25th Sunday after Trinity, 2002
Matthew 13:24-30

A tare is an obnoxious plant. The tare Jesus speaks of in His parable was a weed common in ancient times. Farmers scowled when they appeared. The plant itself was toxic, sickening those who consumed it. Getting rid of a weed that camouflaged itself was not easy. Not until later in the summer could wheat and tares be clearly distinguished. At that point the wheat shot up taller than the tares and the tares took on a grayish color. However, by that time the tangling of the roots created another problem. Pulling a tare out of the soil tended to uproot with it good stalks of wheat.

How did farmers deal with tares? If the field was badly infested the workers could swing their scythes high enough to cut the wheat and miss the tares. Once the wheat was collected, the brown field would be burned over. If there was a smaller portion of tares, the wheat and tares were gathered together. Near the threshing floor the women would separate the good from the bad by hand. The bad stuff was bundled up and set ablaze.

In Jesus' parable, the servants notify the owner about the tares in the field. How does the owner explain the presence of tares? "An enemy has done this." That sounds odd. Did people actually sneak out at night to sow seeds of tare in the fields of their neighbors? Apparently so. Such strange behavior was brought about by the feuding of rival farmers. The Roman Empire had to write a law prohibiting the practice.

What are the main thoughts of the parable? One thing we notice is the deceptive resemblance of the wheat and the tares. Then there is the potential risk in uprooting the tares. What does it mean? Fortunately Jesus interprets His own parable in Matthew 13:37-43. [Reading that.]

This picture of a mixed field of wheat and tares was a symbol of the world until our Lord's Second Coming. The parable is a view of history and the End. The field is the world. The wheat represents Christian nations and individuals, the tares symbolize the unbelieving ones. Let's not miss the continuity between Christ's First Coming and His Second Coming. If this parable is a guide to the end times, it teaches that there is no historical break between the two comings. As soon as Jesus returns the second time the Great White Throne Judgment takes place and that is the End. The tares are bundled up and burned; the wheat goes in the barn.

What about the tares before the Final Judgment? They are permitted to grow. God extends a certain degree of grace to sinners. They are not uprooted. He preserves their lives. The Lord Almighty "makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:44). He restrains the depravity of sinners so that they do not walk as wickedly as they naturally would. James 1:17 states, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights." In other words, our Creator graciously gives even rebels sunshine, rain, and many good gifts. He grants them the physical ability to work, the intellectual capacity to think, and the aesthetic skills to compose music, write literature, and produce works of art. The favor that God bestows upon the unsaved is not the "special grace" of salvation, rather the "common grace" given to all. First Timothy 4:10 hints at this doctrine. St. Paul says, "For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe." That last part is key. God is the Savior of all men, meaning all people. How do we understand this? It cannot mean universalism, the notion that God saves every human being. That is impossible, for the Bible clearly teaches that the redeemed end up in Heaven and the lost end up in the Lake of Fire. How do we handle this declaration that Jesus is the Savior of all people? Common grace solves the problem. Special grace is given God's children alone. Common grace on the other hand is universal, applying even to the unsaved. Unbelievers are permitted to enjoy, to a limited degree, God's earthly blessings in this life. In terms of the parable, special grace is given only to the wheat; common grace extends to the tares. They are not uprooted until the harvest. At the harvest, however, their common grace is cut off.

This parable can help us put things in perspective. Is the world getting better? Or getting worse? That is a common question, and many Christians hold that conditions are growing terribly worse. Compared to the way things were fifty or one hundred years ago morality has deteriorated dramatically. Abortion, pornography, the gay agenda, radical Islam: these modern trends threaten and frighten us. It seems as though the world is going downhill fast. Isn't that a fair evaluation? Yes, but it is only half true. The tares are maturing, but according to Christ's parable the wheat is maturing as well. There is improvement in Christ's kingdom. The Church is growing and developing. It has been doing so for 2,000 years. It will continue to do so. There are positive signs even in this present generation. Christians are educating their children better. Christian scientists no longer allow evolutionists to bulldoze them intellectually. The Church is beginning to discover the mediocrity of pop culture and turning to traditional beauty and depth. Christians writers and musicians are honing their skills. A St. Luke's parishioner recently gave me some articles about Christianity's growth in the Southern Hemisphere. Trends in South America, Africa, China, South East Asia, and other places are so heartening. The Church is growing in the face of persecution. And it is not the liberal wing. The Anglican, Catholic, Baptist and Charismatic branches enjoying the most growth are very conservative strands, traditional and biblical. The wheat and tares are shooting up. For every area where we see moral decline we can find an area of Christian advancement. Both sides are becoming more consistent in living out their faith.

There is a fascinating result to this rivalry. As the wheat and tares become more consistent in thinking through and applying their worldviews, the issues of life become clearer. C.S. Lewis wrote about this process in his book, That Hideous Strength . He wrote: "If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family ­ anything you like ­ at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren't quite so sharp; and that there's going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing. The whole thing is sorting itself out all the time, coming to a point, getting sharper and harder."

