Why Do We Experience Suffering? One supremely important insight into a neglected dimension from the Parable of the Wheat and Tares with a word from the Fathers on demonic deception

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

[Reading Time: 17 minutes]

Introduction

“Why Do We Suffer?”

In the seemingly, never-ending, philosophical debates on the “Origin of Evil” with its primary question of Why does man suffer (which, we could say, is continually relevant to any of us in medicine or ministry or….for that matter…anyone working in any field where evil, injustice, deception and fraud occurs that cause us to ask, Why in the world did this happen?), there stands for us Christ’s incredibly simple and easy-to-understand Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (the image of which is presented above). And taken at face value, this Parable seems to answer this debate clearly and categorically…in only two paragraphs.

As such, we quote it in full:

Mt 13

24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

An “enemy came” …and What did he do?

“Sowed tares among the wheat.”

And Why exactly would God allow this to happen?

27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

A very legitimate question.

And the Owner gives them a very simple response:

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

No explanation as to Why.

No psychologizing about the nature of evil.

Just a simple statement that this is the way it is.

What, then, are we to do?

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

Again, a very simple response of ‘No’; yet there is offered in His response more insight:

29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

That is to say, we simply cannot tell the difference between the wheat and the tares, whether they are in our churches (cf. Mt 7:15-23), workplace (cf. Mt 24:40-42), even family (cf. Lk 17:32-34).

Can you tell the difference…?

And so Jesus responds with a word of caution and patience:

30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

The context of the Parable of the Sower

This Parable follows directly after His Parable of the Sower (or more accurately, the Parable of the Soils). which explains the four different ways man responds to the Word of Truth. Given its relevance to the apprehension of the text, we present these four responses below. Mankind, according to Jesus, responds to the seed of the Word

1) In dismissal (Mt 13:4->19; cf. Lk 8:5, “and it was trampled under foot…”, katapatéō, which verb is also used in the Sermon on the Mount in reference to the “swine” which “trample" the “pearls” of the Kingdom “under their feet” then “turn and tear you in pieces” [Mt 7:6]. i.e. This is not a totally passive response to the Word…);

The next response is to receive the Word

2) With temporary joy and confident acceptance (metá chará), which, however, we later find is based not on Christ….but on the immediate ease of a newfound, existential peace…that will invariably break apart under the force of testing (“For when tribulation (thlîpsis) or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he is scandalized (for the word study on skandalízō see here)…” (13:5-6-> 20-21);

Or there is the response

3) In great, inner conflict as the struggles of life brought on by the “cares (mérimna) of This Present Age and the deceitfulness (apátē) of riches” (with Luke adding the “pleasures of life” [Lk 8:14]) all work together in the heart of man to “choke” (sympnígō) the Word that it bears no fruit (ákarpos).

A brief word on the verb “choke” (pnígō)

It should be noted here that the base of the verb ‘to choke’ is pnígō, which occurs only two times in the NT and expresses the categorical working of the demonic. It first appears in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Mt 18:21-35) who owes the King a massive sum of money which can never be repaid (as it was “10,000 talents” with one talent being equal to 6,000 denarii and one denarius being the usual day’s wage for a worker. Namely, 60 million day’s wages…).

When the servant comes to the King and begs him for patience (makrothyméō) with the delusional promise “and I will pay you all,” the King does not draw attention to the servant’s deceitfulness and utter lack of ability to repay anything. On the contrary—and totally unexpectedly, we might add—the King is “moved with compassion (splanchnízomai), such that he “released him, and forgave him (aphíēmi, cf. Mt 6:12) the debt.”

Period.

No explanation.

And then, in response to this demonstration of utterly undeserved, inexplicable mercy, the servant, as we know well, takes a very different pathway from the King—one of violence and vindictiveness. And this is where we find the first occurrence of pnígō.

Having been forgiven his debt in full, the man then goes out and immediately finds one of his “fellow servants” (sýndoulos) who owed him only “100 denarii” (which he could actually pay back)… And knowing this, he “seized him by force” and “choked him” (pnígō), demanding “Pay what you owe.” That is to say, this first use of pnígō reveals the fallen state of man whose way of life is marked not by the compassion and forgiveness of the King but rather whose actions bear the image of… Satan himself, the “accuser of the brethren” (cf. Rev 12:10). And though this man is offered full and total forgiveness of his own debts, he, nevertheless, demands repayment—work and work and more work (Mt 23:3-4)—willing to spend his life energies on persecuting his “fellow servants” with the threat of coming judgement.

