Matthew
25:31-46
31
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then
he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered
before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right
hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right
hand, "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was
sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' 37 Then the
righteous will answer him, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and
gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it
that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39
And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' 40 And the
king will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the
least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' 41 Then he will
say to those at his left hand, "You that are accursed, depart from me into
the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and
you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a
stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing,
sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' 44 Then they also will answer,
"Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or
naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' 45 Then he will
answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the
least of these, you did not do it to me.' 46 And these will go away into
eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
It
was his first Sunday in the pulpit as the new pastor. In the days leading up to
that first Sunday, members of the church and community had been welcoming,
offering words of encouragement, telling him how excited they were to have him
and just how much they couldn't wait to hear him preach his first sermon in
worship with them. As it turned out, that first Sunday the new pastor preached
from a passage in the gospels and declared the grace of God through the love of
Jesus Christ and the call of Christ to all Christians to share that love
unconditionally with everyone they meet. As the new pastor stood at the door of
the sanctuary following the service, it seemed everyone who walked by and shook
his hand said something like, “That was a great sermon, preacher,” to which he
would respond with a simple “thank you.”
Well,
a week later (as you might expect) Sunday came again, and the new pastor was
set to deliver his second sermon to the congregation. That second Sunday, the
new pastor climbed up behind the pulpit and preached from a passage in the
gospels and declared the grace of God through the love of Jesus Christ and the
call of Christ to all Christians to share that love unconditionally with
everyone they meet. At first, a few members of the congregation had puzzled
looks on their faces, but soon there began to be whispers between some of them
saying, “Isn't this the same sermon he preached last week?” For the most part,
the congregation chalked up the apparent mistake to nerves and all the
complications that come with a new pastorate, and once again, after the
service, folks filed by and said to their new pastor, “Good sermon, preacher.”
That
week, just as the week before, the new pastor spent time among the folks of the
community, visiting homes, hospital rooms, and meeting members in his office at
the church, and just as the week before, Sunday came right after Saturday. When
it came time in the worship service for the pastor to preach, one of the ladies
on the back row leaned over to one of the other ladies on the back row and
said, “I hope he found some new material.” She was to be disappointed though, for that
third Sunday the new pastor (once again) preached from that same passage in the
gospels and declared the grace of God through the love of Jesus Christ and the
call of Christ to all Christians to share that love unconditionally with
everyone they meet. This time, there were fewer folks saying, “Good sermon,”
and more folks quietly grumbling under their breath as the exited out the side doors of the sanctuary.
Later
that week, some deacons and leaders of the church called a meeting with the
pastor in his office. Thinking he was shucking his duties to deliver a fresh
sermon every week, they confronted him about his apparent laziness. One of the
more outspoken and short-tempered deacons, demanded to know if their new pastor
was going to continue to preach the same sermon every week: “We pay you enough
money and give you this office so you have the time and place to prepare a new
sermon for every Sunday!” he shouted. Others in the room echoed the sentiment,
claiming that they needed to hear something besides the same sermon every week.
Well,
the new pastor looked at each of the dozen or so faces crowded in his office
and replied to their complaints and demands. He said, “I've been your pastor
now for three weeks—nearly a month—and I've spent time getting to know people
in this church and in this community, and after each Sunday I sit in my office
to pray about what I should preach the next Sunday. The way I see it, I figure
a sermon ought to be more than a time-filler on a Sunday morning; a sermon is a
call to action. So, I figure I’ll just keep preaching the same sermon until
y’all get it!”
Now,
perhaps repetition isn't the best way to learn, to grow, to change one’s way of
seeing the world, but it is quite effective when it comes to making a point.
While I don’t think I’d stand up here and preach the exact same sermon three
weeks in a row, I do think there are some words, some lessons from the Lord we
need hear more than once. There are some words from Christ in which we need to
stew for a while, until they really sink in deep. In fact, Jesus himself
repeated the same message three times (although in three different ways) in
chapter twenty-five of Matthew’s gospel.
In
this chapter, Jesus repeatedly expresses the importance of being ready, of being
about the Lord’s work until his return. In what we call “The Parable of the Ten
Bridesmaids” in verses 1-13, Jesus
warns about the danger of being rejected, left out in the darkness, if one is
not prepared when the bridegroom (that is, Jesus) returns. Last week we read verses 14-30 and Jesus’ “Parable of the
Talents,” in which we heard the Lord speak about the danger of allowing our
fears to keep us from the work of love, the work of God’s kingdom until his
return. Now, in the text before us, we hear (in Jesus’ own words) the only
detailed account of that final judgment in all of the New Testament (I bet you
thought it was in Revelation didn't you?), and what is Jesus' message? Be ready, doing the work of love—the Lord’s
work—until he returns.
