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."
"Lord, when was it that we saw
you…”
· The passage we’ve just heard is sometimes referred to by Biblical
scholars as “Matthew’s Apocalypse.” These 15 verses carry a particular message
about judgement, one that only Matthew’s Gospel has. The form of the passage is
called “apocalyptic”, a peculiar way of writing that’s found in some books of
both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. (The book of Daniel or the book of
Revelation, for instance.) This sort of literature is usually written in times
of trouble or persecution for the God’s people and are usually done to give
comfort and hope to those people. The symbols are often weird and troubling to the
reader and we might have difficulty distilling comfort and hope from those
writings.
· In this passage, the righteous “sheep” receive reward and the
“accursed” “goats” receive punishment, both because of how they acted. There is
no mention of faith or grace or
anything like that; just what they did or didn’t do.
· Whom does this action or lack of action effect? Those who are poor
– hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, a stranger – are the ones
mentioned. Yet the king calls them the least of these who are members of my
family. Are they the world’s poor… or are they the followers of
Christ? Matthew says the king gathered all the nations before his
throne for judgement. The title “the nations” implies the world of the
Gentiles. By extension, the members of Jesus’ family would be his disciples and
the nations would be judged on how they received Jesus’ disciples.
· This may be new to a few of us. To those who heard it from Jesus’
lips, it would be hope and comfort. It would also place the disciples in a
certain position to the rest of the world.
· Simply put, the world could encounter Jesus Christ through them.
· This is true today as well. We’d hope that all the world could
encounter Jesus Christ in us who are his modern day disciples. This also means
that we can encounter Jesus Christ in each other… and in disciples we don’t
even know. How those around us treat us is not something we can control. How we
treat others is certainly something we can control.
· This apocalyptic passage from Matthew places the tiny, every-day
things we do into the great plan of God for all of creation. It boggles the
mind, doesn’t it? Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the
stranger, caring for the sick, visiting the prisoner are raised from simple
good manners and kindness in everyday things to participation in spreading the
Gospel.
· This is not new. This is found in today’s Gospel and it has been
echoed down through the years by teachers of the Faith.
· Here’s one from a few year ago: “He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other [men]
the kind of life He has… Every Christian
is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is
simply nothing else.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
· And again from the 1500’s: “[A]s our heavenly Father has in
Christ freely come to our aid, we also ought freely to help our neighbor
through our body and its works, and each one should become as it were a Christ
to the other that we may be Christs to one another and Christ may be the same
in all, that is, that we may be truly Christians…” Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520)
· And from the poetry of the early church:
I
met a stranger yest’re’een;
I put food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place;
And, in the sacred name of the Triune,
He blessed myself and my house,
My cattle and my dear ones,
And the lark said in her song,
Often, often, often,
Goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise;
Often, often, often,
Goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.
I put food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place;
And, in the sacred name of the Triune,
He blessed myself and my house,
My cattle and my dear ones,
And the lark said in her song,
Often, often, often,
Goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise;
Often, often, often,
Goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.
·
In our
own day, we might ask where we could find Jesus. Matthew has both the sheep and
the goats ask the same question when faced with the judgement of the Son of Man
on his throne. I began with that question and I’ll end with it. The answer is "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.” Or we might
say “Right
in front of you.”
"Lord, when was
it that we saw you…”
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