Bible Bites

Here’s another Bible interpretation. Even if you’ve never opened a Bible or if someone else left you with a condemning impression of it, just look at this passage and the interpretation and see if it fits in your life. Just see what you think.

Matt 13:24-30

(24)Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,

(25) but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

(26) But when the grain had sprouted and had produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

(27) So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

(28) He said to them, ‘The enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’

(29) But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

(30) Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat to my barn.”’”

So, we’ve got some good seeds spread, but the enemy also threw in some weeds early on, and now we’re seeing the good stuff and the weeds present themselves at the same time.

You can look at it as if you are the field itself. What are the “wheat” and the “tares” in your own life? The wheat are characteristics and habits that are truly you— the you without fear. The tares are insecurities, irrational fears, resentments, egocentric impulses, etc—everything that causes you to make fear-based decisions and pull off the track of really being yourself.

When one of these “tares” is revealed to you, it usually means that you’re at the harvest time. It’s time for you to endeavor to find out what irrational fear is serving as the root for that tare, and remove it. And if it’s harvest time and the moment has come to remove that tare, then that means the “wheat,” or fearless counter-characteristic, is now strong enough to stand on its own.

Let’s say you have had the tendency to be harsh and curt when you speak before people. You haven’t been aware of this and no one’s yet brought it to your attention. One day, someone gently lets you know how you come off in these situations. You are floored, not only because you realize they are right, but that it’s been going on for so long without you realizing it. You’ve always felt a little off-track when you’ve spoken before people, but you assumed that was just normal.

You go away and journal about speaking before people, and realize that you have an irrational fear of speaking to crowds. You then identify that this is because you imagine that if you spoke as your real self, you would lose your friends, your coworkers, and your job.

Now, what is the opposite of this irrational fear? Believing that speaking as your true self will enrich your friendships, cause appreciation from your co-workers, and enhance your job.

Here’s where this parable comes in. The fact that you were just now made aware of this flaw is because the counter-characteristic of being confident of speaking as your true self is now strong enough to stand on it’s own. The “tares” of this flaw can now be ripped out without damaging the roots of the now-strong counter-characteristic.

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Another thing to note about this passage is in the first line. He references “The Kingdom of heaven” and says it is like this field/wheat/tares situation. Later in Matt 36-43, it is explained that the wheat and the tares represent individual people. But if we think about the “Kingdom of heaven” and what that is exactly, we get something new.

“Kingdom” in the Greek is basileia: pillar or realm.

‘Heaven” in the Greek is ouranon: the sky (implying limitlessness, freedom, etc).

So, if you are the field, and the kingdom of heaven is the realm of limitlessness and freedom, then the process of eliminating your “tares” gets you closer and closer to a field (or self) full of “heaven.”

It is through this wheat/tares process that your irrational fears are removed and you become more and more of the real you, where there is no fear, and you experience heaven (limitlessness) here on earth.