An imposter has infiltrated the organization. That is sometimes the plot of suspense movies or books. Sometimes that happens in real life, too, with enemy agents spying on government agencies, getting into major corporations to attempt a takeover, or just sneaking into clubs where they don’t belong. In today’s Gospel reading we see an infiltration, one sent by a specific enemy, and what our Lord has to teach us about it.
In our Scripture, Jesus told His disciples the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, in which He explained what will happen within the kingdom as the Gospel spreads throughout the world. In this parable the Lord spoke of a man who sowed his field with good wheat seed, but in the dark of night his enemy comes and sows tares in the field (vs. 24-30). Tares are a noxious, poisonous weed that looks very similar to wheat in the early stages, but is distinguishable when mature. After the plants start growing the workers see that there are tares among the wheat, and ask if they should pull them out. The owner tells them to wait until harvest, so that the good wheat won’t accidentally get pulled out along with the tares. At that time the wheat is gathered for the harvest, but the tares are gathered and burned.
Jesus then proceeded to tell the disciples the meaning of this parable (vs. 36-43). The Sower is God and the wheat seeds are Christians which are planted all over the world. The enemy is Satan, who plants counterfeit believers, who are actually unbelievers, in among the true believers. Satan opposes the work of Jesus, and is trying to undermine the work of the Church by placing his own people, the tares, among the good wheat, the true believers. These tares, though, will be cast into eternal punishment, whereas the true believers will shine in God’s eternal kingdom.
What does this parable mean to us today? Jesus wants us to know that Satan is intentionally trying to corrupt the Church. He intentionally plants people who make false professions of faith, counterfeit Christians into the church, planting deception, and attempting to guide true believers down a wrong path of false belief and practices. This is done subtly, not openly or obviously. One such false belief is that Satan doesn’t really exist, but Jesus makes it very clear here, and throughout the Gospels, that he does exist and is an active enemy.
The workers in God’s field asked whether they should go in and pull up these tares right away before they cause damage to the good wheat. They want to purify the field immediately, but Jesus forbids it. Just as tares are often very difficult to distinguish from the wheat, so too unbelievers who are falsely claiming to be Christians, who go around subtly trying to spread false beliefs, are often difficult to tell apart. However, in the end they will be revealed, and God will separate them at the end.
Satan has been, and still is currently sowing weeds among the good seeds in God’s garden. There are weeds in the church today! They closely resemble the wholesome wheat, but are planted by Satan. His purposes are always to do damage and destroy God’s purposes, and we should be aware and prepared. We need to be like the Christians in the Berean church, checking every teaching we hear with the Scriptures (Acts 17:10-12).
The Lord does not want us to be the ones who do the weeding, as we might pull out what we thought was a tare, but it was really wheat. Though we need to be careful with whose teachings truly line up with the Word of God, only God knows the human heart. He alone can make a true judgment.
We may wonder why God does not weed out the wicked people and evil from His world, but we can be thankful that He is more intent on preserving His people until the harvest. The presence of tares does not hinder the wheat from growing. The true wheat will survive despite the tares being mixed among them. There are pretenders in the church, and we must not let them influence our faith. Instead, we should be influencing theirs.
Not everyone who says they are a Christian really is one. There are false “Christians” that Satan has planted inside our churches. We need to be careful of them, but leave the final judgment to Jesus. He will send His angels to separate them, and then the wicked will face eternal fire, but the righteous will shine in glory. This parable is both a warning and a comfort. God sees, God knows, and He will judge perfectly. Jesus closed this parable as He did many parables, with the statement “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Are we listening to Him?
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