July 25, 2025 • 32 mins
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Matthew 10: 24-30 - 'Let them both grow till the harvest.'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 827 (in 'The Church is Holy') - "Christ, 'holy, innocent, and undefiled,' knew nothing of sin, but came only to expiate the sins of the people. the Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal." All members of the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed with the good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time. Hence the Church gathers sinners already caught up in Christ's salvation but still on the way to holiness:
The Church is therefore holy, though having sinners in her midst, because she herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her life, her members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for those offenses, of the means of salvation" has been deposited. It is in her that "by the grace of God we acquire holiness."
- 1034 (in 'Hell') - Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"
- 333 (in 'Christ with all his angels') - They will be present at Christ's return, which they will announce, to serve at his Judgement (abbreviated).
Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
Hello everyone. Welcome to daily gospel exegesis
podcast. If you're new to this podcast,
we're all about taking a look atthe gospel readings, which are
read at each day is Catholic mass and really diving into the
text of the gospels themselves. So, what is the text saying, on
the most basic level on the literal, Low-level, what was
(00:31):
that? Jesus trying to communicate to
his hearers. What was the Gospel author
trying to get across to to theiroriginal audience?
So really looking at the text itself, which the Catholic
Church teaches is, where we muststart.
If we want to understand scripture at the moment, we're
moving through the gospel of Matthew and we're looking at
chapter 13, verses 24 to 30 and 36 to 43.
(00:55):
Now, this episode is going to bethe same in two days across This
time period. So the parable itself, which is
the wheat and the weeds, or sometimes called the wheat and
the tares. And that is the parable itself
is red on Saturday of week, 16 in the lectionary, reading on
that day. So that's verse 24 to 30.
(01:17):
And then three days later on, Tuesday of week, 17, the
interpretation of the parable isread in the lectionary.
And that will be verses 36 to 43and where possible, we always
want to know what Jesus. Intention was in giving us the
parable, and this is one of these Parables where Jesus
himself explains what he means by the parable.
(01:37):
So we want to keep the parable itself and Jesus own
interpretation of the parable together.
So, that means, depending on when you're listening to this
episode, this episode is going to be the same on Saturday of
week 16 in ordinary time and then choose date of week, 17 in
ordinary time. So Matthew chapter 13 verses 24
to 30 and then 36 to 43. Here's the text, we're going to
(02:01):
look at Jesus, put another Parable before the crowds the
Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good
seed in his field while everybody was asleep.
His enemy came, so did Donnell all among the wheat and Madoff
When the new way to sprout and unripened the Donnell appeared
(02:22):
as well. The owners servants went to him
and said, sir, was it not good seed that you sewed in your
field? If so where does the darn or
come from? Some enemy has done this, he
answered. And the servants said, do you
want us to go on? Weed it out but he said, no,
(02:44):
because when you weed out the Donnell, you might pull up the
wheat with it, let them both grow till the Harvest.
And at Harvest time, I shall sayto the Reapers, first, collect
the Donnell and tie it in bundles to be burned, then,
gather the wheat into my barn, Leaving the crowds.
Jesus went to the house and his disciples came to him and said,
(03:07):
explain the parable about the Donnell in the field to us.
He said in reply the seller of the good seed is the son of man.
The field is the world. The Good Seed is the subjects of
the Kingdom. The Donnell the subjects of the
evil one, the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
The Harvest is the end of the world.
(03:30):
The reapers are the Angels. Well then just as the Donnell is
gathered up and burned in the fire so it will be at the End of
Time. The son of man will send his
angels and they will gather out of his kingdom.
All things are provoked offensesand all who do evil and throw
them into the Blazing furnace. Where there will be weeping and
(03:52):
grinding of teeth, Then The Virtuous will shine like the sun
in the Kingdom of their father. Listen, anyone who has ears?
So a very graphic Parable and one which is not often talked
about. So we're in Matthew Chapter 13,
which is the kingdom Parables chapter of Matthew.
(04:14):
So here, Matthew has assembled 7, Kingdom Parables that Jesus
speaks perhaps on different occasions or perhaps all on the
one day. And as I've said, a few times in
this podcast, in recent days, doing proper solid exegesis is
important with all gospel texts.But particularly important with
Parables because often you'll hear Horrible is interpreted in
(04:35):
an interesting way which maybe corresponds to the spiritual
sense of the text, but it's not really what Jesus intended.
It's not the literal sense of the text.
Usually, Jesus has one specific point in mind that he wants to
make. He has a literal sense in mind
that he's hoping his audience will pick up on and that's what
we want to get out when we're doing proper exegesis.
(04:56):
And that's what we try to do in this podcast.
So today we have the second Parable out of the 7 parables in
Matthew Chapter 13. So the first one is the parable
of the sower. A very well-known one.
And then the next one that Jesusmoves into in Chapter 13.
Is this one? The parable of the wheat and the
weeds and this Parable is only found in Matthew's gospel.
(05:19):
You won't hear it in the other three gospels at all, perhaps,
because the other gospel, authors felt that it was too
confronting to include for theirreaders.
But Matthew is writing to Jews and he knows.
Knows that the Jews are interested in the kingdom of
God, and particularly, what's going to happen when the kingdom
of God comes in its fullness. So he determines Matthew has
(05:39):
determined that he wants to keepthis parable of Jesus in his
gospel. So in verses 24 to 30, Jesus
gives the parable and that's right on Saturday of week 16.
And then after verse 30, he gives two other parables in
verses 31 to 35 and those three parables are red on Monday of
week 17. And then he interprets the
(06:02):
parable of the wheat, and the weeds in verses, 36 to 43, and
that's red on Tuesday of week 17.
And as I said before, when we'redealing, with the literal sense
of Parables, we want to find out.
Out what Jesus meant and Jesus actually interprets his own
Parable himself here. So, it's important that we
include Jesus own interpretation, which is what
(06:22):
we're doing in the second half of this text.
We're looking at Jesus own interpretation.
So, we'll start at verse 24, Jesus puts this Parable to the
crowds, the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who
sowed good seed in his field. So the kingdom of God or the
Kingdom of Heaven, is Matthew often calls.
(06:43):
It is what Jesus has come to reveal.
What is God's will on Earth? How can people be part of that
Kingdom and the Jews at the time?
Understood that to an extent. But Jesus has to correct a lot
of their misconceptions about what exactly the kingdom of God
looks like. Now some of thought in here in
verse 24 that because Jesus saysBe compared to a man who sowed
(07:04):
seed in his field and the parable he gave to us before
this is the parable of the sowerwill then his using this
metaphor of the seller in the exact same way now, that's
possible. But I think as we'll see that's
doesn't really seem to fit because Jesus in the parable of
the sower specifically identifies.
If you remember that the seed isthe word about the kingdom the
(07:29):
word of God. That's what he says.
It is in the parable of the sower.
Whereas here in a few verses time, we'll see the Jesus uses
the sea to represent something else.
So actually I don't think that this is supposed to be a
carryover from the parable of the sower.
