Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Matthew
25:31-46)
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.
Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In the Gospel of Matthew, right in the
last week before Jesus dies, we read that Jesus went up to the Mount of Olives
to give his disciples a final sermon out in the open air. Our Gospel reading
today is the last thing that Jesus teaches in this sermon, the last words of
Matthew 25. In Matthew 26, we read about the Last Supper, Jesus' prayers in the
Garden of Gethsemane, his arrest and betrayal by Judas, and his trial.
So what sort of thing do you think Jesus
might say when he knows he's going to die in only a couple of days or so?
He says: When the Son of Man comes in
his glory, with all his angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious
throne.
There is not a flicker of fear in Jesus'
eyes here. He preaches a powerful prophecy about the future, and he wants the
disciples to remember this prophecy as he goes to his suffering and death on
Good Friday. So he says: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, with all
his angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Of course,
all the disciples abandon him and run away from him as soon as he is arrested.
But Jesus promises a number of things: first of all, he prophesies that he will
rise from the dead. The Son of Man will come in his glory. This is a
prophecy of the resurrection because he calls himself the Son of Man. God
cannot rise from the dead, unless he has also become a true man, and taken
human flesh. Someone who is truly God cannot die, and someone who is truly God
cannot rise from the dead--unless God himself takes human flesh and becomes a
human being. Jesus, who was true God, begotten of the Father from eternity,
descended from heaven in all his glory, and took flesh in the womb of the
Virgin Mary. So Jesus says: The Son of Man will come. He emphasises his
human nature--his true human body--by calling himself not the Son of God, but the Son of Man. On that
occasion all his angels came to earth and celebrated with him. And they sang Glory
to God in the highest when they went to the shepherds in their fields.
Jesus also prophesies that after the
resurrection he will ascend into heaven. He says: The Son of Man will come
in his glory. If he's coming in his glory, where's he coming from? There's
no glory in hell. If he's coming in his glory, he must be coming from heaven.
And if he's coming from heaven, he must have gone there--he must have ascended into heaven. It also says: He
will sit on his glorious throne. Therefore, he must be sitting at the right
hand of God the Father.
But also, Jesus prophesies that he will
come to judge the living and the dead. This
Jesus describes in the rest of the reading.
So this fact that the Son of Man
will come in his glory, with all his angels with him, and sit on his
glorious throne, gives the disciples wonderful comfort, because they know
that after Jesus has suffered, been crucified, dead, and buried, he will
triumph over his enemies. He will be victorious. He will win the victory. He will
be clothed in all the glory of heaven.
Jesus says: 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.
Many Christians today don't like to
think about judgment. But judgment means that there will finally be a time when
the followers of Jesus will be separated from their persecutors. Even now,
there is a growing separation in our times between those who hope in Jesus and
those who don't. We can see this in the way some people cannot bear to tolerate
Christian chaplains in public schools, for example. In politics, the
catchphrase "separation of church and state" is often used as an
excuse to keep Christians quiet, even when Christians are not making much
noise! Christian young people are feeling more and more isolated in their faith
among their own generation that knows nothing of their faith. Jesus promises
that there will come a time at the end of the world, when he will return as the
judge of all the nations, and he will separate people one from the other as
a shepherd separated the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the
left. 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 beginning of the
world.
Notice, here Jesus calls himself the King:
The King will say to those on his right. Jesus will receive a wonderful
crown, but it will be a crown of thorns from the Roman soldiers, he will receive
his royal robes from them, he will be given a reed in his hand, and then he
will be led along a long road to ascend his throne on the cross. Yes, the
Romans think that they are pretending when they mock him, but what they don't
realise is that the crucifixion is the coronation service of Jesus as the king
of the whole world. This King is the Lamb of God who was slain, and he will
speak to his fellow sheep. This King is the suffering servant of God and he
will lift up his hands of blessing upon his flock, and they will see the glory
of God, brighter than the sun, shine through the nail wounds in his hands, and
he will say to them: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.
The king, the Lamb, makes all his sheep
kings as well. In the next life, there will not be one single person who does
reign with Jesus in his kingdom. We will all be kings and queens. Jesus says: Be
faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. I will crown
you and make you a king, a queen. And this kingdom that is given at the end of the world, is prepared right from
the beginning of the world.
This is what Holy Baptism is: it is when
people are called out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. It
is where we become disciples of Jesus, and are blessed by his Father, and named
with the Father's name: I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Here at baptism is given the kingdom prepared
from the beginning of the world to all who believe it.
Then Jesus says: 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.'
As Lutherans, we hold very strongly to
the biblical teaching that we are saved by grace, through faith, for Christ's
sake, apart from works. But sometimes people think from this reading that we
really might be saved by works after all. Some people think that Paul taught
salvation by faith, and that the Gospel of Matthew and the book of James teach
salvation by works.
But this isn't true. There is only one
way that a person can be saved: through Christ's work alone, which is given to
us by grace alone, and is received by faith alone completely apart from works.
