How many of you have heard of big fish stories of the big one that got away? I have heard fishing jokes my whole like. One might even consider the story of Jonah as God’s fishing joke where a big fish caught a man.
Here are some of the humorous fishing
sayings I have heard recently. “Fisherman don’t lie, they just stretch the
fish.” Or, “when it comes to fishing, I don’t exaggerate, I just remember big.”
I suspect a wife of a fisherman came up with this last one. “Men are like fish,
when we open our mouths, we get into trouble.”
I have a confession. I don’t know how
to fish. Oh, I have tried hared many times but I am simply horrible at it. I
either catch fish that are so small I have to throw them back or I simply don’t
catch any fish at all.
I’m just being honest, I really don’t
like going out in the early morning in freezing cold weather to put slimy worms
on a pole. This is not my definition of fun! Nor do I like to admit that my big
fishing stories are all about the ones that got away!
In this parable, Jesus talks about
fishing. In another place, Jesus talks about being fishers of men. Is others
were honest today, some might say I really don’t know how to evangelize or
witness or share my faith with others. This parable is so important to here
again. Listen to Jesus words in Matthew 13:47-50,
“Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered
some of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat
down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be
at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from
among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing
of teeth.”
When Jesus talks about fishing in this
parable, he is not talking about pole fishing or fly fishing but fishing with a
large dragnet between two boats. Notice that the dragnet catches everything and
every kind of fish.
Everyone, saint or sinner, believer or
unbeliever are caught in God’s huge kingdom net. When it catches “every kind,”
this means it catches men and women, married and single, young and old, hearing
and deaf, sighted or blind, speaking or mute.
You could say Jesus gives a very
politically incorrect fishing story. He speaks about God’s kingdom catching
everyone and even uses language like wicked and good. Jesus is describing God’s
great judgment where everyone will be caught in God’s great dragnet.
Jesus says the righteous fish will be
kept and the wicked ones will be thrown away. How politically incorrect is
that? Rather than Jesus saying “wicked,” maybe he should of used more
politically correct language like those who have “spiritually challenged
lifestyles.” Rather than alluding to beautiful fish and ugly fish, one could
say about the ugly ones, “aesthetically challenged.”
The hard truth and reality is judgment
is part of Jesus message here. Life is cheap if there is no judgment. And why
would anyone need salvation if there is no judgment at all? But the main point
of this parable is hidden within it. We miss the deeper spiritual point. We are
not judged by works but we are judged by what Jesus has already done for us on
the cross.
Note that the angels do the separating,
not us. We would rather judge others than let God or his angels do the judging.
We don’t like this story because we are not in control, evil exists, and bad
things happen. Heaven we love but hell is something we can do without. The
great truth hidden within this parable is Jesus died for us all.
Dying
to Get Caught
Earlier in Matthew thirteen, Jesus
tells the parable of the wheat and the tares. In Matthew 13:39, it says this
harvest is at the “end of the age.” Likewise in the parable of the net, in
verse 49, it says similarly, “so it will be at the end of the age.” This is not
just a future event like most of us think from a surface reading of the
biblical text. The Bible wraps past, present and future all together.
The Greek word for end of age here is
“synteleig” which means completion. This word is closely associated and sounds
similar to the word Jesus spoke and breathed his last and said, “It is
finished.” The end of the age has arrived or is now completed.
Scripture repeatedly says we are made
righteous through the work of the cross of Christ. Philippians 3: 9 says it
like this, “that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”
Please get this; this is so important
to understand. No one is tossed aside because they had a bad track record on
earth. No one is selected because they have a good track record. Our works do
not make us good. Actually, the Bible says our good works are like filthy rags
(Isaiah 64:6). They do not make us whole
or complete but actually fall short in the end.
In the end, the only thing we are
judged by is what Jesus did on the cross. We are not judged by the right or
wrong decisions we have made. We are judged solely on knowing Jesus and the
work he did on our behalf on the cross.
The
Day the Revolution Began
We often miss the question behind the
parable and in this one, the underlying question is why is there so much evil
in the world? Jesus parable gives an answer to this question by saying that God
deals with all the evil of this world on the cross.
Here is why people today are rejecting
the Bible or not accepting what the church is telling them. So many church
people have been saying by our actions for way too long this story----“God so
hated the world that he killed his only son!” But that is not what the Bible
says or teaches. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world (every single
person and all of creation) that he gave
his only begotten son.”
This is not just a story about sin but
also idolatry! The problem is not simply about our bad choices and sin that
need punishing. The problem is about our idolatry that is corruption and
destroying God’s creation. The Bible story is not just about going to heaven
when you die, it’s about living as God’s new creation on earth in the
present.
Can we capture this cosmic biblical
vision where Christ is the very center of every parable he gives. Christ died
and rose from the dead like a seed dying in the ground and rising to new life.
We also are to die to self and live for Christ as God’s new creation.
If Christ is the center, then so is the
cross of Christ that takes us to God’s grace. Just like in another parable
where Jesus describes God’s kingdom like a great wedding party, the ones who
are cast our or can not enter are those who are wearing their own
self-righteous wardrobe. The only way any of us enter into God’s heavenly party
is because we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
I love the way Scripture says this,
“Brethren,
my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they may be saved (God wants all of Israel
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