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Parable of the wheat and tares

A story about an enemy who sowed tares among wheat.
Contributed by Nazareth Village
Story also available on our translated websites: Spanish, Polish, Hindi
1
Jesus told His disciples another parable to help them understand the Kingdom of Heaven. – Slide 1
2
A farmer prepared his ground for planting. – Slide 2
3
Then he carefully scattered good seed on the ploughed soil. – Slide 3
4
But one night, as the farmer slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds, known as tares, among the wheat. – Slide 4
5
When the wheat crop began to grow, the tares grew among them too. – Slide 5
6
Tares look like wheat as they are growing but it is a poisonous weed not fit for eating. Tares are also known as Lolium temulentum or bearded darnel, a species of rye-grass. To eat tares would make you feel intoxicated, giddy and sick. You would have vomiting, stomach ache and diarrhoea. It is not until the seeds appear near harvest time you can clearly see the difference between wheat and tares. – Slide 6
7
The farm labourers went to find the farmer to warn him of the problem. – Slide 7
8
‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of tares!’ – Slide 8
9
‘An enemy has done it,’ the farmer exclaimed. – Slide 9
10
‘Shall we try and pull out the tares?’ they asked. – Slide 10
11
‘No,’ he replied. ‘You’ll damage the wheat if you do. Let the wheat and tares grow together until the harvest.’ – Slide 11
12
The farmer knew his labourers would clearly be able to identify the tares from the wheat at harvest time. – Slide 12
13
‘I will tell the reapers to pull out the tares first and burn them,’ the farmer said. – Slide 13
14
With the poisonous weeds gone, the labourers could then harvest the wheat crop. – Slide 14
15
The good seed would bring a good crop. – Slide 15
16
And after being winnowed … – Slide 16
17
It would bring a good harvest to be put in the farmer’s barns. – Slide 17
18
Here is a picture of wheat and tares near harvest time. Can you tell which is which? – Slide 18
19
This is a tare weed. The spikelets of a mature tare turn edgeways towards the stem whereas the wheat spikelets remain firm and upright. – Slide 19
20
This is wheat. At harvest the ears on the real wheat are so heavy the entire plant droops down. The ears on the tares are lighter, with fewer seeds and the plant grows more upright. The tares grow slightly higher than the wheat. Wheat seeds ripen to a golden brown but tare seeds turn black. – Slide 20
21
The photos in this parable have been taken at Nazareth Village and used with their kind permission. They retain copyright on their images and do not allow any commercial reuse. – Slide 21