Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Matthew
25:31-46)
Come,
you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.
Bia, lö nɛy tin ca poth ɛ Gua̱a̱r, ka̱nɛ nyin kuäärä
tëë ca rialikä kɛ kui̱dun ni tukä ɣɔaa.
Prayer: Heavenly
Father, send us the Holy Spirit, so that by your grace we may believe your holy
word and live godly lives here in time and there in eternity, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the book of Genesis, we read about where Joseph makes
himself known to his brothers. Joseph had been sold into slavery by them, and
now he was a prince in Egypt, second-in-charge to the Pharaoh. And after giving
his brothers various tests, he is eventually overwhelmed and says to them, “Come near to me, please.” And they came
near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.”
Can you imagine the emotion and the joy and the relief on
this occasion! Joseph says, “It’s me. You can trust me. I won’t hurt you.”
In the same way, we read in our Gospel reading today: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and
all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
We see something very special here: who’s coming in glory? Who’s sitting on throne of his glory? We read: The
Son of Man. It’s Jesus. As we
read this passage, remember that it will be our brother in the flesh that we
meet on the last day. Sure, with Judas, we were responsible for selling Jesus
over to be killed, we sold him into the slavery which we ourselves deserved,
and we spit in his face and nail his hands continually through our sin. But
then Jesus will reveal his loving face to us on the Last Day, just like Joseph,
and say: “Look! It’s me! Don’t be afraid!”
The disciples were very much afraid when they saw Jesus
walking out to their boat on the water in the last watch of the night, and
said, “It’s a ghost!” But Jesus said, “Take heart. It is I! Do not be afraid!”
It’s the same here in our reading today where Jesus, the
Son of Man, reveals his love and his friendly face, just like Joseph to his
brothers.
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The judge in our gospel reading today is not God the
Father. But God the Father has conferred his authority to his Son. As Jesus
says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
And so now, we see Jesus sitting on this glorious throne,
but not as someone who is nothing like us, but a human being, a man, with flesh
and blood and skin and bones, just like us, who was born of the Virgin Mary in
the simple, humble stable with all the animals around, all those many years
ago. It’s this same Jesus who we read
about in our reading today.
When the Son of Man comes
in his glory, and all his angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious
throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate
people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And
he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
It has often been said that many people would like to go
to heaven, but they just hope that God won’t be there. And it’s funny: many
people don’t believe in God, but they still believe in a judgment, or as many people say today, they believe in “karma”.
Christians don’t believe in “karma”. Karma is the belief,
which comes from Hinduism originally, which says that if you do something good,
good things will happen to you, and if you do something bad, bad things will
happen to you. If you step on an ant in this life, you will be reincarnated in
the next life as an ant that gets stepped on.
I can’t emphasise enough that the belief in karma is pure,
unadulterated evil, and gives birth to evil attitudes, and is completely and
totally unchristian.
Recently, I heard someone say that the storms in America
recently were karma. “The Americans had it coming to them”, this person said,
with no sympathy, no care, no love, and nothing but contempt and
self-righteousness. Since when did the Americans have anything come to them,
that shouldn’t come to us in Australia?
Karma is the belief in judgment with no judge. So you
can’t pray to karma, because karma doesn’t listen. It just punishes without
listening to you, without caring about you, without any love, without any
concern. The belief in karma is the belief that world is governed by pure hate.
God is not like this, and this is not what Christians believe in.
Christianity believes in a Judge. And he threatens to
punish sin, and promises to reward good. But if you have done evil, he doesn’t
have to punish you. He’s like a parent: in fact, he’s our heavenly Father, and
he only punishes us when he feels it serves his glory, and our benefit. But he
does it, not because he hates us, but because he loves us. Hebrews 12 says: The Lord disciplines the one he loves. There
are so many things in this life we get away with, and God doesn’t punish us for
everything we have done. When everyone around us tells us what we deserve, God
gives us something good anyway.
