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"Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
Many explanations have been given for the parable by various interpreters to attempt to address difficult or unsettled questions. But we should not neglect the definitive answers Jesus provided. If some aspects of his answers make us uncomfortable it perhaps behooves us to dwell for a while in that discomfort. Only then should we consider attempts to ease it with our own clever solutions.
He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,
the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom.
It is important to see that the purpose of the Son of Man was entirely good. He was about the business of sowing good seed, desiring to produce children for the Kingdom of God. Yet we know that this process of producing children of God required something on the part of the recipients. Jesus came to many who did not receive him. Only those that did were made able to share in the divine life in this way.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (see John 1:11-12).
Are these good seeds destined to become children of God, or might they still fail in some way? From the point of view of God we may say that they are destined since "those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (see Romans 8:30). But God's absolute foreknowledge doesn't not preclude the necessity of choice on the part of individuals. Neither does God's knowledge provide any absolute assurance to those who hope to be justified. There can be moral certitude, since healthy plants are known by their fruits. But they are not so distinct from the weeds that human eyes could safely destroy the weeds and leave only the wheat. Hence Paul tells us to, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (see Philippians 2:12). In short, for God there will be no surprises on the last day. But for us here and now we have no cause to become complacent. Our true eternal identity is known to God. But the ultimate revelation of that identity will only be good news for us only if we cling to him by faith, hope, and love.
The weeds are the children of the Evil One,
and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.
Similarly, God knows who are the weeds, the ones who will be revealed to be children of the Evil One on the last day, and who will be thrown into the fiery furnace. But we don't know this for sure. The parable of the weeds and the wheat calls us to guard against the idea that we have absolute insight into the soul of anyone. It calls us to be cautious even against presumption or despair in ourselves. We are meant to learn to desire to be wheat and to fear the fate of the weeds in order to ensure that all of our energy is directed to healthy growth.
Jesus attempted to explain to the Judeans that sin was keeping them bound as slaves, and preventing them from abiding in the house of God forever. They tried to claim that God was their father. But they were not children of the good seed, at least not yet. Jesus explained that they were children of the devil precisely because they reproduced the pattern of his own disobedience in their lives.
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies (see John 8:44).
However, that they were, in that moment, sons and daughters of the Evil One did not seem to necessarily be an eternal condemnation. Jesus did not come only to give his stamp of approval to those who were already acceptable or to celebrate the freedom of those who were already free. Rather, he came to bring freedom and to set captives free.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (see John 8:36).
We assume that one reason that the harvest is reserved for the end of the age is precisely because everything is not yet set in stone. Some who look good now but will yet fail to bear fruit have not been revealed. Neither have those ugly and off-putting plants shown definitively that they will not yet outproduce even those that now seem shiny and strong. The fact that the end of the age is coming, and is closer now than it has ever been, is meant to motivate us. That there are only two possible ultimate destinies available for us is told to us not in order that was resign ourselves to fate, but rather so that we surrender ourselves to the grace that will make us what Jesus wants us to be, rather than what we will inevitably become apart from him.
Let the prisoners' sighing come before you;
with your great power free those doomed to death.
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