While
these words from Jesus don’t really conjure up the grandiose images of the
likes of Hal Lindsey or Tim LaHaye and their Late Great Planet Earth or Left
Behind (respectively), they are words that describe the reality of that
final judgment, when Christ the King will take his seat upon his throne and
separate the righteous sheep from the unrighteous goats. And just what is the
criterion for this sacred sorting? What is the basis for the King’s judgment
that brands one a sheep or a goat? Well…that question may have a relatively
surprising answer for some of us.
To
get to the answer to that question, we have to ask another question about this
text: what exactly is the difference between the sheep and the goats in the
first place? On the surface, the answer is simple: the sheep cared for “the
least of these” and the goats did not. The righteous fed the hungry, gave drink
to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick,
and visited the prisoner. Meanwhile, the unrighteous did none of those things.
But for me, that brings up another question: why did the sheep do these things
when the goats didn't?
At
first I’m tempted to say it is because the sheep, the righteous ones,
recognized Jesus in the faces of those they helped, welcomed, and visited, but
that is quite the opposite of what Jesus says in verses 37-39: “Then the righteous
will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food,
or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you
a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it
that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’” The righteous
don’t recognize Jesus in those they cared for. What’s more, the unrighteous,
the goats, their response seems to suggest that if they had known that Jesus
claimed such people as his family they would have cared for them: (verse 44) “Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry
or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care
of you?'”
It
seems that if these unrighteous people had just known that Jesus was going to
hold them accountable for their actions towards the least of us, then they would
have surely gone out of their way to serve them, to care for them, to welcome
them. But again, the righteous were not motivated by how Jesus would respond to
them at the time of judgment; they didn't know they were serving Jesus when
they served the hungry, thirsty, stranger, who was naked, sick, or imprisoned. The
goal of the righteous in their service was not some eternal pat on the back,
some divine promotion. No, in fact it seems as if the righteous whom Jesus
calls “blessed by my Father,” those to whom he beckons “inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” it
seems as if these righteous ones are not motivated by any self-serving goal
whatsoever. In Jesus’ words they seem downright surprised by the King's blessing:
their very response says something about their very nature, for they could
have simply said, “Thanks, Jesus,” but instead they respond to the King as if
there has been some kind of mistake: “When did we do these things you’re
talking about? Are you sure you’re talking about us?”
You
see, I’m convinced that the difference—the real difference—between the
righteous and the unrighteous is this: the righteous are motivated by selfless
love, the kind of love that can only come from God, while the unrighteous are
motivated by selfishness. That’s why I’m convinced that when that day comes,
and we are all gathered together (whatever that may look like), and the Lord
holds his final judgment, that we will not be judged by the trivial hash marks
of man-made religion. We will not be judged based our accomplishments in this
world, the amount of money that has passed through our hands, the number of hours we've logged inside the four walls of a church building, or the number of proof
texts we've stuck on our bumpers and in others’ faces. No, I am
convinced, that when that day comes, there will be those who say, “Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and
do many deeds of power in your name?” and the Lord “will
declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'”[1] I
am convinced that on that day there will be those who stand before the Lord
with their chests out, their heads held high, and their hands outstretched for
the keys to their mansions, and the Lord will say to them “I never knew you.”
I
am convinced of these things because I see firsthand the way Christ’s name has
been used for selfish gain, how the promise of heaven drives people more than
the power of Christ’s love. I live in a world that says to the least of these,
“If you’re hungry or thirsty that’s your fault…If you’re sick and can’t afford
to get better that’s not my problem… if you’re not from around here or I don’t
know you, stay over there where you came from and leave us alone…if you’re without the basic needs
of life, don’t use my tax dollars to pay for what you need…if you’re in prison
you deserve it.” I see a world, a culture, that says these things and then with
its next breath demands to be recognized as Christian!
The
day of Christ’s return (his Second Advent) is coming. The day of judgment is
coming. It may be hours or centuries away, but it is coming, and all of us will
be gathered together to stand before the throne of the King and Judge, our Lord
Jesus. We will be gathered before him and he will separate the sheep from the
goats, and I pray that on that day, when I stand before my King, that I can say
to him, “I did my best to love without condition, to care for the outcast, the
hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the poor, the sick, and the prisoner,” and I
pray that he will say to me, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
I pray that all of us here this morning may hear our King say those words to
us, so let us be ready. Let us live this day and each day hereafter in the selfless love that comes only
through God. Amen.
