New Thoughts (5/22/07-5/25/07)
This parable speaks of the kingdom as a net that has been filled near to overflowing. The sort of net Jesus chooses for the comparison is a net that would hang between boats, to sweep the seas between. It would not be taken in until it was as full as it could be. Jesus says it is epleeroothee. It is crammed full. It has caught as much as it can possibly catch. That same word has the sense of prophecy fulfilled or a task finished. It is a matter of completeness in execution or in satisfying a need. I suspect He had both ideas in mind, and intended His listeners to think similarly.
As applied to the net, there is clearly that sense of cramming in every fish it can hold. Applied to the kingdom, that doesn’t apply quite as well. For the kingdom, there is the sense of completion. Every last candidate for heavenly citizenship has been brought to the King. The full number of those whom God has purposed to call His own are accounted for. Every remaining prophecy has been fully and completely satisfied, and now the end of the age is come.
Interestingly, Jesus focuses not so much on the matter of completion, but on the extent of the catch. The point He is making is that such a net does not only catch the sort of fish one wants. The news of the kingdom doesn’t only attract those who are bound for heavenly citizenship. I was going to say that I don’t suppose any of the fish caught by the net were caught because they wanted to look like they belonged, but in a sense perhaps they do act in that fashion. Fish tend to school. They seek to blend in with the crowd for protection. They seek to deceive their predators by appearing to be a different, and much larger fish than they truly are. Many treat the Church in the same fashion. They seek membership not because they desire to draw close to God, but because they see a social advantage. There is a networking opportunity to be had. Christians love to do their business with fellow Christians. There is the dating angle for the singles and, sad to say, for some of the married.
Then there are the opportunities for self-promotion. One can be seen as they minister. One can make a name for oneself. Some will come to the Church strictly to be seen. They may wish to be seen so that, like the Pharisees before them, they can have a reputation for piety. They may wish to be seen so that they can get some need to perform out of their system. There are myriad motivations. The main point, though, is that wherever there are those who are truly seeking and finding the kingdom, there will be those who are only play acting. Wherever there is a true move of God, we can count on God’s enemy to be playing his counterfeiting card.
Clearly, this parable is building upon the message of the wheat and the tares (Mt 13:24-30). It reaches much the same conclusion. At the end of the age, the world will still not have been purified. The Church will not even have been purified, however hard it may try. It was designed to attract all sorts and it did. It is not the Church’s job to sort out the real from the poseur. Yes, there is some weeding to be done by us. Yes, there are those whom we must, out of conscience, turn over to Satan for discipline, albeit in the desire for their eventual restoration. Discipline is one thing, attempting to purge the Church unto purity is, however, beyond our capacity. We have not the vision to see the deepest truth of a man. Notice that here, as in the parable of the wheat and the tares, it is the angels who do the sorting. The Church’s job is not to sort, but to gather.
How can I not think of Ecclesiastes with that in mind? There is a time to throw stones, and a time to gather them: a time to embrace, and a time to shun. There are times to seek, and times to give up the lost: A time to keep, and a time to throw away. There are times to tear up, and times to sew up: times for silence, and for speaking (Ecc 3:5-7). The time of the Church is a time to gather, embrace, seek the lost and keep those who come. The end of the age shall provide the time for throwing out and shunning the lost, giving up on them. Now is the time for speaking out the Good News of the King’s pardon, of citizenship restored. Then will be a time for silence before the Judge of all mankind. Where His verdict has fallen upon those who rejected His redemption, the call upon His brothers is for silence. Like Aaron witnessing the judgment of his own sons, weeping shall be forbidden us, for weeping in such a time would be rejecting the Just One as just.
Like the dragnet, the Church is not called to discriminate. We are not charged with inspecting each fish before we catch it. The saying is old enough to be trite, but remains true: you can’t clean a fish before you catch it. If we are the sort of fishermen who use a dragnet, we really have no business cleaning fish at all. Better to get them to market alive. They’ll stay fresh that way.
