“Last Judgement” Matthew 25:31-46

 I have a small display of sheep in my office. Different sized sheep. Different textured sheep. Every time I see it, it reminds me of the first miniature sheep I ever saw. It was part of the Fisherprice Barn set. Do any of you remember those and the *bong* sound it would make when it would open? My parents still have that barn, and as I was thinking about my nieces and nephew playing with it recently in light of this particular passage I realized that it doesn’t have a goat with it. And I don’t have goats displayed in my office. 

Because, even culturally, when we think about this particular passage of Scripture we equate sheep with being “good” and goats with being “bad”. But in order to understand how we get to what is perhaps the most well known line of this passage from the Gospel of Matthew, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me”, we need to step back and explore the heart of what Jesus is trying to say to those listening. 

Jesus pick up teaching about the Kingdom of God, as he writes about the fullness of that Kingdom coming into view when the Son of Man (who we would call the Messiah) comes in all of his glory to reign. It sounds so much like Revelation does it not? Christ sitting on the throne and the angels surrounding him as the nations praise his name. At that time the great judgment will come and he will separate the sheep from the goats. 

To all of the sheep, he will call for them to come and take part in their inheritance. Why? Because before this moment of judgment they had fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, invited the stranger to come in, clothed people in need, took care of the infirm, and visited those who were in prison. 

And the sheep are confused. 

Because they are looking into the face of the Messiah and they have no recollection of doing any of those things for him. But Christ reminds them that whatever they did for the least, they did for him, even if they did not recognize at the time that it was giving their Lord and Savior all the honor and glory. 

The opposite is true for the goats - they didn’t attend to the needs of the least and Christ states that whatever they did not do for the least they did not do for him. Full stop. 

A few weeks ago, my dad and I were talking about what surprises await us in heaven. Some of the folks we assume will be there, may not be. And some of the people we have judge as  not being in heaven with Christ - well they may just be there. 

Because we are saved by faith. And sometimes it is really hard to tell if people have faith and believe. 

Which is one of the struggles with this particular passage of scripture. It seems like saying that the last judgment is being based on works - but that is not what Christ is saying, my friends. Instead, Christ is pointing out that our works, or how we treat other people, are an expression of our deep faith in Jesus alone. In other words, actions (or praxis) flow out of our belief and faith. 

The things is that the sheep, or the righteous, in this parable didn’t even know that they being judged. Some scholars emphasize that when Jesus says “all the nations” in this parable, he is including the Gentiles. Those who were believed to be far from God. Yet, they simply cared for the strangers that came across their path. They didn’t know anything about a potential reward or punishment - they were just living from their heart. 

And if the Gentiles - those were believed to be far from God - could live righteously, then how much more so should the Jews - as they had an ethic of care. An ethic of care that has been passed down to us as Christian. 

If I ask you why we love, Church, what would your response be? Because Christ first loved us. Or if I asked you what the greatest commandment was - you would respond… to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. If we are people of the Word, brothers and sisters, we love with the heart of Christ. 

When we serve other people, it is to be as if we are serving Christ. In the Hebrew Scriptures we find the law to “love your neighbor as yourself.” When we serve people we are to serve them with the respect and compassion we would want others to treat us with.

While this passage has been used to incite fear into people about whether you will be found to be a sheep or a goat, that tends to just make us fixate on that question alone and quite frankly does not help the sheep to move past fear in order to become committed disciples of Jesus Christ. 

So where are some potential areas where our love can grow?  Or where are some stumbling blocks we should address? One trap that church folks can fall into is thinking of the people we are serving as “the other” or “those people” who are so different than me. When we do that, we start to assume what people need and can end up belittling them instead of treating them like we are to treat Christ or like we would want to be treated. A few days ago I was speaking with a colleague about holiday food items that her congregation collected. They collected simple food, thinking that each of the three items they collected would be packaged together and given as a meal at a local food pantry. She had to explain to them, that all items once they were given were sorted onto shelves so folks could shop for what their specific family unit needed. Some people in her congregation were upset because there food wouldn’t be given as a package - they couldn’t understand why the food pantry couldn’t force people to take it since they went to the trouble of collecting it. Sometimes our own desire to serve, can get in the way of serving people in a compassionate, merciful, and respectful way.

Friends, we do not need to fixate - we need discernment. We do not need to have all of the answers before we act in love - not our love, but in the love of Christ. Because our belief and actions are intwined. 

In this parable even the righteous did not know they were caring for the Son of Man, but I bet they were still people in their hearts who hungered and yearned for righteousness.

I don’t want to send you out of this place today with a checklist - who did you serve them today? Did you serve them as Christ? Because we aren’t judged for our work, we are judged for the work that Jesus did on our behalf. But, I do want you to really, deeply pray about what this passage says about discipleship - how you are following Christ and sharing yourself with others for his sake. Are you someone who hungers and thirsts for righteousness? And is that flowing out of you and into the world? Amen.