The parable of the good sower and the tares is one of the parables of Jesus Christ contained in the Gospel of Matthew . It tells about how a man sowed wheat on his field, and his enemy sowed tares between the wheat . When both of them came up, the slaves of the householder wanted to destroy the weeds, but the owner forbade them to do this before time:
 | The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; when the people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares between the wheat and left; when the green came up and the fruit appeared, then the tares appeared. Having come, the slaves of the householder said to him: Sir! Did you not sow good seed in your field? where did the tares come from? He told them: the enemy of man did this. And the slaves said to him: Do you want, we will go, choose them? But he said: no, so that, choosing tares, you do not pull out wheat with them, leave them to grow together until the harvest; and during the harvest I will tell the reapers: first harvest the tares and bind them in sheaves to burn them, and take the wheat to my granary. ( Matt. 13: 24-30 ) |  |
Theological interpretation
The meaning of the parable was interpreted by Christ himself:
| ... he who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Therefore, as tares are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of this age: the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather all his temptations and do lawlessness from his kingdom, and plunge them into the fiery furnace; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear !. ( Matthew 13: 37-43 ) |
Thus, the parable of the sower and the tares indicates, firstly, that God did not plant evil, and secondly: in addition to pious people, there are quite a few apostates who do not care about the good fruit of life and, as it were, become “the sons of the wicked ”, the third indicates the reason why the seeds of the weed sprout in the soul of the righteous too - the machinations of the devil who wants to destroy every soul, however, gaining power over it due to the spiritual carelessness of man himself, because, as follows from the parable, Satan planted tares only after that how people fell asleep.
It is no coincidence that the type of weed was chosen by the Lord, which later became the common designation of any weed grass: “The Church Fathers describe the tares as a special plant, somewhat similar to wheat, but harmful in its seeds. St. John Chrysostom writes: the tares seem somewhat like wheat, and, according to St. Macarius of Egypt , they are invisible in a variety of wheat; but bread baked from wheat, unpeeled chaff, produces a harmful effect on the stomach and head, severe fainting, and sometimes death. Since only the finest vision can reveal the difference between wheat and tares, they are usually left to grow together until the time the harvest begins. ” [one]
St. Theophylact of Bulgaria , discussing the parable, gives the images given in it more specific and expanded meanings:
He who sowed is Christ; good seed - good people or thoughts; tares - heresies and bad thoughts; the one who sowed them, the devil. Sleeping people are those who, through laziness, give place to heretics and bad thoughts. Slaves, on the other hand, are angels who are indignant at the existence of heresies and corruption in the soul, and who want to burn and expel heretics and thinkers of evil from this life. [2]
Why did the householder not destroy the weed grass?
Bishop Alexander (Mileant) :
Therefore, as it is said in the parable, so that, "tearing out tares, not to damage the wheat," that is, so that, while punishing sinners, not at the same time harm the sons of the Kingdom, good members of the Church. In this life, relationships between people are as closely intertwined as the roots of plants co-growing in the field. People are connected to each other by many family and social ties and depend on each other. Thus, for example, an unworthy father, a drunkard or a lecher, can carefully raise his pious children; the well-being of honest workers may be in the hands of a selfish and rude master; an unbeliever ruler may be a wise and helpful legislator for citizens. If the Lord indiscriminately punished all sinners, then the whole system of life would be violated on earth and good people, but sometimes little adapted to life, would inevitably suffer. In addition, it often happens that a sinful member of the Church is suddenly corrected after some life shock or event, and thus becomes “wheat” from “tares”. History knows a lot of such cases of a radical lifestyle change, for example: the Old Testament king Manasseh, Apostle Paul, Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir and many others. It must be remembered that in this life no one is doomed to death, everyone is given the opportunity to repent and save his soul. Only when a person’s life expires does the day of “harvest” come for him and his past is summed up. [3]
Notes
- ↑ Bible Encyclopedia. M., 2005 (unavailable link from 06/14/2016 [1159 days])
- ↑ St. Theophylact Bulgarian. Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew
- ↑ Bishop Alexander (Minelant). Gospel parables