Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 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?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 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 into my barn.†(Matthew 13:24-30)
This parable taught by Jesus was referring to evil living alongside God’s people in the world. When asked if the tares should be pulled from growing along with the wheat, Jesus taught that they would be harvested at the end to prevent damaging the good crop. The teaching answers why evil is allowed to prevail among good.
Before anyone gets their hackles up, I am not insinuating that the objects of my article are evil. In fact, I am going to approach the tares in a different way. Instead of representing evil, the tares in my article represent those presidential candidates who profess to be Christians but their words and actions reveal otherwise. And in the heated presidential race, I do not propose to wait to remove the tares from the wheat. These tares need to be removed now, before they get on the ballot in November 2008…
Go to Turning up the Tares to read the complete column.
