Flopping Fish

Jesus said to the disciples: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."

"Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes." And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old." When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there. (Matthew 13:47-53)

We all have done wicked things.  We all have been righteous at one time or another.  So, where do we go?  Into fiery furnaces despite whatever good we have done?  Black versus white or good versus bad thinking and comparisons are perilous because we are many shades of gray.  We are not wheat or weeds as referred to in another parable.  Are we blessed or cursed?

Besides, who judges I am a bad fish rather than a good fish?  Am I bad because I’m too small a fish?  Am I the wrong color?  Do I have spines?  Do I look unpleasant?  Many of us do the basket sorting without regard for our uniqueness in the “eyes of God.”  

Matthew is notable for his either/or contrasts.  They are instructive but often don’t fit with human nature and behavior.

I prefer another interpretation of the net thrown into the sea.  Most fish live in dim light, and many live in darkness.  We are like those fish.  Jesus throws his net and brings us up into the light – his light.  He finds us and hauls us from the depths into the light where we first resist and flop around.  Eventually, we yield and find our way into his basket.  He is a skilled fisherman.

Deacon David Pierce