Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 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 fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [Matthew 13:47-50 (ESV)]
Because most of the disciples hailed from Galilee where fishing was fundamental to the area’s economy, Jesus’ parable comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to a fishing net gave them a beautiful visual image of the Kingdom when the final judgment occurs. Since we’re not Galilean fishermen, however, our picture of a fishing net might be like the hand-held ones used for trout or bass fishing. Jesus, however, used the word sagéné, meaning dragnet; its English equivalent is seine.
Unlike the trammel and cast nets the disciples used when Jesus provided them with miraculous catches, the fine meshed dragnet could be as long as 1,000 feet, as tall as 25-feet at the middle point, and required a team of fishermen. One end of the net would be firmly secured on shore while the other was attached to the boat. The boat would make a large circle out in the water before returning further down the shore. Because cork floats were attached to the net’s top while lead weights were attached to its bottom, the dragnet formed a net wall parallel to the shore from the top of the water to the bottom of the lake. Once the net was set, a team of up to 16 men (half on each side) would man the ropes attached to the net’s upper and lower corners and start pulling them in as they walked further inland and toward each other. Any fish between the net and shore would be trapped and hundreds of pounds of fish could be caught this way.
Because the net allowed nothing to escape, more than the desired fish were caught. Jewish law considered the musht (tilapia), biny/barbels, and sardines fit to eat because they had scales and fins. The dragnet, however, trapped everything in its path including weeds, trash, and all kinds of undesirable sea life like catfish, eels, shellfish, mollusks, frogs, snails, and turtles. The fishermen had to sort through the catch. While the fish worth keeping were collected in baskets, the worthless were tossed back or thrown away. After sorting the fish on shore, the net would be reordered and the fishing team would begin again in a different spot.
In this parable, the fishing net that is put into the sea is like the gospel message that is to be broadcast into the world. Just as the good fish can’t be distinguished from the bad ones until the net is pulled ashore and the fish are sorted, the true believers can’t be recognized from the false until the last judgment when, like the trash and worthless fish, the wicked will be thrown away. The parable repeats the lesson of the parable of the wheat and tares—that the righteous will have to coexist with evil until God’s final judgment when only the righteous will remain.
While the parable is about the last judgment, it also is about evangelism. Jesus called the disciples to be “fishers of men” and He calls us to the same task. As Christ followers, we are called to cast our nets and share the Gospel message. Dragnet fishing required a team and each person had to pull the weight; the same goes when we fish for men. Spreading the word isn’t the pastor’s job; it’s ours and each of us is responsible for our part of the net! Moreover, a Galilean fishing team didn’t stop after the first catch and neither should we!
Spreading the gospel is not like sport fishing with a rod and tackle designed to catch a specific type of fish. Spreading the gospel is casting a dragnet far and wide and drawing in all that it touches. The dragnet doesn’t decide which fish are worth catching and neither should we! Just as the Galilean fishermen didn’t know whether they were catching biny or turtles, musht or eels, we can’t possibly know what’s in the hearts of the people with whom we share the good news. Our job is to do the fishing while knowing that God will do the sorting at the right time.
Cast in the net and gather them in,
Out of the depths of sorrow and sin;
Out of the gloom and darkness of night,
Gather the lost to gladness and light. [Mrs. C. L. Shacklock]
Devotions of the Heart 