13:47-50 What is Jesus teaching in the parable of the net?

This is the last of seven parables Jesus told concerning the nature and development of the Kingdom of Heaven in its present earthly aspect in Mt 13.

It has a similar teaching to the parable of the tares of the field in that they both teach that good and evil – the righteous and the wicked – are presently intermingled in the kingdom. However, whereas the parable of the tares of the field describes the kingdom in its present earthly aspect, and the day of judgement when the wicked will be cast down to hell as a future event, the parable of the net depicts the day of judgement itself in the figure of the fishermen casting the bad fish away and keeping the good ones in Mt 13:48 (cp Mt 13:24-30, 36-43).

In these seven parables relating to the Kingdom of Heaven in Mt 13, Jesus gives us a progressive insight into the earthly aspect of the kingdom from its inception until its ultimate triumph at the end of the age. Studied as a whole we see the contest between good and evil in the kingdom; between the power of God and the power of Satan, which fulfills the first messianic prophecy in scripture (cp Ge 3:15). Everything God said here is illustrated in the seven parables concerning the kingdom in Mt 13.

Not everyone will agree with this interpretation of the parable of the net, nor with the summation of what the seven parables teach, but they all clearly harmonise with each other, and with what is taught about the kingdom of God in its present earthly aspect elsewhere in scripture. These teachings by Jesus were mysteries of the kingdom which He revealed to His disciples to enable them to go forth and teach them (see also comments on Mt 13:3-9, 13:24-30, 13:31-32, 13:33, 13:44, 13:45-46).

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