The Net

Isaiah 2:1-5 (Read)

Matthew seems to be writing to communities in some amount of tension…

Remember: ‘The Way’ (the new direction?) was being spread across the Mediterranean and there was more than a little tension as the way of Christ was figured out and as the way of Christ came into conflict with the ways and beliefs of people groups

(Cf. our own situation!)

The Writer of Matthew is writing into this tension – depicting Jesus as the “Son of God” who has been living this ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ into the world (cf. “The Gospel of Jesus Christ...” Meaning, the new day - the new reality - something has arrived because of which the world will not be the same ever again)

We get images in Matthew of heaven speaking into earth – quite literally as the stories go! (Cf. the annunciation of Jesus’ birth; the proclamation at the baptism; and then through the life and teaching of Jesus himself, beginning with a proclamation: “Repent (meta-noia), the kingdom of heaven has come near!”

Sometime later into Jesus’ life he asks his closest friends, “Who do people out there say I am?” and a whole bunch of answers come back – then he asks, “But, who do you say I am?” and Peter speaks up: “You are the Christ (the anointed, filled, representative of heaven who is bringing about a new reality, a ‘showing up’ of God’s rule on earth)!”

And Jesus says, “Ah, you are a rock! My Church is going to be built on this! You’re going to have the very keys of the Kingdom of Heaven given to you and nothing – not even the power of death and hell – will defeat you!”

Jesus offers a multitude of teachings (parables) to this affect throughout Matthew then: my Kingdom has come – there is a new, restored way of life at hand – and there will be tension as it grows, but take heart, for nothing will turn down what I am bringing about in this world!

ASK: I wonder if we have the imagination to consider this question: What is it that Jesus was living into this world? In other words, what is the Kingdom of Heaven? **Our mission, our identity is to join with our head (Jesus) in living Heaven into Earth!

Ø And this is not merely for a certain type of people or group, rather the full goal of God (through Jesus and now through his Church) is that all nations, all people will be called into the Kingdom (the new way of life) of God…

We are part of the indiscriminate bringing in - a summing up of all Creation under a new heading! (John 12:32 [will draw]; Colossians 1:16-17 [hold together]; 1 Corinthians 15:28 [all in all].)

· (This is why we don’t think in terms of ‘bringing people or things into the Kingdom’ – it is perhaps a little foolish to think that way - the Kingdom of Heaven is sweeping through all of Creation:

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Abraham Kuyper

So we come to this parable – one of many (cf. “again”):

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind..."

NB. at the very outset, the Kingdom of Heaven is a great ingathering…the antidote to division – to category – to ‘otherness’; for all kinds are brought in. (Luke 14:12 ff.)

And, while this is very important, the climax of the parable follows:

“...when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets and threw out the bad.”

I wonder: how does this make you feel? Some of us may have been quite excited (comfortable) when we read about the ‘wide net’ but then feel a bit let down or even a bit uneasy when we hear about these fish being sorted and kept/discarded on the shore… (By the way, I sort of hope you do feel a bit uneasy about that… J…there’s no lightness/easiness about separation and judgement – not for Christ, and hopefully not for us…there’s nothing sadistic in God…)

“So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

· This seems like sudden, violent language! – and the destination of the ‘evil’ which is separated out on the shore is a place of violence (of biting, of gnashing, of weeping)

· We just passed through a parable a few weeks ago which uses very similar imagery and nearly identical language (‘the parable of the weeds’): where the lawless (the ‘anomia’) and the causes of stumbling (the ‘skandalon’) are picked out from the field at the time of harvest and cast into a place of “weeping, biting/gnashing, violence, of darkness…”

This description is compelling to me, because the place of punishment (the destination for the ‘bad fish’) seems utterly opposite to the sort of Kingdom which is being foretold (cf. Isaiah 2) and lived/proclaimed by the Heaven Sent Christ, Jesus.

The Kingdom of peace – the punishment of violence

The Gospel of joy – the punishment of weeping

The Gentle community of love – the punishment of gnashing teeth

It’s hard to accept that all of this (the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’; the ‘righteous’ and the ‘evil’) is part of God’s Kingdom coming: his kingdom come, his will being done on earth as it is in heaven…

· You who are expecting, praying, believing, receiving, being made new into the likeness of Jesus Christ, the image of Heaven on Earth, the New Way: take heart!

At the end of the age (“the fulfillment of the aeon” – “the end of the era”) there will be a great summing up – a coming together onto one shore, under one head… (“Like a dragnet sweeping through the waters and bringing in all kinds of fish…”)

And then, as necessary: a separation - a removal of the evil (and causes of evil) which infests and infects the life of the Kingdom of Heaven.

• Kombucha molding (a little mold ruins the whole batch!)

Here is the heart of the matter: the Kingdom of Heaven is like when everything gets brought together as one and yet evil and causes of evil are no longer present with the righteous.

Perhaps evil is obliterated…perhaps it is sent off into a place where its violence, weeping, causes of stumbling, and lawlessness persist… regardless, it is simply present no more; of no more consequence.

Ø Tears will be wiped away…

Ø Swords (violence) will be pounded into farming tools (care and productivity)…

Ø Biting, gnashing teeth will be no more…rather, gracious, gentle presence…

Ø Fists are unclenched…

Ø *And lawlessness is filled with the Good Law…

Across the Gospel (the emerging of Heaven on Earth – the life and teaching of Jesus Christ) there is but one Law (or, one way of summing up the Law): Love.

It is the measure of judgement…lawlessness is merely lovelessness. The entire flavour, colour, direction, essence, and embodiment of ‘the Kingdom of Heaven’ is ‘Love’.

There is nothing else. I believe it is not reading too much into these parables to say:

The Kingdom of Heaven is like... when everything gets brought together as one and all causes of weeping, the biting, the desertion, stumbling, and – in a word: “Lovelessness” – is sorted out…and Love remains.

This is the hope of the Gospel. The hope of prophecy – the image of God.

The final scene is Love. Can we be this kind of people (of fish!) as we await the King?

• Where is there lovelessness in our midst together today (in your life)? Where is there violence? Biting and gnashing of teeth? Weeping?

• Who are those who are remaining lonely, naked, hungry, sick, forgotten? Are they not being brought in – doesn’t the Kingdom of Heaven belong to such as these?

• And, are we holding hands with them? With each other?

• In this way we are proclaiming and hoping; believing in the Kingdom of Heaven until it is fulfilled…

Closing Prayer:

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

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9 Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.