我记得有一次和姐夫在他的商业渔船上捕鱼。那是刺网渔船，我们要捕鲑鱼。我们先把半英里长的渔网跨过水流撒在水里，然后再把它卷进船里，满心期待钓到鲑鱼。但那天的潮水一定很低，因为我们捕到的大多是泥鲨(狗鲨)。泥鲨和鲑鱼的比例是42比1。我们把泥鲨放在旁边堆成一堆，把珍贵的鲑鱼放进一个特殊容器，以保持它们的新鲜。
耶稣说，“天国又好像网撒在海里，聚拢各样水族。”然后祂说渔网里有好鱼也有不好的鱼——就好像既捕到了鲑鱼又捕到了泥鲨。
鱼并不知道自己会被留下，还是被丢掉。但耶稣认识祂的鱼。祂会透过外表看到我们的本质；祂知道我们的心；祂能区分出伪善的人和义人。
好鱼和不好的鱼，麦子和稗子——耶稣是在使用这些画面来提醒我们，祂能看见我们的内心。
耶稣，求打破我们的石心，赐给我们肉心。求将你的灵放在我们里面，拯救我们。奉你的名祷告，阿们。
马太福音 13:47-50
47 “天国又好像网撒在海里，聚拢各样水族。
48 网既满了，人就拉上岸来，坐下，拣好的收在器具里，将不好的丢弃了。
49 世界的末了也要这样。天使要出来，从义人中把恶人分别出来，
50 丢在火炉里，在那里必要哀哭切齿了。”
“The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.” — Matthew 13:47
I remember fishing with my brother-in-law on his commercial fishing boat. It was a gill netter, and we were fishing for salmon. We laid out the half-mile-long net into the water across the current and then spooled it back into the boat, anticipating that we had caught our salmon. But on that day the tide must have been very low, because we caught mostly mud sharks (dogfish). The ratio of mud sharks to salmon was forty-two to one. We placed the mud sharks in a pile off to the side, while the prized salmon went into a special container to keep them fresh.
Jesus says that “the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.” Then he says that the net was found to have both bad fish and good fish—like a catch of both mud sharks and salmon.
Fish do not know if they are going to be kept or discarded. But Jesus knows his fish. He can see through our facades; he knows our hearts; he knows the righteous from the fake-righteous.
Good fish and bad fish, wheat and weeds—Jesus uses these images to remind us that he sees what is in our hearts.
Jesus, break our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Put your Spirit in us and save us, we pray. In your name, Amen.
诵读: 骆云秀
片头: 张妙阳
