The Parable of the Fishing Net Thrown into the Sea (Mat. 13:47-50)
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
We concluded the previous essay on a very upbeat note. But, as was also mentioned, there is, along with the joy, a sternness to the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom is primarily a reality of joy and gratitude, but judgment is a consistent part of the picture, both in the public and private parables here in Mat. 13 and throughout the Gospels.
The first striking character about this text is the banality of the story … that is, until the last few words, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The image of fisherman separating their catch is unremarkable and even bucolic. Imagine a couple of fishermen squatting on the beach tossing fish into different containers, while a couple more pull the nets in tighter as the fish get separated out. The ocean would be lapping in on the shore and the fishermen would be laughing and joking with each other, at ease because their day was almost done. One can easily imagine such a scene as a jigsaw puzzle picture.
This is a very odd image of the last judgment, but it is the image that Jesus offers us in this context. From it we can begin to appreciate the insignificance of evil in the larger scheme of things. Please don’t misunderstand; the cross, tomb, and resurrection are huge on the landscape of time. Christ’s actual victory over death and sin cost God the life of his Son, and there was darkness and earthquakes … the very creation shook at that moment. But once the victory was accomplished, there was absolutely no question as to the outcome. The kingdom of heaven was established and the reign of God continued at a more profound level because now there was union between God and man through Jesus Christ. And in the context of the kingdom of heaven (established on the foundation of the resurrection), evil is insignificant. It must be dealt with – but it has already been dealt with, the battle won – now, there is simply the matter of separating the evil from the righteous, a housekeeping matter at the end of the day.
While this particular image of the judgment is banal from the perspective of the fishermen, it is certainly a big deal from the perspective of the fish. They will be separated and thrown in the furnace of fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. This phrase stands in stark contrast to the rest of the parable. The judgment will be terrible for those involved. In spite of the bucolic scene, this parable is a dire warning of the potential consequences if we are not attentive to the kingdom of heaven.
There is a second striking characteristic about this parable that is harder to perceive in English because we generally don’t pay attention to the difference between nouns and adjectives. In v. 49, the parable says, “So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous.” The words “evil” and “righteous” are not nouns (as they might first appear) but rather adjectives. It is not uncommon in the New Testament for an adjective to be substantive (that is, to function like a noun), but this use depersonalizes the term by de-emphasizing the person and emphasizing the adjectival description being talked about. This is the construction used here. When I say, “The righteous person will do this,” there is an emphasis on the individual in question. The noun in the sentence is “person” while “righteous” is an adjective describing the person. If instead I say, "The righteous will do this," the noun completely disappears from the sentence while the adjective functions like a noun. In this formation the emphasis is not on the person in question but rather on the characteristic the person exhibits. The issue is not individuals, but rather righteousness: People who exhibit the characteristic of righteousness will do this. This is the construction of v. 49. The evil will be separated from the righteousness and thrown into the fire. It is evil that is being removed from the kingdom of heaven in the final judgment.
But people attach themselves to evil. They are unwilling to let go of that which they love. They probably don’t think of it as evil, but rather their own preferred and benign pleasure. But they love it to an extent that they are unwilling to let go of it (to “sell” it to use the terminology of the previous two parables) in order to purchase the treasure in the field or the pearl.
And then we jump ahead to the final judgment where the evil is culled out of the kingdom. These people, unwilling to let go of their “benign pleasures” (which isn’t so benign because it takes the place of the kingdom treasure in their lives) end up getting tossed into the fire along with the evil, simply because they’re unwilling to let go.
It is easy to allow our own self-importance to blow judgment out of context. Since I am sinning and doing evil, then it logically follows that God must be really mad at me, because I am so important. Don’t get me wrong, God cares deeply about humanity; he created us in order to enter into relationship with us. God searches after sinners, God waits impatiently for sinners to return and then runs to meet them. It would logically follow that God mourns the loss of any sinner to the judgment, but once our decision to reject the kingdom (to reject a relationship with God) is finalized, we become very insignificant in the grand scheme of things, like garbage fish separated from the good fish, like weeds separated from the wheat. Getting rid of that stuff is a necessary task at the end of the day, but it’s not particularly significant in terms of the daily tasks.
The first two private parables (which speak of the joy and the simplicity of selling all to purchase the treasure with joy) form the heart of the inner logic of the kingdom. But from the outside looking in, the kingdom of heaven is a confusing affair. This hearkens back to the public parables. From an outsider’s perspective it would appear that it is easy to fall away, what with all the seed falling on unprepared ground and the weeds mixed in with the wheat. Jesus also predicts that the church will be loaded with hypocrites and tells us not to do anything about it, it’s his problem. At the root of that mixture of good and evil is the reality that the kingdom of heaven is in a pitched battle with the forces of Satan. Satan is sowing seed as quickly as the Son. But even an outsider has that God-given sensibility that God is going to win. In the end the weeds will be gathered and burned.
But in the three private parables we cut through all that uncertainty, that mixture of good and evil, that mystery which seems so confusing to the outsider. In these three parables all that is reduced down to the core human reality of the kingdom of heaven. Once the seeker sees it for what it is, it becomes an obsession, the seeker must have it. The seeker is willing to sell all that he has in order to get it, but he gladly does just that because of the surpassing value of the kingdom.
There is also a core divine reality that is not spoken of in these particular parables, but that should be mentioned just to fill out the picture. God loves the world. God seeks the lost. In the parable of the prodigal son, God watches for the return of the sinner, and when he returns, throws propriety to the wind and runs to greet him.
The internal logic of the kingdom is the magnetic force that draws God to humans and humans to God. The real miracle is not that we are saved, but that some humans are so self-centered that they can resist and turn away from the compelling value and reality of the kingdom of heaven. (And to pick up a theme introduced in the previous study, this is one of the great differences between Protestantism and Orthodoxy. Protestants tend to hold to an essentially pessimistic view of humans while Orthodoxy is essentially optimistic.) But some humans do just that, and so Jesus adds this third parable about sin and righteousness and the necessary separation of sin and righteousness that occurs at the end of the age. It is not a pleasant thought, but the three parables together offer the fullness of the kingdom of heaven and all its implications.
