24 Jesus set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away. 26 But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also. 27 The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’

28 “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’

29 “But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Matthew 13:24-30 - World English Bible

Like the parable of the Sower and the Seed in Matthew's gospel, Jesus told a parable in public (13:24-30), only to explain it to his disciples in private (13:37-43). Like the previous parable, he built the story around a farmer and the sowing of seeds. But, unlike the Sower and the Seed, he used the narrative as a simile for the Kingdom of heaven and drew its logical conclusion in a harvest, an implicit metaphor for the end times.

The entire story hinged upon the darnel weed. This plant resembled wheat until it ripened, when it turned black, while wheat turned brown. The yield of seed from darnel was half that of wheat. It easily fell prey to a fungus that could infect the soil itself. Roman law prohibited the sowing of darnel into the wheat field of an enemy.

We'll examine Jesus' interpretation of the parable in a few more days. We can note that preachers throughout history saw the similarities between the wheat and the darnel weeds as a reason for religious tolerance in society. They envisioned the separation of the good from the bad as God's work, not man's, hence we should not judge others.

How hard is it for you to live with the “darnel” in your life?