So we have this special summer sermon series going on, “Gone Fishin’.” For the last couple of weeks we’ve taken a sort of light-hearted trip through the fishing stories of the gospels, and we continue that special fishing trip with Jesus this week. But as you probably noticed here we are today with a fishing story that ends with “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” As you can tell, our fishing trip takes a bit of a turn today, but before we get into the “heavy” stuff, another fishing story that’s a bit more whimsical.
A young woman was preparing for her wedding. She had spent weeks ironing out the final logistical details, and as she worked on getting her wedding dress on on the big day, she started to think more deeply about the significance of the event before her. So as her mother helped her get zipped up she decided to take the opportunity to ask for any last tidbits of profound wisdom. “Mom,” she said, “Can you give me any advice that will help me as this marriage begins?”
The Mom thought for a moment and finally she said, “Yes, I can. Here’s a really important lesson I wished I had learned a little earlier on in my own marriage to your father, it’s this. If you give a man a fish, you can feed him for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, you can get rid of him for a whole weekend!”
For the last two weeks, as we have explored the fishing stories of the gospels, we focused on the call stories of the first disciples. First, we read Luke’s account of the calling of the first disciples, and we talked about how we always have to be ready to offer all of ourselves to Christ so that when he calls us to the deeper waters, we can follow him to those places of blessing. Last week we read Matthew’s account of the calling of the first disciples, and we talked about how our most important mission is the same as Christ’s mission, to tell people about the kingdom of God that is drawing near, and to invite them to be a part of that, to “fish for people.” This week, as we continue in Matthew’s gospel, we move from an account of one aspect of Jesus’ ministry to a parable spoken by Jesus himself.
This parable, known as the parable of the nets and the fish, is a rather disconcerting parable, isn’t it? This isn’t the kind of thing we want to hear. We want to believe that we’ve got it made and that there is no chance that we might be thrown into a burning furnace, and yet that is the possibility Jesus lays out quite clearly here. As with all parables, Jesus is taking a familiar scene, and using it to say something about the kingdom of God. So, let’s focus for a minute on the familiar situation that Jesus was lifting up in this parable.
Remember that many of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen, and that much of his ministry was done in the area around the Sea of Galilee. When Jesus talked about fish or fishing, the people listening knew what he meant. So let’s step back to the first century and look at what Jesus was referencing when he told this parable of the nets and the fish.
“Commercial” fishing of the 1st century, not unlike commercial fishing today, consisted of dropping large nets off the side of a boat, waiting for the nets to fill up, and then hauling them in. Now, such a fishing technique means that you will not only catch the kind of fish you are fishing for, but probably also some fish you don’t really want. In Jesus’ day, there were primarily three kinds of fish that populated the Sea of Galilee; sardines, a kind of fish that is now called St. Peter’s fish, and the final kind, as sort of catfish called a barbel. Among the Jewish people, sardines and St. Peter’s fish were considered kosher, but the barbel was considered an unclean fish. So every fisherman knew the drill; after pulling up the nets, the fish had to be sorted. The kosher fish, the sardines and St. Peter’s fish, would be put in baskets and kept, but the unclean fish, the barbels, were thrown away.
It seems pretty simple, doesn’t it? Right about now you’re probably thinking, “Yep, just as I suspected. Christ is going to throw out the ‘bad fish.’ So, I need to be sure that I am one of the good fish.” And you’re right, that is certainly an extremely important message of this parable, but there is an even more important message that becomes clear when Jesus explains the parable. Before we get to that message, though, we need a bit of background about what is happening here as Jesus shares this parable with the disciples.
Jesus’ telling of the parable of the nets and the fish is the last of a long line of parables that Jesus has told in this part of Matthew to reveal more and more what the kingdom of God is like. The two parables that immediately precede this final one are the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl. These three parables together form a sort of grouping with the first two describing the greatness of God’s kingdom, and the final describing how it will be made that way. Jesus begins by saying that the kingdom of God is so wonderful that it’s like a great treasure hidden in a field, or a pearl of the most beautiful quality; it’s so amazing that you go and sell everything in order to buy the field or the pearl because you know that there is nothing in life greater or of more value. And the kingdom of God is that way because, as Jesus has taught us over and over and over again, it is a kingdom of justice, mercy, peace, and love.
