Wheat and Tares
by Pat N.
Sometimes you can read a familiar Bible passage and all of a sudden, something jumps out at you that you never noticed before. That happened to me recently when thinking about Jesus’ parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13: 24-30). Instead of trying to figure out what was wheat and what wasn’t, the man told his workers to let the plants grow until harvest time. Then, he would tell the reapers to cut the tares first and bundle them to be burned, but gather the wheat into his barn.
Well—how can you tell a stalk of wheat from a stalk of weed? And how long might it take to harvest the field? Here’s what I learned:
Wheat and tares are seemingly identical until nearing harvest, when the grains in the wheat stalks are heavy, making the wheat “bow down.” The tares don’t have that fruit - they don’t bend; they stand tall for easy picking!
What does that mean for us? Here are some thoughts: If we are wheat seed, we likely are in a field along with some weeds. Our job is to grow, mature, and produce fruit. As the grain develops and becomes heavier, we bend over from the weight of the results of being and doing what we were designed to be and do. Grow strong, produce good fruit, don’t worry about harvest time and know that the Master discerns between wheat and tares.
And as we mature, we bow down! As the time for “harvest” draws nearer, our difference from weeds will become more evident. The weeds will continue to stand tall and proud, not realizing that posture marks them as “fake” wheat. Think about it. What an awesome teacher Jesus is!