This is the first use occurring in a Parable elucidating Christ’s words to forgive not “up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22).

The next use appears in the flesh-and-blood narrative of Christ’s dramatic healing of a demon-possessed man in the Gentile territory of the Gadarenes. Upon stilling the raging waters of the sea (Mk 4:35-41), Jesus leaves the confines of Israel and goes beyond Galilee to a man that had “often been bound with shackles and chains among the tombs” yet whom, the text makes the statement that no one could bind him, not even with chains”; for he was, we find, possessed by a “legion” of demons (Mk 5:1-20).

(For a patient story that holds some similarity, see here:

We are 37” were the first words spoken. “She belongs to me...I killed the baby in her womb...” Then the threat: “And now I am going to kill her too. I will give her two more years and then I will kill her...”)

And how does Jesus respond to this poor and tormented soul?

Does He psychoanalyze him?

Does He counsel him?

Does He judge him?

No.

Jesus has compassion on him and heals him.

That is to say, Christ goes outside of Israel to a man oppressed (for reasons we do not specifically know why) and bitterly tormented and, without the asking him, exorcises these demons from this man so that he is fully restored.

And what happens to the demons? Here, the text specifies with the next and final use of pnígō,

Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned (pnígō) in the sea (5:13).

That is to say, the waters of the sea (which, we remember from the verses prior, Jesus had just calmed, or literally “rebuked” (epitimáō), saying “to the sea, ‘Be silent (siōpáō) and “muzzled” (phimóō, cf. I Cor 9:9) are an image of judgement. In the OT this begins in Gen 6 with the cataclysm of the Flood, which is further heightened in the NT (cf. Jude 13, Rev 13:1, Rev 18:21, I Pet 3:20-21).

The final response to the seed of the Word and its connection to the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

The final response in the Parable to the Word that is sown is for us to receive it

4) With experiential understanding as the Word becomes implanted into our mind/heart/soul/nous, with its roots digging deeper and deeper down into our being so that the fruit which will remain can grow upwards (13:8-> 23).

Having provided a comprehensive analysis of man’s response to the Word and its effect in their lives, Jesus now focuses in on the fourth category of the seed that was sown on the “good ground” (tēn gēn tēn kalēn). And what we find is that when believers encounter the “slings and arrows” of the “outrageous fortune” of life—which they inevitably will in following Jesus—the answer as to the root cause of our pain and chaos and confusion and suffering is found not in more precise self-analysis or greater insights into family, church, societal dynamics, etc., etc.

The answer, in fact, lies not in this realm at all.

Rather, according to the words of Jesus, the events are due to a hidden “enemy” that comes in unseen and slips away (13:25).

We don’t see.

We don’t realize.

We don’t understand.

Yet we experience the horrific effects in our lives and the lives of those around us.

We might even say that Why we are we experiencing suffering may not, in fact, be the right question for us to ask at all.

But rather Who is sowing this into our lives? (being willing to then ask of ourselves, How are we responding to this…? as we can certainly intensify it…)

And again, Christ’s response here to the question of evil is very simple:

“An enemy.”

The teachings of the Fathers on the the Enemy and his deception

The Fathers of the Church teach, in short, that the devil counteracts Christ in everything.

In the words of Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.),

For indeed this also is a part of the devil's craft, by the side of the truth always to bring in error, painting thereon many resemblances, so as easily to cheat the deceivable…

After the prophets, false prophets appear;

After the Apostles, false apostles;

After Christ, Antichrist will appear.

Until the devil sees what to counterfeit, he does not begin anything and even does not know how to set to work. Therefore even now, when he has perceived that he can no longer carry off, or choke, or scorch that which has been sown and has taken root, he invents a different kind of deception, namely ­he sows his own seed."

Or we can refer to an early document from the 1st century known as the Didache (or The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations [Διδαχὴ Κυρίου διὰ τῶν δώδεκα ἀποστόλων τοῖς ἔθνεσιν]) which, we should remember, was quoted by the Apostolic Fathers as holding the authority of Scripture itself. As such, this text is recognized as the oldest, extant catechism of the Church (with a line-by-line commentary here).

