Gathering the Wheat from the Tares

As official opposition to Jesus Christ's ministry grew, he taught for a time using only parables (Mark 4:34). Through simple stories of everyday objects and situations, the Master Teacher openly shared divine truths that went undetected by his oppressors (Bible Dictionary, "Parables").

Many of Christ's parables teach about the kingdom of heaven. This is, in itself, a masked reference to his church. The kingdom of heaven, Christ said, is like a mustard seed, leaven, a treasure hidden in a field, a pearl of great price and a fishing net. Each analogy subtly prophesies of the growth of the church from a seed to a great tree, from kneaded dough to a risen loaf, from an empty net to one that "gathered of every kind" (Matthew 13:47).

Christ also understood that growth would not come without opposition. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, he prophesies about the spreading of falsehood and wickedness, apostasy, and the eventual gathering of the elect prior to Christ's return in the latter days. He taught:

The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which 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 blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

He said unto them, An enemy hath done this.

The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:24-30).

Most people in ancient Israel would have been very familiar with the process of growing and harvesting wheat. It is, in a way, a purifying process as cut wheat is bound in bundles and left to dry in the field, pounded and threshed to separate the seed heads from the stems, and then winnowed or dropped on a breezy day to separate the heavier grain from the useless chaff. When the wheat is harvested, the field is burned to eliminate weeds, discard leftover straw, control pest populations, and prepare for a new crop.

Despite their familiarity with harvesting wheat, Christ's disciples struggled to understand the gospel principles in the parable. When the crowds and Pharisees were gone, they asked the Lord for an interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares.

The Lord explained that the field represented the world. Christ and his servants, the apostles, would sow good seeds as they taught the gospel throughout the nations of the world. After the seed was planted, "as men slept," there would be a great apostasy that would introduce tares in the field.

Tares are a weed that looks like wheat until it matures. They have a bitter taste and cause dizziness and vomiting if eaten separately or when mixed with bread (McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:296). The tares represent evil doctrines and those who spread them.

In the latter days, at the time of the harvest, the wheat, or the righteous, will be separated from the tares. The Lord explained to the Prophet Joseph Smith:

Behold, in the last days, even now while the Lord is beginning to bring forth the word, and the blade is springing up and is yet tender-- Behold, verily I say unto you, the angels are crying unto the Lord day and night, who are ready and waiting to be sent forth to reap down the fields; But the Lord saith unto them, pluck not up the tares while the blade is yet tender (for verily your faith is weak), lest you destroy the wheat also. Therefore, let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest is fully ripe; then ye shall first gather out the wheat from among the tares, and after the gathering of the wheat, behold and lo, the tares are bound in bundles, and the field remaineth to be burned (D&C 86:4-7).

As the Lord prophesied, we live in a time when wheat and tares are growing together in every corner of the world. In "a wheat and tares world," Elder Neal A. Maxwell once noted, "lust openly parades as love, license cleverly poses as liberty, and raucous sounds mockingly masquerade as music" (April 1993). Rather than talking with our neighbors, we watch talk shows and use social media in solitude. Legislation and violence are used against women and children to protect personal profit and convenience rather than to defend women and children. Many people turn to drugs and alcohol to "tune out" the world rather than striving with faith to overcome it. It can be especially difficult to tell the difference between a wide variety of religious teachings and beliefs that often cite the same scriptures.

With eyes to see and ears to hear, there are many gospel principles we can learn from the parable of the wheat and the tares. We can learn about waiting on the Lord's timing and the urgency of growing our faith. There are lessons about judgement, obedience, patience, and living with others in our church congregations. Perhaps most important is the work of gathering, assigned to the Lord's latter-day apostles, in which we are allowed to participate.

As wheat is gathered out of the field, so Christ prayed in gratitude that our Heavenly Father had given the Holy Ghost to those chosen "out of the world... because of their belief in [Christ]" (3 Nephi 19:20). He continued, "Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou has given me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may be purified in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them" (3 Nephi 19:29).

Christ offered a similar prayer for his disciples in Jerusalem. He repeated and clarified in that prayer that he prayed "not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil" (John 17:15). He prayed for unity, joy and sanctification through the word of God "that they may be made perfect in one" and "be with me where I am" (John 17:6-24).

Gathering the righteous out of the world is clearly more than baptizing them into any particular church. President Joseph Fielding Smith taught that "even in the Church the tares are to be found. It is the tares which are to be gathered up and burned from all over the world, but those in the Church will also be gathered out and find their place in the fire. The Savior also bore witness of [this. When] speaking to the Nephites he said: 'For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I cut off from my people, O house of Israel' (3 Nephi 21:20)" (Church History and Modern Revelation, 1:354.).

Wheat is not gathered into the barn for the barn's sake, but for its own preservation and the glory of the owner of the farm-- the householder. Paul taught that God "might gather together in one all things in Christ" (Ephesians 1:10). We are gathered as we believe in Christ, repent of our sin, covenant through baptism for the remission of sins, and are sanctified by the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is the way we may be "made perfect in one" and with the Lord where he is. 

The ancient American prophet Moroni admonished: "Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ... And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot" (Moroni 10:32-33).

In the multi-step process of harvesting the faithful, temple ordinances further separate the righteous from the world. Through additional covenants to live the laws of obedience, sacrifice, the gospel, chastity and consecration, our hearts and minds are instructed to greater unity, joy and sanctification. We are encouraged to discard the chaff in our lives that we may be among the Lord's chosen-- clearly distinguishable from the tares of the field and gathered up before the field is burned.

