| FIFTH AND FINAL IN A SERIES ON THE MATTHEW 13 KINGDOM PARABLES | ||
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| “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and separate the wicked from among the just, And shall throw them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” — Matthew 13:47-50 JESUS told the first four parables of Matthew 13 (Sower, Tares, Mustard and Leaven) from a boat as the crowd stood on the shore (see verse 2). The last four (Treasure, Pearl, Net and Scribe) were given in the house after the crowd had dispersed (verse 36) and were preceded with the explanation of the Wheat and Tares (vv 37-43). In the penultimate parable — the one about the dragnet — the master teacher turns the attention of His audience to the original setting — boats, nets, fishes and fishermen. Undoubtedly He had “the twelve” — those early kingdom apprentices — particularly in mind. Had He not called a number of them to leave nets to become fishers of men? How appropriate then that He should turn to their former trade in winding up His discourse and preparing His final application. 1. The PROCESSFrank Stagg states:The net (sagéné) is a seine or dragnet. It was pulled between two boats or taken out into the water by a single boat and drawn to shore by ropes. In this kind of fishing, all kinds are taken together, the sorting taking place only after the net is drawn to the shore. *1 Our Lord said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some of every kind.” Among those gathered were the disciples themselves. One of the great paradoxes of the Gospel is the fact that those called to be “fishers of men” are also fish caught in the dragnet of the kingdom of heaven; and what applies to the great populace in respect of the final sorting equally applies to those who serve the Master within the Kingdom in their particular calling. As I have been writing this article I have re-read what Marcus Dods D.D., professor of New Testament Exegesis, New College Edinburgh ( author of Israel’s Iron Age and Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ ) had to say about this parable, in the late 19th Century, and have been deeply moved by his descriptive language. *2 Of Christ, Marcus Dods writes: He now points to the result of all, when the great net shall be drawn to shore, all the influences and efforts of this life ended and brought to a pause; when there shall be “no more sea,” no fluctuation, no ebb and flow, no tide of good resolve and progress sucked back from all it had reached, and leaving a foul and slimy beach; especially no mingling of bad and good in an obscure and confusing element; but decision and separation, a deliberate sitting down to see what has been made of this world by us all, and a summing up on that eternal shore of gains and results, and every man’s aim made manifest by his end. *3 This includes the early followers of Christ, even the apostles and it includes us — you and me. That’s a sobering point to ponder. 2. The PURPOSEStagg explains:This parable may be paired with that of the weeds among the wheat, each teaching that judgment is outwardly delayed yet certain. ... Good ( kala) and bad ( sapra) fish are edible and inedible, as determined by taste or Jewish law. Jews were forbidden to eat things from the water unless they had fins and scales (Lev. 11: 9-12 ). *4 While Frank Stagg is quite correct in the way he pairs the parable of the Tares with the parable of the Net there is clearly a vital difference though the timing and outcome of the final judgment are the same. (Dods agrees.5) I suspect that the difference is mainly one of status — “bad fish” are those who are caught in our evangelistic efforts; “tares”, being identified as sons of the wicked one who are planted by Satan are those who masquerade as servants or ministers of the Kingdom when in fact they are nothing of the sort. In the words of Paul “such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ” (2 Cor 11:13). In the parable of the DRAGNET the division of the “good” from the “bad” is clearly based on usefulness, principally as food. The point is that the Kingdom of Heaven encompasses a “mixture” which will not be sorted until the end of the age. Here again Dods and Stagg may aid our thinking: Marcus Dods: ... the kingdom being thus open to all, many enter it for the sake of some of its advantages, while they remain at heart disloyal, and are never carried out of themselves by a sense of its glory, and are alien to that great movement for the lasting good of men which the kingdom truly is. They have an external present attachment to the kingdom, but they do not belong to it and are not in it heart and soul. But this mixture is at length to give place. In the net, while we are in this world all distinctions seem to be made light of; in the end, on the shore, a final and real distinction is to be exhibited and acted on. All are to pass through the hands of judgment. The angels sever the wicked from among the just, so that the just alone are left in the net. The purpose of the net, of the draught, of the whole ongoing of this world is at length seen to have been for the sake of the just. Much bulkier, weightier, noisier, brighter-coloured, more curious things are drawn up, but these are cast aside summarily — it was not to secure these the net was drawn. The fishermen were not mere naturalists dragging for what is curious and rare; not mere idlers fishing for sport and caring little for the use of the result; not mere children amazed and delighted with every strange or huge thing they land; but they have cast the net for a purpose, and whatever is not suitable for this purpose is refuse and rubbish to them. The huge creature that has been a terror to the deep, the lovely sea plant that has waved its fruitless head in the garden of the sea — these are not twice looked at by the fishermen. They are acting on an understanding that the net was drawn for a purpose. *6 Frank Stagg: In application, it is to be seen that the kingdom does not outwardly separate the good and the bad in this life. God sends the sun and rain upon both alike (Matthew 5:45), and their material and physical circumstances may not reflect their true standing with God. Only at the close of the age is the outward separation made. At that time both judgment and redemption will be brought to completion. Immediate application may have been made to the church in Matthew’s time. The Qumran community had considered itself a living sanctuary, a sphere of holiness in sharp contrast to the rest of the world, which it thought to be defiled (Betz, p. 98). Jesus called for purity and righteousness far beyond that of Qumran yet did not force Judas out of the circle of the twelve.