Kingdom parables in Matthews Gospel
Matthew 13v47-50 - the Net
Theme: At the end of the age God will separate the righteous in Christ from the rest.
Aim: So much is at stake! Spread that gospel!
We’ve just come to the end of an exam session at work. Everything has been really tense. I’ve not been sitting exams, thankfully! It is the doctors, specialists and consultants of the future who have been sitting them. Everyone hopes that there will be no problem with the scanning of the answer papers… they are multiple choice papers, and they are sent in from exam centres all around the world. You might remember the kind of thing from school… use a black pencil to shade in the right answers. Of course, some people fail each year because they don’t read the instructions, or misunderstand them. When the time comes to separate out the answer papers into “pass” and “fail”, some will have failed because they didn’t answer the questions strictly according to the instructions. A bit of a tragedy really.
Today we are looking at the last of the parables which Matthew collects together in this chapter of his gospel. The earlier parables were told to a wide audience, but these last few seem to be only told to the disciples.
Last week we heard about the parables of the buried treasure and of the pearl, and we were reminded how precious we are to God. It is difficult for us to appreciate how unbelievably precious every person on this planet is to God. I want to make that clear at the outset, because I’m afraid that this, the last of the kingdom parables, is among the most terrible and forbidding things that Jesus ever taught. It is almost brutally short and to the point.
It has many parallels to the parable of the wheat and the weeds earlier in this chapter. But while the other parable has a lot to say about the coexistence of evil with good in the world today, this parable concentrates simply on the inevitability of what will happen at the end.
Jesus was looking for a response from his disciples then… and he is looking for a response from his disciples today too – that’s us.
The Parable (v47-48)
"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 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.”
The net that is used is not one of the normal fishing nets which the fishermen cast over the side of the boat to capture fish, it is a dragnet (the only time this term is used in the Bible). It is either dragged along between two boats, or one end is anchored to the shore and another boat takes the net out and around before it is drawn in by ropes. A dragnet is an indiscriminate way of fishing, gathering up everything that is out there.
You might remember a couple of years ago that complaints were being made by our Cornish fishermen about the Spanish trawlers which were working in our waters… Apparently the Spanish fishermen were using a fine meshed net that was scooping up everything on the sea as it went past – indiscriminately gathering up even the baby fish which we rely upon for next years stock. It was not a method of fishing that works well if you want to manage the natural resources of the sea. Of course, it works very well if you just want to scoop up everything which is there.
That is why Jesus uses that kind of net in this parable. “Imagine” he says, “a net which will scoop up everything, no exceptions”. What do you do once you bring that net to shore? You sort out what you want and throw away everything that is useless to you.
Jesus’ disciples include several fishermen, they can follow what he is saying perfectly well. Then he hits them with the stunning explanation.
The Explanation (v49-50)
“This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
I think there are 3 Questions for us here.
When will it happen?
At the end of the age. Jesus is looking forward into the future, the point in time when he comes again in his glory and the kingdom of God will extend over the entire earth, with no exceptions. This is the time which is written of in Philippians 2, “when every knee shall bow to him in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”, it is the time which is pictured in detail in the book of Revelation at the end of the Bible.
Is this so far in the future that we needn’t worry about it? Not at all!
The Bible teaches that Jesus could return at any time to bring this current age to a close, and to usher in his kingdom in all its glory. From the very earliest days of the church there has been an expectancy about the return of the Lord Jesus, and it is entirely appropriate for us to have that same kind of expectancy today too!
Jesus is not making a point about timing, he is making a point about the inevitability of this separation of “righteous” from “wicked”.
What are the grounds for separating people out?
Where is the line drawn between the wicked and the righteous? Is it like that well known song about Santa Claus?
He's making a list
He's checking it twice
He's gonna find out
Who's naughty or nice
He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So you'd better be good for goodness sake
No, Not at all!
It is very tempting for us to think that doing good, living a good life is enough to be righteous before God – but that is fortunately not the case.
(The illustration of the pillar, with Hitler at the bottom and mother Theresa at the top… and Gods standard way up in the sky above)
You see, Gods standard is awfully, awfully high.
The Bible states in no uncertain terms that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. It is not only stated as a proposition, it is illustrated by the history of real people throughout the Bible. Lets be frank, we see it in our own lives too. Every one of us falls far below Gods awesome standard.
How can anyone be considered righteous if that is the case though? Aha, God has a plan. And that plan is executed by Jesus on our behalf. In fact, it is when Jesus was executed on our behalf… You see, when Jesus died on the cross, all of our wickedness, all of our spite or jealousy or roadrage or infidelity, all of it was placed on him. He bore it for us. He took the full and just punishment for all that wrongdoing himself.
How much did that cost Jesus? Remember his words on the cross: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
That is how precious we all are to God. He was willing to allow his Son Jesus to die in our place. Gods plan is to fill heaven with people who are made righteous through the work of Jesus. How do we become righteous in Gods sight? It is when our lives are hidden in Jesus. How does that happen? It is when we repent and say sorry to Jesus for all that we have done wrong, and decide to live our lives differently, asking Him to be Lord of our lives, the decision maker for all that we do.
That is why I say it is fortunate that our righteousness doesn’t depend upon our own goodness. If it did, we would live our lives fearful of whether or not we had overstepped the mark, whether we have done enough good to balance the inevitable bad. Because our righteousness before God depends only on our response to Christ Jesus, we can have assurance that if we trust in Christ, he will do the rest.
Of course, everyone has the opportunity to turn their back on Jesus. To say “no, I don’t care that you died, I’m not sorry for what I’ve done and I don’t want to place you in charge of my life”.
But the destiny of the wicked is to be thrown into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
What is the fiery furnace?
It is a difficult subject to talk about, but it is one that can’t be avoided when we look at Jesus’ teachings – he spoke more about the subject of hell than any other person in the Bible. Time and time again he warns his hearers about the awful destiny of those who are not saved when the time of separation happens. We commonly call this place hell; technically the Bible calls it the “lake of fire”, and you can read about it’s awfulness in the end of the Revelation or in much of Jesus’ teaching.
I’ve known people say that they don’t mind going to hell because all their mates are there, it will be a big party. They couldn’t be more wrong. Jesus describes it as a place of incredible regret (weeping) and futile anger (gnashing of teeth). It is a place of everlasting fire and pain and loneliness. It isn’t a place ruled over by Satan as so much contemporary art depicts; this lake of fire was actually designed for the eternal punishment of Satan and his fallen angels; they will be the first to be cast into it.
The picture Jesus paints is truly, truly horrible. Why is he telling the disciples this? I think it is to impress upon them the seriousness of the commission he has, the seriousness of the commission which he gives them, which he is training them to fulfil.
Conclusion
So what do we learn from this parable?
- A time is coming when God will judge the world; whether sooner or later we don’t know, but it is inevitably coming.
- Everyone in the world will be divided up on the basis of their righteousness before God – and that righteousness can only come through trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross.
- All those who are not protected by their relationship with Jesus will be thrown into everlasting anguish in the lake of fire.
Jesus wants his disciples to take their mission seriously. He wants them to understand what is at stake for everyone in the world out there, and to allow that to shape the way that they live and shape the way that they share the gospel of the kingdom.
Jesus wants us to understand what is at stake too. How prepared are we to play our part in spreading the gospel? Do we recognise what is at stake? Jesus is relying upon us, and waiting for our response.
Let’s choose wisely.
Alex White
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