Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." 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. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. 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. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear. (Mt 13:36-43)
This explanation of the parable speaks about the image of God we have. Does God or the Son of Man sit at the judgement seat and condemn all the evil doers to a torturous suffering because of their evil doings? Is God so cruel as to treat people so badly? But at the same time God cannot be so very kind or grand fatherly to overlook any and every evil that is done by man.
Listeners of the time of Jesus were very much familiar with the topics of weed and wheat; good and bad; righteous and sinners. This was the language through which the leaders of the people (religion) talked about. They talked in this language to speak about the people who belonged to God and those who were against God. They knew who the weeds were and who the wheat was.
This passage also looks back to the image of the Son of Man in Daniel 7. Son of Man was there to judge the ruler who oppressed the God’s people (Dan 3) with a fiery furnace. It is about the judgement of God on the evil rulers who were not belonging to God. So we can say that the judgement is about ‘belonging to God or not’.