*7 3. The PARTICIPANTSVerse 36:“Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came to Him ...” In line with His statement to His disciples, “... it is given to you to know the hidden truths of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given” (v 11) Christ explained the meaning of the Wheat and Tares and then told the last four parables only to those who followed Him into the house i.e. His disciples. Among these would have been those to whom He previously said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt 4: 19). Obviously the parable of the dragnet had a particular reference to the direct involvement of His disciples, in their day, as fishers of men, but it equally applies to us — all of us — in our time. Where to fishPrerequisites to consistent, successful fishing is knowing where and how to fish. A prior question is, “Shall we be selective?” Jesus gave His positive answer, “No. Throw the net in wherever there are fish, catch all you can and leave the sorting until you get to shore”. The parable explains that “shore” means the end of the age, when the wicked are separated from the just. We have neither the responsibility of sorting, nor the privilege of selecting those who come to Christ. As fishers of men we must fish wherever there are men, women, and children and leave any question regarding the final destiny of those caught in the net to the Lord of the harvest.The World Population Clock at 5:45pm on Australia Day (Jan 26), 2004 (Queensland time) registered over 6.39998 billion. At 7:15am the next day (Jan 27) the number had jumped to more than 6.40029 billion. The actual increase in a mere 13 hours was 142,100 = 10,526 every hour. Now just think about that carefully. The website where this information is available (http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop) states that the calculation takes into account births and deaths, which means that every minute there are over 175 more souls to be reached than there were the previous minute and that number is increasing exponentially, so much so that the estimated world population on Australia Day next year will be about 6.49 billion and on January 1, 2037 almost 10.3 billion. My family and I live in Australia where there are approximately 20 million people. Across the Tasman in New Zealand there are about 3.8 million. Neither is a large population by world standards yet we believe that we are strategically placed with our two southern hemisphere CWM distribution offices should the Lord desire to continue to use us. To our immediate north in Indonesia, Irian Jaya and PNG there are some 222.64 million souls. Then there is Malaysia (24 million), Singapore (4.2 million) and India (1.1 billion) — a seething mass of moving humanity. Jesus says, “Cast the net ... leave the sorting and separating to the end of the age!” It has been my privilege to minister in all of those countries and my heart bleeds for lost men and women, especially in India with its multiplied millions living in squalor and human deprivation which are the result of sin and selfishness. Fishing in IndiaIn a little village in the south, a place called Kovilpatti with about 100,000 population at the time, I helped throw out the net on a number of occasions. The immediate audience, at its height, might have been 2,000, but those ingenious Indians make sure your voice carries to many thousands more, with their amplifiers and speakers fixed hundreds of metres beyond the normal earshot of the congregation.On my third visit an Indian, who was a Muslim and had leprosy of the foot passed by and heard my voice. He dubbed me a mad foreign devil, but he had tangled with the net. A short time later, a local Christian witnessed to him. To cut a long story short, he attended the local assembly, got saved and healed of his leprosy. On my fourth visit he introduced himself and told me his story. On my fifth visit, more than five years after his first encounter with the gospel in the early 1980s, he was the radiant drum player in our Prayer and Bible seminars for pastors and Christian workers. We never know what will be the outcome when we cast in the net. As Marcus Dods so ably puts it: The truth is, we cannot yet say much about the success of the gospel. Occasionally indeed there may be a gleam through the water that gives assurance of a large and fine fish: there may be deeds done which draw the eye of everyone, and unmistakably prove that in the Church there are men after God’s own heart. We feel that of some men the character and quality are already ascertained, and that it needs no day of separation to tell us their worth. But there remains a vast mass about which we can say little; nay, we know that in the Church there are foul, lumpish, poisonous creatures. This is what our Lord anticipated, that while His Church would attract men whom God would gather to Him with delight as being of His own spirit, there would also be drawn to it a number of wretched creatures who would go through life trying to hide from themselves that they love the world much more than God, and who must in the end be thrown aside as fit for no good purpose, as so much useless rubbish. *8 The fact is that God uses many to throw in and help drag the net towards shore. As I am writing this there are a couple from our small CWM Fellowship in Brisbane who are fishing for men in the Philippines (85 million pop) at their own expense (some in the CWM Fellowship helped a little), while another dear lady is doing her bit in Israel (6.5 