"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish!"

The diversity of the fish in our oceans is as astounding as the diversity of humanity. It is truly wondrous to go to an aquarium and sit and watch the multitude of vibrant colours and shapes and sizes of the fish as the glide by the glass.

Of course what might not be immediately apparent to the undiscerning eye is that some of the fish are poisonous, even deadly for human beings.


Jesus once told a parable describing the kingdom of heaven as being like a fisherman who cast a net into the sea and pulled up a variety of fish. With his expert eye the fisherman was able to sort the good catch from the rubbish fish that had to be cast aside.

It is a parable of a promised future in which only the good things of this creation will find a future, those things and people whom God chooses.


Could it be that Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven like this because as the catch it is beyond us to satisfactorily work out who is in the basket and who, if any, are left to rot?


If this is the case then maybe we, who will be God’s catch, rather than worry about including or excluding others, should simply swim the oceans of life midst the colourful diversity of humanity.


And as we do so, to do so thankful for the life that we have and grateful that we do not have to be the ones to makes such momentous decisions as who is on and who is out.

(Photo from Creative Commons)

Casting off the smelly fish

Is there any good news in the idea that God is going to get rid of the bad fish?

Christians are often judged for being judgmental.

Is there any wonder that this is the case given passages like the Parable of the Net (Matt 13:47-51) which appears to indicate an end time when God will cast off those smelly fish that really only deserve dumping.

I suspect that Christian or not most people do recognize that there is a problem of evil in the world. This evil can be found within the whole spectrum of people: those of great faith right through to those of none.

For this reason the idea that the evil in this world might be cast aside at some point by God should carry some weight for most.

I suspect the problem for Christianity is when some Christians begin to take the place of the one who casts the net in the story. That is to say, they see themselves in the place of God and so assume the ability to work out which of the fish we are sharing the sea with the fisherman is going to discard.

Is it possible that when Jesus told this parable not only was he putting a hope before us, a time when the evil will be dealt with, but also reminding us that it is not our business to make decisions of how that catch should be sorted?

Peter Lockhart