Probably it's that when he's giving this Parable by the Sea
of Galilee the surrounded by a lot of agricultural farming
area. So it makes sense for him to
(07:51):
keep referring to the same farming metaphors.
Verse 25 so the seller has sowedgood seed in his field.
But while everyone was asleep his enemy came.
So let's start by just thinking about how this would play out as
a everyday normal situation if it was to happen on the literal
(08:11):
level in Israel. So this would be like a rival
farmer who doesn't want this other farmer to succeed.
So he sees that the farmer has sowed good seed and this rival
farmer who doesn't want him to succeed comes and so's Some
other things and what he sews isDonnell all among the wheat and
then he makes off Donnell, is basically a type of poisonous
(08:34):
weed. And we know that in that culture
sometimes Donnell did grow up amongst wheat and unfortunately
when that happens it basically ruins the batch of wheat.
So to so Darnell in someone's field of wheat was a very cruel
act because it ruining their batch Now there's a key feature
of Donal here that we need to keep in mind that will help us
interpret this. Parable Donnell looks very
(08:57):
similar to wheat in its earlier stages.
They actually you can't really tell them apart so the farmer
who's sewed his seed wouldn't necessarily notice the Donnell,
coming up until a bit later in the growth process.
That's important. Let's keep that in mind.
Now, we actually have records ofRoman laws at this time, which
(09:17):
forbade Roman citizens from Charging people's crops by
planting darn. Also, apparently it was a real
issue where people were sabotaging crops by planting
Donnell and we have Roman records which talked about
penalties. If you do that verse 26, when
the new wheat sprouted and what and ripened the Donnell appeared
(09:37):
as well. Now this is not yet Harvest
Time. This is an intermediate stage so
I'll read it again when the new wheat, sprouted and ripened the
Donnell appeared as well. So this is the point in the
growth process. When the fruits start to appear
the fruit of the wheat and the fruit of the Darnell, they start
to become visible. So, that's when people might
(09:58):
just start to notice a problem verse 27 that owners servants.
So, that's the people who work on this farm for the owner.
They say, Sir, was it not good seed that you sow seed in your
field? If so, where does the darn all
come from? So they're confused because they
know that their master has planted good seed, not Darnell.
So the Masters answer Is some enemy has done this and he's
(10:21):
correct about that. So the servants ask the master,
do you want us to go and weed itout because the servants being
good servants? They want to save the batch of
wheat. So they decide the best course
of action would be to eliminate the Donald by pulling it up, and
that makes sense. But here's what the master says,
their proposal about pulling up the Donnell.
(10:42):
No, because when you weed out the Donnell, you might pull up
the wheat with it. Now, there's two different
interpretations of why this would be a problem.
In terms of pulling up. The Donnell I had always thought
that the issue here would be that if they went and in the
parable if they went and pulled out the Darnell.
That's because perhaps the rootsof the Donnell and the wheat of
(11:05):
so intertwined that they would accidentally pull up some of the
wheat because even though they recognized that there is wheat
there. That unfortunately, just as part
of collateral damage, they will pull up some of the week.
Well by accident, as in they know it's sweet but it's an
acceptable sacrifice. They have to make Now that
interpretation does make some sense of the parable so that
(11:28):
could be right. But there is another
interpretation having looked at some commentaries and heard some
other people talking about this Parable.
I think there's another interpretation that might make
more sense and it's a bit more intriguing.
So, the issue here, when the farmer says, when you weed out
the Donnell you might pull up the wheat with it.
Maybe it's not because the weeding method itself causes
(11:48):
collateral damage to the, to thewheat.
But because at this particular time, they're only half grown
And so, the wheat and the Donna will be very hard to tell apart,
so it could be that when they goout to pull up the weeds,
there'll be some things that they think are weeds, but
they're actually good wheat. So the people pulling it up,
(12:10):
don't actually realize that they're pulling up wheat.
Now, that's an interesting interpretation, isn't it?
So that would say that at this intermediate stage of growth,
the Sorting process can't happenyet because you literally can't
tell what is wheat and what he'sdone or so.
I think that actually makes better sense of the parable.
If we say that the Reapers at this point, wouldn't be able to
(12:32):
tell the difference. Now, you can probably see where
this is going. In terms of what Jesus is saying
about the kingdom of God, because the Jews at the time,
thought the kingdom of God was going to come straight away.
As soon as the Messiah was there, one of the things Jesus.
Get across in this Parable. Is that the kingdom of God has
intermediate stages? So, it starts small and then it
(12:55):
gradually grows, and it would not be appropriate to try and
rid the kingdom of evil at an intermediate stage.
So notice what Jesus is saying here, cleverly with the parable.
So let's go on the farmer says, in the parable.
Let them both go to the Harvest.So the farmers wisdom here is at
the Harvest. Both are going to be fully grown
(13:16):
and sold. Be very clear at that point.
What is wheat and what is weeds?And so, that's wise advice from
the farmer. The farmer says, at Harvest
time, I shall say to the Reapers, first, collect the
Donnell and tie it into bundles to be burned then, gather the
wheat into my barn. So, Donnell is basically useless
to the farmer, except it could be used for fuel for fire, but
(13:40):
mostly it was harmful, it wasn'tany good.
So, the farmer if you did find some Donnell, at Harvest Time,
would just put it in bundles andin it as destroyed.
Basically, whereas the wheat is useful and that's kept And so
that's the end of the Parable. With Jesus, at this point, goes
on to give two more Parables, which have a similar theme about
(14:03):
the gradual growth of the Kingdom.
So that's in verse 31 to 35, andwe'll look at that in Monday of
week, 17. Now, let's skip to verse 36.
So Jesus leaves the crowds notice that he was speaking to
the crowds, but he's not anymore.
So he's going to stop speaking cryptically in Parables because
he's about to address his disciples privately.
(14:25):
And Jesus went to the house, so that's probably his own house in
Capernaum. So Jesus goes back home to his
house, his disciples come to himin the house and they say to
him, explain the parable, about the Donnell in the field to us.
So they don't ask about any of the other Parables that he's
given. They want to know specifically
about the Donnell in the field. Perhaps, this is the one they're
(14:47):
struggling with the most. So, Jesus realizes they need a
bit of help here and so he givesthem the inside scoop.
He wants them to And the meaningof the parable because they are
going to be the leaders of the church after he's gone.
So Jesus is going to himself. Give us the meaning of the
parable of the weeds, among the wheat.
(15:07):
So we don't have to guess of what Jesus meant to you because
he actually tells us most thingsabout it.
Verse 37. This is what Jesus says about
the parable. The seller of the good seed is
the son of man. The field is the world.
The Good Seed is the subjects orsons of the Kingdom.
So here's what Jesus has says, the parable represents so far,
(15:31):
the son of man, which is Jesus, is planting good Kingdom,
followers into the world. That's what said, so far.
Now, notice the According To Jesus interpretation.
What's the field? It's the world.
