Burn the Tares

During Elder Perry's talk, he quoted the parable of the wheat and the tares. Normally, this parable is about good and evil being allowed to exist simultaneously on the Earth until the final judgement, when the wicked will be burned, like the tares were, but as I listened to that parable this time, I thought of the farmer whose vineyard it was, and of the enemy who sowed tares in his field, and I though of how foolish a thing it was that the enemy did.

When the enemy sowed tares in the man's field, he unintentionally justified his target in retaliating in kind, while simultaneously giving him the power to do so. Once the tares were grown, the Lord of the vineyard found himself in the possession of a good quantity of tare seeds. He could have easily sown those seeds in the field of his enemy. He could even have left a note saying "You reap what you sow - in your field or in another's," which also would have but a message worth blogging about.

But he didn't do that. He burned the tares instead. It could have been that he didn't know which enemy sowed tares in his field, or that the enemy didn't have a field to sow the tare seeds in, or that he didn't want to continue an endless cycle of revenge, but I prefer to think that (despite some of the more threatening verses in scripture) vengeance was the last thing on the Lord of the vineyard's mind. When his enemy gave him a weapon he could use against him, he chose to destroy the weapon instead.

So it should be with us. Life is full of hardship and challenges. Some of those are of our own making, and some of them are just a part of life, but some of our hardships come through others, sometimes intentionally. What do we do when someone does something mean to us? When someone sows tares in our fields and makes life more difficult for us? Do we reap the tares and sow them in their fields? Do we go and burn their fields, not even waiting for the harvest? Getting revenge is a natural desire to have, but it's one of the many natural desires we are to learn to overcome.

We don't need to get even with our enemies. If it's any consolation, God is already planning to do that for us. What we need to do is forgive, to bury the hatchet, burn the tares, and just reap whatever wheat managed to grow despite the tares. Getting even with an enemy isn't going to put more wheat in our barns, and it's not going to be healthy for our souls or for our personal relationships, either. You've heard about the concept of "killing" your enemies with kindness - with being so nice to a person that they can no longer bring themselves to remaining your enemy. That tactic is incompatible with getting revenge.

There may have been tares sown in your field, and you may be tempted to return them to the person who gave them to you, but try to rise above that temptation. If you're still very angry and bitter about the experience, remember, if you have to, that God will exact justice for every ill deed that has been done against you, but also bear in mind that He'll exact justice for every ill deed that you do as well, whether you felt that they were justified or not. God doesn't want us to go out seeking justice. That's His department. What He wants us to do is forgive.