INTRODUCTION
One of the marvelous aspects of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is that we are an international family of brothers and sisters. We speak many different languages, come from numerous countries, have a huge range of ethnic differences, and practice our faith in many different contexts. Together with our unity of faith, we have great diversity. As Jesus comes to the end of His seven parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13, He turns His attention to the diversity we find in the kingdom of God.
Jesus’ last parable in Matt 13 concerns a fishing net. And in it, He shows how the kingdom will be fulfilled at the end of the age (Matt 13:47–50). Yet it seems like an anticlimax coming after the others. All the other parables end on a positive note. Seed falls on good ground. Despite the weeds, there is a wheat harvest. The mustard seed becomes a large plant, the yeast raises dough, the laborer finds treasure, and the merchant acquires a fabulous pearl. But the last parable about the fishing net concludes with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why such an anticlimax to such an upbeat sequence of parables? So, let’s take a closer look at how the parable of the net illustrates how the kingdom will be fulfilled at the end of the age.
In Jesus’ time, fishermen used two kinds of net. The first type of net, a casting net, was relatively small, roughly circular in shape, with lead weights around its edge. When a fisherman saw some fish he wanted to catch in shallow water, he would throw it over the surface of the water, so that the net unfurled to its greatest extent. It would sink rapidly, drawn down by the lead weights, covering the fish. When the net was pulled up, the lead weights would draw together at the bottom, trapping the fish within. But importantly, this is not the picture Jesus has in mind.
The second kind of net, the one specifically referred to by Jesus, was the dragnet. Fishermen pulled a dragnet behind their boat, or spread it between two boats, and then hauled it to shore, hopefully capturing a shoal of fish within. And using a dragnet, says Jesus, is like proclaiming the kingdom of God.
So, what exactly does fishermen using a dragnet tell us about the kingdom? First, a dragnet is not a casting net. A casting net is targeted fishing. But a dragnet gathers up everything in its path. It doesn’t discriminate, catching all kinds of fish. The Sea of Galilee has thirty-six species of fish, and all of them can end up in a dragnet.
But the dragnet is even more indiscriminate. It doesn’t just catch fish. It catches everything that is swept into it. Many Bible versions say that the net “caught all kinds of fish,” and the fishermen “collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away” (Matt 13:47–48, NIV, emphasis supplied). However, the original text never mentions fish at all. It simply says they caught all sorts/kinds. Now, of course, a dragnet catches fish. That is its purpose. But it catches more than fish. In recent years, fishermen off the coast of Great Britain have caught all kinds of things in their dragnets, such as a World War II torpedo warhead, two hundred kilos (440 pounds) of high-grade cannabis, and, perhaps most remarkable of all, a married couple. A husband and wife who spent the day diving off the south coast of England were hauled up onto the deck of a fishing boat in a dragnet. Yes, fishermen land more than just fish when they use a dragnet. So Jesus is saying, I think, “They caught all kinds of stuff.” And this, says Jesus, is how we should preach the gospel of the kingdom of God.
Anyone who reads Matthew shouldn’t be surprised by this. At the beginning of His ministry Jesus said, “I will make you fish for people” (Matt 4:19, NRSV). And now, as Jesus tells this parable of the net, crowds surround Him. Throughout Matthew, Jesus attracts a huge variety of people. So, there’s likely to be paralytics (4:24); people from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond Jordan (4:25); Roman centurions (8:5); scribes (8:19); Pharisees (9:11); rulers of synagogues (9:18); ostracized women (9:20); and blind men (9:27). There are those whose interest in the kingdom is a passing fad, and others who’ll be just too busy to make a commitment. Yet, there are those who will commit themselves to the kingdom, day in, day out, for the rest of their lives. There’s Matthew the tax-collector, Roman sympathizer, standing next to Simon the Zealot, anti-Roman terrorist. He’d also see Judas who would betray him; Peter who would deny him. All kinds of stuff!
As a church, who have we caught in our gospel net? Are they mainly folks who are already Christian, committed to the authority of the Bible? If we are fishing as Jesus suggests, we should expect all kinds of stuff. People who look remarkably like us, and those who don’t.
There’s always a temptation to target fish that look very much like us—people we’ll get on with because they come with the same culture, education, or view of the world we have. But that is using a casting net. Jesus said preaching the gospel of the kingdom is like using a dragnet. Why? Because it catches all kinds of stuff.
And there should be all kinds of stuff in the kingdom, because the kingdom is indiscriminate. That’s how Matthew brackets this collection of Christ’s parables. In the first parable of the sower, the seed is sown randomly, in an untargeted way. The sower just scatters seed everywhere. The seed falls on all kinds of soil. And now, in the last parable, the parable of the fishing net, the fishermen use a dragnet. They trawl through the lake and catch, indiscriminately, all kinds of stuff. That’s what the kingdom is like. That’s what the mission of proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom is like. Like a sower scattering seed everywhere, or a dragnet capturing everything.
The parable of the fishing net teaches that when the mission of proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom is fulfilled, at the end of time, we will discover how indiscriminate the kingdom has been. Jesus didn’t waste His time telling parables of no consequence. He told this parable because He thought it was important. In fact, He wanted to make sure His audience understood it. He asked them, “Have you understood all this?” (Matt 13:51, NRSV)
Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that all kinds of stuff are caught up into the gospel net. And that is because our witness should not discriminate and our evangelism should not always be narrowly targeted. As a consequence, the kingdom will contain all kinds of stuff. At the same time, Jesus says there will be a judgment at the end of the age. Not everything the net catches will be acceptable. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It matters what you believe and do, and in particular how you treat other people. But that judgment will be God’s, not ours.
CONCLUSION
How is it with us? In our church community there are those who love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind. Those who live their lives as diligent ambassadors for the gospel of the kingdom of God, and those on the brink of making that decision—or turning away. Let’s consider all our differences, and prayerfully consider all our diversity. All the differences of spiritual maturity and varieties of commitment. All kinds of stuff. Let’s remind ourselves that God is the judge, at the end of the age. And as we look at the contents of the dragnet, and see all kinds of stuff, let us say with Christ Himself, “This is the kingdom of God.”
Laurence A. Turner, PhD, is a principal lecturer emeritus in Old Testament at Newbold College of Higher Education, Bracknell, UK, and adjunct external higher degree research supervisor at Avondale University, Cooranbong, NSW, Australia.
