Matthew 25:31-46 November 22, 2020 Panzer Chapel Liturgical Service
Well, we made it – the last Sunday of the Christian
year – where we celebrate the Reign of Christ and think about what it means for
Christ to be king of our lives. It is then fitting that this week’s gospel
lesson is about judgment. One of the roles of ancient kings was to act as a
judge for important matters that came before him. In the early part of his
reign, King Solomon was known for his wise decisions and counsel. His wisdom
wasn’t just related to the facts of the case… he was often able to get to the
heart of the matter.
If we step back and look at the whole of Matthew’s
gospel, the theme of judgment runs throughout, sometimes more veiled than
others. But as Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time, hailed at the
beginning of the week as the Son of David, he knows that it will not end well
for him. As the days of his final week continue, he reminds disciples and
followers at every turn that his going and coming would look nothing like they
were expecting. They would not know the day and time. They would not know how
long they would have to wait. Nonetheless, they should always be prepared, for
if they were not ready for the reign of Christ to come in all its fullness and
glory, they would be shut out.
For those of us who want to emphasize the love of God
and not the wrath of God, these are difficult lessons to hear. But within this
warning, we find a call to live out ministry in a particular and peculiar way.
For when we are called to a ministry of transformational justice, we affirm our belief that a God who is love and a God who brings judgment can be one and the
same. In this week’s gospel lesson, we hear about our responsibility to care
for those in need, the poor, the marginalized, and even those we mistakenly
believe we should have no regard for.
This is not a new message. Some of the most
significant stories of the Old Testament are of the judgment brought by God to
those who did not show hospitality to those in need. Likewise, the biggest
blessings come to those who share the little they have with those who have an
even greater need. Matthew’s listeners would have certainly understood that
applied to them, too.
In this one last parable, Jesus is explicit in
relaying the message that he is the stranger among them. Righteousness is not
bestowed based on what people believed or professed… it was given based on how
people treated one another, especially those whom society did not value.
This is a troubling message for those who put all
their eggs in the “saved by faith alone” basket. Paul’s letters to the Romans
and the Galatians would lead us to believe otherwise. But the writer James has
a different perspective, suggesting that our works are the true expression of
our faith… “faith without works is dead.”
In the early church and still today, there are
differing opinions on how we demonstrate faith before God. Paul is concerned about
imposing on new Gentile Christians the rigors of Judaism, like circumcision or
keeping the dietary laws. James seems to be concerned that people are
concentrating too much on what they believe and not carrying that through to
the way they are treating the people around them. But here’s the good news.
Most people read this parable and want to pick sides.
Am I a sheep or am I a goat? Am I on the left or the right? Am I in the wrong
or in the right? But what if that is the wrong question? What if that is just
an excuse for doing nothing? Dietrich Bonhoeffer is well known for having said
this: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us
guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
This parable is quite long considering the small
amount of information within its verses. The actions of the faithful and the
unfaithful are only separated by one word… NOT. The question, “when was it that
we saw you…” reminds us that Jesus was then and is now often hiding in plain
sight. Those on the left hand of God seem almost indignant that Jesus did not
reveal himself to them. Their implied “excuse me, Lord, if we didn’t know it
was you, then how were we supposed to know what to do?” makes them the central
character in the story.
The big difference with the people on the right hand
of God was their willingness to serve, no matter who it was they encountered.
Their question, “when was it that we saw you…” takes on a whole new meaning.
They entered into the joy of their master without even knowing that it was
happening because they served everyone in need. There were no special parties
or recognition. They probably served in the midst of suffering, danger, risk,
and disappointment. But in the midst of it, always joy. [ii]
When I think back to times when I have served others,
I often remember feeling like I was getting more out of the experience than I
was giving. I remember working with some SC teens one summer. We had two
different experiences in the same week. First, we worked on the trailer of a
woman who lived in what I can only describe as squalor. Leaking roof, no
running water, it was a very hard place to be. But we did good work. We built a
kind of carport roof over her trailer to keep out the rain, and we carted off
truckloads of trash that had accumulated over several years. It was an almost
crushing defeat when we walked in the last day and saw that she had thrown the
trash out the back door, just like she had every other day before. Anger,
disappointment, futility… these are the emotions we processed that … it felt
like all we had done went totally unappreciated.
