Some folks really want Jesus to be a nice guy. They want Him to be a real people pleaser and they will go to great lengths to portray Him as they want others to see Him. Those who would re-make Jesus usually do so by either declaring He did not really say some of the harsh sounding things attributed to Him, or by giving His harder teachings a new softer, more palatable interpretation. The parable of the net found in Matthew 13:47 is one of those which requires some work if Jesus is going to have their intended nice guy image.
In the parable of the net Jesus moves from the dirt to the water and likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a net cast into the water which catches every kind of fish. Some are deemed good and some bad. At the end of the parable as the bad fish are thrown away, we hear Jesus saying, "So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:49-50) This parable ends on the same note as does the earlier parable of the wheat and the weeds. (Matthew 13:41-43)
There is no good new here for those who want nothing to do with pursuing God. There is no good news here for those who live as if they are at the center of the universe. There is no good news here for those who live today and tomorrow and the next day under the influence of evil instead of under the rule of God. All of us might wish things would be different. All of us might like there to be a note of universal deliverance sounded here, but if we add it, we end up putting ourselves on the side where Jesus is not standing.
In the parable of the net Jesus moves from the dirt to the water and likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a net cast into the water which catches every kind of fish. Some are deemed good and some bad. At the end of the parable as the bad fish are thrown away, we hear Jesus saying, "So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:49-50) This parable ends on the same note as does the earlier parable of the wheat and the weeds. (Matthew 13:41-43)
There is no good new here for those who want nothing to do with pursuing God. There is no good news here for those who live as if they are at the center of the universe. There is no good news here for those who live today and tomorrow and the next day under the influence of evil instead of under the rule of God. All of us might wish things would be different. All of us might like there to be a note of universal deliverance sounded here, but if we add it, we end up putting ourselves on the side where Jesus is not standing.
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