And to top it off, God has exalted his crucified and
resurrected Son to do this work. Jesus himself has lived a life on this earth,
he’s had food and drink with real people like us. He himself was a real person
like us. He knows what life’s like. He knows hunger, and thirst, and sickness,
and nakedness, and imprisonment. And this same Jesus now governs the world and
cares for it, and most importantly, he shares all of the world’s tears, and
prays for everyone who suffers, and has died for each and every single sin.
So the Son of Man comes in his glory with every single
holy angel. And before him is gathered every single nation. And before him is
separated every single sheep and every single goat. Jesus is not a judge simply
for Christians or religious people, but he is the judge of all: believers and
unbelievers, Christians and atheists, Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus. Many
people say: “You’re only answerable to yourself.” Not true: Everyone is
answerable to our brother in the flesh, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And so, we read: Then
the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Listen to those friendly and loving words: Come! Come to my arms, let me take you
in. See Jesus’ arms outstretched on the cross in love for you, with his hands
and feet and side pierced for you, and he says: Come!
Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew he says: Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Now he says, Come to me, you who are blessed by my Father.
Don’t you know that the blessed ones and the weary
ones are the same people? In this life, Jesus gives holy rest through his
living words and living gospel to those who come to him weary and heavy-laden,
worn out from their battle with sin and completely despairing of themselves and
their abilities. Now, the rest begun here
continues: Come to me, you who are
blessed by my Father. The rest that was hidden in baptism, the rest that
was hidden in the holy absolution spoken in churches throughout the world by
its pastors, the rest that was hidden in the body and blood of Christ
distributed in the Lord’s Supper, is now spread on a table before your eyes,
with your living master, our Lord Jesus, calling you. Come to me, you who are blessed by my Father.
And what’s the gift that Jesus will bestow on us on that
last day? He says: Inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Sin, shame, sickness, weariness, heartache, falsehood,
betrayal—all these things have come lately onto the scene. But God the Father
himself has prepared a kingdom for us to enjoy, right from the creation of the
world. And now Jesus gives it to us to inherit, completely and totally freely. This
inheritance is given to all people in holy baptism. This kingdom must live and
dwell in us, but it is not begun in us. It begins with God speaking his word
from eternity, and bringing new children day after day to him into his arms
through the washing of rebirth. Unless you are born again by Water and the
Spirit, says Jesus, you cannot enter
the kingdom of heaven.
We enjoy this kingdom here today in the presence of Jesus.
He speaks his word to us again, afresh, anew. And he speaks his Holy Spirit and
his living kingdom into us as a deposit, a down-payment. And on the last day,
he will give this same kingdom to us as our inheritance.
Then we read: For I
was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a
stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you
visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer
him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty…or
naked…or sick or in prison…?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to
you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Here we read that Jesus will not be finished simply by giving
them the kingdom, but he wants to take a few moments to brag about them, and
commend them, and praise them for their good works. He wants to say, “Well
done, good and faithful servant!”
But then we might think, “Well, are we saved by works (and
not faith) after all?” “Does it really all come down to whether we did good
things or bad things?”
Well, if we had to earn our salvation, then it wouldn’t be
an inheritance anymore prepared for us from the foundation of the world. We
can’t have it both ways, either we are saved by our works or not. Lutherans say,
that we are not. The bible says that we are not saved by our works, but through
Christ’s works.
So what’s all this about the hungry, the thirsty, the
stranger, etc.? Well, Jesus rewards our good works, but he doesn’t save us
because of them. If we have proven to be a good tree, it’s important that Jesus
speaks about the tasty fruit. Good works are the fruits of faith. Later on in
the passage, we read that the evil one didn’t produce these fruits—that’s
because the tree was bad: there was no living faith.
But listen to Jesus’ words: Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my
brothers, you did it to me.
So who are these brothers and sisters of Jesus? Does he
mean Christians? No. He hasn’t simply brought Christians before his judgement,
he has brought all nations before his throne, with all the angels watching on.