It's not the church. You'll often hear
interpretations of this Parable,which will say that the field
(15:52):
represents the church. Now that might be true in the
spiritual sense. And so, later Traditions have
focused on when they've looked at this, parable of talked about
how the church itself has both good and bad, it has weeds and
wheat and that's true as well. That's that's not the literal
sense that Jesus isn't intended.Though he specifically tells us
the the wheat represents the world as a whole and we'll see
(16:14):
in the catechism that the catechism adds a sort of a
spiritual layer on top of this as well.
Jesus goes on verse 39. The Donnell are the subjects of
the evil one, the enemy who sowed them the devil.
So according to Jesus here, the devil has people that he plants
in the world. So you've got Jesus, the son of
man. Putting people in the kingdom
(16:37):
kingdom followers. And then also the devil is
putting his own followers into the world as well.
So this makes clear that there really is a battle going on
between Jesus and Satan, both ofthem are actively working to get
converts. On their side, in the great
Battlefield of the world. We should keep that in mind.
Jesus here, teaches that, this broad overarching idea of
(16:57):
spiritual warfare is actually happening.
Jesus goes on the Harvest, is the end of the world, so, that
final stage when there's a harvest represents, the end of
the world and harvest is a common image in the Old
Testament for the day of final judgment.
If you look at Jeremiah 51 verse, 33 Hosea Hosea chapter 6,
(17:18):
verse 11 and Joel Three verse 13.
You'll see this imagery of the Harvest representing the end of
the world. Now, interestingly, the Greek
here doesn't say end of the world.
It actually says, close of the age.
There's been a lot of discussionabout this idea of the age that
Jesus mentions a couple of timesin the gospel of Matthew.
(17:39):
It appears that Jews at the timeof Jesus believed in this to age
Theory, basically that there's going to be an old Covenant age
and then there'll be a new covenant age which will
basically Legally be the Messianic Kingdom.
And if we understand the theology behind this correctly,
then the old age actually ended in 70 AD.
So depending on how you interpret this phrase, you could
(18:02):
interpret it as close of the age.
In which case Jesus here is not talking about the very end of
the world as we think of it but it is in fact thinking of 70 AD
which is a massive time of cataclysmic.
Upheaval when basically the Jewish age ends in 70 AD with
the destruction of the Well, youcould interpret this either way,
I think the parable actually works either way.
(18:25):
I think some features of this point in the direction of it
being the final judgment rather than it being a reference to the
destruction of the temple in 70 AD but you will see that idea
out there because the Greek yeardoes say close of the age.
So let's keep going. The reapers are the Angels.
So Jesus here teaches that the angels will be involved in the
(18:47):
judging or the Sorting process that probably refers to at the
end of time. But people in the other school
of thought here would Say that if we look at the Book of
Revelation chapter 14, there is this imagery of an Angel putting
his sickle into the Earth and doing a kind of harvest.
And in Revelation chapter 14, it's not actually about the end
of the world, it's about 70 AD. And so Scholars, go back and
(19:11):
forth about the best way to interpret when exactly this
reaping is but we're going to proceed with the assumption that
it is the end of the world. But it's if you're interested in
this idea of the to age Theory, it's quite fascinating.
And there's something that I talked about as bonus episodes
on the patreon page. So I've got a series discussing
(19:32):
the kingdom of God. And in particular, we look at
Jewish ideas about the kingdom of God.
So if you're interested in that,then take a look at the patreon
page and the link for that is inthe show notes.
Verse 40. Well then just as the Donnell is
gathered up and burned in the fire.
So it will be the end of time. So Jesus here is telling his
(19:54):
audience the disciples that there will indeed be a judgment
at the End of Time. Perhaps some of the his
followers were worried that the Messiah is not going to bring
about the final judgment as theythought.
Jesus here is affirming, there will be one, there will be a
judgment at the End of Time verse 41.
The son of man will send his angels and they will gather out
of his kingdom. Adam all things, the provoke
(20:15):
offenses, and all, who do evil. What that actually says there is
all causes of sin or perhaps youcould share and translate it
all, who cause others to sin andall evildoers.
So, let's look at that again. Who do the Angels, gather out of
the Kingdom? All causes of sin and all
(20:35):
evildoers. So, Jesus will remove causes of
sin and all who persist in evil notice he doesn't Say he's going
to remove all Sinners. That's not actually said there.
It doesn't say he's going to take out all types of sin.
All possible, Sinners he says, you'll take out two things
causes of sins. So the root structures behind
(20:56):
sin and those who persist in evil.
So it's perhaps two groups of people of the worst kinds of
Sinners may be. So we shouldn't say this versus
teaching that only complete non centers can enter the kingdom.
Clearly people who do occasionally, it's sentence do
enter the kingdom. That's certainly part of
Catholic teaching. So Jesus, here is saying that
(21:18):
there are some the worst kinds of Sinners.
Are those who will not get into the Kingdom?
So the idea here is that before,the kingdom can be consummated.
When the Messiah returns at the final judgment, those who are
evil and who do not follow. God's will must be taken out of
the Kingdom before it can arrive.
In its fullness, just like weeds.
(21:39):
These evil, people are useless in the Kingdom.
In fact, they're harmful to the kingdom.
Parallels there to the weeds verse 42, they will be thrown
into the Blazing furnace will be, there will be weeping and
grinding of teeth. Most of you will know that the
Greek word here for blazing furnace is Gahanna.
And in the time of Jesus, that was a real place.
(22:00):
It was a trash dump outside of Jerusalem which was constantly
burning. You could go there and look at
the trash Heap. Constantly burning.
Jesus commonly uses this image to describe what the after life
will be like for those outside the kingdom?
So in from Jesus perspective, hewants to get across to his
audience. What is how like and he chooses
(22:20):
to give them the imagery of gehenna this Burning constantly
burning rubbish dump. That's what he says.
He'll is like for those outside the kingdom.
This verse teaches, that on the final judgement day, evildoers
will be sent to hell. They will not be allowed in the
kingdom and they're going to experience weeping and grinding
of teeth which basically means extreme frustration.
(22:44):
Jesus has already used this language of weeping and grinding
of teeth in relation to enteringthe kingdom in 8:12.
Remember, he talks about who's going to be at the wedding
Feast. I'll be Abraham and Isaac and
Gentiles as well. Whereas some Jews will be cast
outside for weeping and grindingof teeth.
In fact, if you know, the gospelof Matthew, well, this language
(23:06):
of wheat being gathered in brought into the barn where, as
the bad stuff, the chaff being burnt that It's already been
said by John the Baptist in Chapter 3 of Matthew John, the
Baptist had the same message repent.
Otherwise, you'll become, chaff he will be burnt on Judgment
Day. Verse 43.
Jesus continues to interact withthe parable.
(23:27):
Then The Virtuous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of
their father. So this is when the kingdom
begins in its fullness, this hasn't happened yet.
Even now, when we're recording this podcast, this is a
reference to the Final JudgementDay.
The Virtuous will shine like thesun in the Kingdom of their
father. So that will be when God dwells
(23:48):
with his Saints. If you look at the last couple
of chapters of the Book of Revelation that describes this
new Heaven and new earth, I think we will all Christians
have to look forward to if we'repart of the Kingdom, this
language of The Virtuous will shine like the sun.
