We live in the kingdom here and now even
though evil and sin surround us. It is
meant to grow within us and around us.
To the one who is wise, it is so valuable that someone would give up
everything to obtain it.
When
most people hear the word, kingdom,
they want something that they can find on a map with boundaries or
borders. Jesus gives us a kingdom of
perspectives and character and ways that are not of this world.
This is quite an interesting kingdom
and Jesus makes it all the more interesting by saying the Kingdom of Heaven is
like a net. This is not just an ordinary
net, but something similar to what we would call a seine today. It would be dragged through the water until
it reached the shore, collecting fish from the bottom to the top of the area
swept by the net.
The fish would be dumped onto the
shore and then be sorted. Good fish in
the basket. Bad fish thrown away to be
burned in the fire. I guess nobody had
any cats at home that might have eaten the bad fish. If we were to get allegorical, we would be
the fish; but we are not going to do that.
It’s bad enough to be compared to sheep, but I think I would rather be
represented by a sheep than a fish.
It doesn’t matter if you are a good
fish or bad fish, you still get caught.
You either end up in a basket or in the fire. Except in modern fishing stories about the
one who got away, things never come out well for the fish. Here it’s scorched or in a basket on its way
to a sushi bar.
Heaven is not a fishy smelling basket
and hell is not discarded fish on its way to the fire to gnash its teeth. A fish gnashing teeth—now there’s an image
for you Sunday morning. The analogy in
the parable is first to the net. The
Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was put to its intended use and did its
job—it caught all kinds of fish.
The Kingdom of Heaven described here
is the kingdom at the end of the age.
Much like the wheat and the weeds that will grow together; the good fish
and bad fish will live together and be collected at the same time and then be
separated.
It is about the end of the age. The kingdom that we can enter now will
transition into one where sin and evil are no longer in play. There is not much more than the basket for
the good fish in this parable so we should not extend the analogy too much
here, at least as far as trying to figure out what heaven looks like.
And we can’t really glean too much
about the outcome of those who have been separated from the good fish other
than their outcome is not desirable at all.
Separated is bad.
Burned in the
blazing furnace is worse. Weeping and
gnashing of teeth means that even if you could fake being a stoic all through
this life when reality hits home and you are facing eternal separation from
God, nobody can fake it at that point.
There are not going to be any stoics in hell. They will fall apart and cry and cry out when
they realize they rejected the truth.
In the parable of the wheat and the
weeds, angels did the harvesting. Here
Jesus has men casting a dragnet but we see that angels are the ones who
ultimately separate the wicked from the righteous. It is good that we understand that God has
the logistics of the end of the age covered.
We could just sit back and be glad we
have this glimpse of the end of the age, but we need to consider the thing to
which Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is like a net. It is cast and
dragged and it collects fish.
This net is the gospel and we are the
fishermen. While we don’t judge
believers, or condemn them as a bad fish; we are part of the instrument by
which men will be separated.
God desires that none perish and he
has sent men and women—followers of Jesus—into the world with the gospel. God’s desire is for all to come to salvation
through the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ, but Jesus gives us this parable and
perhaps some insight into the fact that God’s desire for salvation for all may
not be fully realized.
He longs for it. He has sent us into the world to spread the
simple means of knowing life and life eternal in Jesus Christ; but some may
still not respond or just outright reject God’s love. God is love and he will never stop loving us
but some just won’t respond.
We could use this parable like parents
use Santa Claus about mid-November. He’s
watching. You had better be good or you
will have to live with that old X-Box for another year. That doesn’t work in May, June, or July. Kids know that Santa sleeps through the
summer and it’s not really what the parable is about either. It’s not a you had better be good or else
lesson.
It is a reminder that God will judge
his creation and the only thing that will put us and keep us in his favor is
the blood of Jesus. There will be a
sorting, a separation, and God will judge.
We could just wait until that time to
get serious about being a disciple. It
is the blood of Jesus and our profession of faith that brings us to
salvation. It is not our good works. What’s the hurry about getting into this
discipleship stuff.
Park me on the back pew, encase me in glass,
and don’t break it until Jesus comes back to have his angels put me in the
basket with the good fish.
So, do we just say, “That’s cool and
thanks for the look at the end times; I’ll be on the lookout,” and move on to
the next parable? We could, but we
should consider that Jesus compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a net. There is more to the parable, but we are the
ones who cast this net. We are truly
fishers of men.
The angels will do the separating for God
at the end but we cast the net. We take
the gospel into the world. The part of
this parable that applies to the followers of Jesus in the here and now is the
casting of the net. That part is
underway and it continues.
