Do you understand these things?

Matthew 13:47-57

“Or, God’s kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. That’s how it will be when the curtain comes down on history. The angels will come and cull the bad fish and throw them in the garbage. There will be a lot of desperate complaining, but it won’t do any good.”

“Do you understand these things?” Jesus asked them.

They answered, “Yes.”

He said, “Then you see how every student well-trained in God’s kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it.”

When Jesus finished telling these stories, he left there, returned to his hometown, and gave a lecture in the meetinghouse. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. “We had no idea he was this good!” they said. “How did he get so wise, get such ability?” But in the next breath they were cutting him down: “We’ve known him since he was a kid; he’s the carpenter’s son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?” They got their noses all out of joint.

Food for thought

When Jesus had finished speaking about the Kingdom, he asked his disciples if they had understood. And they had understood, at least in part. Then Jesus goes on to speak about the student, instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven, bringing out of his treasure-house things old and new. What Jesus is in effect saying is this: "You are able to understand, because you came to me with a fine heritage. You came with all the teaching of old things. You came to me with a lifetime of study. That background helps you to understand. But after you have been instructed by me, you have better knowledge, not only of the things you used to know, but of things you never knew before, and even the knowledge which you had before is illuminated by what I have told to you."

There is something very suggestive here. For it means that Jesus never desired or intended that any man should forget all he knew when he came to him; but that he should see his knowledge in a new light and use it in a new service. When he does that, what he knew before becomes a greater treasure than ever it was. It means that the familiar or old ideas that we have acquired are what we must use in understanding the new. The old modifies the new, and the new enlarges the old; we know by what we have known; whoever has (understood) will be given more (understanding). Who has not, even the little he has will be taken away from him.

Everybody comes to Jesus Christ with some gift and with some ability, some knowledge, something. Jesus does not ask that we should give up our gifts, ability, knowledge. So many people think that when they come to Christ they must erase in themselves all they've and are, and concentrate upon the so-called religious things. But a scholar has not to give up his learning when he becomes a Christian; rather he uses it for Christ. A business man need not give up his business; rather he should run it as a Christian would. One who can sing, or dance, or act, or paint need not give up his art, but must use his art as a Christian would. The sportsman need not give up his sport, but must play as a Christian would. In other words, USE WHAT HE TEACHES YOU TO DO BETTER WHAT HE GAVE YOU.

Jesus did not come to empty life but to fill it, not to impoverish life but to enrich it. Today,  Jesus tells us, not to abandon our gifts, but to use them even more wonderfully in the light of the teaching which he has given us.

It was the most natural thing in the world that Jesus should use illustrations from fishing when he was speaking to fishermen. It was as if he said to them: "Look how your daily work speaks to you of the things of heaven." It is true, that what we do for a living can and does speak heavens to us. God speaks to each one of us according to what we are and we do. Jesus' question is therefore relevant: "Do you understand all this?" From your point of view, from your job experience, from your living, do you understand Jesus?