Here, Jesus’ brothers and sisters are every member of the human race. Because
when Jesus took on flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, he makes himself a
part of the human race together with every person who’s part of it.
And so, we should think the same way. Every person of
every country is a precious creation of God. And Jesus calls us to take notice
of the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the naked, the stranger, the
imprisoned—and he promises that he himself, in the flesh, will meet us in those
very people: The least of these my brothers. Remember where Jesus says, “Your
Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Christian charity is not public
charity—as soon as we want to show it to the world, we have ceased to follow
Christ’s command. As soon as churches call the newspaper to report on their
charitable activities, they’ve lost the plot. When we do this, then Jesus says,
“Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and
his angels.” I was to be found, but you wanted the world to find you, the world
to commend you, and the world to judge you. But the world is not your judge:
Jesus is, and he wants you to find him in the least of his brothers and sisters
on earth.
If you want let your light shine, so that others may see
your good works and give glory to your Father, then shine your light in a dark
place, where no one else is shining it, and where no-one else will notice.
Shine your light in the dark recesses of Australia, of Victoria, of Gippsland,
of your family, where no-one cares, and where no-one will notice.
Just as we believe that in the Lord’s Supper, the true
body and blood of Jesus is given for us to eat and drink, so also in the least
of these Jesus’ brothers and sisters, Jesus is there in his true body and
blood, not for us to eat and drink, but for us to feed, to give drink to, to
clothe, to visit, to care for.
But there will always be old Nick, the devil, Satan
himself, whispering in your ear, saying, “You haven’t done it.” “You’re no
good.” “You’re doomed.” “You’re cursed.” “You will depart from Jesus on the
last day into the eternal fire prepared for me and the demons.”
Well—say to the devil, “I’m baptised, and you can’t touch
me.” Say: “Look, what makes you think, devil, that the book of Matthew and
James teaches me that I’m saved by works after all? It’s not true. Jesus’
inheritance of the kingdom of heaven has been prepared from the beginning of
the world, and it is given to me in baptism, and through God’s word. So buzz
off, and dribble in someone else’s ear.”
Do you think that when Jesus commended the sheep for their
good works, that they all said, “Yes, Jesus! Aren’t we good? Haven’t we been
better than those goats? Yes, we’re really proud of ourselves.”
No. Not at all. When the sheep get to heaven, and when
they are commended for their good works, they can’t see any of it at all. And
that’s the way it has always been and that’s the way it always will be. We
might look back at all the good things we’ve done in our life, but in fact,
it’s Jesus that notice the pearls and the gems, not us. We were just being
ourselves.
So the people say: “When did we see you hungry? When did
we see you thirsty? When did we see you a stranger?”
You see, they didn’t even know that they had done these
things. Even if they sought to go and do them, they still don’t what good they
had done. That’s why it’s so important for us, not to worry about saving
ourselves through works and brownie points, but to listen to Jesus’ promise: Come, you who are blessed by my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
St Paul says: Set
your minds on things that are above, not on things that on earth. For you have
died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Your baptism is your death. As soon as you are baptised,
you are dead and raised from the dead with Jesus. Your life is hidden, and most
of all, your good works are hidden from you, because they are God’s work
through you. And so just now, your life is hidden with Christ in God, so also
your life will only be revealed before your eyes on the last day. And those who
have sown abundantly will reap abundantly.
So today God our heavenly Father promises to us in his
word his love, his forgiveness for all our sins, and peace in our conscience
from his own throne, to prepare us for that day when the Son of Man will come
in glory, and all his angels with him, to sit on his glorious throne, and just
like Joseph to his brothers, reveal his friendly and loving face to us in a
wonderful family reunion.
Amen.
Lord Jesus, our Judge and Saviour, we thank you for
baptising us into your own body, and we pray that you work your powerful
salvation in us through your Word and Holy Spirit. Also, perform your works of
mercy and love to others through us, even though these things are hidden from
our eyes. Amen.
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