Later that day, we went to help on another site that
had gotten behind because they found snakes in an exterior wall and had to call
an exterminator to help clean them out… yeah, that was fun. But while we were
painting the new exterior siding, we heard a woman singing inside, and
gradually several people gathered at the window, first to hear her sing, and
then to strike up a conversation with her. Mrs. Smalls was lying in a hospital
bed in what used to be the dining room. She was a triple amputee from
complications of diabetes, and she had in-home dialysis three times per week.
And there she was, singing about the goodness of God and thankful for the
faithfulness of skinny white teenagers and their youth leaders who had come to
build a better ramp for her wheelchair, patch some holes in the roof and
siding, all to make her life a life safer and drier.
In the beginning, the kids were afraid of this woman
so different from them. At the end of the week, Mrs. Smalls was the cherry on
the top of our work week sundae. When we asked the kids why they loved working
for her so much, they told us that if someone who had so many problems could
see her life as blessed, they needed to think differently about how they saw
their lives and the lives of those around them.
The difference between these two work sights and this
one group of kids wasn’t really about whether or not they were appreciated. One
teen said, “When I was talking to Mrs. Small, and working to paint the room
where she sleeps, I felt like Jesus was right there beside me… like he was
working with us… and like snuggled up with Mrs. Smalls in that bed, reminding
her that life is still good. I hope I remember this feeling forever.”
If you were to sit down and read the gospel of Matthew
from start to stop in one sitting, I think you would see an important thread
weaving its way through the whole book… the theme of discipleship. This parable
isn’t worried about the identity of those who were or were not being served.
This is not a judgment on them. This is a judgment on the ones called to serve.
This parable is much more concerned with how faith is being lived out. It is
about good works as a reflection of the goodness of God’s people in the world,
and the glory that brings to God.
When we engage in good works, it cannot be done to
draw attention to our actions for our own sake. Our faithful living is a
reflection of the goodness of God. We cannot consider ourselves holders or
keepers of the mystery of God… faithful discipleship doesn’t work that way.
Mission itself is redefined when we realize that God is already outside the
circle, outside the walls of our church, or our theology or denominational
framework. We are just working to catch up. What a great irony it would be if
the judgment we are so afraid of doesn’t come from on high, but is a judgment
spoken through the needs of our neighbors and whether or not we have tried to
bring care to wherever they are.
Following our US calendar, we usually celebrate
Thanksgiving and Christ the King Sunday in the same week. Christ the King
Sunday marks the end of the Christian year, which reminds us of the belief in
Jesus Christ as Savior and Jesus Christ as Lord and King are two radically
different things, but which also much be kept in balance.
Jesus as Savior feels easy at first until we realize
that we actually need saving. And who wants to be that kind of person? No, most of us want to be the kind of people who
save others, the heroes of society, if not for the notoriety that it attracts,
at least for the feeling that it gives us inside. Accepting Jesus as Savior means understanding
ourselves differently… that we don’t have all the answers… and all
attempts to save ourselves will be met with failure.
Understanding Jesus as Lord and King means something
totally different. It means that we see
Christ not only as the orchestrater over our individual lives but over all of
humankind. It means submitting our lives
to Christ’s love, completely turning our lives over to Him. And it means doing
it over and over because sometimes we get lost and have to start our journeys
over again. In short, seeing Jesus as
king means pledging our allegiance and our actions over to a ruler and a leader
who will turn our lives completely upside down.
Christ the King rules our lives as our chief teacher
and as the center of our values. His
teachings and ministry to the oppressed, his gospel of love, justice, and mercy,
and his intimate relationship to God are offered to us as a primary pattern
for OUR lives. Jesus is Lord and King to
the extent that we make him and his way of life our central value – a value
that overrides the wealth and power that seem to be synonymous with success.
I’ll end with another quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
He understood what it meant to speak truth to power. He paid the price, but his
words live on.
I discovered later, and
I’m still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living
completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness, I
mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes, and failures. In
so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously,
not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.[iii]
Our call to serve the Kingdom is not mere social
service. It is all about love God and loving neighbor in all we do. The sheep
are those who understand this. The goats are those who do not. The real
question is, where do we stand?[iv]
In the name of the Holy Trinity, Amen.
[i]
Bob Cornwall, “Here Comes the Judge,” Ponderings on a Faith Journey, November
18, 2020 (bobcornwall.com/2020/11)
[ii][ii]
Dirk Go. Lange, Commentary on Matthew 25:31-46, Nov 23, 2008,
www.workingpreacher.com
[iii]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Notable Quotes, The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute, https://tdbi.org/dietrich-bonhoeffer/notable-quotes/
[iv]
Bob Cornwall, Ibid.
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