"Throwing Away the Bad"

​9th Sunday after Pentecost – A (Proper 12)                                                   LSB #’s 915, 644, 651
Text – Matthew 13:48
 
When it was full, men drew it ashore & sat down & sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.    
 
THROWING AWAY THE BAD
 
 
A cousin of mine went fishing with a group of his friends.  After a successful catch they decided to have a few beers.  He got home rather late & went to sleep having forgotten all about the trunk full of fish that he had.  Several days later, his father happened to get a little too close to his son’s car & the smell overpowered him.  All the fish in that trunk had gone bad. 
Since they were farmers, I suspect those fish got tossed into the field where at least they could provide fertilizer to a few of their crops.   Come Judgment Day, things will be much worse for the bad fish that Jesus is talking about in this parable.  Jesus tells us that they will be thrown into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping & gnashing of teeth.  (Matthew 13:50)  
Since Jesus also tells us to “Love our enemies,” what are Christians to do with this parable that culminates in the never-ending destruction of our enemies?  The key to this dilemma is that we have no ability to perfectly judge the heart of our enemies, so their Creator calls us to love them.  Only the love of God, shown to them, can change them in heart & soul. 
On the other hand, God does know the heart of our enemies perfectly & it is His prerogative alone, as their Creator, to send them to eternal suffering.  In other words, we simply need to stay in our lane.   Granted, that isn’t easy for people living in a world completely corrupted by sin.   Our own sins, & the sins of others, constantly tempt us to leave our lane. 
So many things in this life hurt.  They can bring frustration, discouragement & heartache into every aspect of our lives.  Eventually, nothing is left untouched by the ravages of sin.  For example, our federal budget this year is almost 8 trillion dollars.  Imagine the temptation it creates to commit fraud, yet any money that is stolen is our money as taxpayers.  It causes frustration when we hear of the scale of corruption wasting our money.  Our political leaders are responsible for correcting it, yet they do nothing because they’re often getting rich off the same system.  Meanwhile, you & I have to manage our finances carefully in order to get by. 
Another source of frustration is the simple fact of getting older.  Some of us have noticed that our muscles & ligaments don’t work as well anymore.  Things we could easily do when younger, now cause pain & frustration instead.  For a while, doctor visits help.  Eventually too many things deteriorate & our abilities to accomplish things diminish to a point of no return. 
Then, the biggest source of frustration in our lives, are often the people closest to us.  Satan works especially hard in this area to drive a wedge between friends & family members in the church & in the home.  Their mannerisms & idiosyncrasies can drive us crazy to the point that we want to fix them. 
Due to any source of frustration, we can face tremendous internal pressure to try & correct things.  We want to fix the problem, even if ‘it’ is another human being.  For parents raising children, it’s part of your vocation to raise them well; helping & teaching them to correct bad behavior.  That is your lane, but in today’s parable, Jesus is teaching us about God’s lane. 
His lane involves every aspect of our lives here on earth & for all eternity.  He is able to perfectly distinguish between bad behavior & a bad heart & soul.  To us, believers & unbelievers alike appear twisted & ravaged by the effects of sin.  Outwardly, everything looks the same to us. 
Jesus critiqued the Pharisees as being beautiful on the outside yet filled with dead bones on the inside.  On the other hand, Christians often appear filthy on the outside, yet by God’s grace are clean on the inside.  Although we can’t do it perfectly, there are appropriate times when God calls you & me to judge & discourage bad behavior – bad behavior as defined by Holy Scripture.  However, when it comes to judging a bad heart & soul, that must be left to Yahweh alone.  On the Last Day, He will send His angels to accomplish that task.  Until then, no matter how difficult, we are to love our enemies & pray for them.  We do that only through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Learning to lean upon Him for that is crucial.  We can’t do it otherwise. 
So, what is the point of the parable of the net?    It’s the same point pastor Greunke preached on last Sunday with the parable of the weeds & the wheat.  Yes, we are frustrated, discouraged & suffering from heartache due to the sin & evil among us, & within us, in this life.  However, there is coming a Day when God will remove all of that from us. 
And Holy Scripture is not just speaking in generalities when it makes that point.  In these parables, Jesus is being much more specific about whom it is that is being removed from all of God’s children.  On Judgment Day, all the weeds & the bad fish will be removed from us.  No more will people of evil heart & soul bring sin & misery into our lives. 
Because of sin, you & I are unable to accurately judge who those people are, so our calling now is simply to pray for them.  Jesus is also calling us to be patient until that day when He removes from us, Satan & all who follow him.  We’re called to take the long view by looking ahead to the end of time.  As Jesus said in John 16:33b:
“In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  (ESV)  Until Judgment Day, Jesus will be with us & we lean upon His promise that He has already overcome the world, even though it often doesn’t feel that way.  Jesus calls us to lean not upon our sin corrupted feelings, but upon our perfect Lord & Savior. 
The overarching verb that Matthew uses in chapter 13 is reign or rule.  King Jesus is reigning & ruling right now in everything that happens to you = each day, each hour, each moment.  Our struggle is that He does not reign in the way we think He should.  He rules in many seemingly insignificant ways, like a tiny mustard seed or as yeast in bread dough.  Now, the reign of God is like an un-weeded field or a net that includes a lot of rotten fish.  God is reigning in our lives through the weeds & rotten fish, as well as through His holy Word.  Jesus was ruling over all creation even while He was dying on the cross. 
The parable of the net is told by Jesus to emphasize that He is reigning & He will be successful in that reign.  On the Last Day, then He will have the weeds & rotten fish of our lives removed so they can never again cause us grief or sorrow.  Our own sinful nature is one of those weeds & rotten fish.  Upon Judgment Day, never again will our sinful nature be able to harm us. 
This parable was meant to encourage the disciples because before & after chapter 13, there is nothing but bad news for them.  Jesus wants them, as well as you & me, to know that in the end all things will be made right.  Those who refuse to trust Jesus will be removed so they can no longer hurt any of God’s children. 
What separates us now from the weeds & the bad fish?  We all appear ugly on the outside.  Jesus is the only difference between the evil & the righteous.  Some trust in His forgiveness.  Some reject it.  Jesus wants you to know, through the parable of the net, that it will not always be that way.  He wants us to long for Judgment when everything will be made right.
Someone you know made a comment after his father died.  It reflects well the attitude we should have, of longing for that day when God will make all things right.  Grant Beuschel told Jan, “I’ve never wanted God to speed up judgment this much before.”   Looking forward to that day is what Christians the world over have been doing for thousands of years now.  Amen. 
The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord; she is His new creation by water & the Word.   From heaven He came & sought her to be His holy bride; with His own blood He bought her, & for her life He died.     Though with a scornful wonder the world sees her oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed, yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, “How long?”   And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.  Amen.  LSB 644:1, 3.