The Wheat and the Weeds Matthew 13: 24 30; 36 43

Matthew 13 is full of parables, and all the parables teach us about God’s kingdom. They explain what the kingdom is really like as opposed to some of our expectations of it. The kingdom of heaven is not a geographic location but it’s a spiritual realm where God rules and where we through Christ share in His eternal life. The parable of the wheat and the weeds reveal the mystery of God’s kingdom based on its interpretation in verses 36-43.

This parable gives us a narrative of the two types of people in the world. All humans are made in the image of God; meaning we all look alike outwardly but inwardly there is a difference to the one who sees and knows every heart. God will in the end separate those with evil in their heart from those whose heart is filled with genuine faith in Him.

However, both groups of people coexist in this world, and this will be so until the end time. These two groups of people are the children of God (wheat) and the children of Satan (weeds). In John 2:23 John tells us that Jesus knows all men, both those of genuine faith and those with counterfeit faith. The wheat are of God while the weed are of Satan; glory to God who has put all enemies of His under the feet of Christ and the last enemy is death (1Cor 15:24).

The wheat and the weeds looks the same and can’t be distinguished until harvest time. If one is not wheat, such one will not understand the mystery of God’s kingdom or the heavenly, because it will make no sense to them. But to the wheat, the mystery is a light unto their path.

There are three elements involved in this parable; the sowing, the growing, and the reaping. Let’s look at them individually:

1. The sowing: We are told that Jesus is the sower in verse 37, verse 38 says the field is the world for which Jesus sows. The wheat represents believers of Christ. Wheat does not have a deep root system ie they are easily pulled up &uprooted. This could be so because they are not firmly attached to this world. As believers of Christ, we are not to be deeply rooted to the things of this world. But we are to be rooted in the things of our Father’s kingdom. You see all these things that we see in this world, as beautiful and good as they seem can never be compared with what heaven has instore for the wheat. So, we must be fixing our attention to the things in heaven.

• Wheat doesn’t last very long; it grows, ripens, bears fruits and quickly passes away. When we got born again, we were saved to grow in grace, bear fruits for God’s kingdom; meaning by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are to reach out with the gospel to those around us, this could be where we work, socialises, etc. We are here in this field called ‘the world’ to accomplish specific things for God. ‘Go ye and make disciples of all nations’ (Mat 28:19a). Remember this, in disciple making some will reject or insult you but keep pressing-on because some will be won over.

• Wheat grow upward and dies downward; we ought to grow more and become more alive and mature in the things of God and dead to that which is in this world. ‘Set you affections on the things above, not on thing on the earth’ (Col 3:2).

• The head of the wheat becomes full of grains & slumps over in humility. This implies that bearing fruits as a Christian should not lead anyone of us to pride; it should be a thing of humility. Let our success lead us to bow in humility to God for whom grace had been given to us to do the things we do.

• The enemy sows the weeds among the wheat verse 25, this enemy we are told is the devil. Verse 38b-39 says the weeds are the children of the devil (Satan). We now know that in this world, all humans are the same outwardly, but we belong to two different families. Either we are God’s or Satan’s. There is no middle human…

1. The growing: Since both groups of humans are the same in statues, the devil uses his children to attack those of God by infiltration and by planting his followers even in the church of Christ. This means not all in the churches are of God. Paul calls those weeds in the church ‘false brethren’ (2Cor 11:26). These are also known as counterfeit believers. Children of God we must be very watchful because these counterfeit believers can be a poison to the church.

2. The reaping or harvest: The weeds look like the wheat, they carry the bible, and they sing, they even work for the church, yet they are counterfeit in their heart. We should all self-examine whether ye be in the genuine faith in Christ or not. Hey I am not trying to jiggle anyone’s faith but I am here to declare the truth of Jesus’ parable for our sake.

• The Lord’s coming is very near and even closer, the more reason we should ask ourselves are we wheat or weeds? The trimming is forthcoming, God is the reaper & the truth is indeed grim… He will drive in His sharp sickle & harvest the earth. He alone can tell the difference between the wheat from the weeds correctly on that great judgment day, and He will wipe our tears… Revelation 21:4.

There are some characteristics that the weeds tend to share ie the features that Satan’s children have: These are deception, damaging, & destroyed. Let’s see how:

1. Weeds are deceptive; in that one can easily confuse them for wheat ie they pretend outwardly to be that which they are not in their hearts. They flourish in the same field as the wheat; both are almost indistinguishable until the ear appears. If the workers start pulling weeds, they probably would have had to pull out some wheat instead. The similarity between wheat & weeds is however a reminder that we can’t always easily tell the difference. Just as in this world there are saved and unsaved people we aren’t in the position to tell which is which but the creator God knows.

• In Matthew 7, the folks there talked about their works/deeds but failed to mention their need for a Saviour. The difference between the two groups of people that is God’s and Satan’s is the things that happen in the heart. The world looks at the outward appearance or deeds but God looks at the heart, because the heart reveals who and what one really is.

1. Weeds are damaging: the roots of the weeds entangled themselves with that of the wheat, ie weeds take up the soil from the wheat because weeds have very invasive root systems that quickly take over the surrounding earth, stealing vital nutrients & water from other plants.

The same happens in our spiritual lives, if we are always surrounded by weedy people, note the ‘bad company corrupts good moral’ (1cor 15:33 and ‘…a person sharpens another’ Proverb 27:17). This does not mean we are not to associate with non-believers. What this means is that for the sake of the gospel of Christ, we should mingle with them, but we shouldn’t hang-out with them. Jesus Christ mingled with the crowd but hung-out only with His disciples (like-minded in faith).

1. Weeds are destroyed: The parable ended with the weeds being bundled & burned while the wheat is carried gleefully into the farmer’s barn. As the weeds are thrown to the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. Satan’s children will be thrown into hell where there will be gnashing of teeth (Mat 13:40-42). In hell everything perishes; ie hope, happiness, even body & souls of Christ – deniers will perish. Jesus told us not to be fearful of the wickedness of the world by saying ‘do not be afraid of those who can only kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell’ (Mat 10:28). Hell is very real friends, therefore we should live right for Jesus.

In concluding; this parable is simply giving us the opportunity to rethink about our ways, are we wheat in our hearts or are we weeds inside too? Weeds are heading to destruction… But there is an opportunity for us today to change from being a weed to wheat ie from Satan’s camp move to God’s. God is calling out today because He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed but if one does not yield and repent, then sorry the bad news is that weeds will be thrown to hell-fire.

Jesus had twelve disciples (wheats) and among them was one weed (from Satan). Judas was corrupted in his heart so his father the devil used him to betray his Lord and Master Jesus Christ. In order to become wheat, we must let go of pride and accept God’s invitation which is through Christ and He will make anyone who accepts as wheat in His garden (the New Jerusalem or the new paradise which will be here soonest). Are we weeds or wheat?