The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

If there is anything in the bible that convinces me that Christians will be on this earth until the 2nd coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the parable of the wheat and the tares.  Here are notes I made from the sermon on this parable by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio.  Link to the sermon at the end:

The Wheat and the Tares

Matthew 13:24-30, V36-43

The day that Jesus told this parable he was at the seaside and sitting on a fishing boat just off the shore, preaching to multitudes of people on the beach. (Matthew 13:1-2)  According to V24, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.  A temporary tale with an eternal message. An illustration in words that are commonly understood to bring a message that is commonly forgotten.  This parable is taken from the agricultural world.  This parable is commonly known as the wheat and the tares and it is about the kingdom of heaven.  Where is the kingdom of heaven?  is it big or is it small?  how does it grow? what is the value of becoming a part of the kingdom of heaven.  This parable is about the kingdom of heaven.

What are the facts?  V24 "...the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field." The kingdom of heaven is like a field.  a field that has been prepared for sowing.  V25 "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way."  At night, the enemy comes and sows tares among the wheat in the field.  Tares are a type of a weed called Darnel.   Darnel is a poisonous plant that is related to wheat and it is a plant that is impossible to distinguish from wheat because it looks precisely the same until the ears form for the fruit, and then when the fruit comes it looks very different from wheat. (Here is a link to an article on Darnel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolium_temulentum )That is why it says in V26 "But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also."   They couldn't tell the difference until the fruit came.  One is poisonous and one is good.  This parable the Lord was teaching was something that really happened, sowing Darnel in the wheat was a crime against a particular Roman law.  People did this as an act of vengeance against someone else, they would sow Darnel in their field. 

V27,28a  "So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this...."   It wasn't the good farmer that sowed the tares, he sowed only good seed, it was an enemy that sowed the tares.  V28b-30 "The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?  But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."   The servants wanted to pull the weeds but the master wouldn't let them do that.  A heavy infestation of Darnel couldn't be pulled up because the roots of the weeds were stronger than the roots of the wheat.  They were tangled together, to pull the weeds up you have to wait until the harvest and pull them up together.   There would be a separation of the plants in the future.