That's clearly a reference to Daniel's prophecy.
In Daniel chapter 12, verse 12, for he describes the new heavens
and new earth in a very similar way.
(24:11):
Notice who's allowed into the kingdom.
According To Jesus, it's The Virtuous or the righteous.
In the context of what Jesus hasbeen teaching in his ministry,
The Virtuous or the righteous are those who followed God's
will as revealed by, Jesus teaching Jesus finishes by
saying, listen, anyone who has ears.
(24:32):
So, Jesus wants his disciples tounderstand that this isn't
important Parable, they need to know it.
Well, listen, anyone who has a years now, Jesus only gives the
interpretation to his disciples.We're lucky that we get to hear
it because Matthew was one of the disciples so he could write
down the interpretation for us. But the crowd does not get to
hear this. Interpretation, Jesus expects
(24:53):
the crowd. When they hear the parable, they
have to go away and think about it.
And with God's grace, if they cooperate with God's grace and
they meditate on the meaning of the parable, they will
understand it. That's how the Parables work
According To Jesus. Whereas those who hear The
Parables become be bothered thinking about it.
Meaning, they're not going to understand the parable.
So, in this way, Jesus can use Parables to give information
(25:16):
about the kingdom, only to thosewho are worthy of it, not to
everyone, we're in a privileged position because we get to know
Jesus interpretation, what's Jesus main point here with this
Parable. He seems to want to address the
question of. Why not bring the kingdom in its
fullness. Now perhaps some of his audience
(25:36):
were wondering, are you going tobring the kingdom?
In fact, we know that the disciples off Often wondered
that and here's his basic answer, according to the
parable, the reason we don't bring the kingdom in its
fullness. Now, in this intermediate stage
is because if we brought the final judgment, now, some people
would be condemned. Who would actually turn out to
(25:56):
be righteous members of the Kingdom if we wait longer.
So, let's unpack that a bit. Remember the wheat and the
Donald look really similar at the intermediate stage, you
can't actually tell which is wheat and which is Donnell.
So the teaching Refuse to be that the kingdom of God, we need
to wait until the final consummation of the kingdom of
(26:17):
God, because if the kingdom of God were to come in its fullness
but too early in an intermediatestage if it works to break into
the world too early, then not enough time will have elapsed to
tell the difference between all the wheat and the Donnelly won't
be clear, who's wheat? And who's Darnell, that seems to
(26:38):
be the teaching here. Now, this is a profound Teaching
about God's, mercy and patience,isn't it?
Jesus here teachers from this Parable.
That God will not bring the kingdom.
In its fullness, until many people have converted to the
kingdom. God wants to wait for as long as
possible so that those who mightappear to be Darnell can, in
fact, become wheat. Whereas, if he didn't wait long
(27:00):
enough, if you brought the kingdom early many people would
go to hell. Who would have actually Gone to
Heaven? Would have been part of the
Kingdom if they were given longer.
Time a longer time period. Hopefully that makes sense.
And that's quite profound, isn'tit?
Jesus wants to teach his hearersthat God is patient and he is
allowing the kingdom to grow andallowing the maximum number of
(27:23):
people to convert before he brings in the final judgment.
This is actually also a partial answer to the problem of evil
isn't it? Why does evil exist in the
world? Why doesn't God wipe out all
evil? Well, this is a partial answer
to that. that the partial answerJesus gives here is one day he
will but at the moment he can't because he doesn't want to wipe
(27:46):
it wipe out some potentially righteous people as well and
there's you know there's a lot that could be unpacked their
theologically So the teaching then is before the final
consummation of the Kingdom Saints and Sinners will coexist
in the world. And May in fact be difficult to
distinguish interesting. Now there's a church father
(28:08):
that's not as well known called st.
Isidore of pollution and he interprets the parable in a
really similar way. And he goes on to give specific
examples of Sinners, turns Saints who benefit from this
Arrangement that God sets up where God is patient.
Here's what he says about this parable.
The Sinners represented by the weeds are not to be immediately
(28:31):
pulled and burned in order to give them time to repent, God,
forbids the angels to gather up the evildoers, less they uproot
the good wheat together with thetears.
That is so that the sinner may not be cut off.
While in his mind, there is yet a possibility of repentance st.
Isidore goes on to give examplesof God's patience with Sinners
(28:54):
who eventually repent. And this is what he says, God.
Did not slay. Matthew who had given himself to
the exacting of the tribute so that he might not the simpy.
The preaching of the Gospel? Neither did he destroy the
harlots who served lust in theirmodesty?
Less models of repentance might be wanting.
He Avenged not Peters denial because already he beheld?
(29:16):
His burning tears of repentance,nor did he strike down with
death? The persecuting Saul.
Lest the ends of the Earth. Be deprived of salvation.
Interesting point here. So Saint, Isidore says, it's
actually a good thing that God is patient and doesn't bring the
kingdom, and its fullness straight away.
Otherwise, imagine if Jesus had a brought the kingdom in its
(29:36):
fullness, straight away, then possibly people like Paul would
have gone to hell because he hadnot yet converted so you can see
how the world and people would have turned out quite different
if the kingdom had of come too early.
So what's the connection betweenthis Parable and the two
following it? So, the parable of the mustard
seed is the next one Jesus givesand the parable of the yeast.
(29:59):
Well, Jesus makes the same basicpoint which is the kingdom of
God will not come instantaneously.
There will be a growth period before the final consummation at
the end of time. If you read the coming verses
Jesus is going to give a few more Parables before the end of
the chapter. Now, if we turn to the catechism
(30:20):
to finish off this podcast, paragraph 1034, there's a
reference there to hell. And this is one of the key
Parables. It's used to inform our
understanding of hell and there's some quite strong
language there. So I'll put that in the show
notes, the church is teaching about hell and how it references
this paragraph. And also paragraph 33 3 is about
(30:41):
the Angels role in hell and judgment and then paragraph 8 2
7. This is about the Holiness of
the The church so here we'll seethe catechism gives a spiritual
application of this Parable and applies it to the church.
It says Christ wholly innocent and undefiled knew nothing of
sin but came only to expiate thesins of the people.
(31:03):
The church. However, clasping Sinners
through her bosom at once. Holy and always in need of
purification follows, constantlythe path of penance and renewal
all members of the church, including her ministers.
Must acknowledge that. They are sinners in everyone.
The weeds of sin will still be mixed with the good weight of
the Gospel Until the End of Time.
(31:26):
Hence the church gathers Sinnersalready caught in Christ
salvation. But still on the way to Holiness
the church is therefore holy though having sinners in her
midst because she herself has noother life, but the life of
Grace. And the paragraph goes on from
there. So I'll put all three of those
(31:46):
paragraphs in the show notes foryou to look at and meditate on.
So it's been a longer podcast today, but I hope you have
learnt a bit here and I do thinkit's one of those really
interesting Parables that you can't fully understand unless
you do a proper rigorous exegesis of the literal sense.