As we have seen, Jesus interpreted his own parable of the wheat and the tares. He explicitly stated: "The field is the world" (Matthew 13:38). In spite of that clear statement, the majority of Christians in history have held that the field symbolizes the Church. How can this be? Jesus explains that the field also represents His Kingdom (v. 41). Since the Church is the instrument of the Kingdom upon earth we may say that this parable applies to the Church as well.

And what can the Church learn? Jesus assures His disciples that the Church would never be entirely pure, she would never be the ideal Church ­ perfect and unspotted. She would be holy, for that is one of the marks of the Church. Christ, her head, would be perfect, but she would not. She would be a mixture of wheat and tares until the harvest. Not until the Second Coming would she be presented unto the Bridegroom an infallibly pure and lovely Bride. In the meantime the Risen Lord loves his Bride and gave His life for Her that He might sanctify and cleanse Her (Ephesians 5:25).

This was the cold and cruel fact that the servants were reluctant to accept. They loved the wheat field and they did not want to see defects in it. So they asked the Master of the field, "Do you want us then to go and gather up the tares?" They desired pure, perfect, golden waves of grain, and they wanted it in a hurry. But the owner responds, "No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest"

Should we blame the zeal of the servants? No. It is not an evil request they made; it is a righteous desire. God has placed in our hearts discontentedness with the second-rate. We loathe mediocrity. We hunger for holiness, and thirst for devotion. Fired by idealism we strive for flawless beauty. We frown on the weeds in our gardens, for we want the best. Some Christians have more of this spirit than others; some are marked by a fanatical perfectionism.

"Do you want us then to go and gather up the tares?" is a perpetual temptation. And in fact it will be necessary to yank out a few tares when they get big and bad. The Church does not abandon her discipline. Matthew 18 commands the Church to excommunicate an unrepentant sinner after due process (Matthew 18:15-18). Our Book of Common Prayer instructs me to bar from the table of the Lord any "open and notorious evil liver" (p. 69). Article XXVI of the Thirty-Nine Articles exhorts the Church to defrock ministers found guilty of a serious offense (pp. A-68-69). As a parish, we have pursued and will continue to pursue corporate holiness. There are limits. Flagrant sin is punished. But after we have exercised all the discipline that is possible there will still be in every branch of the Church a mixture of wheat and tares.

Our fields will always be checkered by a percentage of weeds. We'll stand at the edge of the wheat crop with a machete in one hand and a hoe in the other. And we'll point to those noxious weeds and ask the Savior, "Do you want us then to go and gather up the tares?" And the Lord of the harvest will respond: "No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest."

What was the reason for Jesus' response? Why does the Lord exhort us to tolerate the tares? Why does He want us to put up with those who are lukewarm and uncommitted? Some of those same tares may one day convert to wheat. Every day souls who are backslidden or who have gone astray, return to God. Our Lord's patience and constancy gives them the opportunity they need for salvation.

Then, inner holiness is not always easily recognized. Our judgment and perception of others is often skewed. There are too many people whom we would classify as unbelievers, as tares, yet God has classified them as wheat, His adopted children. In effect, we misjudge.

During the latter part of the 19th century the British got involved in a war against the Muslim fundamentalists of Sudan. The Armed Forces scheduled for deployment a young British officer named Harry Faversham. His crack corps would soon set off in a vessel. Harry was a well-trained soldier. The British military had decorated his father with medals of honor from previous campaigns. His friends congratulated his engagement to a beautiful woman. On the eve of his departure to war in the Sudan Harry resigned from the service. He was afraid. In response to his resignation, his best friends and his fiancée handed him white feathers ­ symbols of cowardice. The four feathers provoked Harry to go to the Sudan, disguise himself as an Arab, and redeem himself with acts of heroism. His acts of gallantry in the Sudan are portrayed in the movie, "The Four Feathers." In the end Harry completely vindicated himself. The four people had exercised a judgment and how completely mistaken that judgment was.

It is a fact that it is not given to us to know how everything is going to turn out in the end. We may mistake wheat for tares, and in the process of uprooting the tares, fruitful wheat may get yanked out too. What foolishness it would be to root out wheat grasses thinking they were tares!

Does the parable of the wheat and the tares establish an absolute law of toleration? No. There are times when we must practice tough discipline. The purpose of this parable is to create an atmosphere in the Church; to produce an environment of patience, love and forgiveness. Working for purity in the Church is a noble goal, but beware, Puritanism can be taken too far. Peace of mind is found in a patient contentment. Dealing with the defects of Church and family demands your utmost patience. For some people patience is one of the most difficult virtues. Jesus' words, "Let both grow together until the harvest" is a lesson in patience. Until the Savior comes again, you will continually deal with weeds in your field. The roots are so entangled with the wheat, that a premature and hasty pulling up could be destructive. God give you and me, by His grace, wisdom to seek perfection on the one hand, and on the other hand demonstrate patience with what is imperfect.

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