The dragnet is designed to catch everything in the area. So should the church be operating. Rather than competing with one another, we ought to be like the vessels between which this dragnet is hung. Our mission is not to take each others members as our own. Our mission is to catch every potential citizen of heaven in the neighborhood between us. If they have joined themselves to the kingdom of heaven, what care need we have as to which little fiefdom of that kingdom they settle in? It is enough that they have been given the opportunity to become citizens of the kingdom.
I must add, though, that however much our focus is on presenting the lost around us with this opportunity for citizenship, we must not fall into thinking the moment of their accepting the offer is a guarantee of their being accepted. That probably sounds harsh. The point I am making though is this: We rejoice, and rightly so, over every one we hear repeating the sinner’s prayer, walking the aisle to the altar of repentance, or performing whatever ritual we may have built up to display the “moment of decision.” What we lose sight of is that we cannot see the heart. True, angels rejoice in heaven over each sinner who is saved. The problem is that we confuse our ritual with true salvation. It is to be hoped that those who confess their repentance are doing more than just responding to the emotional power of the moment. It is to be hoped that each one who claims to have accepted the Christ truly has, and that they will be discipled until they can hold fast to their Savior. It is to be hoped, but it dare not be assumed.
The net catches all sorts without discrimination. The tares grow up alongside the wheat. God’s sun and God’s rain are not discriminating in where they spread their benefits, and neither is the church allowed to do so. Yet, like God, we can acknowledge that the weeds that may grow from our benefits are not made good by our benefits. They remain weeds, and will be dealt with in their time. Likewise, the net does not determine the nature of the fishes in its catch. True, the weave of the net will determine the smallest fish likely to be captured, but even those smaller fish may get caught up as the larger fish block the gaps. The net cannot, however, do anything to test a fish for disease or flavor or any other such thing before catching it. Neither can it do anything to repair the disease or change the nature of the fishes.
Oh! That we might get that through our thick heads! We cannot do anything to change the nature of those who come into our congregations. We cannot do anything to change anything! The Word of God declares that apart from Him we can do nothing (Jn 15:5). However many people may be getting saved in the course of our ministry, however many may respond with newfound repentance and devotion as they hear us preach, we have done nothing. God has done all. This does not in any way preclude us from availing ourselves of whatever training and practice will improve our abilities to proclaim God’s gospel in a compelling fashion. All that training, however, will be worth nothing if God is not with us in the preaching. All the programs of the Church in all their variety avail nothing, change nothing, if God is not with us. Unless He has built the house, proposed the program, inspired the sermon, we labor in vain who work at all (Ps 127:1). Unless the Lord cleans the fish, chooses the fish, they labor in vain who fish at all. Yet, fish we must, for He has called us to that very task.
This parable, you see, reinforces the message of the sower and the seed (Mt 13:1-13), as well as that of the wheat and the tares (Mt 13:24-30). It is one with that message, but with new imagery chosen to fit the disciples who now listen to Jesus in private. This is a theme that has been running through much of the message Jesus delivered by the sea: Don’t discriminate. Don’t try to guess where the Word will be best received. Speak it to any and all. Their ears are not your responsibility, but providing word to their ears is. Their reaction to the Gospel is not your responsibility, but proclaiming the Gospel is.
This strikes me as inverting the way of the Pharisees. They were all about taking responsibility for enforcing compliance to their sense of righteousness. They were so concerned with their own supposed purity that they would fastidiously avoid any contact with those who didn’t live up to their standards. Even amongst the Pharisees, these considerations would fracture and divide the community, as those who held to sterner vows disassociated themselves from the ones who did not. Jesus turns the tables and tells us not to concern ourselves overly much with the condition of our fellow congregant. Our focus ought rightly be on the kingdom ahead and on our own preparedness for its coming.