As we have tried to do. Hopefully, you've benefited from
(32:06):
this podcast, if you have, please share it around so that
more and more people can come toknow the gospel.
Balls and Jesus teachings better.
And hopefully that will help us as Christians in the 21st
century. Grow closer to God and progress
further in the Kingdom. Thank you will continue looking
at parables in the coming days.
Hello everyone. Welcome to daily gospel exegesis
podcast. If you're new to this podcast,
we're all about taking a look atthe gospel readings, which are
read at each day is Catholic mass and really diving into the
text of the gospels themselves. So, what is the text saying, on
the most basic level on the literal, Low-level, what was
(00:31):
that? Jesus trying to communicate to
his hearers. What was the Gospel author
trying to get across to to theiroriginal audience?
So really looking at the text itself, which the Catholic
Church teaches is, where we muststart.
If we want to understand scripture at the moment, we're
moving through the gospel of Matthew and we're looking at
chapter 13, verses 24 to 30 and 36 to 43.
(00:55):
Now, this episode is going to bethe same in two days across This
time period. So the parable itself, which is
the wheat and the weeds, or sometimes called the wheat and
the tares. And that is the parable itself
is red on Saturday of week, 16 in the lectionary, reading on
that day. So that's verse 24 to 30.
(01:17):
And then three days later on, Tuesday of week, 17, the
interpretation of the parable isread in the lectionary.
And that will be verses 36 to 43and where possible, we always
want to know what Jesus. Intention was in giving us the
parable, and this is one of these Parables where Jesus
himself explains what he means by the parable.
(01:37):
So we want to keep the parable itself and Jesus own
interpretation of the parable together.
So, that means, depending on when you're listening to this
episode, this episode is going to be the same on Saturday of
week 16 in ordinary time and then choose date of week, 17 in
ordinary time. So Matthew chapter 13 verses 24
to 30 and then 36 to 43. Here's the text, we're going to
(02:01):
look at Jesus, put another Parable before the crowds the
Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good
seed in his field while everybody was asleep.
His enemy came, so did Donnell all among the wheat and Madoff
When the new way to sprout and unripened the Donnell appeared
(02:22):
as well. The owners servants went to him
and said, sir, was it not good seed that you sewed in your
field? If so where does the darn or
come from? Some enemy has done this, he
answered. And the servants said, do you
want us to go on? Weed it out but he said, no,
(02:44):
because when you weed out the Donnell, you might pull up the
wheat with it, let them both grow till the Harvest.
And at Harvest time, I shall sayto the Reapers, first, collect
the Donnell and tie it in bundles to be burned, then,
gather the wheat into my barn, Leaving the crowds.
Jesus went to the house and his disciples came to him and said,
(03:07):
explain the parable about the Donnell in the field to us.
He said in reply the seller of the good seed is the son of man.
The field is the world. The Good Seed is the subjects of
the Kingdom. The Donnell the subjects of the
evil one, the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
The Harvest is the end of the world.
(03:30):
The reapers are the Angels. Well then just as the Donnell is
gathered up and burned in the fire so it will be at the End of
Time. The son of man will send his
angels and they will gather out of his kingdom.
All things are provoked offensesand all who do evil and throw
them into the Blazing furnace. Where there will be weeping and
(03:52):
grinding of teeth, Then The Virtuous will shine like the sun
in the Kingdom of their father. Listen, anyone who has ears?
So a very graphic Parable and one which is not often talked
about. So we're in Matthew Chapter 13,
which is the kingdom Parables chapter of Matthew.
(04:14):
So here, Matthew has assembled 7, Kingdom Parables that Jesus
speaks perhaps on different occasions or perhaps all on the
one day. And as I've said, a few times in
this podcast, in recent days, doing proper solid exegesis is
important with all gospel texts.But particularly important with
Parables because often you'll hear Horrible is interpreted in
(04:35):
an interesting way which maybe corresponds to the spiritual
sense of the text, but it's not really what Jesus intended.
It's not the literal sense of the text.
Usually, Jesus has one specific point in mind that he wants to
make. He has a literal sense in mind
that he's hoping his audience will pick up on and that's what
we want to get out when we're doing proper exegesis.
(04:56):
And that's what we try to do in this podcast.
So today we have the second Parable out of the 7 parables in
Matthew Chapter 13. So the first one is the parable
of the sower. A very well-known one.
And then the next one that Jesusmoves into in Chapter 13.
Is this one? The parable of the wheat and the
weeds and this Parable is only found in Matthew's gospel.
(05:19):
You won't hear it in the other three gospels at all, perhaps,
because the other gospel, authors felt that it was too
confronting to include for theirreaders.
But Matthew is writing to Jews and he knows.
Knows that the Jews are interested in the kingdom of
God, and particularly, what's going to happen when the kingdom
of God comes in its fullness. So he determines Matthew has
(05:39):
determined that he wants to keepthis parable of Jesus in his
gospel. So in verses 24 to 30, Jesus
gives the parable and that's right on Saturday of week 16.
And then after verse 30, he gives two other parables in
verses 31 to 35 and those three parables are red on Monday of
week 17. And then he interprets the
(06:02):
parable of the wheat, and the weeds in verses, 36 to 43, and
that's red on Tuesday of week 17.
And as I said before, when we'redealing, with the literal sense
of Parables, we want to find out.
Out what Jesus meant and Jesus actually interprets his own
Parable himself here. So, it's important that we
include Jesus own interpretation, which is what
(06:22):
we're doing in the second half of this text.
We're looking at Jesus own interpretation.
So, we'll start at verse 24, Jesus puts this Parable to the
crowds, the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who
sowed good seed in his field. So the kingdom of God or the
Kingdom of Heaven, is Matthew often calls.
(06:43):
It is what Jesus has come to reveal.
What is God's will on Earth? How can people be part of that
Kingdom and the Jews at the time?
Understood that to an extent. But Jesus has to correct a lot
of their misconceptions about what exactly the kingdom of God
looks like. Now some of thought in here in
verse 24 that because Jesus saysBe compared to a man who sowed
(07:04):
seed in his field and the parable he gave to us before
this is the parable of the sowerwill then his using this
metaphor of the seller in the exact same way now, that's
possible. But I think as we'll see that's
doesn't really seem to fit because Jesus in the parable of
the sower specifically identifies.
If you remember that the seed isthe word about the kingdom the
(07:29):
word of God. That's what he says.
It is in the parable of the sower.
Whereas here in a few verses time, we'll see the Jesus uses
the sea to represent something else.
So actually I don't think that this is supposed to be a
carryover from the parable of the sower.
Probably it's that when he's giving this Parable by the Sea
of Galilee the surrounded by a lot of agricultural farming
area. So it makes sense for him to
(07:51):
keep referring to the same farming metaphors.
Verse 25 so the seller has sowedgood seed in his field.
But while everyone was asleep his enemy came.
So let's start by just thinking about how this would play out as
a everyday normal situation if it was to happen on the literal
(08:11):
level in Israel. So this would be like a rival
farmer who doesn't want this other farmer to succeed.
