Article April 2, 1990 Issue

How do we separate the good from the bad?

Jesus' parable of the tares and wheat shows us how to deal with the problem of evil.

Peter Burgdorff

Our human experience can often look like a confusing mixture of good and bad. It's sometimes hard to tell where one leaves off and the other starts. It can be even harder to figure out how to separate the two and get rid of the bad. We are often reduced to frustration, wondering how we got into such a mess in the first place.

Is there a way out? The human avenues offering solutions are often confusing and ineffectual. Yet, through the Bible and the teachings of our Master, Christ Jesus, we can find solutions. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6. He did much of his teaching by parables. The parable of the tares and the wheat See Matt. 1 3:24-30. specifically addresses the questions at hand. The parable tells how "an enemy" secretly sows weeds in a farmer's field and how his servants want to go out and immediately pull them up. But the farmer tells them that they must wait and remove the tares as part of the harvest process.

Bible scholars tell us that the tares are probably a bitter, poisonous grass known as bearded darnel, a plant that is similar to wheat. Apparently, it is very difficult to distinguish between the wheat and the darnel until they both mature. The rabbis of Jesus' day regarded tares as "perverted wheat."

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April 2, 1990
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