One last thought in this regard: Much later in the ministry, Jesus would speak of ten virgins awaiting the bridegroom’s arrival (Mt 25:1-2). Five of these He would pronounce wise and five foolish. It is worth noting that all ten – the wise and the foolish – were there. They were all in that place of waiting. They were all following the forms, but only five were their in earnest preparation. That is a picture of the Church, and always shall be until the angels come to do their job. Wow, and to think how often we hear the excited desire to see the angels working in the Church! We must have an absolute certainty as to our own condition to desire such a thing, for it seems clear that the work of the angels amidst the Church is the work of weeding and sorting. It is the work of removing the foolish and worthless from the ranks of those who would seek entry to heaven. It is removing the imposters from amidst the sons of the household.
With so many adopted, it is inevitable that many will claim they were adopted as well when no such thing is true. It’s rather like the issue we face on our borders. With so many legally immigrating, there is a built in attraction for those who wish to arrive without a trace and those who cannot find the means to immigrate legally. It’s so easy to blend in to the existing base community that the likelihood of detection seems small. So it is with the line for heaven. Many there are in that line who have no place being there, but it is beyond our capacity to distinguish them from the true sons waiting to get home. It is enough for us if we can ascertain our own true condition – more than enough.
By way of comparison, it is clear enough that we are to equate the good fish with the righteous man. That which is good is well adapted for its purpose. A good fish would be one that was not only healthy but also edible. To be good is also to be genuine and approved, and here we draw closer to the sense of righteousness. Righteousness is the condition God approves. To be righteous is to be acceptable to Him according to His standards. Just as the fish being healthy does not go far enough in defining it as good in the sight of the fisherman, so our being ‘good people’ by man’s standards and whatever efforts we may have put into being fit and healthy do not go far enough in defining us as good in the Fisherman’s sight. The One who came to make us fishers of men sets the standards for what constitutes a good fish. They are the ones who are praiseworthy for being as the ought to be. They are the ones that are beautiful for their purity of life.
The parallel to righteousness is plain. The righteous are praiseworthy for being as they ought to be according to their Creator. They are beautiful for their pure devotion to Him, whatever their physical state might be. They are genuine in their faith and approved by their Father. As He continues His work upon them, as He continues to wrap them in robes of His own righteousness, Jesus is seeing to it that they are made excellent in their nature. It is a matter of rebirth, but it is being accomplished. He is seeing to it that we are made well adapted for our purpose as sons of the Most High. He is molding us into that which God can approve and accept.
In contrast, we have the wicked man equated with the bad fish. The fish are rotten, corrupted. They swam into the net upside down, and they haven’t improved with the taking. They are thoroughly unfit for human consumption, and therefore of absolutely no use to the fisherman. The wicked are likewise rotting away in the corruption of their habits. They are hurtful towards others, malicious in their ways. They are ‘full of labors and annoyances’, although not for themselves. They make life in their presence a trying labor for those around them. They are a constant annoyance to those who must be with them. They are putrid, unfit for any societal associations. They are of absolutely no use to the One who comes to fish amongst men. They will not be redeemed, they will not be made righteous. However well one might clean them, their corruption remains. They are not worth the energy to try and change, for not only are they putrid, but even were one to make them whole once more, they would insist on putrefying themselves all over again.
Like the parable of the wheat and the tares, there is a caution here to the fisherman. Don’t try and gauge your cast so that it will only bring in good fish. It’s beyond your capacity anyway. Neither is it for you to do the sorting when the catch is brought in. That is the angels’ job. Just as the discerning of wheat and tare was reserved for angels with better sight than you or I, so the catch. We may be fooled. We may mistake bad fish for good, and good fish for bad. We have not the discernment to note the inward disease that will render an outwardly good fish poisonous to the one who eats of it. Leave it to those with a higher vision.
What is particularly striking to me is that word Jesus uses to describe the activity of the angels. They ‘take out’ the wicked from amongst the righteous. The phrase ‘take out’ translates the word aphoriousin. This word, which speaks of separation and culling out, is the very term from which the Pharisees derive their name. They considered themselves the separated ones. They were very concerned with keeping themselves separated from and untouched by the unwashed masses of those lesser lights around them. From their perspective, this is what righteousness was all about: remaining untouched by the common: being culled out from the majority. It became a pride thing.
