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by Joel Davis
Today, we are wrapping up our series on the Kingdom Parables of Jesus from Matthew 13. This episode is also being released on Memorial Day, the day in the United States where we mourn the loss of those brave men and women who died while serving in our country’s Armed Forces, working to preserve the freedoms you and I experience each and every day.
One of my Memorial Day routines has become completing what’s called the Murph with my workout group. It’s a workout named in honor of Lieutenant Michael Murphy, a Navy Seal who died in Afghanistan in 2005. And something that is tradition in our group is to dedicate that workout to a family member or friend who lost their life in combat. It’s extraordinarily powerful to hear those names as we go around the circle, and I would say it’s a proper response to their paying that ultimate sacrifice.
Jesus had some thoughts of His own about the proper response to His teaching on the Kingdom. I want you to imagine that day for Jesus. Just hours or moments before this block of teaching, we are told in chapter 12 that Jesus had a showdown with his own family! Matthew 12:47-50 says:
Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” He replied to the one who was speaking to him, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” Stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” —Matthew 12:47-50
Jesus tells His followers, the proper response to the Kingdom is to do the will of the Father. And we can imitate our elder brother Jesus because He is always doing the Father’s will. It’s not a stretch to say that Jesus may feel emotionally exhausted being at odds with His own mother. He leaves the house, walks to the seashore, and has a crowd of people wanting to know more about this Kingdom. There are so many that He’s got to push out into the water to be able to address them all. What is there to say about this Kingdom? And after witnesses a very IMPROPER response to the Kingdom, being embarrassed by its King, how are we to instead respond appropriately?
The Parable of the net concludes this block of teaching, and if you feel like you’ve heard the parable before, there’s a good reason. The net sounds remarkably similar to the weeds. And just like the seed and leaven and the pearl and treasure, we need to keep our eyes peeled for the things that DIFFER tomake conclusions about Jesus’ intent. So let’s read verses 47-50 of chapter 13 and see what we can see:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind of fish, and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw out the worthless ones. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, separate the evil people from the righteous, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. —Matthew 13:47-50
The parable of the weeds is much more developed than the net. We get not only a longer parable, but a full explanation of the parable just a few verses later. And in the weeds, there are a number of emphases not found within the net. First, we’re told it was the Enemy who has sewed the weeds among the wheat. This is totally left out of the net. Second, the emphasis is patience as the farmer tells the hired hands to wait until it’s time for harvest. We are encouraged to wait for the harvest and allow the Lord to judge the righteous from the wicked rather than worry about that for ourselves or judge prematurely.
Now what about the net? Two things I want you to see uniquely in the net are the universality and inevitably of God’s judgment.
First, the universality of the judgment. Notice in verse 47 that “every kind of fish” is brought into the net. The Kingdom of God is a global, multiethnic, multinational, multidenominational, across all time…KINGDOM. In Revelation 5, we see people of every tribe, tongue, and nation worshipping the Lamb who was slain. And just like that worship service to end all worship services, every tribe tongue and nation will also stand before that Savior to see if their name is written in the Book of Life.
This is a grounding reminder for us as followers of Jesus. Because no other kingdom we can align ourselves with possesses this sort of universal scope. No nation. No political party. No group identity can compare with the confidence and clarity of being a member of our Father’s Kingdom and having our identity rooted in being His children.
Second, the inevitability of the judgment. Verse 49 is clear, this is how it WILL be at the end of the age. This is what the angels WILL do, no matter what. Whether you and I want to live in light of that fact or not is up to us, but it’s coming regardless. CS Lewis famously said:
“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”
Well, similarly, you and I cannot avoid the final judgment of God by simply living as if we are our own gods. One day, the true and triune God is coming to judge all creation, and all our delusions of grandeur are going to put out to pasture.
Jesus’ conclusion to the disciples is a fitting one. He asks them in verse 51 if they have understood these things, and they reply that they have. He tells them then that the appropriate response for a disciple of the Kingdom is to be like landowners who bring out good things, new and old, from their storehouses, for their people. In our discipleship recipe, this is our 5th R of responding in obedience to the truths that we have received from God. We have an opportunity as those who have received the love of our Heavenly Father to overflow to others around us the good news of His coming Kingdom and the salvation that He offers in His Son, Jesus.
We know the appropriate, fitting response. How, then, will we choose to live?