million pop). Only today (29/1/04) my wife and I spent time with another couple who, together with their daughter, leave for South Africa (45 million pop) in two days time to help in the Moriel ministry in that country — again at their own expense. A Word of WarningThere is a great gulf fixed between the biblical instruction to “prove all things” (1 Thess 5:21) and to “try the spirits” (1 John 4:1) and what the Bible denounces as judging “another man’s servant” and becoming “judges of evil thoughts” (James 2:4). (Literally, judges having evil thoughts.) While the context of the latter two statements relate to eating and drinking and discriminating on the basis of wealth the application is much wider than these things. None of us has any right to pontificate on the final judgment or destiny of any person, who names the name of Christ, as the parable of the Dragnet clearly indicates. On the other hand the parable of the Tares makes it equally clear that “the sons of the wicked one” who are planted by “the devil” (vv 38&39) will reveal their true identity in this life and will be discerned for who and what they are by the true ser vants of the Lord, but nonetheless the Lord has reserved to HIMSELF alone the right of ultimate judgement.The application“Jesus said to them, Have you understood all these things? They said to him, Yes, Lord. Then he said to them, Therefore every scribe instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old”(Matthew 13:51-52). The obvious application is that having understood, not just the parable about the dragnet, but all the parables of the context, we become like the householder who has great treasure in his dwelling. What does the householder do with his treasure? He displays it — both the new and old — to his admiring guests. It was Abraham Lincoln who said, “God tells the truth in parables because they are easier for folk to understand and recollect”. As we come to a new understanding, so we discover some fresh gem of truth. And as we dig it out, we bring with it that old polished diamond of inestimable worth, which has been displayed a million times before. Take for example the sower. Each time I read it I see some fresh truth — flashing, glistening. But then as I look closer, I find the light of that truth falls upon the central treasure — Jesus — and so it is with all of the parables and, for that matter with all of the Truths of the Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ is the centrepiece of our treasure chest. In the first of the Matthew 13 parables He is the sower, historically in His Judean setting, and then progressively in and through His people throughout the church age. But He is also the seed (logos) and the productive element in the soil, as well as the great Lord of the harvest. He is everything! Understand this and you will gain understanding to all of the parables. In the second He is the Son of Man who plants the “children of the kingdom” in their rightful place, so that “the children of the wicked one” planted by Satan are revealed in their true light by way of contrast. And it is Christ Jesus the Lord here identified as the Son of Man who ultimately triumphs as His servants remove the tares at the end of the age: “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt 13:43). Despite the confusion caused by the “strange birds” and the corrupting effect of the leaven as taught in the 3rd and 4th parables, the kingdom of heaven will never be destroyed or halted, simply because at its head is the Lord Jesus Christ who said, “I will build my Church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18). He is the source of our life and our judicial basis of appeal regarding right and wrong. He is the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price, who Himself set the example of being prepared to leave all to unearth a treasure and pearl, which from His perspective is the Church, but from ours is Christ Himself. He calls us to simply follow His example, through His enabling. It’s not hard if you rely on and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally He is the Lord of the harvest that is brought in by the dragnet and He is the rare treasure that the genuine scribe of the Kingdom is always displaying. It was that magnificent preacher of the Apostolic Church in Britain, Ian McPherson who wrote in his PREACHERS AND PREACHING, “Preaching is above all else the conveyance of a person, through a person to a company of persons; the person so conveyed being the Lord Jesus Christ”. As reapers moving towards the harvest at the end of the age we can never progress beyond Jesus. He is there in all the parables. Christ is the sower of the first parable; plants the good seed of the second; protects and nourishes what He has planted in the third and fourth; is the hidden treasure and the discovered pearl of the fifth and sixth; and the one whose angels select and sort the harvest in the seventh. In the eighth (resurrection number), He is the blazing glory of the householder’s precious possessions — old yet ever new. Sir, we would see Jesus! NOTES: *1 Commentary on Matthew from The Broadman Bible Commentary vol 8Marshall, Morgan & Scott p159. *2 THE NET by Marcus Dods can now be read on CWM’s website at http://www.christian-witness.org/not_in_pubs/parables.html *3 From THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD by Marcus Dods, D.D. Hodder & Stoughton 1890 page 111. *4 op cit Broadman Bible Commentary vol 8 p 159 *5 op. cit THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD pages 112- 113 see http://www.christian-witness.org/not_in_pubs/parables.html *6 op. cit THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD pages 121- 122 see http://www.christian-witness.org/not_in_pubs/parables.html *7 op cit Broadman Bible Commentary vol 8 p159. See http://www.christian-witness.org/not_in_pubs/parables.html *8 op. cit — THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD pages 119 – see http://www.christian-witness.org/not_in_pubs/parables.html About the Author...
Appeared in CETF 28 2004 |
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