START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 25:31-46
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OBSERVE:
This is a passage that is familiar to many Christians. Because it is so well-known, we may need to look at it with fresh eyes.
First, we note that it is an eschatological passage — it relates to the end of days. The King is judging all nations. There is no exceptionalism here. Israel is not singled out, nor is the United States, or any of the great nations that have existed. All the people of the nations are judged by one criterion — how did they treat the King? Jesus also refers to himself as the Son of Man, a title adapted from the Book of Daniel. Jesus says of himself and the final judgment:
But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
The King is separating the righteous from the unrighteous as the shepherd might separate sheep from goats. This was no doubt a common practice among shepherds. Sheep are more desirable for their soft wool and docile demeanor, and goats less so because they are more aggressive and their wool less desirable.
But this is where the analogy ends. The “sheep,” or the righteous, aren’t selected because of looks or docility, but because they served the need of the Son of Man in some way — they fed him, gave him something to drink, welcomed him, clothed him, or visited him when he was sick or in prison. In other words, they are selected because they were compassionate to him.
But they are caught by surprise. They have no idea that they served the Son of Man in any way. They simply fed a hungry beggar, or gave water to someone who was thirsty, or welcomed a stranger, or cared for a sick person, or went to visit a prisoner.
Jesus makes clear that in doing so, they were ministering to him incognito:
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Here I pose a troublesome question. Who are the least of these brothers and sisters? Is he referring to his disciples? Usually we assume that Jesus means that whenever we minister to the poor or the alien or the sick, we are ministering to him. But is that what he is saying?
In any event, he also makes it clear what the grounds of condemnation are against the unrighteous “goats.” They have failed to minister to the hungry, naked, poor, or the sick or the prisoner — and they are cast out.
APPLY:
This is a powerful passage, but it is also troublesome. The basis of “salvation” is not Paul’s “justification by faith,” but works of compassion and mercy.
And we may find ourselves asking every time we pass a man on a city street holding a sign asking for help, ‘Is that Jesus?’ Or when we can’t bring ourselves to visit a sick church member because of our own delicate sensibilities, do we avoid visiting Jesus?
Needless to say, this passage should increase our sensitivity to those in need around us. Jesus appears to us in the hungry of our city; in the thirsty African children who don’t have wells for water; in the homeless bag lady shivering from the cold; in the cancer patient suffering from chemotherapy; in the prisoner who feels abandoned and unloved.
And it may also remind us of our very desperate need for justification by faith through grace — that we will never be able to meet the needs of every person with whom we come in contact, and we will have to throw ourselves on the mercy of Christ when it’s all said and done!
RESPOND:
There are many stories of the saints who have put this principle into practice:
Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
Martin of Tours. Francis of Assisi. Mother Teresa.
Martin, a soldier in the Roman army, cuts his cloak in half with his sword and gives one half to a shivering beggar in the dead of winter — and soon after leaves the Legions to devote himself to Christ.
Francis passes a leper on the road, and is filled with revulsion — but he overcomes aversion and gives the leper a coin, kissing the leper’s hand as he does so. And he takes the vow of poverty in order to serve Christ the rest of his life.
When Teresa began to live out her mission to the poor in Calcutta, she identified with the poor because she herself was poor and alone in the streets like they. She begged for food and supplies to help the poor, and began to teach the children to read. She told of finding a woman lying in the rubbish, dying, bitten by rats and ants. She picked her up and took her to a hospital where she refused to leave until the woman was hospitalized and treated. The woman was saved.
All of these accounts, and so many more, illustrate the simple actions of Christians who take seriously Jesus’ words in the parable of the sheep and the goats.
I find this parable of Jesus haunting — and troubling. I’m no saint. I’ve helped people here and there who were transients, or needed food, or a place to stay. But my efforts have been sporadic, and usually an interruption to the “important” aspects of my pastoral ministry.
I am under conviction that when I see the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and imprisoned, I need to look closer. They aren’t an interruption to my ministry. They are my ministry. And if I look very close, I will see Jesus.
My Lord, I realize that I am deeply conflicted. I have helped many people before, but I confess that sometimes I say no. I sometimes fear that when judgment comes I will stand before you and see you as that street beggar that I ignored, or that woman who claimed that she couldn’t afford her heating bill. All I can do is ask forgiveness where I have failed to recognize you. Have mercy on me. Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Sheep and Goats Matthew 25 verses 31 to 46” uses the following photos:
“Sheep Talk 1” and “Fur and Feathers” by John are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
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