“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
(Matthew 25:31-46)
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Judgment is a hard thing to deal with from a Christian perspective. It’s hard for the most part because even most Christians I think struggle to understand the basis on which God judges - and, please remember that it’s always God who judges, and it’s never us. One of the great problems with people’s understanding of Christianity I think is the whole concept of reward and punishment. For some people, that’s the whole basis of faith: be good and you’ll get rewarded, be bad and you’ll get punished. The good ones will go to heaven with God and the bad ones will go to the other place with … well … you know who. I can understand why people latch on to that idea. It makes things rather simple doesn’t it. Just be good. Of course, we have to take some time to figure out what “being good” actually looks like. But is it all just about reward and punishment? Is our faith just about getting one and avoiding the other? Is that it? Nothing more? There’s no doubt that you could take Jesus’ words in this parable, for example, and make faith about just that. “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” And I’m impressed by Jesus’ understanding of human nature here - because the ones being punished are always “they.” The basic problem with that understanding of faith is that it turns faith into a selfish thing - basically, we either turn to faith to get a reward or to avoid a punishment. It makes our faith all about us. Which is exactly where our focus should never be.
If you read this parable, and put it in the context of all of Jesus’ teachings (and not just the last few words here) you get a different perspective than if you take this in its very narrow context. In this passage - looked at in the light of everything Jesus taught, and not just these few words - Jesus is talking about adopting a certain worldview; a certain way of life - and it’s not one that’s motivated out of either the fear of hell or the hope of heaven. Instead, it’s a life that’s motivated by an authentic love. For Jesus, showing compassion and mercy and love to those around you on a day by day basis seems so much more important than believing a certain set of doctrines; more important even than simply living a good life. This passage actually says something fascinating about judgment: it’s not based, according to this at least, on whether we believe all the right things or whether we do all the proper things to or for Jesus. The point of the parable seems to be that of course we’d do all the right things for Jesus - if we knew that it was Jesus. But Jesus is making the point here that he shows up in the most unexpected places and at the most unexpected times and through the most unexpected people - and the mark of our faith is how we respond to him when we don’t even realize that he’s there! The basis of judgment is apparently whether we act toward others the way we claim to act toward Jesus; if we love the poor and marginalized and outcast and dispossessed and all those who are tossed aside by society with the same love that we claim to have for Jesus. There’s the issue.
I know a lot of Christians who take a remarkably negative view of good works. They come from an impressive lineage. After all, it was Martin Luther who thought the Book of James should be removed from the New Testament because it put too much emphasis on works. And I understand the objection. Works can’t save us because we can never do enough “works” to repay the God who has done and given everything for us. So we depend on grace; we believe in grace because of our faith. But let’s not toss aside works too quickly. They may not save us - but they may well be the sign of God being present and active in us; they may well be the sign of our openness to God and God’s ways. Luther might not like the book, but let’s not forget the words of James: “faith without works is dead.” And a dead faith isn’t much use to anybody. So our faith is shown and the judgment of God is based not merely on our piety in upholding the right doctrines and practicing the right rituals, but more importantly our faith is shown and God’s judgment of us is based on our willingness to do the right things for the lowest of our society.
We don’t serve those in need because we get a reward for it - we serve those in need because it’s the right thing to do. John Wesley wrote that “supposing [good works] to spring from a right principle, they are the perfection of religion.” In fact, rather than seeking God’s approval or seeking reward for doing these things, we should be prepared to sacrifice in order to serve. Maybe we’d content ourselves by thinking that because we give to the local food bank, we’ve done our bit; we’ve helped to feed the hungry. But it’s easy to do a minimal amount of “good” without really giving up too much of ourselves in the process. My doctoral advisor, Gennifer Brooks, wrote this about the parable we’ve looked at today: “it is important that we focus on the notion of self-giving love, even self-sacrificing love that is represented in these actions. Christ calls us to love wholeheartedly - love God with heart, soul and mind, and love neighbor as self.” And, as we love in such a way, we ultimately find that we haven’t only loved those we’ve reached out to, we’ve actually loved Jesus, who spent so much of his own ministry among the poor and needy and outcast whom society looked down on. That’s why Jesus said that when you do these things (or when you fail to do them) you’ve done them for him, or you’ve failed him.
You see, Jesus is always revealed to us primarily through the needs others, but too often we don’t realize it. In 1995, Joan Osborne wrote the song “One of Us.” The lyrics seem appropriate in the light of this parable. Among other things, they say:
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us.
Just a stranger on the bus.
What if? Would we recognize God if that were the case? In the parable, both the sheep and the goats were surprised because they hadn’t recognized him. The sheep were doing what they were doing because they simply knew they had to do it. For them, there was a heart that had turned toward compassion and generosity. The goats, on the other hand, chose not to serve because I guess they didn’t think Jesus would be in such places and so he wouldn’t care. But what’s interesting is that both were surprised to discover - if I can put it this way - where and with whom Jesus chooses to hang out. People don’t really expect to see Jesus in the face of the disadvantaged or the poor or the imprisoned, or any of those who suffer great need. Maybe that’s understandable. When we think of God, we typically think in terms of power and might and glory and all the rest. But the whole point of the parable seems to be to undermine our tendency to look for God in places of power and prestige - and maybe that undermining might help us all to discover God’s presence in our lives more fully than we ever have. Maybe, if we want to experience God’s presence most fully, most deeply and most truly, we should look for God in need - in the need of those around us and even in our own times of need rather than simply looking for God in blessings. That understanding challenges the whole reward-punishment concept of faith.
So, with Advent almost upon us just one week away, and with Christmas not far off, and with a new year beckoning when so many of us are going to commit ourselves to going deeper with God (because for Christians that’s a common New Year’s Resolution) let me give you a challenge: use all the holiday gratitude and thankfulness and joy and love that we speak of and sign about and feel at this time of year to seek out and serve the ones who find gratitude and thankfulness and joy and love difficult - and do it all year round. If you do that, you just might discover Jesus anew!
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