As I always seem to do, I look at the Pharisees with shaking head, and then realize I am but looking at the modern day Church. After all, these things are recorded for our edification. We do well to consider ourselves when we see these examples of the wrong way. We, too, tend to view our faith as requiring a complete separation from the surrounding society. This is a misinterpretation of the message, though. It is certainly not to be found in the example of Jesus, nor in the words He left His apostles with. He told them that they had been chosen out of the world, and were therefore no longer of the world (Jn 15:19). They are not, He declares, of the world any more than He, but just as He was sent into the world, so He sent them (Jn 17:16-18). A look through His ministry shows that Jesus had not taken to hiding Himself away from society. He was, in fact, notorious amongst the Pharisees for His willingness to associate with hopeless sinners. To their way of thinking, He was taking on their filth by association. To His way of thinking, that which is holy cannot be made unholy even by that touch. The Light always overcomes darkness.
So, once again, Jesus turns expectations upside down. The Pharisees saw it as their place to separate the righteous out from the world. Jesus, though, says that the plan of heaven is just the opposite, to separate out the wicked from the masses of the righteous. They called themselves the Separated Ones. Well, in this image that Jesus paints, who are the separated ones? They are the wicked, the malicious, whom the angels cast into the fiery furnace of eternal judgment.
Oh, how we dislike seeing God in such wrathful display. It’s one thing to see it in the Old Testament, in times long past. We can discount that as some other dispensation, of something that was overcome by Messiah. But, this is a future wrath, a wrath yet to come, and one which we cannot skip lightly by. This activity of angels is our own destined future. We will come under their scrutiny, fish in the pile, plants in the field. It will be their determination, guided by the pure and undeceivable eyes of their Lord and ours, whether we are harvest or fuel for the fire.
Given what we learn of the Pharisees in the course of the Gospel record, I find myself wondering if Jesus is intentionally taking a jab at them here. The Separated Ones, the self-righteous misguided leaders of God’s chosen people, will truly become the separated ones, but not separated unto righteousness. Instead, they shall be separated from righteousness, taken from the midst of those whom God has declared approved and acceptable in His sight. Were this spoken on a more public occasion, it would come almost as a warning shot to that group.
The time for such distinguishing between the way of Christ and the way of the Pharisees would come, and Jesus would be sufficiently harsh in His critique of their nonsense, but we are not looking at them here. Here, we are looking at the Master and His students. His eye is not yet on apologetics, but upon evangelism. He is not concerned with defending the Gospel, but with proclaiming it. The time for a pure Church will come, but it will come when He comes for it, not before. True purity is an end-time thing. We ought to continue striving for it until that day, but we dare not insist on it, for we would condemn ourselves in the insisting.
Those who claim to have attained to purity display themselves as worse than fools. They manifest a failure to understand either the Scriptures or the God of the Scriptures. The Scriptures report that the one who claims he never sins is calling God a liar in doing so (1Jn 1:10). This is clearly true, for God Himself has proclaimed that there is none found righteous (Ro 3:10). He has looked upon mankind only to discover that every last one of them has turned aside from His instruction. To a man, they have become corrupt. They are putrid. They are fit only to be taken out, and cast off (Ps 14:2-3). That assessment has never changed. Man left to himself and under his own power is forever stuck in that corruption. It is only the redemptive work of the Son, only His righteousness wrapped around us that makes our corrupt condition fit for the King once more. It is only when He completes our transformation, which we are told will come only when we are finally there before Him, seeing Him as He truly is, that we will be able to claim the purity and goodness that God requires.
We must take care not to make too much of ourselves in this current state. We are no better than were the Pharisees if we start taking pride in how much better we are. We will be as lost as they in the Judgment if we fail to judge ourselves rightly, if we begin to think ourselves better than we are. It is only as we continue in a whole and absolute dependence on Jesus for anything good in us that we walk as those approved of God. We walk approved because He sees the end from the beginning, because He knows our future, and it is that future completion of the work that He accepts. It is that future, completed work that He looks forward to welcoming home.