Christ taught these doctrines in a simple parable about harvesting wheat. He invited his disciples to help plant good seeds and he invites us to join in the harvest.

"Therefore," he declared, "if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work; For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul" (D&C 4:3-4).

Inheriting the Gift of Eternal Life

As Jesus Christ taught in the coasts of Judea, "there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10:17).

This was a question the Savior had answered before. To a Pharisee inquiring by night, the Lord taught that the Son of man would be lifted up "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15). 

On another occasion, Christ was confronted by a lawyer who asked, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou has answered right: this do, and thou shalt live" (Luke 10:25-28).

To the one who had come running and kneeled before him, Christ expounded: "Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me" (Mark 10:18-21).

The scriptures teach that the work and glory of God is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). Eternal life, in particular, is "the greatest of all of the gifts of God" (D&C 14:7).

Certainly, the clandestine Pharisee, the confrontational lawyer, and the rich young ruler understood that eternal life is something of extraordinary value and profound religious significance. It was worth the risk to find Jesus by night or setting great status aside to run and kneel at the Savior's feet. Yet, like their countrymen who were disappointed when Christ shared the gospel rather than loaves and fishes, each of these inquirers were ultimately disappointed by the Savior's instruction to change something about themselves. They sought eternal life as a sort of fountain of youth and "received not, because they asked amiss, that they may consume it upon their lusts" (James 4:3). 

Like these inquirers, we also misunderstand when we think of eternal life merely as the life that comes after death and lasts forever. As sons and daughters of God, it is true that we will be resurrected and live again after we die. "For as in Adam all die," Paul wrote, "even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). We believe, as Amulek taught, that our mortal bodies will be raised to immortal bodies that can never die again (Alma 11:45). This is an incredible gift from a loving Heavenly Father, but he wants to give us more than an existence without illness or death. He desires to give us all he has (D&C 84:37-38).

In Doctrine and Covenants Section 19, we read:

For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore-- Eternal punishment is God's punishment. Endless punishment is God's punishment... Therefore I command you to repent-- repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore-- how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not. For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I" (D&C 19:10-17).

Eternal punishment is the name of God's punishment. In the Garden of Gethsemane, this punishment "caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit" (D&C 19:18).

Likewise, eternal life is the name of God's life. It includes eternal families, or families modeled after His in both duration and character. It includes sharing in His work and experiencing His eternal joy. As promised in the Abrahamic Covenant, with eternal life we also obtain eternal progression and glory as our posterity, like His, grows more numerous than the stars in the sky or the sands of the sea.

We obtain the blessing of eternal life from God "by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" (D&C 130:20-21). The Lord recognizes that the gift of a lifestyle or a quality of life can only be sustained if we have learned the live the principles upon which that lifestyle is built. So many young heirs of great material wealth waste their inheritance because they do not understand the work and discipline necessary to build such a fortune. The Lord desires his gift to last much longer than fortunes in this world, so he gives us commandments to teach us how to succeed and help us begin now to live as he lives. In this way, the gift of eternal life is less like opening a present on Christmas morning and more like developing a gift for playing the piano or building furniture. As we develop wisdom, learn discipline and master the principles he has taught, we begin to inherit eternal life now because it is the natural consequence of our obedience to the law upon which it is predicated. We then inherit not only all the Lord has, but also all that he is.

"From such teachings," Elder Oaks has taught, "we conclude that the Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts-- what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts-- what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become" (Oaks, Dallin H. The Challenge to Become. Ensign. November 2000.).

President Marion G. Romney shared that service, as an example, "is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made" (Romney, Marion G. The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance. Ensign. November 1982.). As we learn to live as He lived, including selfless compassion and service to others, we become as He is and obtain the blessings He enjoys.

Even so, our best efforts, however diligent, cannot meet the high threshold of obedience required to obtain the blessing of eternal life. The Lord summarized his commandments when he told us to "be ye therefore perfect" (Matthew 5:48). We "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "Therefore nothing [or no one] entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end. Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day" (2 Nephi 27:19-20). 

God "so loved the world" that he provided legal means for us to inherit a blessing beyond our capacity for obedience. He "gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).

Through the gift of "an infinite and eternal sacrifice" (Alma 34:10), we can obtain blessings beyond our capacity for obedience through an agreement, a contract, with terms that are within our grasp. We enter that agreement through baptism, wherein we covenant and promise to remain willing to keep the commandments as best we can. We will repent and stay focused on our goal of becoming like God. If we choose not to meet these terms, the Lord will still provide many great and wonderful blessings; but if we desire all that he has, we must learn to be all that he is.

Along the path that leads to eternal life, we, like the Three Inquirers in the New Testament, may wonder from time to time what we must do to inherit eternal life. As the rich young ruler in Matthew's account of that encounter, we may approach the Lord on bended knee to ask, "What lack I yet?" We can expect a response like those in scripture with direction and guidance about how we can repent and change to be more like our Savior. He will encourage us through the power of His spirit with brief experiences with the eternal peace and joy we desire. And, step by step, if we are faithful unto the end, we will inherit "a crown of immortality and eternal life in the mansions which I [the Lord] have prepared in the house of my Father" (D&C 81:6).