Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea and caught all kinds of fish.“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some fish of every kind,Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
4 sermons cite this verse
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like you to have a seat. So the other night I was talking with a group of high schoolers and the topic of a man named St. Padre Pio came up. I don't know if you guys, have you guys heard of St. Padre Pio? Yes. Okay. So remarkable guy. And we just were talking about like some of the most incredible gifts. So Padre Pio was a Capuchin priest or friar. So it's a Franciscan friar. Back, he was born in the end of the 1800s. I think he died in the 1960s. So long life. But he was ordained. he was from Italy and he was ordained in a place called St. Giovanni Giovanni Rotondo and that's where he lived his entire life. But shortly after he was ordained he just started experiencing, I think even before his ordination, experienced these massive gifts. So I was asking these high schoolers like do you know about the gifts of St. Padre Pio and what are they? So they started throwing out all these gifts like among many others where St. Padre Pio had the gift of bilocation which is you could be, he was in two places at once. Like he never physically I think left St. Giovanni Rotondo. …
… much that he spent everything he had to buy it and that put him promptly out of business so the kingdom of heaven is like going bankrupt for your heart's desire But shouldn't he have sold the pearl and given the proceeds to the poor? The treasure thief was joyful, small but important detail. The merchant who paid for the treasure was not. And that dragnet? That's what the kingdom of heaven is like, Jesus says, a net that draws absolutely everything into itself first. The kingdom of heaven drags everything into itself first. before any sorting has taken place, and only later sorts what is good, i.e. what is useful from what is not. So we're all in until we're out, and our edibility is key. I can only conclude I am not among those meant to understand these things, at least from the inside, but even from the outside, a few things are clear. first all of these teachings take place in the world jesus clearly attended synagogue and he knew torah so well that he could debate the finest minds of his time on its teachings but when it came time to point to the nearness of the kingdom he pointed to things that any farmer any baker woman or hired hand or tradesperson or fisher person encountered on a daily basis. …
… He talks about a plowman in Matthew 13, 44. He says again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. Which a man found and hid. He hid it for the joy over it. He goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all he had and bought it. Like many of Jesus' stories, these are not particularly religious stories. There's no theological language in this. Here's a man out powering the field of another man, a day laborer, and he finds a treasure. Here's another pearl merchant who finds a pearl better than any pearl he'd ever seen. And Jesus said, the reign of heaven is like that. Like what? Well, it's like somebody who's not looking for anything except to get through the day and wins the super lottery. Or it's like somebody who's a jewelry trader and he takes a pearl empire that he had pyramided for years and gives it all for one pearl. …
… and the parable of the pearl of great price. The kingdom of heaven, said Jesus, is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again. And then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had. and bought it. This is God's word. We're in a time of spiritual searching. Every single week I'm tempted to give you an example of the next new thing I see of it. Columns and secular papers and magazines on spirituality, books being sold everywhere and all the major bookstores on searching for meaning and searching for God and searching for spiritual reality. And what we're doing is we're taking some of the places where Jesus talks about spiritual finding. I mean, if this is a time of spiritual searching, let's see what Jesus has to say about it. …