The parable of the weeds (Matthew 13: 24鈥30, 36鈥43)
The parable of the weeds is another allegory. In other words, it can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, everything in the story represents something else.
Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a person who sows good seed in a field.
While he sleeps, an enemy comes and sows weeds among the wheat. This would have meant that the two grew up together and their roots would have intertwined.
The sower would not have noticed what the enemy had done until the plants began to grow and produce grain. The owner explains to his slaves that an enemy must have planted weeds. He instructs them to do nothing until harvest time, if they did anything before then it would risk uprooting the grain.
The owner says that at harvest time the reapers will collect the weeds first, bind them into bundles and burn them. The wheat will then be gathered and brought into the barn.
In this allegory, the sower is Jesus and the enemy is the Devil.
The good seed represents people who listen to and respond to God鈥檚 word. These are the people who belong to the Kingdom of God and who will go to Heaven at the end of time.
The weeds represent those people who do not listen to God鈥檚 word, they are 鈥渟ons of the evil one鈥 who will go to the fiery furnace of hell at the end of time.
The harvest workers are the angels and harvest time is the end of the age.
This means that on Earth, good and bad people will grow and live together. The Kingdom of God will be present amongst the evil of the world. At the end of time people will be separated into their eternal destiny.