It doesn’t take much to understand that in order for God’s kingdom to be this way, though, it has to be populated by people who live and embody the same values of the kingdom. And so Jesus tells this final parable of the nets and the fish where he says in essence any fish that is unclean, any person that does not embody the kingdom values, is thrown out. This is where the second very important lesson of this parable comes into play. What does Jesus say about who will do the sorting of the good and the bad in the end? Does he say that fishermen will do that sorting? No. Does he say that the disciples will do the sorting? No. Jesus makes it a point to say that at the end of the age, the angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous, the good from the bad. In other words, God alone is the arbiter of good and evil, not us.
Now that’s kind of a hard message for Christians to hear, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s just a hard message for people to hear period. Because we like to be in control; we like to be the holders of all knowledge and the deciders of all decisions. It’s why we love remote controls and buffet lines. We like to make the decisions, we like to have total control; and here Jesus is saying in essence, “This one isn’t yours to control.” The message is so difficult for us to hear, in fact, that we often don’t, particularly those of us in the church. We draw lines based on denomination, or how someone was baptized, or which version of the Bible is the “official,” “correct” version, or what kind of music is best and whether or not certain instruments can be used, and on and on and on. We think it’s so easy to distinguish who’s in and who’s out.
There’s a story of a woman who died and she went up to heaven. Of course, when the woman arrived at the Pearly Gates, she was greeted by St. Peter. St. Peter opened up his books, checked the records and found that indeed this woman had a place in heaven. So St. Peter opened the gates and escorted the woman inside toward her place in paradise. As the pair walked along, the woman noticed many doors all around them, and she was surprised when all of a sudden at one point, St. Peter turned around and hushed her. Once they had passed the area and St. Peter indicated to her that it was okay to speak again, the woman asked, “St. Peter, why did we have to be quiet back there?”
St. Peter looked at the woman and said very matter-of-factly, “Well, that back there was the room full of people who think they are the only ones in heaven!”
We don’t like to think that we might have to share the Kingdom of God with people who are different from us, or people who don’t agree with us, or those we don’t much care for. We draw lines and try and be the sorters because we want to be able to cast judgment on people who are different from us. We want to be able to say that we are the ones who are right. We want to know that the people we don’t like will get what’s coming to them. Besides, it’s a lot easier to call down fire from heaven on your enemies than to love them.
God’s grace is wild, and we cannot ever think or pretend to act like we know how God’s grace is working or will ever work in someone else’s life. Through this parable of the nets and fish, Jesus is telling disciples then and now that we don’t get to decide who’s in and who’s out. Our only concern should be to be good fish. Our task is not to try and take control of a situation that is not ours to control, but instead to allow God’s grace to take root and to realize that the response of others is their responsibility, never, ever ours.
You know, whenever we go fishing, we chose our bait and throw our line in the water, but whatever happens after is beyond our control. We can’t decide that a rainbow trout is going to bite our line and we’ll be frying up trout filets for dinner; nor can we make a 20 pound largemouth bass latch on so that we can be guaranteed a win at the bass tournament. What happens at the other end of that line is not up to us. And the same is true in the kingdom of God. Jesus’ message in this parable is clear; don’t worry about everyone else, just be a good fish. You can’t control who’s in and who’s out; you can’t control who likes you, nor who follows God in Christ Jesus. The best we can do is to love our neighbors and love our enemies, and then we have to let God sort the rest out.
Christ our King has said, “Follow me.” That’s how our fishing journey began, with a simple command from Jesus to follow and become fishers of people. This is where our focus should be, where it has to be. We just throw the bait out there and let Jesus take care of the rest. We have to walk the walk, not trying to look around and see what everyone else is doing. Just be a good fish and with actions say that Jesus is King and that is who we follow.
Walk the walk.
Talk the talk.
Swim the swim.
And praise be to our Lord, God will take care of the rest!