So he sees that the farmer has sowed good seed and this rival
farmer who doesn't want him to succeed comes and so's Some
other things and what he sews isDonnell all among the wheat and
then he makes off Donnell, is basically a type of poisonous
(08:34):
weed. And we know that in that culture
sometimes Donnell did grow up amongst wheat and unfortunately
when that happens it basically ruins the batch of wheat.
So to so Darnell in someone's field of wheat was a very cruel
act because it ruining their batch Now there's a key feature
of Donal here that we need to keep in mind that will help us
interpret this. Parable Donnell looks very
(08:57):
similar to wheat in its earlier stages.
They actually you can't really tell them apart so the farmer
who's sewed his seed wouldn't necessarily notice the Donnell,
coming up until a bit later in the growth process.
That's important. Let's keep that in mind.
Now, we actually have records ofRoman laws at this time, which
(09:17):
forbade Roman citizens from Charging people's crops by
planting darn. Also, apparently it was a real
issue where people were sabotaging crops by planting
Donnell and we have Roman records which talked about
penalties. If you do that verse 26, when
the new wheat sprouted and what and ripened the Donnell appeared
(09:37):
as well. Now this is not yet Harvest
Time. This is an intermediate stage so
I'll read it again when the new wheat, sprouted and ripened the
Donnell appeared as well. So this is the point in the
growth process. When the fruits start to appear
the fruit of the wheat and the fruit of the Darnell, they start
to become visible. So, that's when people might
(09:58):
just start to notice a problem verse 27 that owners servants.
So, that's the people who work on this farm for the owner.
They say, Sir, was it not good seed that you sow seed in your
field? If so, where does the darn all
come from? So they're confused because they
know that their master has planted good seed, not Darnell.
So the Masters answer Is some enemy has done this and he's
(10:21):
correct about that. So the servants ask the master,
do you want us to go and weed itout because the servants being
good servants? They want to save the batch of
wheat. So they decide the best course
of action would be to eliminate the Donald by pulling it up, and
that makes sense. But here's what the master says,
their proposal about pulling up the Donnell.
(10:42):
No, because when you weed out the Donnell, you might pull up
the wheat with it. Now, there's two different
interpretations of why this would be a problem.
In terms of pulling up. The Donnell I had always thought
that the issue here would be that if they went and in the
parable if they went and pulled out the Darnell.
That's because perhaps the rootsof the Donnell and the wheat of
(11:05):
so intertwined that they would accidentally pull up some of the
wheat because even though they recognized that there is wheat
there. That unfortunately, just as part
of collateral damage, they will pull up some of the week.
Well by accident, as in they know it's sweet but it's an
acceptable sacrifice. They have to make Now that
interpretation does make some sense of the parable so that
(11:28):
could be right. But there is another
interpretation having looked at some commentaries and heard some
other people talking about this Parable.
I think there's another interpretation that might make
more sense and it's a bit more intriguing.
So, the issue here, when the farmer says, when you weed out
the Donnell you might pull up the wheat with it.
Maybe it's not because the weeding method itself causes
(11:48):
collateral damage to the, to thewheat.
But because at this particular time, they're only half grown
And so, the wheat and the Donna will be very hard to tell apart,
so it could be that when they goout to pull up the weeds,
there'll be some things that they think are weeds, but
they're actually good wheat. So the people pulling it up,
(12:10):
don't actually realize that they're pulling up wheat.
Now, that's an interesting interpretation, isn't it?
So that would say that at this intermediate stage of growth,
the Sorting process can't happenyet because you literally can't
tell what is wheat and what he'sdone or so.
I think that actually makes better sense of the parable.
If we say that the Reapers at this point, wouldn't be able to
(12:32):
tell the difference. Now, you can probably see where
this is going. In terms of what Jesus is saying
about the kingdom of God, because the Jews at the time,
thought the kingdom of God was going to come straight away.
As soon as the Messiah was there, one of the things Jesus.
Get across in this Parable. Is that the kingdom of God has
intermediate stages? So, it starts small and then it
(12:55):
gradually grows, and it would not be appropriate to try and
rid the kingdom of evil at an intermediate stage.
So notice what Jesus is saying here, cleverly with the parable.
So let's go on the farmer says, in the parable.
Let them both go to the Harvest.So the farmers wisdom here is at
the Harvest. Both are going to be fully grown
(13:16):
and sold. Be very clear at that point.
What is wheat and what is weeds?And so, that's wise advice from
the farmer. The farmer says, at Harvest
time, I shall say to the Reapers, first, collect the
Donnell and tie it into bundles to be burned then, gather the
wheat into my barn. So, Donnell is basically useless
to the farmer, except it could be used for fuel for fire, but
(13:40):
mostly it was harmful, it wasn'tany good.
So, the farmer if you did find some Donnell, at Harvest Time,
would just put it in bundles andin it as destroyed.
Basically, whereas the wheat is useful and that's kept And so
that's the end of the Parable. With Jesus, at this point, goes
on to give two more Parables, which have a similar theme about
(14:03):
the gradual growth of the Kingdom.
So that's in verse 31 to 35, andwe'll look at that in Monday of
week, 17. Now, let's skip to verse 36.
So Jesus leaves the crowds notice that he was speaking to
the crowds, but he's not anymore.
So he's going to stop speaking cryptically in Parables because
he's about to address his disciples privately.
(14:25):
And Jesus went to the house, so that's probably his own house in
Capernaum. So Jesus goes back home to his
house, his disciples come to himin the house and they say to
him, explain the parable, about the Donnell in the field to us.
So they don't ask about any of the other Parables that he's
given. They want to know specifically
about the Donnell in the field. Perhaps, this is the one they're
(14:47):
struggling with the most. So, Jesus realizes they need a
bit of help here and so he givesthem the inside scoop.
He wants them to And the meaningof the parable because they are
going to be the leaders of the church after he's gone.
So Jesus is going to himself. Give us the meaning of the
parable of the weeds, among the wheat.
(15:07):
So we don't have to guess of what Jesus meant to you because
he actually tells us most thingsabout it.
Verse 37. This is what Jesus says about
the parable. The seller of the good seed is
the son of man. The field is the world.
The Good Seed is the subjects orsons of the Kingdom.
So here's what Jesus has says, the parable represents so far,
(15:31):
the son of man, which is Jesus, is planting good Kingdom,
followers into the world. That's what said, so far.
Now, notice the According To Jesus interpretation.
What's the field? It's the world.
It's not the church. You'll often hear
interpretations of this Parable,which will say that the field
(15:52):
represents the church. Now that might be true in the
spiritual sense. And so, later Traditions have
focused on when they've looked at this, parable of talked about
how the church itself has both good and bad, it has weeds and
wheat and that's true as well. That's that's not the literal
sense that Jesus isn't intended.Though he specifically tells us
the the wheat represents the world as a whole and we'll see
(16:14):
in the catechism that the catechism adds a sort of a
spiritual layer on top of this as well.
