for what we have heard, not for what we have or have not understood.
Now if the Jewish religious leaders and their followers had accepted Jesus (the essence of the truth), Jesus would have interpreted the parables to them so that they could have understood them. The only reason Jesus does not interpret the parables for them is that they would reject Him even if He had interpreted the parables for them. Interpreting the parables to these people would be similar to throwing pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6). The parables then both build up the followers of Jesus and condemn those who reject Him.
"But," you might say, "that is not fair!" For 1400 years God had communicated clearly and fairly to the Jewish nation what His will for them was. How had they responded to this crystal clear communication? They had rejected not only the prophets; they had also rejected Jesus. When things got rough, they did a quick repentance; however, this quick repentance was shallow. God had had it. They had rejected Him for the last time. Now He was rejecting them.
[To the Jewish people God says} "You will keep on hearing but will not understand;
You will keep on seeing but will not perceive.
For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes;
otherwise, they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,
And return and I would heal them."
When they rejected Jesus, there was no one left to send to the Jewish people. The day of judgment was upon them. No more was shallow repentance going to be able to fit the bill. The coming of Jesus brought a crisis to the Jewish nation. It was either time to put up or shut up.
In the same way there comes a point in our relationship with God in which Jesus tells us to get more serious about our relationship with Him, or else our relationship with Him is going to suffer. We see this in Pilate's conversation with Jesus. When Pilate at first questions Jesus, Jesus responds forthrightly and openly. Pilate's response? He dismisses Jesus. Later Pilate is nervous because he fears Jesus just might be the Son of God. When he quizzes Jesus the second time, Jesus clams up. Why? Because Pilate dismissed Jesus cavalierly during the first interview, Jesus makes it tougher on Pilate during the second interview. Take advantage of the times Jesus comes and communicates to you. That communication is not always guaranteed when we dismiss it so lightly.
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES (Matt. 13:10-17)
The Background of the Parable
The primary theme of the teachings of Jesus is that He the Messiah had come to usher in the kingdom of God and that your response to Jesus personally determined whether or not you entered the kingdom of God. (Entering the kingdom of God is not an unnecessary luxury; it is the only way to experience eternal life.) We saw this theme operating in the parable of the 4 soils.
The theme of Jesus bringing in the kingdom of God raises many questions. The parable of the 4 soils dealt with the question why many (at least 3/4) rejected Jesus as the One who brings in the kingdom of God. Jesus claimed that the problem did not reside with Him or His message but rather with His listeners. The parable of the tares deals with the issue of the consummation of the kingdom. Jesus came to bring in the kingdom of God. We claim that Jesus has ushered in that kingdom. If the kingdom of God is already present among us, why are things still so crummy on earth? The fact that things are so bad just might really indicate that Jesus is NOT the Messiah, that He in fact has NOT ushered in the kingdom. Moreover, why hasn't Jesus already consummated the kingdom? This parable addresses these issues.
The Parable (13:24-30)
In this parable a landowner sends out his workers to sow good seed in his field, in this case wheat. The laborers then leave the field alone in order to allow the seed to germinate and for nature to take its course.
Unbeknownst to the landowner and his laborers, an enemy of the landowner decides to damage his crops. He sends out some of his help to sow the seed of tares among the seed of the wheat. At first the landowner does not detect the problem because tares (darnel) and wheat look similar. The problem became evident though whenever the 2 plants started putting forth grain. At that point there is a noticeable difference between the 2 types of plants.
When the laborers discover that darnel has been sown among the wheat, they approach the landowner quite puzzled over the situation: "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?" (The form of their question implies a positive response: "Yes, I sowed only good seed in my field.") The landowner realizes that he has not only sown good seed in his field but that his enemy has sown the tares: "An enemy has done this!"
