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 section on the two previous parables on a very upbeat note. But there is also a sternness to the kingdom of heaven. It 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, function like a noun), but it 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” and “righteous” is an adjective descriptive of the subject in the sentence (the person). If instead I say, “The righteous will do this,” the noun completely disappears from the sentence and the adjective functions like a noun. In this formation the emphasis is not on the person in question but rather on a class of people. 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. People will be judged. It is people who will be wailing and gnashing their teeth. But at a more fundamental level, it is not people, but evil that is being separated out from righteousness and cast into the fire, it is evil that is being removed from the kingdom of heaven.
The same sensibility can be found in the parable of the weeds in the field. The farmer tells the workers to gather the weeds and burn them at the end of the growing season. The farmer is not angry at the weeds, in fact there is no feeling expressed at all. There is a sense that the weeds are a non-entity, a necessary bother in order to get to the wheat (which actually has value). It is easy to allow our self-importance 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 because he can enter into relationship with them. 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.
There is also a twist implied in this parable of the fishing net. The twist could be stated in the following way. What is it that you are unwilling to let go of? In the two treasure parables preceding this one the land owner and merchant were unwilling to let go of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value (in other words, the kingdom of heaven). They were holding on so tight that they were willing to part with everything else in order to keep the treasure of the kingdom. On the other hand, there are people who love their evil, although they probably don’t think of it as evil, but rather their own preferred and benign pleasure. They love that seemingly benign pleasure to the extent that they are ultimately unwilling to let go of it. And in the end evil will be sorted out from righteousness, and those people who are unwilling to part with their pleasure (which is, in the final analysis, evil by the standards of the kingdom of heaven) will end up in the fire because they would not let go of the object that was being thrown in.
The first two private parables form the heart of the inner logic of the kingdom. From the outside looking in the kingdom of heaven is a confusing affair. It involves preparing oneself and attentiveness. 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 these two parables we cut through all that uncertainty, that mixture of good and evil, that mystery which seems so confusing to the outsider. In these two 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 this is one of the great differences between Protestantism and Orthodoxy. Protestants 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 day. It is not a pleasant thought, but the three parables together offer the fullness of the kingdom of heaven and all its implications.
Copyright © 2006 James E. Nelson (Just Another Jim). All Rights Reserved.
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