Jesus goes on verse 39. The Donnell are the subjects of
the evil one, the enemy who sowed them the devil.
So according to Jesus here, the devil has people that he plants
in the world. So you've got Jesus, the son of
man. Putting people in the kingdom
(16:37):
kingdom followers. And then also the devil is
putting his own followers into the world as well.
So this makes clear that there really is a battle going on
between Jesus and Satan, both ofthem are actively working to get
converts. On their side, in the great
Battlefield of the world. We should keep that in mind.
Jesus here, teaches that, this broad overarching idea of
(16:57):
spiritual warfare is actually happening.
Jesus goes on the Harvest, is the end of the world, so, that
final stage when there's a harvest represents, the end of
the world and harvest is a common image in the Old
Testament for the day of final judgment.
If you look at Jeremiah 51 verse, 33 Hosea Hosea chapter 6,
(17:18):
verse 11 and Joel Three verse 13.
You'll see this imagery of the Harvest representing the end of
the world. Now, interestingly, the Greek
here doesn't say end of the world.
It actually says, close of the age.
There's been a lot of discussionabout this idea of the age that
Jesus mentions a couple of timesin the gospel of Matthew.
(17:39):
It appears that Jews at the timeof Jesus believed in this to age
Theory, basically that there's going to be an old Covenant age
and then there'll be a new covenant age which will
basically Legally be the Messianic Kingdom.
And if we understand the theology behind this correctly,
then the old age actually ended in 70 AD.
So depending on how you interpret this phrase, you could
(18:02):
interpret it as close of the age.
In which case Jesus here is not talking about the very end of
the world as we think of it but it is in fact thinking of 70 AD
which is a massive time of cataclysmic.
Upheaval when basically the Jewish age ends in 70 AD with
the destruction of the Well, youcould interpret this either way,
I think the parable actually works either way.
(18:25):
I think some features of this point in the direction of it
being the final judgment rather than it being a reference to the
destruction of the temple in 70 AD but you will see that idea
out there because the Greek yeardoes say close of the age.
So let's keep going. The reapers are the Angels.
So Jesus here teaches that the angels will be involved in the
(18:47):
judging or the Sorting process that probably refers to at the
end of time. But people in the other school
of thought here would Say that if we look at the Book of
Revelation chapter 14, there is this imagery of an Angel putting
his sickle into the Earth and doing a kind of harvest.
And in Revelation chapter 14, it's not actually about the end
of the world, it's about 70 AD. And so Scholars, go back and
(19:11):
forth about the best way to interpret when exactly this
reaping is but we're going to proceed with the assumption that
it is the end of the world. But it's if you're interested in
this idea of the to age Theory, it's quite fascinating.
And there's something that I talked about as bonus episodes
on the patreon page. So I've got a series discussing
(19:32):
the kingdom of God. And in particular, we look at
Jewish ideas about the kingdom of God.
So if you're interested in that,then take a look at the patreon
page and the link for that is inthe show notes.
Verse 40. Well then just as the Donnell is
gathered up and burned in the fire.
So it will be the end of time. So Jesus here is telling his
(19:54):
audience the disciples that there will indeed be a judgment
at the End of Time. Perhaps some of the his
followers were worried that the Messiah is not going to bring
about the final judgment as theythought.
Jesus here is affirming, there will be one, there will be a
judgment at the End of Time verse 41.
The son of man will send his angels and they will gather out
of his kingdom. Adam all things, the provoke
(20:15):
offenses, and all, who do evil. What that actually says there is
all causes of sin or perhaps youcould share and translate it
all, who cause others to sin andall evildoers.
So, let's look at that again. Who do the Angels, gather out of
the Kingdom? All causes of sin and all
(20:35):
evildoers. So, Jesus will remove causes of
sin and all who persist in evil notice he doesn't Say he's going
to remove all Sinners. That's not actually said there.
It doesn't say he's going to take out all types of sin.
All possible, Sinners he says, you'll take out two things
causes of sins. So the root structures behind
(20:56):
sin and those who persist in evil.
So it's perhaps two groups of people of the worst kinds of
Sinners may be. So we shouldn't say this versus
teaching that only complete non centers can enter the kingdom.
Clearly people who do occasionally, it's sentence do
enter the kingdom. That's certainly part of
Catholic teaching. So Jesus, here is saying that
(21:18):
there are some the worst kinds of Sinners.
Are those who will not get into the Kingdom?
So the idea here is that before,the kingdom can be consummated.
When the Messiah returns at the final judgment, those who are
evil and who do not follow. God's will must be taken out of
the Kingdom before it can arrive.
In its fullness, just like weeds.
(21:39):
These evil, people are useless in the Kingdom.
In fact, they're harmful to the kingdom.
Parallels there to the weeds verse 42, they will be thrown
into the Blazing furnace will be, there will be weeping and
grinding of teeth. Most of you will know that the
Greek word here for blazing furnace is Gahanna.
And in the time of Jesus, that was a real place.
(22:00):
It was a trash dump outside of Jerusalem which was constantly
burning. You could go there and look at
the trash Heap. Constantly burning.
Jesus commonly uses this image to describe what the after life
will be like for those outside the kingdom?
So in from Jesus perspective, hewants to get across to his
audience. What is how like and he chooses
(22:20):
to give them the imagery of gehenna this Burning constantly
burning rubbish dump. That's what he says.
He'll is like for those outside the kingdom.
This verse teaches, that on the final judgement day, evildoers
will be sent to hell. They will not be allowed in the
kingdom and they're going to experience weeping and grinding
of teeth which basically means extreme frustration.
(22:44):
Jesus has already used this language of weeping and grinding
of teeth in relation to enteringthe kingdom in 8:12.
Remember, he talks about who's going to be at the wedding
Feast. I'll be Abraham and Isaac and
Gentiles as well. Whereas some Jews will be cast
outside for weeping and grindingof teeth.
In fact, if you know, the gospelof Matthew, well, this language
(23:06):
of wheat being gathered in brought into the barn where, as
the bad stuff, the chaff being burnt that It's already been
said by John the Baptist in Chapter 3 of Matthew John, the
Baptist had the same message repent.
Otherwise, you'll become, chaff he will be burnt on Judgment
Day. Verse 43.
Jesus continues to interact withthe parable.
(23:27):
Then The Virtuous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of
their father. So this is when the kingdom
begins in its fullness, this hasn't happened yet.
Even now, when we're recording this podcast, this is a
reference to the Final JudgementDay.
The Virtuous will shine like thesun in the Kingdom of their
father. So that will be when God dwells
(23:48):
with his Saints. If you look at the last couple
of chapters of the Book of Revelation that describes this
new Heaven and new earth, I think we will all Christians
have to look forward to if we'repart of the Kingdom, this
language of The Virtuous will shine like the sun.
That's clearly a reference to Daniel's prophecy.
In Daniel chapter 12, verse 12, for he describes the new heavens
and new earth in a very similar way.
(24:11):
Notice who's allowed into the kingdom.
According To Jesus, it's The Virtuous or the righteous.
