TRANSLATION MATTHEW 13: 34

All these things were spoken by Jesus in parables to the crowds; he spoke nothing to them without a parable; so that what was spoken by the prophet was accomplished:

I will open my mouth in parables

I will pour out things hidden since the foundation of the world.

Then he abandoned the crowds and came into the house. And his pupils approached him saying, “Clarify for us the parable of the darnel in the field.”

He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed are the sons of God’s Rule, and the darnel are the sons of the evil one; the enemy who sows them is the Devil., The harvest is the consummation of this age, the reapers are God’s messengers. As the darnel is collected. and burned in fire, so will it be at the consummation of the age. For the Son of Man will send his messengers and collect from his kingdom all the snares that trip people up, and all who act lawlessly; and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there is weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the just people will shine like the sun in the Rule of the Father. If you have ears, use them!.”

Again Matthew gives an explanation for a parable, which he separates from the parable itself with the device of Jesus treating his pupils differently from the crowd, by letting them into its supposedly secret meaning. It is hard to imagine this scenario as true to Jesus’ practice.It would seem that the parables had become difficult to understand, and were therefore treated as allegories of salvation, rather than teasing stories of God’s way of working.

The background to Matthew’s understanding of this parable is the book of Daniel, which was much used by the first Christians to depict the “consummation of the age” when faith in Jesus would be vindicated. Doubtless Matthew was part of a believing community which felt keenly its absence of power and security. The explanation of the parable reassures the faithful that their faith will not be in vain. I do not think these words come from Jesus, albeit the image of the just shining like the sun in God’s Rule, is very meaningful to me.

If we take the obvious meaning of the explanation of the parable, then almost against Matthew’s intention, I want to interpret the line between wheat and darnel as running through every person rather than dividing one person from another. Neither side of these binary parables fully describes me, but together they do describe the warring elements in my character.