The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,
so will it be at the end of the age.
It seems that the parable of the weeds and the wheat is designed primarily to point toward mercy. It is designed to say that there is yet time but that there is a harvest coming. It isn't just about why the good and the bad live alongside one another. It is about why badness is still permitted at all. It's because it is not yet time for the harvest. There is still time for mercy. We who have ears are invited to hear this word. Part of the parable explains that allowing weeds and wheat to grow up alongside one another helps to protect the growth of the wheat as well. But one thing which the parable is not intended to say is that some are just weeds and will remain ever thus. Otherwise the explanation wouldn't end with the invitation to hear and to therefore respond.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun
in the Kingdom of their Father.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.
In order to succeed we need to recognize that we ourselves often appear to be more weeds than wheat by the thorns we show and by our lack of fruit for the Kingdom. We need to recognize that we are a stiff-necked people who need the LORD to accompany us on our journey.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O LORD,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people;
yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."
We need to cultivate the relationship with the LORD that Moses has. He could easily assume that the whole people of Israel is nothing but weeds. But he does not. He draws near to the LORD in relationship. He continues to plead with the LORD on behalf of his people. It is this relationship that makes his face "shine like the sun". It is this same light that we need to grow as children of the Kingdom. It is not a light we can hog for ourselves, assuming that others, mere weeds, don't need it. The seed sown by the Son of Man is sufficient. He plants it in the hearts of all men. Let us all spread ourselves and open ourselves beneath the light of the face of Christ so that, at the end of the age, his will find the rich harvest for which he longs.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.
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