Fish Tales: One Fish, Two Fish, Good Fish, Bad Fish

Today's "fish tale" is the last of our series - the parable of the net, as found in Matthew 13:47-50.


This parable is sometimes called the "parable of the dragnet." Read here about the function of a dragnet:

This was a common scene along the Sea of Galilee. The dragnet was as much as a mile long. It was weighted on the bottom and had floats on the top. It would be spread in the shape of a huge semi-circle, and then dragged to shore. Then came the task of getting rid of the undesirable fish and getting the edible fish ready for market. (Gary DeLashmutt)


This parable clearly involves a time of judgment - the fish are sorted into piles of good and bad. In the same way, Jesus reminds us, there will be a day of judgment when there is a separation of the righteous and the unrighteous. In the meantime, we all live together.

Our tendency is to want to avoid being judgmental - much in the spirit of the quote from Edward Hoch, governor of Kansas about 100 years ago:

There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.


In our desire to avoid being judgmental, we need to also avoid becoming "judgment-free." If someone is described as "lacking judgment," that is not a compliment. It means they have lost their sense of right and wrong, no moral compass you might say.

Talking about judgment makes us think about heaven and hell. In the Sunday message, we looked at four questions:

What is the percentage of Americans who believe...
that there is a heaven?
that there is a hell?
that they are going to heaven?
that they are going to hell?

Read this article to find out the answer.


Sometimes it seems like these words of Jesus do not match the compassionate picture of Jesus we have in our minds. But the one Jesus embodies both intense compassion, mercy and forgiveness and yet also a clear statement about a day of judgment.

Belief in a "day of judgment" is central to United Methodist doctrine:

"We believe all men stand under the righteous judgment of Jesus Christ, both now and in the last day. We believe in the resurrection of the dead; the righteous to life eternal and the wicked to endless condemnation."
- "Doctrinal Standards and General Rules," The United Methodist Church


HEBREWS 9:27. It is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment.

1 JOHN 4:17. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment.


What do you think about holding together love and judgment?

Read the parable of the weeds and the wheat - how does that parable connect to the parable of the net?


Remember - you are NOT on the weed-pulling committee or the fish-sorting committee!!

Nov. 11 - Fish Tales: A Whale of a Tale

Today we look at the story of Jonah. We began today's message with a test, of all things. If you missed it - see how you would answer these questions:

1. The king of Israel when the events in Jonah took place was:
a. Solomon
b. Jeroboam
c. There was no king at that time
d. We do not know

2. TRUE or FALSE. The Bible describes Jonah as a prophet.

3. Nineveh (the city where Jonah was asked to go) was located in what would be the present day country of:
a. Jordan
b. Iraq
c. Lebanon
d. Syria

4. What did Jonah do while in the belly of the fish?
a. He was in a coma
b. He starts a fire
c. He remembered all the mistakes he had made
d. He prayed to the Lord

5. TRUE or FALSE. The Bible never refers to Jonah and a whale.

6. In the New Testament, Jonah’s experience is compared to:
a. A fish that swallowed a coin
b. Peter walking on the water
c. Jesus’ death and resurrection
d. Paul’s missionary trips by boat


OK...let's see how you did...here are the answers...


1. b. JEROBOAM
This is quite difficult because we find no reference to any kings or time period in the book of Jonah itself, but with a little detective work we can find the answer in this passage:

2 KINGS 14:25. [King Jeroboam] restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.

By this we can tell that Jonah lived during the 8th century B.C., a time of great prosperity, but also a time of great corruption.


2. TRUE. Now the word "prophet" is nowhere to be found in the Book of Jonah, but we find Jonah described as a prophet in these words of Jesus. Speaking to the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus says:

MATTHEW 12:39. An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.


3. b. IRAQ. In fact, the location of Nineveh is now the present-day Iraqi city called Mosul, the third largest city in the country. It is also a city with one of the highest number of Christians compared to other cities in Iraq.


4. d. HE PRAYED TO THE LORD. Read the first chapter of Jonah to refresh your memory as to how Jonah ended up in such a predicament!

Read the second chapter of Jonah to see what Jonah's prayer was.

(Incidentally, if you picked "he starts a fire," you may be confusing the story of Jonah with another well-known story. Click here to learn more.)