In the closing chapter, filled with Gospel references (Mt 24-25, Mk 14, Lk 12 & 21-22), it begins with a series of imperatives calling the people of God to watch in readiness given the reality of testing and trials in this life:

16:1 Watch concerning your life; let not your lamps be quenched or your loins be loosed, but be ye ready, for ye know not the hour at which our Lord cometh.

16:2 But be ye gathered together frequently, seeking what is suitable for your souls; for the whole time of your faith shall profit you not, unless ye be found perfect in the last time.

And the reasons offered are due to the coming spirit of deception of the Antichrist, referencing the repeated warnings in the Pauline Epistles (II Pet 3, II Thes 2 following Mt 24):

16:3 For in the last days false prophets and seducers shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate;

16:4 and because iniquity aboundeth they shall hate each other, and persecute each other, and deliver each other up;

This is where the “Deceiver” enters:

And then shall the Deceiver of the world appear as the Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands; and he shall do unlawful things, such as have never happened since the beginning of the world.

16:5 Then shall the creation of man come to the fiery trial of proof, and many shall be offended and shall perish; but they who remain in their faith shall be saved by the rock of offence (pétra skándalon) itself.

16:6 And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first the sign of the appearance in heaven, then the sign of the sound of the trumpet, and thirdly the resurrection of the dead

16:7 -- not of all, but as it has been said, The Lord shall come and all his saints with him;

16:8 then shall the world behold the Lord coming on the clouds of heaven (where the text concludes).

Or, finally, to quote John of Damascus (650-750 A.D.) in his Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (a new translation of which we featured here by Fr. Dragas):

Book II, Ch. IV, Concerning the devil and demons:

All wickedness, then, and all impure passions are the work of their mind. But while the liberty to attack man has been granted to them, they have not the strength to over master any one: for we have it in our power to receive or not to receive the attack(4). Wherefore there has been prepared for the devil and his demons, and those who follow him, fire unquenchable and everlasting punishment(5).

Note, further, that what in the case of man is death is a fall in the case of angels. For after the fall there is no possibility of repentance for them, just as after death there is for men no repentance(6).

This teaching applied to the OT, NT…and us…by questions

In contemplating the reality of evil present as early as the Creation itself, we ask…basically….why human history happened the way it did?

Why, to go back to the very beginning, did Eve turn away so quickly and Adam with her…while there were in literal Paradise in the presence of God?

When the community of God’s people were beginning to form, Why were the Israelites led into slavery…for 400 years? Generation after generation being born into and dying in bondage and affliction?

When the Kingdom was then established under David, the Messianic King, Why did he fall, his family splinter and the kingdom of Israel eventually fall apart?

In this extended, hard-to-watch process, Why did the Northern Kingdom so completely turn away that it was carried away into captivity never to return?

Why, then, was the Southern Kingdom, who in many ways received the Word, and its capital of Jerusalem with the very Temple itself finally destroyed in a manner of such violence and brutality—starvation, pillage, fire, rape, infanticide—that is almost unspeakable?

And Why were the Prophets who foresaw all of these things and faithfully warned God’s people so persecuted, rejected and murdered?

….

Then to carry these questions forward into the NT, Why was the true and final Messianic King, the very Word of God Himself, called a blasphemer…by none other than the religious leaders themselves?

Why was He so bitterly opposed during His life on earth by the ones He came to save?

And Why did they falsely accuse Him?

Condemn Him?

Torture Him?

And finally crucify Him?

From Jesus’ own mouth:

An enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way…

A closing word

Again, this is only one dimension, and not the only one (as we contribute a lot more than we think to this whole picture…); nevertheless, it is a dimension. And as such, we should take Jesus at his Word and then follow the words of the Fathers in their exhortations to be fully aware of such evil of the enemy and watch in faith and readiness.

For as we do this, then we experience not simply the hardship and pain and sorrow…but the powerful, redemptive working of the Messianic King Who Himself endured such bitterness and Who became as the Suffering and Dying Servant the One Who renews all of life into the New Creation in His Body broken and Blood shed.

Amen!

So let it be!