In the context of what Jesus hasbeen teaching in his ministry,
The Virtuous or the righteous are those who followed God's
will as revealed by, Jesus teaching Jesus finishes by
saying, listen, anyone who has ears.
(24:32):
So, Jesus wants his disciples tounderstand that this isn't
important Parable, they need to know it.
Well, listen, anyone who has a years now, Jesus only gives the
interpretation to his disciples.We're lucky that we get to hear
it because Matthew was one of the disciples so he could write
down the interpretation for us. But the crowd does not get to
hear this. Interpretation, Jesus expects
(24:53):
the crowd. When they hear the parable, they
have to go away and think about it.
And with God's grace, if they cooperate with God's grace and
they meditate on the meaning of the parable, they will
understand it. That's how the Parables work
According To Jesus. Whereas those who hear The
Parables become be bothered thinking about it.
Meaning, they're not going to understand the parable.
So, in this way, Jesus can use Parables to give information
(25:16):
about the kingdom, only to thosewho are worthy of it, not to
everyone, we're in a privileged position because we get to know
Jesus interpretation, what's Jesus main point here with this
Parable. He seems to want to address the
question of. Why not bring the kingdom in its
fullness. Now perhaps some of his audience
(25:36):
were wondering, are you going tobring the kingdom?
In fact, we know that the disciples off Often wondered
that and here's his basic answer, according to the
parable, the reason we don't bring the kingdom in its
fullness. Now, in this intermediate stage
is because if we brought the final judgment, now, some people
would be condemned. Who would actually turn out to
(25:56):
be righteous members of the Kingdom if we wait longer.
So, let's unpack that a bit. Remember the wheat and the
Donald look really similar at the intermediate stage, you
can't actually tell which is wheat and which is Donnell.
So the teaching Refuse to be that the kingdom of God, we need
to wait until the final consummation of the kingdom of
(26:17):
God, because if the kingdom of God were to come in its fullness
but too early in an intermediatestage if it works to break into
the world too early, then not enough time will have elapsed to
tell the difference between all the wheat and the Donnelly won't
be clear, who's wheat? And who's Darnell, that seems to
(26:38):
be the teaching here. Now, this is a profound Teaching
about God's, mercy and patience,isn't it?
Jesus here teachers from this Parable.
That God will not bring the kingdom.
In its fullness, until many people have converted to the
kingdom. God wants to wait for as long as
possible so that those who mightappear to be Darnell can, in
fact, become wheat. Whereas, if he didn't wait long
(27:00):
enough, if you brought the kingdom early many people would
go to hell. Who would have actually Gone to
Heaven? Would have been part of the
Kingdom if they were given longer.
Time a longer time period. Hopefully that makes sense.
And that's quite profound, isn'tit?
Jesus wants to teach his hearersthat God is patient and he is
allowing the kingdom to grow andallowing the maximum number of
(27:23):
people to convert before he brings in the final judgment.
This is actually also a partial answer to the problem of evil
isn't it? Why does evil exist in the
world? Why doesn't God wipe out all
evil? Well, this is a partial answer
to that. that the partial answerJesus gives here is one day he
will but at the moment he can't because he doesn't want to wipe
(27:46):
it wipe out some potentially righteous people as well and
there's you know there's a lot that could be unpacked their
theologically So the teaching then is before the final
consummation of the Kingdom Saints and Sinners will coexist
in the world. And May in fact be difficult to
distinguish interesting. Now there's a church father
(28:08):
that's not as well known called st.
Isidore of pollution and he interprets the parable in a
really similar way. And he goes on to give specific
examples of Sinners, turns Saints who benefit from this
Arrangement that God sets up where God is patient.
Here's what he says about this parable.
The Sinners represented by the weeds are not to be immediately
(28:31):
pulled and burned in order to give them time to repent, God,
forbids the angels to gather up the evildoers, less they uproot
the good wheat together with thetears.
That is so that the sinner may not be cut off.
While in his mind, there is yet a possibility of repentance st.
Isidore goes on to give examplesof God's patience with Sinners
(28:54):
who eventually repent. And this is what he says, God.
Did not slay. Matthew who had given himself to
the exacting of the tribute so that he might not the simpy.
The preaching of the Gospel? Neither did he destroy the
harlots who served lust in theirmodesty?
Less models of repentance might be wanting.
He Avenged not Peters denial because already he beheld?
(29:16):
His burning tears of repentance,nor did he strike down with
death? The persecuting Saul.
Lest the ends of the Earth. Be deprived of salvation.
Interesting point here. So Saint, Isidore says, it's
actually a good thing that God is patient and doesn't bring the
kingdom, and its fullness straight away.
Otherwise, imagine if Jesus had a brought the kingdom in its
(29:36):
fullness, straight away, then possibly people like Paul would
have gone to hell because he hadnot yet converted so you can see
how the world and people would have turned out quite different
if the kingdom had of come too early.
So what's the connection betweenthis Parable and the two
following it? So, the parable of the mustard
seed is the next one Jesus givesand the parable of the yeast.
(29:59):
Well, Jesus makes the same basicpoint which is the kingdom of
God will not come instantaneously.
There will be a growth period before the final consummation at
the end of time. If you read the coming verses
Jesus is going to give a few more Parables before the end of
the chapter. Now, if we turn to the catechism
(30:20):
to finish off this podcast, paragraph 1034, there's a
reference there to hell. And this is one of the key
Parables. It's used to inform our
understanding of hell and there's some quite strong
language there. So I'll put that in the show
notes, the church is teaching about hell and how it references
this paragraph. And also paragraph 33 3 is about
(30:41):
the Angels role in hell and judgment and then paragraph 8 2
7. This is about the Holiness of
the The church so here we'll seethe catechism gives a spiritual
application of this Parable and applies it to the church.
It says Christ wholly innocent and undefiled knew nothing of
sin but came only to expiate thesins of the people.
(31:03):
The church. However, clasping Sinners
through her bosom at once. Holy and always in need of
purification follows, constantlythe path of penance and renewal
all members of the church, including her ministers.
Must acknowledge that. They are sinners in everyone.
The weeds of sin will still be mixed with the good weight of
the Gospel Until the End of Time.
(31:26):
Hence the church gathers Sinnersalready caught in Christ
salvation. But still on the way to Holiness
the church is therefore holy though having sinners in her
midst because she herself has noother life, but the life of
Grace. And the paragraph goes on from
there. So I'll put all three of those
(31:46):
paragraphs in the show notes foryou to look at and meditate on.
So it's been a longer podcast today, but I hope you have
learnt a bit here and I do thinkit's one of those really
interesting Parables that you can't fully understand unless
you do a proper rigorous exegesis of the literal sense.
As we have tried to do. Hopefully, you've benefited from
(32:06):
this podcast, if you have, please share it around so that
more and more people can come toknow the gospel.
Balls and Jesus teachings better.
And hopefully that will help us as Christians in the 21st
century. Grow closer to God and progress
further in the Kingdom. Thank you will continue looking
at parables in the coming days.
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