People tend to think they know about the parable of the wheat and tares.
God sows wheat. The adversary sows tares (darnel weed, a species of bearded rye-grass that is a pretty effective emetic that causes violent vomiting if eaten).
The wheat and the tares get separated and the tares are burned.
At greater length a reprise:
The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares
When Jesus first gave the parable of the wheat and the tares (see Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43), He interpreted most the details in the parable.
1. The man sowing seed is the Son of Man (Jesus).
2. The field is the world.
3. The good seed are the children of the kingdom (followers of Jesus).
4. The tares are children of the wicked one (those who follow the enticements of Satan).
5. The enemy is the devil.
6. The harvest is the end of the world.
7. The reapers are the angels sent to reap the field.
8. The tares bound and burned are the evil ones separated out and cast into fire (punishment) at the Judgment.
9. The wheat gathered into the barn represents the righteous who are separated out and made to “shine forth” in the kingdom of the Father.
The Lord did not interpret the following details in Matthew 13:1. The wheat springing forth and starting to bear fruit.
2. The men sleeping.
3. The wheat and tares being allowed to grow together until the harvest.
4. The wheat being uprooted in an attempt to weed out the tares.
People talk a lot about how the Wheat and the Tares need to be shifted and how we need to get rid of the Tares. They are in good company, angels apparently do the same thing.
5 Behold, verily I say unto you, the angels are crying unto the Lord day and night, who are ready and waiting to be sent forth to reap down the fields;
6 But the Lord saith unto them, pluck not up the tares while the blade is yet tender (for verily your faith is weak), lest you destroy the wheat also.
7 Therefore, let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest is fully ripe; then ye shall first gather out the wheat from among the tares, and after the gathering of the wheat, behold and lo, the tares are bound in bundles, and the field remaineth to be burned.
Notice that Christ doesn’t agree with the angels. He says no, even though they cry day and night to be allowed to pluck up the tares. In fact, they are never allowed to pluck up the tares.
The shifting or the sorting is to occur after the wheat is gathered in and at the end, when the world is burned and made new. Not before that, because attempts to remove the tares will invariably hurt the wheat.
I think that is good to remember, whenever we think we need to sort the Wheat from the Tares. Not to mention, are we really sure we can tell which is which?
Wheat & Tares 
Being on the side of the Angels isn’t akways what God wants.
I really hadn’t taken a closer look at this parable until the last several months when everyone was using it to describe people’s reactions to the LGBT policy. At church someone said that people who disagreed with the new LGBT policy were publicly stoning the prophets and are the tares that will be burned as wicked at the second coming.
I mentioned that since we can’t tell the tares from the wheat until at the end maybe we shouldn’t be so confident that we are wheat.
A wise farmer or botanist, etc. can tell the difference between wheat and tares by close examination, even back in the time of Christ. I probably cannot, but a wheat farmer can. Of course the angels can tell the difference too.
The point is that there will be injury to the total harvest of wheat by starting the sorting too early. One reason may be that the Lord of the harvest can turn a tare into wheat as he goes into the field to reap. Even if the tare is approaching fully ripened maturity, He can make the change.
The gathering of the wheat into the garners has already begun. In this way, the separation has already begun and will continue into and throughout the millennium.
Sorting the wheats from the tares is the gathering to or away from the church. The destruction comes to those away from the church.
I had not looked at this parable in this way before. Good insight. I think this has implications in the church trying to silence people by excommunicating them. In fact, they don’t silence them at all. Maybe, one implication of this new insight, is we should have more charity and less judging,even as an institution.
Great comment, oso.
I get stuck at the beginning. God plants wheat, a certain kind of seed. Devil plants tares, a different plant that has no chance of becoming wheat at any point in its existence.
It sounds like pre-destination and a way for people to label and call “us” vs “them” lines about people.
Parables have limitations, I guess. I’ll stick to that. The emphasis on this one is that there will be a punishment. Black and white. Wheat and Tare. All or nothing. With angels betting on who gets burned.
The idea of someone being all wheat or all tare seems like a pretty ludicrous way to look at it. I am pretty sure that if you looked into my heart, you would find both wheat and tares. In fact, I am often surprised to find that the qualities I once considered wheat in myself are actually tares, and vice versa. I am hopeful that humans and angels will not be so quick to judge my heart while it is still tender and growing, which growth I think will last my lifetime and beyond. I am hopeful that a God who truly knows and understands me will help me sift the wheat in my heart and help me burn my own tares.
“The shifting or the sorting is to occur after the wheat is gathered in and at the end, when the world is burned and made new. Not before that, because attempts to remove the tares will invariably hurt the wheat.
I think that is good to remember, whenever we think we need to sort the Wheat from the Tares. Not to mention, are we really sure we can tell which is which?”
Remember, the angels do the separating and burning. They don’t do it by their decision but by the Lord’s decision. Till then both the wheat and the tares are given knowledge from the Lord what is right and how both wheat and tares should be prepared for that day. On that day only the wheat survives because they will have chosen the right. The wheat will do and preach the right, but the tares will refuse the knowledge that has made the wheat strong in the midst of the tares so when the angels begin the trashing, the wheat will be able to survive the trashing because of the saving grace of the Lord.
So in all of this we should understand that we are not trashing anything. When this destruction happens the wheat will be there with the tares. The wheat will survive, the tares will not.