St. John’s Lutheran Church, Toluca, IL – Christ the King
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 95:1-7aEphesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46
Matthew 25:31-46
[Jesus said to the disciples:] 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. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then 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; 35for 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, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37Then 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? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40And 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.’ 41Then 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; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I 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.’ 44Then 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?’ 45Then 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.’ 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
NRSV
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Ours to Lose
Grace to you, beloved of God, and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Here he is, finally! On the twenty-sixtieth Sunday after Pentecost – the day we celebrate the birth of the Christian Church – on the last Sunday of the liturgical year before we begin anew with Advent, the Son of Man has come.
O, how much anxiety there is when God returns for a visit in the form of Christ Jesus, the one like a human being. I understand. Through the year, and specifically through the past several weeks, we have been told we will be sorted out when he comes, separated between wheat and chaff, good and bad soil, wheat and weeds, wise and foolish bridesmaids, trustworthy and worthless laborers, sheep and goats, etc. I suspect the source of the excessive angst may come from the verses that tell us that two will be taken and two will be left, and so forth. Some will be at the right hand of God and inherit the kingdom prepared for them since the foundation of the world, while others will find themselves eternally separated from God.
I get it. The images that Jesus uses to describe the situation where the ones excluded from God’s presence will find themselves are not pretty. Our Lord uses words like unquenchable fire, outer darkness, weeping, gnashing of teeth, etc. When those images get misguidedly combined with the beast at the lake of fire in Revelation, they provide enough source material for the imagination of things like Dante’s description of the inferno in his Divine Comedy.
I wish I could save you from uncomfortable thoughts by saying that the moment when we all get sorted out by our Lord never occurs. However, based on the amount of biblical evidence, I can’t. What I can say with absolute certainty – thanks to clear divine instruction – is that no one, not even the Son, knows when it will happen. Also, based on all we know about the world of the writers of the New Testament, I can say that the world is not ending in such a moment either. However, we confess that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. Eventually, in this life or the next, our time comes.
I think of all those things, and the image that comes to me to clear the air a bit is that of slasher movies. You never know for sure when the killer will act. That is all the thrill, right? Also, you are always wondering why the killer attacks some and not others or why some folks insist on putting themselves in harm’s way by being in the vicinity of the killer instead of just running away. What are they thinking? The only thing one can do, after watching a lot of those, is guess who gets to survive in the end.
I don’t need to tell you that our Lord Jesus is no slashing killer. His sole purpose is to give life. He comes, returns, and remains with us to redeem, restore, and reconcile us with God, to give us every chance to have our hearts and minds transformed so we can begin anew. That is the gift. But here is the danger. We are not expected to take the gift for granted.
Some part of our faithful relationship with Jesus Christ must acknowledge the divine expectations for us. Why else would God insist on the transformation of our hearts and minds? Fortunately, in this case, we don’t need to guess. Scripture is clear: God wishes us to love and trust him above all things and love our neighbors as ourselves. Nonetheless, we have struggled since forever with how to go about it. Who is my neighbor? What are the actions expected in this way of life? These are some of the questions that come to mind.
So here in the parable of sheep and the goats, we are gifted with one of Jesus’s clearest explanations of what he expects from us, so we remain blessed and forever in God’s presence. That is, the intentional extension of compassion, hospitality, and everything else that the least of us – the poor, the sick, the ones living in bondage – need to have a dignified life. Our redemption was absolutely undeserved, and so is the love we ought to hand to the other. This is said by Jesus and, therefore, is not a situation that should enter the realm of partisan politics. It is simply what God has been asking of us for a very long time.
Nonetheless, beloved of God, the kingdom has been prepared, the victory over death has been won, and we received the right garment, Jesus Christ, free of charge. It is safe to be in his vicinity and dwell with him. It is our kingdom to lose. Our table is ready. All we need is to join the celebration. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Bridging Faith 