However, if we are talking about how Christians can perceive and distinguish,
either in ourselves or in others, a true living faith from a pretend and dead
faith, if we want to know the difference between true faith and a delusion,
then James teaches that faith is dead if good works and the fruit of the Spirit
of every kind do not follow. Love and good works are the evidence of faith.
This is what it means when James says: You see that a person is justified by
works and not by faith alone. Also he says: As the body apart from the
spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. He's talking about
the evidence of faith. But earlier in the book of James, he says: Of his own
will [God] brought us forth by the word of truth. Here we read that God made
us his own children not by own works, but by his own will, by the
word of truth. These things we simply receive by faith, and so James
agrees with Paul.
So in our reading today, Jesus puts the
sheep and the goats on trial. And just like any courtroom, he judges people by
the evidence. He commends the sheep
for their good works, and condemns
the goats for their lack of good
works.
He says: For I was hungry and you
gave me food. It is a good thing for Christians to perform acts of charity
and works of mercy to all people that we meet. And in many places in the bible,
Jesus encourages us to be charitable, and merciful to all people. But in our
reading, Jesus is talking about a specific kind of people. He says: As you
did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Normally,
when Jesus speaks of his brothers, he is talking about his disciples, and often his apostles. He says: He who does the
will of my Father is my mother and sister and brothers. He also says to
Mary Magdalene and to the disciples to tell the news of the resurrection to
his brothers. He doesn't mean his flesh-and-blood brothers, but his disciples
and his apostles.
Jesus also says: I was in prison and
you visited me. Here we see that close connection between Jesus as he
suffers on the cross, and those who suffer for sake of the gospel. They will be
persecuted for the name of Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 11, St Paul boasts of all
the hardships he endured. He says: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is
made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the
things that show my weakness. James begins his letter by saying: Count
it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know
that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
What do you think you would do if you
were alive at the time of St Paul and knew he was suffering nearby? What would
you do if an apostle was enduring hardship? If the people who speak God's word
to you were suffering greatly? If a dear Christian friend who encourages you so
deeply and profoundly in your faith suddenly falls into hard times? Just as
Jesus was crowned with thorns, what would you do if you saw a fellow Christian
neighbour crowned with many thorns of Satan? Wouldn't you want to protect that
person from harm? Wouldn't you want to savour the last words of Jesus that you could
from them? Wouldn't you feed them if they were hungry, wouldn't you give them a
drink if they were thirsty, wouldn't you clothe them if they were naked and
welcome them if they were a stranger, wouldn't you visit them in prison and
strengthen them in their sickness?
Of course you would-- How beautiful
are the feet of those who preach good news! Anyone would do this for the
sake of that Christian encouragement that we so desperately need. Anyone would
do this to hear the word of life from the lips of their Christian neighbour.
Those who don't value the word of Jesus, wouldn't do anything to protect the
people who bring it to them--these people are called the goats. How often the
apostles address the readers of their letters so affectionately and with such
friendliness and with such gratitude for the love which is showed them on
account of their words!
This passage is not about salvation by
works--it's about our reception of the living words of Jesus through the
messengers of Jesus.
And just so that you know this passage
is not about salvation by works, listen to the way in which the sheep respond: Then
the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you
drink? And when did we see you a
stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?'
They don't even know that they were serving Christ.
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.' The least of these my brothers: not just the apostles and the St Pauls of the world, not just the
bishops and the pastors, but every simple Christian who receives hardship
because of the words of Jesus.
And just as the sheep had no idea that
they were serving Jesus, the goats had no idea that they were rejecting Jesus. Then
they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or
a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?'
They do not value these living words of
Jesus, and treat those who bring this word to them with contempt and so at the
end they will depart from [Jesus], [as] cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell was never made for the sake of
any human beings, it was prepared for the devil and his angels. And just
as there is an eternal life for the sheep, there will be an eternal
punishment for the goats.
This reading is almost too harsh for our
times, and our society today. People have so much, and the more they have, the
more they are afraid of losing. Many Christians don't value the simple message
of Jesus and his cross, and also don't value the simple--sometimes even simplistic--Christians who speak it to
them. Many Christian reject their baptism, reject the church, reject the
authority and care of their pastors, and reject the fellowship of Christians. When
did we see you hungry and not feed you? they will say. This word is such a
thunderbolt for our country and our times which are full of small churches with
few people. Would that the Holy Spirit would open the floodgates that people
may hear and receive the precious words of Jesus, and hasten to meet him as
their brother, their king, the Son of Man who shares their
flesh and blood!
Listen to those words of Jesus, little
flock! Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the beginning of the world. Come, you who are weary and heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Friend,
come up higher! Come to the banquet, for everything is ready. Come,
bride of Christ, come, beloved sheep of the Good Shepherd! Come, and
hear the dear voice of your shepherd!
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for your
gracious promise to come and judge the living and the dead. We pray that by
your gracious Holy Spirit that you would strengthen and keep us firm in your
word and faith until we die, and let your good and gracious will work in us.
Amen.
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