The Kingdom of Heaven Is...Fishy

Introduction

Did you hear about the two parrots in a cage. One said to the other, “Something smells fishy!” The other said back, “Well, we are sitting on a perch!”

But seriously, when someone comments that something is fishy, at least two meanings may be intended. First, it may be literal and the distinct smell of fish may indicate there are actual fish in the proximity. Or, it may be figurative and indicate that something seems off kilter and unusual; suspicious maybe.

Our title equates a fishy-ness with the Kingdom or Rule of Heaven and the intended meaning is both/and. Yes, Jesus likens the Kingdom to a very fishy exercise, i.e., fishing via dragnet. On the other hand, the response to Jesus’s descriptions and operation of His Kingdom seemed suspicious or fishy to many who heard him. In fact, that is why He was relating these parables in Matthew 13 in the first place.

Context

The question of Christ’s Kingdom had puzzled many who originally heard him because they were conditioned by the world’s defined category of such. There is no question that Jesus came to establish His Kingdom for, according to St. Mark’s Gospel, fresh out of Jesus’s baptism experience by John, Jesus declared, “The time has come,…The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

So, a Kingdom was in the works and a response was demanded. However, to the bewilderment of His audience, Jesus was not amassing weapons and rallying for a coup. He was preaching repentance, forgiveness, and mercy for outcasts while healing the hurting and raising the dead. He wasn’t championing for a change of imperial authority, but for a change of heart or transformation for His own subjects. With this approach, they knew something unique was in the mix, something unexpected, yet, strangely suspicious or fishy. That’s why Jesus began to utilize meaningful, thought provoking illustrations called parables to describe the character of His Kingdom. These parables in Matthew 13 were relatable as they utilized features of everyday First Century Near Eastern life.

What’s So Fishy?

One unique feature of The Kingdom that surfaced in the Parable of the Sower and in our parable this morning is the indiscriminate nature of The Kingdom’s reach. In the Parable of the Sower, the seed was sown everywhere from the roadway, to the thornbushes, to the rich soil. In our parable, the net takes in both desirable and undesirable fish.

How is this unique, you might ask? Well, it seems counterintuitive to the usual approach of the world’s authority. Most empires are particular about their who and what they appropriate. If an empire exerts resources to claim territory, it must be advantageous, or “worth it” to do so. Most empires are even particular on the people they accept. Again, they must be advantageous. In recent years we’ve heard our own politicians describe both some within our populace and certain desiring to enter our populace as deplorable. Why? Because the nature of worldly empire is to be particular or discriminate. They’re looking for advantage. By the way, I wonder if any of our politicians ever consider their own deplorability? It’s just food for thought.

However, Christ’s Kingdom considers not advantage in its extension or constituents. As Jesus walked among us and ministered, He primarily associated not with the powers that be, but the outliers: the tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. His own disciples were not considered the cream of the crop in social terms, either. In all things, Our King gains nothing but He gave everything for our benefit, even at the expense of not only His reputation, but His very life. It is this selfless framework that permeates the operation of the Kingdom and sets it apart. As our King operates in selflessness, so His subjects are charged to operate in like manner.

Although generally, the manner of The Kingdom of Heaven has drawn suspicion and prompted Jesus to explain its manner by more relatable means through parables, we must zero-in today and see what our particular parable says about character of Heaven’s Rule. As noted previously, this parable tells us about The Kingdom in a “fishy” way.

The Net

Matthew 13:47–50 NIV

“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. 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 blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Notice that Jesus begins this parable by saying, “Once again,...” He says this to indicate that this parable is intimately related to another parable included in this chapter. It seems rather obvious that the similar parable of which He refers is that of the Wheat and Weeds. One reason why Jesus may have included two parables of similar meaning in the same speech is, again, to be relatable. The Weeds and Wheat would have spoken best to the agricultural crowd, while the Parable of the Net would have related best to the sea faring folk among them. It is refreshing that Jesus is mindful of relatability. It is consistent with the nature of Our God as a Revealer. Although mystery has its place in God’s economy, yet, it seems that throughout God’s dealings with mankind, He has condescended to relate and reveal Himself and His ways to His creatures. God is relational and communal in His nature. Therefore, it’s not His will that mankind be agnostic in their view of Him. God seeks for us to understand and utilizes means and methods that truly speak our language.

Therefore, it is for us who are heralds of His Kingdom to follow suit and prayerfully look for ways to freshly convey His truths in a relatable fashion. As Jesus is of us, we need to be students of each other and those outside of the Kingdom in order to identify ways that we can effectively impart The Truth.

