The reading
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."
The reading
This week, we have our last reading before the start of Holy
Week and Easter. It is the end of one of
Jesus’ major teaching sections in Matthew’s Gospel. There are 5 major teaching
sections in Matthew. Each teaching has 2
or 3 chapters dedicated to it. There is the sermon on the mount, where Jesus
talks about what the kingdom of heaven is like and what living in the spirit of
the law (vs the letter of the law) looks like. Then there is the teaching on
missionary work and the sending out of the disciples to do that work (sharing
the Good news of God’s love is not just talked about, its done). There is
another section on the kingdom of heaven, then the power and life of the church
and finally teachings on the end times, God’s
last judgment of humanity, the eternal separation between heaven and
hell, saved or condemned, in the presence of God or outside of it.
Next week we have Palm Sunday followed by Holy Week and
Easter. We will gather to experience together the powerful and intense way that
God saves us from sin and death. We will
exerience Jesus arrival in Jersualem as king, the quickly changing opinion of
the world and Jesus instructions (including communion, to love and to serve).
After this, there is Jesus betrayal by one of the disciples, his trial, death
sentence, shameful execution, burial, an empty tomb, some female witnesses and the
first whispers of his resurrection start to surface.
Today’s reading forces us to ask who is included in the work
of Easter, how do you get into that
flock of sheep, who exactly is saved from sin and death by Jesus death and
resurrection, We also have the negative version of that question, how do you
stay out of the goat pen, avoid hell. In church, over the centuries, there have
been 3 main answers or a mix of all of them, 1: being saved is earned, the
reward of good works, faithful living, or right confession (and a little help
from Jesus), 2: justification by Grace through faith, salvation is the gift of
God we cannot earn and 3: predestination, heaven or hell, our faith and behavior
is determined before our lives begin.
These weeks on judgment make this a very serious question.
Over the last 2 Sundays, we have heard 2 parables on the
final judgment, on who gets into heaven or who goes to hell., First there was the
man who is not properly dressed for a wedding and then we have the 10
bridesmaids, 5 of whom run out of oil while waiting for the late groom. The inappropriately
dressed man is cast out of the wedding feast for the kings son, sent to the
place where is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The bridesmaids who run out of oil are locked out of the banquest and
told “I do not know you” by the groom (and person in charge of the event).
Each week, I wanted to focus what exactly they did that was
so terrible, I mean, I do not think too
much about what I wear and in lots of churches “wearing your Sunday best” is
not really a thing anymore. I think all
of us have been caught unprepared at least a few times, running out of gas on a
long trip, not having enough food for some extra guests. The man at the wedding banquet is guilty of
failing to realize where he was, what gift he was given and responding
appropriately. He also fails to trust the king’s mercy or forgiveness. The 5 bridemaids abandon their only
responsibility of welcoming the groom, instead choosing to go on a desperate
search for oil in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
We skipped the parable of the talents which Jesus tells
right before the separating of the sheep and goats. In the parable of the
talents, we have a similar story. 3
servants are entrusted with good sums of money to use while the owner is away,
2 of them use the money, grow it and are rewarded. The third person just buries
the money and returns it when the owner returns. He is punished for his
decision. The last man given a talent is too afraid to lose it, so he does
nothing, refusing to use this opportunity and gift. These readings can make us
uncomfortable.
Today’s reading is even more difficult for us. You cannot take the NYC subway for more than
a few minutes before you fail to give the hungry food, the thirsty something to
drink or welcome the stranger. Even worse, we do not get naked people a lot.
Clothing is incredibly cheap and available for free in lots of places. In Jesus
time, that was not the case, clothing was very expensive, most people only
owned a few pieces and they lasted for life.
I missed my chance a few years ago, I was walking in the winter down a
street in Manhattan, I saw a man wearing a garbage bag and it didn’t seem like
much else. Everyone on the street was bundled up. I thought, I need to do
something, find him a coat, give away mine and buy a new one, call 911 (it was
so cold, this was an emergency, not safe to be out there). Someone beat me to it. A man and his friend
in front of me stopped, someone pulled over with a blanket and got the man
inside, a coat. Does that mean, I missed
my one chance. To be a sheep I should
prowl the streets in search of the naked, carry a ready to eat hamburger with
me at all times, run the food pantry 3 times a month to get more points on that
program.
This parable is not exactly about the actual acts, it is about
our priorities, our understanding of our neighbors, God’s place in our lives. Each group, the saved sheep and
condemned goats both have no idea what they did or did not do. When told the good news, the sheep ask “when
did we do all those things for you, when given the bad news the goats ask “when
did we not do all those things”. The sheep and the goats, the saved and the
condemned were not trying to earn their way into heaven. The sheep were just
living like everyone was a child of God, like everyone, the poor, the hungry,
the naked, the lonely counted. The goats
were living for themselves and thought that was just fine.
Matthew has focused a lot on the idea of righteousness, of
living your faith, following the work and push of the Holy Spirit, of God changing
us, moving us into the kingdom, reorientating us to a place where God rules,
where Christ saves. That is where this
story calls us to live.
This reading (and the parables before it) are not meant to
make us anxious about our salvation, On facebook this week I saw a post that
quoted Paul’s letter Remember“my grace
is sufficient for you” God’s great
promises are still true, I’m with Jesus is still enough, I am baptized matters. The reading does tell us something else too. God is with us, in the world, in the least
expected places. God does not value what we value. God is not the owner of amazon, God is the
person in warehouse stuffing that box with crap you don’t need but must have in
4 hours. In the next few weeks, Jesus is
going to be welcomed as a king into Jerusalem but he will also wash feet, be
humiliated and mocked, have his identity questioned again and again, be denied
by his closest followers and killed in the worst way. That all means something
for us and how we live.
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