While the parable is offered in the
context of the end times, our mission from now until then is spreading the good
news of life in Jesus Christ. The
casting of the net should change the outcome, the catch, the harvest. We are blessed to be a part of God’s
plan. He has included us. We are his disciples and we have our
assignments. His yoke is easy and his
burden is light but we do have our parts.
Part of God’s good plans for us
includes the casting of this net. His
plans for good includes us sharing these wonderful words of life as a disciple
living in his kingdom.
The casting of the net is God’s love
manifested in and through us. We cannot
be content just to be a good fish in a basket if we are to live in the Kingdom
of Heaven now.
We need to understand, as we did in
the parable
of the sower, that our net gathers all kinds of fish. The sorting is not done now while the net is
in the water. That part comes later and
that is not really our part. In the
parable, the fishermen separate the fish, but Jesus makes it clear that when we
are talking about people, judging is not our job.
Like the sower who scattered seed
everywhere, we do not discriminate which fish we collect in our net. We cast a broad net. Our eyes do not yet fully see as God’s eyes
do. We get better with each step of
discipleship, but we are not quite there yet.
In fact, many Christians suffer
from the Blindness of the Pharisees.
God’s love for his creation and his
desire to have it reconciled to him is evident in the blood of Jesus given for
us at Calvary. But we as disciple of
Jesus are to reach the ends of the earth with this gospel of life, life
abundant, and life eternal. We are to
cast this net everywhere. Sorting comes
later and is not our job.
So I ask, are we equipped and ready to
take this gospel to the world? Are we
prepared?
Some people believe that they are
ready moments after being saved, knowing very little about what it means to be
a disciple. Others have studied the
Bible for years or decades and still don’t think that they are ready to witness
and share Jesus with others.
There is an interesting piece of
conversation at the end of this parable in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus asked his followers if they understood
all of these things. The disciples, having
finally received a parable about fishing, replied in the affirmative.
Yes!
We got one! I’m sure that some of
the disciples thought it might be time for Jesus to turn a big vat of water
into wine and celebrate. They got one
that Jesus didn’t have to explain.
But Jesus is still teaching. The person who has seriously studied God’s
word and has become a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of a
house who has treasure old and new. In
the margins of your Bible next to verse 52, write Saul of Tarsus, and contemplate
these words and this man sometime this week.
They apply to more than Saul who we
know better as Paul, but he epitomized these words more than anyone that I can
think of; perhaps, with the exception of many who hear and read this message.
How much have we studied? How many commentaries have we read? How many devotions have we gone through over
the years?
There is potential energy in the
understanding of God’s world but to realize kinetic energy, we must put those words
into practice. We truly follow
Jesus. We live as his disciple. And if we have studied the word of God and
have chosen to follow Jesus, we are thoroughly equipped to cast that net.
In fact, we are purposed to cast that
net. We have treasures old and new. So many of you are so well prepared to cast
this net.
If you are ready to share the gospel
but don’t feel equipped, partner with someone to share the gospel while you engage
in serious study. It’s easier if you are
already studied up, but don’t put off sharing the gospel even if you are just
learning what it means to follow Jesus.
The net in this parable is not a
one-man rig. This is a big net and it
takes many fishermen to cast and recover this net. It takes many disciples.
These parables of Jesus were meant to
impact those who heard them. They were
not just a preview of coming attractions.
They should evoke responses of discipleship in us as well.
As we continue to work our way through
the parables, whenever we come upon one that is about the Kingdom of Heaven,
ask the question: What part of this
parable provides direction to disciples.
There are many parts of the parables that seem to be informational but much
of what we receive should provide instruction and direction to us.
If we know that God’s desire will not
be met—in our terms we would call this heartache—when one single person is
lost, would we not be compelled to take this wonderful news of life in Jesus
Christ with us wherever we go and talk with whomever we meet?
We are to cast a wide net. We are to collect all sorts of fish. We do
not discriminate by saying, “I’m not casting my net over there. There’s nothing but bad fish.”
Many a church has been started and
grown where self-righteous Christians have declared people unworthy to receive
the gospel. Many lives have been changed
by the work of a few with eyes to see as God sees instead of living in the
comfort that comes with the Blindness of the Pharisees.
We are to cast a wide net. We are to take the gospel to all. God’s grace is for all and as we cast our
nets time and time again, we must do so with the divine heart of our heavenly
Father who longs for all to come to him.
We must not grow weary of casting this net. As you consider this parable of Jesus, take
the words
of Paul to help put it into action.
How, then, can they call on the one they have
not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not
heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can
anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the
feet of those who bring good news!”
We are sent as disciples who live in
this Kingdom of Heaven into the world to bring good news!
We are called out of the world to be
set apart from the world to be sent back into the world to be God’s love and
share his good news from now until the end of the age.
We are to cast this net that is the gospel
of love that we know in Jesus Christ from now until the end of the age.
Amen!