What to do then about the situation? The laborers naturally suggest that they dig up the bad plants, leaving the good wheat in the fields. On the surface this seems like a good solution; however, the landowner sees a distinct problem with this solution. Because the tares have been sown so close to the wheat, the root system of the tares will naturally have gotten tangled up with the root system of the wheat. As a result there is the real likelihood that when you dig up the tares, you will uproot the wheat with them.
The landowner comes up with the best solution. In order to protect ALL the wheat and not just the vast majority of it, he instructs his laborers to wait until the time of the harvest to gather up all the plants and then, ONLY THEN, to separate the wheat from the tares. With this operation you do get rid of the tares; however, you lose none of the wheat. When it is all said and done, the most important thing is not to lose any of the wheat.
Interpretation of the Parable (13:37-43)
Before looking at the proper interpretation of the parable, we need to look at one incorrect interpretation of this parable. Some claim that this parable teaches that you should not discipline a person and remove him from the church. There are 2 serious issues with this teaching. First, the field in this parable is NOT the church; rather it is the world. Christians have no right to judge the world; however, they both have the right and the responsibility to exercise church discipline (1 Cor. 5:1-13). Second, this teaching flies in the face of what Jesus teaches about church discipline (Matt. 18:15-17). Church discipline is a necessary element of church life if the church is going to remain healthy. This parable has nothing to do with church discipline.
Fortunately, Jesus gives us a detailed interpretation of the parable of the tares.
This though is not the only issue this parable addresses, although it is the primary one. A side issue concerns the reason for the delay. Why didn't Jesus just come and consummate His kingdom and throw all the evil ones into hell? The reason is that whereas some people might have been evil when Jesus came, they might have changed from enemies of Jesus to followers of Jesus. Suppose Jesus had wiped out His enemies when He came 2000 years ago. Then Paul would have never been saved. You and I don't know who is going to be saved. Because someone is hostile to Jesus now does not mean that that person is always going to be hostile to Jesus in the future. Paul says that God wills that ALL men be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). Not every man is going to be saved; however, God desires that no man perish but that all come to the saving knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). (See also 2 Pet. 3:15).
Finally, this passage gives insight to the future destiny of all people. Jesus says that there are only 2 destinies awaiting mankind, that of a fiery hell and that of a glorious existence. Some claim that Paul was tough, while Jesus was loving. Jesus was both loving and tough. He means for us to take Him seriously. Jesus spoke more about hell than anybody else in the Bible. He references hell 2x in the Sermon on the Mount, 2x when speaking about stumbling blocks (Matt. 18:8-9), and 2x here in the parables (here and 13:50).
People are going to face one of 2 destinies. C. S. Lewis states that if you today saw a Christian the way he is going to appear after Jesus raises him from the dead, you would fall down and worship him as if he were a god or her as a goddess. On the other hand, if you were to see today a non-believer the way he is going to appear after his condemnation, you would shudder with unspeakable horror because that person is going to be worse than your worst nightmare (The Weight of Glory). You and I are signposts directing people to one of these 2 destinations, either to indescribable glory or to unspeakable horror.
Moreover, hell is not just simply a spiritual or emotional place of torment. Many Christians believe that only Christians are going to be raised physically from the dead. That is not NT. The NT teaches that Jesus is the SECOND Adam. In other words, just as the first Adam has affected all people negatively, so Jesus the Second Adam is going to affect all people but in His case positively. The positive effect is that we shall ALL rise from the dead physically (see John 5:28-29; Rev. 20:1-15). Because even non-believers are physically resurrected from the dead, they shall experience physical torment as well as spiritual and emotional torment.
So what should our response to this parable be? The parable teaches that you can't tell the Christian from the non-Christian all the time and that Jesus is waiting to return until every last Christian is saved. Our responsibility is to lead as many people to Jesus as possible.
Moreover, since 98% of all Christians get saved before they are 18 years old, we need to be spending as much time and effort as possible on older children and youth. The church is not only for the children and youth; however, the primary focus should be on evangelizing this group within our church and within our community.