Time to get my tomato sauce done 🍅 The wheat and the tares

Matthew 13: 24-30

²⁴ Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed ^[tares among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. ²⁷ The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ ²⁸ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

One reason non-believing Jews do not recognize Jesus as Messiah is that in His coming, He did not set Israel over the earth and remove the presence of evil, as was widely expected.

Since suffering and death remain, they argue, Jesus is not the Christ. Such horrors would not occur under the Messiah’s reign. 

Jesus’ earliest followers shared these assumptions and were troubled by the seemingly unchanged situation with His advent.

Now as in today’s verses, we read of the history of Christ’s kingdom in the parable called: “The wheat and the tares.” Now, I want you to notice the growth period between seedtime and harvest. Jesus is teaching that God’s kingdom does not come all at once. It is inaugurated in His first advent… continues to grow after His exaltation… and is consummated when He returns to judge creation.

Along with the work of Jesus comes an increase in the Devil’s activity, which is why the kingdom’s arrival brings strife for the Lord’s servants. 

Most often the problem lies in the selective reading of Scripture that causes the confusion. When read by themselves, certain passages appear to teach that the Messiah brings the kingdom fully and immediately. For example, (in Ezekiel and Zechariah) the text says the “day of the Lord” which by themselves and without taking the entirety of God’s Word in context, seems to teach that God’s salvation and judgment occur on a single day.  

However, the inauguration, continuation, and consummation pattern of Christ’s kingdom is not without precedent in Scripture.  

For instance: Abraham owned only a portion of Palestine before his death; his children waited centuries to possess the land.

David was anointed as king years before the nation of Israel came under his control. And these are just a few examples.

Our Savior’s apostles would later see that the “last days,” refers to this time of kingdom expansion.

Though consummated at the final judgment, the day of the Lord is longer than twenty-four hours. It covers the entire period between Christ’s two advents.  

Presently, there is a lot of talk over the “last days,” and many people assert that we are living in the literal the “last days.”

However, while the return of Christ is most certainly closer to us today than it was yesterday, we must remember that we have been living in the last days since Jesus rose from the dead, and it’s imperative that we are conducting our lives in the fear of God accordingly.

Life Happens...

As we told in 2 Peter 3:11, “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness…”