5. FALSE. You may be surprised. By now you have probably noticed that the book of Jonah refers to his being swallowed by a "great fish." There is indeed no mention of a whale in the book of Jonah. But once again, we must read a little farther, for in the New Testament we find these words of Jesus:

MATTHEW 12:40. For as Jonas (another form of the name "Jonah") was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

But to make things just a bit more confusing, this wording is found in the King James Version, while modern translations do not use the word "whale." This is because the Greek word in Matthew is better rendered "sea creature."

So if you said "True," that answer is also OK! But this helps explain where the phrase "Jonah and the whale" came from.


6. c. JESUS' DEATH AND RESURRECTION

The Bible is full of signs and symbols and comparisons. Here Jonah's experience of three days in the belly of the great fish, before receiving a "new lease on life," is compared and contrasted to the event which is the foundation of our faith - that Jesus died and was buried, and that on the third day he was raised from death.


After the fish spit him up, God again tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. This time he says "yes" (not surprisingly!).

He proclaims God's judgment on the wicked Ninevites, but amazingly they receive his message and repent, and God spares them from punishment.

Rather than being glad, Jonah is angry because of God's compassion for the Ninevites.


What do we learn here about God? About human nature?

We focus on two important lessons:

You can run from God, but you can't hide.

Sometimes it's easier to love God than it is to love God's people.


Some other thoughts for consideration:

Could it be that some of the Christians in Mosul today are descended from folks who heard the original message of Jonah?

How far would you go in response to God's invitation?

Today was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Click this link for more info. Keep their ministry in your prayers, and consider the challenge to pray specifically for a particular part of the world that God places on your heart.

Nov. 4 - Fish Tales: Catch of the Day

Read this intriguing fish tale from the Gospel of John.

What odd things do you notice about this story?

What might this story be trying to teach you?


In the Sunday message, we focused upon six important details about the story...

• It happened after the resurrection.

This is a "post-Easter" story about an encounter with the risen Christ.

• The disciples had gone back to work.

This seems a little odd. They already knew Christ had risen from the dead. And what did they do? They went back to work. (Fishing was their vocation, not their recreation.) But we actually ought to understand that. Too often when God touches our lives in a mighty way, we find it easy to go back to "business as usual."

• Something similar had happened before.

Read this story from the gospel of Luke - for a similar, but different, account of a miraculous catch of fish. This happened early in Jesus' ministry, when the disciples were first being called to follow him. In this story, Jesus tells them they are to be "fishers of men." This clue remains important as we realize that fish may represent people.

• The catch totaled 153 fish.

There are all kinds of theories about the 153 fish. This article has a reference to some of the theories that are most popular. Knowing that we are "fishers of men," perhaps the 153 fish represent Jesus' reminder that ALL people - all nations, races, languages, for all time - are to be reached out to in love. (Think how amazing that must have seemed at the time.

• The net was not torn.

This might seem quite insignificant, but it is interesting in light of the fact that in the Luke 5 story (the other story about a huge catch of fish), the nets began to break. The nets likely represent the equipment we are given by the power of the Holy Spirit to be in ministry.

Think about the fact that with the power of the Resurrection, the disciples are now equipped to "fish for men" without their resources giving out.

(Others see the unbroken net as a metaphor for the unity of the church.)

• They ate together.

Good Christians always seem to wind up at the table, don't they! But again, this seemingly small detail has a big meaning. Since some felt like the disciples' resurrection experience was simply an internal vision, the story of eating with the risen Christ affirms Jesus' bodily resurrection.


So perhaps this most unusual fish tale does have something to say to us.

For in our day and time too often we admire the fishing that people did in Bible time – and we forget that we too are called to go fish. That the presence of the risen Christ equips us with nets that have room for all of God’s people. Our nets will not be broken.

Oct. 28 - Fish Tales: Multiplication

The first of our fish tales is truly an amazing account - read it here.


There is much we cannot explain about this fish tale. Perhaps we can ask - what are we intended to learn from this story.

Certainly this fish tale teaches us about the power of multiplication.

God can take a little and do much with it!

Here is an old hymn that helps make that point!


When we read the story of the feeding of the 5000, we might think God wants us to build a huge building ten times the size of our present one, so we can do big things for him. Not necessarily. Rick Warren writes a challenging article about how to do big things without building huge buildings!


Here is another challenging Rick Warren article. What do you think about his ideas? Do we (like the disciples in the story) sometimes dream too small?