The Parable of the Net – Extreme Judgement
We saw a few weeks ago that the parables of the Hidden Treasure and The Pearl provide complimentary (but not identical) aspects of The Kingdom of God (in their case, the extreme joy and extreme cost of being a faithful member of The Kingdom. Likewise, last week’s The Parable of the Weeds and the story we will focus on today, the Parable of the Net, provide complimentary angles on an aspect of The Kingdom.
Except, the complimentary focus is not extreme joy and extreme cost, rather extreme judgement. We did a Greek grammar lesson with The Weeds narrative to emphasize the current present existence here on Earth of the Kingdom of God and we noted the troubling reality that evil, chaos and misery co-exists with the Kingdom; and that requires patience as we continue to live the way we know a believer should live in order to make The Kingdom more prevalent in the present age, knowing that judgement at the end of the present age is going to come, at which time, to quote Jesus as He gives His explanation of the parable, “They will throw them (the evil and chaotic ones) into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Whereas “the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.” (Matthew 13: 42-43)
However, The Parable of the Nets, in contrast to The Weeds, is future oriented and focuses totally on the judgement at the end of the age. It uses very real life metaphors centering on fishing, and I would say specifically, fishing on the Sea of Galilee, which contains over 20 native fish species, many of which are not kosher for Jewish people to eat. For those not familiar with Jewish dietary laws, fish are kosher and acceptable to eat only if they have scales and fins. That means various varieties of catfish caught in the Sea of Galilee would have been discarded by the fisherman. All this to say, the fishing metaphor would be well understood in the context in which Jesus told the story.
Let’s recite the text and then make some comments.
Matthew 13: 47-50
47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
We note that this is quite a short parable (in other words it is a similitude) with a simple but definable plot, and we observe that Matthew records Jesus immediately pivoting to an explanation of the story. We mentioned with The Parable of the Weeds that Jesus offers an explanation of His parables only a handful of times. And you don’t have to be a Biblical scholar to understand what Jesus is saying here: The Kingdom of God, at the consummation of the age, will be a place of judgement and sorting and separation, and whereas The Weeds explanation gives positive affirmation for those who believe, this story focuses solely on those who reject G-d and turn their backs on Him. For those who have not accepted the Truth of who Yeshua is, the eternal outcome is grim: a fiery furnace and weeping and the gnashing of teeth. These images would have been well known to Yeshua’s Jewish audience (think of Daniel and his friends in the fiery furnace) and the numerous references to gnashing of teeth in the Psalms, in Job, in Lamentations and in other non-canonical Jewish texts. They would have gotten the message!
This is the last of “The Kingdom of Heaven is like …” parables in Matthew 13 and it is interesting to see how Matthew organized these teachings. The chapter starts out with The Parable of the Sower and its explanation (we haven’t considered that one yet … we will soon) which acts kind of like an executive summary.
Then the sequence is as follows:
The Parable of the Weeds which narrates the reality of the present kingdom co-existing with evil, chaos and misery that ends in final judgement – so ultimately, a judgement parable)
Then comes The Parable of the Mustard Seed and The Parable of the Kneading Woman, which describe the radical hospitality and infectious and uncontrollable lovingkindness aspects of God’s Kingdom.
Then comes Yeshua’s explanation of The Weeds which emphasizes judgement.
Then comes The Parable of the Hidden Treasure and The Pearl which relate the extreme value and joy as well as the extreme cost of God’s Kingdom.
And finally, Matthew articulates Yeshua’s Parable of The Net, once again a story and an explanation that emphasizes judgement.
While it is absolutely clear that Matthew faithfully records many positive aspects of The Kingdom of God, both present and future, one cannot escape the reality that there is equal emphasis on judgement and the gathering/sorting out process leading up to ultimate judgement.
So, what are we to make of this? Here is my take: if we as believers focus only on the beautiful and hopeful and uplifting aspects The Kingdom of God, we are experiencing and communicating an unbalanced version of who Yeshua is. The Kingdom parables are theological teachings of “promise and warning” to quote Klyne Snodgrass. Klyne goes further by saying this, “We should never forget that without judgement there is no need for salvation. Without judgement life is cheapened, for what we do does not matter. With Jesus and His kingdom what we do matters.” (Stories with Intent, Klyne Snodgrass, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008. Pages 491 and 492).
So, we are back to a spiritual Truth that is a red thread running through our life as believers. We receive salvation from judgement by placing our trust in Yeshua (thereby heading the warning) and then, in response to that assurance of salvation, we proceed to live a life worthy of that eternal relationship with G-d by living out the life of hope as a response to salvation.
May you be the beacon of hope and warning today to all with whom you meet today.
Godspeed,
D-Wach
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