JESUS said to His disciples, "The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

"Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes." And He replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old." When Jesus finished these parables, He went away from there.

The parable of the Dragnet reiterates a facet of God’s reign also disclosed by the parable of the Weeds and Wheat (Mt 13:2430). The Church, the community of believers on earth, is not fully the Kingdom. The Church is the seed of the Kingdom yet to be perfected, and as such, it is a mix of good and bad. The Church is both sinner and saint.

Since the Kingdom of God is a work in progress, the disciple of the Kingdom must willingly thrive in creative tension: Between perfection and imperfection, between the old and the new, between tradition and revelation.

Bible scholars claim that the closing line of the Gospel is a "signature verse" of the author of the Gospel whom we call "Matthew." He sees himself as a "scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven." Though a Jew, he is able to put together the good things from the "old" (Mosaic tradition) and the "new" (Jesus’ teachings).

The Old Testament and the New are, then, not meant to be played up against each other. Both are chronicles of the one saving design of God. Real Bible-based spirituality should be nourished not only by the Gospels but by a good appreciation of the Old Testament as well. It must be integral, not selective.

SOURCE: "365 Days with the Lord," ST PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.