In this parable, Jesus likened the Kingdom to a net let down in a lake. The net of which He speaks is not a small personal net that you may have seen a fisherman throw out from his boat and pull back in. The net of this parable is a seine or sagene, which is a dragnet, stretching anywhere between half to a full mile long. A dragnet would often have been stretched between two boats with buoys on top to keep one side afloat, while weights were tied to the underside so that the net sank to the bottom of the lake. The net would be positioned encircling an area and drawn to shore. The large area coverage from the water’s surface to the lake’s bottom would ensure that every thing in the net’s path would be captured when drawn-in. Therefore, all fish, clean or unclean, as well as debris would be collected in the net. Of course, in First Century Palestine, they would not have drug in old tires and plastic bottles. But I’m sure they would have captured their share of wagon wheels and old sandals.

Jesus used this illustration of a dragnet to demonstrate the indiscriminate, inclusive nature of His Kingdom. The net of His gospel would drag-in many of all kinds. Some were desirable and some were incompatible with His Kingdom objectives, but they were all in the net. This is where our parable differs from the Wheat and Weeds. In the latter, Jesus was illustrating the coexistence of His people with the people of the evil one until the Day of Judgment. In our parable, Jesus is relating that even in His visible Kingdom before the Judgment, there will be those who are incompatible with the Kingdom ethic in the mix, along with sincere believers.

If this dragnet is significant of Christ’s Gospel, what is it that would attract such incompatible folks to hitch-up with His Kingdom? In Exodus 12:38, we read that there was a mixed multitude that traveled along with the Israelites as they were escaping Egypt. Scholars describe them as those not of Israel, but rather outsiders and “hangers-on” from among the Egyptians. They were those of a lower social order in Egypt who observed and experienced what Yahweh was doing in Egypt and thought that jumping onto the Israelite train like a hoard of hapless hobos would be better that hanging on the lowest rung of the Egyptian social ladder. So, this group joined into the assembly of Yahweh without a total commitment to Yahweh. They were fully committed to their own advantageous opportunities. So, when the going got tough, they were ready to jump ship and influence others to join their grumblings. In Numbers 11, we find that it was this same group that led God’s people in complaining about God’s miraculous provision and long for the cuisine of Egypt. They spoke in such endearing terms of their former bondage that it seems they conveniently forgot of their hardships and devastations.

Even today, some hear the good news of Jesus and outwardly respond in favor because they see only selfish advantage. Perhaps, its the misconception that faith is a transactional matter where one says yes to Jesus outwardly, attends service and perhaps a pot luck, and suddenly God is in their debt to do what they want. Or, they see Our Lords true followers as trusting, compassionate, caring saps that can be easily manipulated and controlled for their own agendas. Any way you slice it, these, like the mixed multitude/rabble of Moses’s time operate out of their own selfish advantage and leave hurts, wounds, and scars along the way through their ill-influence and actions. One does not have to search far to discover devastating hurt brought on by people who were openly connected to the visible church but their actions proved that were spiritually unhitched to the love and grace of Our Lord.

This begs the question: Why doesn’t Our Lord root them out now before they do harm to His Kingdom objectives. Why didn’t He send the mixed multitude hiking back to Egypt in Moses’s time and why doesn’t He just dismiss those of like persuasion today? The simple answer in keeping with the parable is that it is not time to do so. When the fishermen and drawing-in the dragnet, they are in no position to discern what in their net is desirable and what isn’t. The visible positioning of the net extended from surface to lake bottom in water is not ideal for detailed discernment. Also, if they did try to dive down at that moment, discern the undesirable in order to cut them loose, they would risk losing some of the desirable along with them. That was one of the feature of the Parable of The Wheat and Weeds. If they pulled up the weeds before the harvest, they may uproot some of the wheat, as well. In order to preserve the wheat, the weeds needed to remain until the proper time. So, it is with the fish. Our relationships with others are so deeply connected here and discerning who is genuine and who isn’t is not something all of us are skillfully equipped for. If God would dismiss some of the inauthentic among us now, the genuine may suffer irreparable harm. Therefore, the net will continue to draw all in to shore until the proper time of sorting, i.e., The Judgment.

Also, beyond the parabolic illustration, as fish cannot change their constitution, men and women can be transformed. There may be folks who begin in the association with Christ’s Kingdom with ulterior, selfish motives. Yet, that association ends-up affecting them for the good and they come to the genuine saving knowledge of Jesus. If they had been cut-off prematurely, perhaps their redemption would not have been realized. Therefore, from a broader perspective, there is a proper time for sorting that allows for maximum inclusion of those of genuine faith in the Kingdom. That time has not been immediate to the dismay of some. We may echo the protesting chant of many of those disgruntled, “We want justice! When do we want it? We want it now!” However, for the sake of those who may be irreparably harmed or prematurely hindered from true salvation, Our Lord and Judge wisely affirms that justice will be realized, the sorting of final judgment will take place at the proper time.

