Commentary on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matthew 13:24–30) is well known to many Gospel readers. Jesus describes a person who sows “good seed” in a field (13:24), but an “enemy” comes and sows “weeds” overnight (13:25). When the field owner’s slaves notify him of this agricultural infiltration, they are told to let the wheat and the weeds grow together until the harvest—at which time the reapers will gather the wheat into the owner’s barn and burn the weeds (13:29–30).

In his explanation of the parable (13:36–43), Jesus identifies himself—“the Son of Man” (13:37)—as the planter of good seed and equates the harvest to the “end of the age” (13:39), when the angels will send “evildoers” into the “furnace of fire” (13:41–42) and gather the “righteous” into God’s kingdom (13:43).

This passage includes traditional elements of parables that appear in the Hebrew Bible and later Jewish literature. Jesus’s initial agricultural illustration is what’s known as a mashal—a narrative device that presents an allegory or extended metaphor for the sake of comparison: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field” (13:24). The Hebrew term mashal appears in Ezekiel 17:2, in which God tells the prophet to deliver “an allegory (mashal) to the house of Israel.” Jesus’s parable echoes Ezekiel’s description of a “seed” being placed “in fertile soil” (Ezekiel 17:5), which becomes a vine that would “produce branches and bear fruit” (17:8).

Matthew 13:36–43 follows the form of a nimshal, or an explanation of the preceding illustration. A good example of the mashal-nimshal structure appears in a parable from Qohelet Rabbah—a rabbinic commentary on Ecclesiastes compiled several hundred years after the time of Jesus.¹

With reference to Ecclesiastes 5:12—“Sweet is the sleep of laborers, whether they eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not let them sleep”—Rabbi Berekiah asks, “To what can this matter be compared (mashal)? It is analogous to a king who had an orchard that he handed over to his son. As long as the son did his bidding, the king would see where a beautiful tree was in the world and plant it in his son’s orchard. But when the son would not do his bidding, he would see the most beautiful and extraordinary tree in the orchard, and he would uproot it” (Eccl Rabbat 5:11).

Then comes the explanation (nimshal): “The king is the Holy One. … the orchard is the world. … As long as they do the bidding of [God], when he sees a righteous person among the nations of the world … he brings them and attaches them to Israel. Whenever they do not do his bidding, he sees a righteous person who is in Israel and he removes him from among them.”

This rabbinic parable echoes Jesus’s words in multiple ways: It offers an initial agricultural illustration (mashal)—a king planting trees in an orchard—and follows it with an explanation (nimshal). Just as the rabbinic nimshal identifies the planter as God and the orchard as the world, Jesus explains that the sower is the Son of Man and the harvested field represents the end of the age or “world” (aiōn, Matthew 13:40). Likewise, both Jesus and Rabbi Berekiah refer to the divine acts of planting and uprooting based on people’s fulfillment of God’s will.

A difference between Matthew and Qohelet Rabbah is that the Gospel explains its parable with reference to the eschaton (in other words, the end of history). The Matthean scene envisions God’s kingdom having arrived on earth at the end of days and the angels removing “evildoers” from that divine space (13:41).

The Greek for the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition’s “evildoers” is poioūntas tēn anomīan. The final term in this phrase, anomīa, combines the Greek word for Torah (nomos; in other words, the Law of Moses) with an “alpha privative”—a prefixed “a” that denotes negation (as in the English words “atheist” or “amorality”). Thus, Jesus asserts that those who do not observe the commandments will be removed from the eschatological kingdom of heaven. Conversely, the “righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (13:43).

In the narrative world of the First Gospel, the “righteous” are those who enact the love of God and neighbor specified in the Torah and in Jesus’s interpretation of it (see, for example, Matthew 5:6, 20; 6:1, 33; 25:36–40). Therefore, the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds provides a behavioral blueprint for Christ-followers based on the biblical principles that Jesus deems the most important: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–40; see also Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18).

By following these divine dictates, Jesus says, one “does the will of my Father in heaven” and will thereby “enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21). In the language of Matthew’s parable, attention to God’s will is the distinguishing feature of the “good seed” in the sower’s field that will blossom into everlasting wheat in the world to come.

Though Jesus insists that enacting the divine will leads to kingdom entry, this insistence does not constitute so-called “works righteousness.” Following God’s commands demonstrates righteousness, but it does not merit righteousness. Jesus saves his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) so that they are freed to perform “good works” (5:16).

This matter might be compared to a mechanic who fixes an automobile. Once the car is saved from its former corruption, its owner would be expected to begin driving and, ultimately, arrive at the desired destination. Indeed, the refusal to drive would undermine the mechanic’s hard work. Likewise, Jesus provides salvation from sin so that saved people can demonstrate righteousness and arrive at their eternal destination. Refusing to perform good works would be to obviate the purpose of Christ’s work on the cross. The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds envisions saved believers living out their righteousness and entering into the kingdom of heaven.

Notes

1. For the rabbinic text, see https://www.sefaria.org/Kohelet_Rabbah.5.11.1?lang=bi.