The Wheat and the Tares

As we read Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, it’s easy to imagine a thistle or dandelion as the weed that’s sown in with the weeds. The old KJV uses the word “tare.” The Greek is zizania. It’s a word for a weed that looks like wheat in the early stages. This weed wraps itself around the wheat stalk, essentially using the wheat stalk as a stability pile to pull itself up. So if you try to pull out the weed, you pull up the wheat as well. 

Based off this parable, a botanist conducted a study and tried to determine exactly which weed Jesus was talking about here. In his study he found some 19th century research where someone had taken the weed darnel and supervised experiments to find out how much of it was safe to eat. 

The experiments included feeding darnel to horses and smaller animals in varying amounts. If an animal eats enough darnel, it will start to hallucinate. If it eats more, it will go into a comma. If a large amount is eaten, it is deadly. 

So this means the enemy who comes to sow weeds is NOT planting dandelions because he wants to make your life inconvenient; he’s planting a psychedelic, brain-damaging, comma-inducing, killer plant. This isn’t a threat to the crop. This is a threat to the harvest itself and its ability to be consumed. 

What does it mean when Jesus says to let the wheat and the weeds grow together? In his ministry, Jesus was very comfortable letting the “wheat” and the “weeds” hang out together. Think about the Last Supper, where Jesus knows Judas is the betrayer. Jesus doesn’t leave him out. Jesus washes his feet, shares a meal, and lets him hear the teaching. Then Jesus says, “Hey, man. If you’re going to do it, go ahead.” Jesus doesn’t kick him out. 

Jesus was very comfortable in a mixed crowd of rich and poor, sinners and saints. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus eats with Pharisees just as often as he eats with sinners. 

What’s the point? This parable tells us something about Jesus that we probably wouldn’t figure out on our own. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. And the truth is, everybody’s lost. This parable—even with the scary images of fire and gnashing teeth at the end—is a reminder of what grace is like. Grace is the reverse of judgement. Meaning, while we deserve punishment, we receive grace because Jesus took the punishment on himself. 

Robert Farrar Capon wrote, “Jesus on the cross doesn’t threaten his enemies, he forgives them … On the basis of Jesus’ ministry as risen, there is no change in that policy. He comes forth from the tomb and ascends into heaven with nail prints in his hands and feet and a spear wound in his risen side—with eternal, glorious scars to remind God, angels, and us that he is not about to go back on his word from the cross.”