That proper time of sorting, of judgment, seems to be the climax of Jesus’s teaching in this parable. The end will reveal in finality who is compliant with the Kingdom ethic and objective and who was compliant with self alone. Jesus said that the angels will separate the righteous, those who operate in God’s order, and the wicked, those who operate without God’s order in the way of chaos. The wicked will be thrown, “into the blazing furnace”. This is significant of disposal. Like the trash heap outside of Jerusalem called Gehenna, where the undesirable materials were forever disposed of, their very make-up being changed to an irrecoverable condition through fire, so the finality of the wicked’s rejection will be fully realized. The response of the wicked is described by Jesus as weeping and gnashing of teeth. Weeping is the expression of the deepest sorrow and grief. This expression of extreme emotion indicates the mourning experienced through the finality of what is lost. The second response is gnashing of teeth which reflects deep anger, despair, and envy. Anger and despair regarding the finality of this state, as well as envy of those who through genuine faith escape such a fate.

Why would God subject someone to such a fate described in this parable as a blazing furnace with desperate emotions experienced in their heights? Why such a hard, final disconnect? How about we look at it from another lens. If there was not final, clear disconnect, wouldn’t the wicked, a source of tension and danger to the righteous alway pose a threat. Would God be righteous to allow that threat to hang over his people forever? Isn’t it actually an act of mercy for God to finally eliminate that threat from His people so that they may fully experience His peace. That, my friends, is the utility of certain, final judgment. Judgment is mercy!

The bottom line is that not everyone in the visible church is a genuine believer. There are some that have been caught in the Gospel Net for reasons other than submitting to the Lordship of Jesus. Whether it’s a supposed opportunity to strong arm The Divine to comply with one’s will and agenda or it’s being connected to a crowd of easy prey, there are some who are in the net but not of Christ. For the overall health of His Kingdom in real time, Jesus is waiting for the proper time for it to all be sorted out. Make no mistake, Judgment will be set; the contents of the Gospel Net will be sorted. That is not fishy, it’s fact. The sobering question that remains is will our place of sorting end up in the basket or the furnace?

Application

The only means by which we can honestly address that question is through honest examination. It begins with self-assessment. In 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, The Apostle Paul addresses a gifted church that seemed off-kilter in mission. Instead of utilizing their gifts to build up the church and win the lost, they were busy trying to exclude one another. This translated into their meetings where they worked to only take and not serve. In the chapter in question, Paul is rebuking some in Corinth who gorged themselves and even became drunk at their “love feasts” while others at the feast were left hungry. It seemed, like the rabble, their connections with the people of God was defined by self seeking and not serving the needs of others. Paul revealed that because of this, God had judged various of them by sickness and even some with death. Paul then stated that if they would judge or discern themselves, then they would not have been judged in that manner. The same is true for us. It is essential that we take inventory of where we are, not only in our outward behaviors, but in the motives and attitudes of our hearts. Are we following Jesus because He is Lord and tending to the needs of others because of the same. Or, is our commitment based on what it does for us and us alone. Jesus is not our Lord, we are.

Friends, if that is our assessment, thankfully there is a reset. We have a place of repentance provided. Our Lord bore our sins on the cross and defeated them in His Resurrection, making a way for us through His sinless life to be recovered from our own selfishness into the service of Our Creator. As 2 Corinthians 5:15 states, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

If our connections with Christ and His Church is not genuine, if something smells fishy about our faith and faithfulness, would we humbly allow Christ to come and transform us from a liability to an asset in His Kingdom? If we have examined ourselves and identify a genuine, growing faith. Let’s pray that He will guide us into how we can develop further into His image and that He would always help us to take care of the obstructions in our own eyes so that we can see clearly to humbly help our brothers and sisters with the obstructions in their eyes, as Matthew 7:1-5.

Finally, let’s not let our judgment be the all and end all. I’ve said this plenty of times before, but let’s get others in on it. That’s why coming to faith groups and participating in community life is so important. In that, we forge relationships that can bring not only encouragement, but accountability to our walk of faith. Let’s ask trusted others to examine us, as well. Perhaps, they see points of encouragement and/or points of contention that we don’t see. In that we can properly discern where we are in relation to Christ and His people and respond in healthy ways. In the end, it should be our aim through honest examination to honor God with our life and serve others humbly, reflecting Christ in all we are so that when sorting day comes, we are found in the basket and not in the blaze. May we be found faithful and not suspiciously fishy!