In the past few studies on the parables of Jesus, I have been demonstrating that the reasons for Jesus telling the parables are twofold. They are the bookends that identify two classes of hearers of the word of God, namely believers and unbelievers. Yes, unbelievers do listen to the word of God, but only in an effort to strengthen and support what they already believe (Matthew 12:24). This is key to identifying unbelievers who say they believe God’s word. They already think they know the truth, so they use scripture as a tool to strengthen their position (Matthew 7:15-20). Believers, on the other hand, receive the word of God as their truth (Matthew 13:23). Understanding the word, they allow the truth to mold their behavior in life. In other words, believers are changed by the word of God in an effort to establish the reign of God, but unbelievers change the word of God in an effort to establish their own reign in the presence of God.
After Jesus explained the Parable of the Sower to the Apostles and answered their question concerning why he spoke to the people in parables, he preached another parable to the people. In this parable the sower sowed good seen into his field, but later an enemy sowed tares (darnel weed) among the good seed. When the blades appeared, the man’s servants came asking if they should remove the tares. However, they were told to let the tares grow together with the wheat until the harvest. At that time they were to, first, gather the tares into bundles and burn them, then, after this was done, they were to gather the wheat into the granary.
Later, the Apostles asked Jesus the meaning of the Parable of the Wheat and Tares:
Then sending the crowds away, Jesus went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said to them, 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; but the tares are the sons of the evil one. The enemy who sowed them is the Devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it shall be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send out His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous shall shine out like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 13:36-43; emphasis mine)
So, what we have here is that the good seed are the believers, and the tares are the unbelievers. The harvest the end of the age. The word ‘world’ is aion in the Greek (G165) and has the meaning of “a period of time, an age,” according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon. Now, the phrase, “end of the world (age)” occurs six times in the New Testament. Two of those occur in the citation above. Here Jesus says the harvest is ‘the end of the world (age),’ and at this time, the harvest or ‘the end of the world’ the angels will be sent to first gather the tares (the unbelievers)[1] and destroy them, and afterward gather the wheat (the believers) into the Lord’s granary. Next, the phrase occurs a few verses later in Matthew 13:49, which only reiterates the fact at ‘the end of the world (age), the angels will separate the believers from the unbelievers.
The phrase is used again just before the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24:3. There the Apostles ask Jesus what would be the sign of his coming and (the sign) of ‘the end of the world (age),’ which indicates that the harvest or ‘the end of the world (age)’ occurs at the coming of the Lord. Jesus uses the phrase once more, while commissioning his Apostles in Matthew 28:20, saying he would be with them until ‘the end of the world (age).’
Finally, the phrase is used again in the book of Hebrews, where it is said that Jesus had appeared in ‘the end of the world (age) in order to put away sin (Hebrews 9:28). In other words, the end of the age is the time of Jesus’ public ministry, and it incorporates the time of the Apostles ministry (Matthew 28:20). Nothing is said in the word of God for that age to continue beyond the time of the Apostles’ ministry, which, of course, would have ended with the destruction of the Temple, regarding which the Apostles questioned Jesus in Matthew 24:3, and which he answered in Matthew 24:30. It would be a time when all the tribes of the earth (i.e. the Jews) mourn, because Jesus is coming in the clouds (cf. Matthew 26:64) with great power and glory to destroy the Temple (Matthew 24:30), when the unbelievers are destroyed with their Temple or sent into captivity, but the elect are gathered together by the angels (Matthew 24:31).
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[1] If the unbelievers are gathered first, what does this say about the doctrine of the rapture? How can that doctrine be reconciled to this scripture?
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