Let’s look at a couple of more things found in this parable;
While the net representing the kingdom is being dragged through the water, it is indiscriminate in what it collects, the good, the bad, the useful and the useless. In the sea, all kinds of fish and all kinds of junk simply coexist. When I was a kid, in the spring of the year, as soon as the ice would melt move away from the shores of Lake Superior, the beach would be lined with “Smelters” at night. It was sort of a tradition. You would collect drift wood, build a giant fire for warmth, and, you would put on hip waders, go out in the ice cold water as far as you could, put down a drag net, and drag it to shore. Smelt were really a bait fish that would come to spawn. When you got the drag net to shore, everyone would grab a bucket and collect all the smelt from the net. Then you would turn the net over and dump all the other stuff out and go out again. Again, the net represents what?
( Kingdom or the Church ) What did it catch? (everything) Good, bad, and the ugly!
A day of judgment is coming pictured by the “sorting” when the catch arrives at the beach, but prior to that event, nothing is rejected. It is an important distinction I think we need to make as the church representing Jesus Christ’s work on the earth. Jesus himself said in John 12:47 - “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” What business then does the church have in thinking it has the right to judge the world? The church needs to be very careful it doesn’t mount its moral high horse and condemn a world Jesus Himself – at this time - does not judge.
A second caution for the church is to avoid the temptation of acting like a sports fisherman who is only interested in catching one kind of fish! The net of the kingdom does not discriminate and drags all sorts into the kingdom, the old boots, the beer cans, bottles, cigarette packages, as well as Smelt! So the church needs to avoid the habit of rejecting as junk those whom Jesus came to save. Jesus didn’t shy away from sinners and neither should the church…while the net is still in the water…I’m just sayin…
Let’s move on to the sorting process;
Finally the whole mess, the prawns, the toadies, the good, the bad, the ugly are dragged up onto the Millennium beach so to speak, and what is the criteria by which the fish/sheep/wheat are sorted? (Good and bad) We automatically assume that the separation is based on the goodness or badness of the person, in other words a moral decision…if the good out weighs the bad then we are okay. But, when we went fishing for smelt, what were we after? (Smelt) so what did we keep? In all of this, who was deciding what was kept? (The fisherman) So the criteria for acceptance is based on what is acceptable to the fisherman, not their moral status!
Was the thief on the cross accepted on his moral status? He was put into the “save” bucket purely on His acceptability to the fisherman. And this had better be true because if it isn’t, none of us will be accepted! So the sorting, fortunately for us, is done by the same Savior who hung on the cross beside that thief who accepts us according to His criteria not necessarily the criteria of our fellow “Christ-ians.” The same God who stands there as our Judge fortunately also stands there as our Savior.
William Colgate founded his company over 100 years ago. He was an avid Christian, and his church was praying for souls in the community to be saved, and for church growth. A poor woman had been attending for several months, and one day came forward for membership. At the next board meeting someone expressed opposition to the poor woman joining the church. Colgate stood and said “I think we need to go back and remake our prayers. We have been praying for God to save sinners, but we forgot to specify what kind of sinners we want him to save!”
Someday the dragnet of the church will reach the shore, and God will not separate the good from the bad…He will separate the saved from the lost!
No comments:
Post a Comment