[The following is the manuscript of my meditation delivered at the Lenten Service held at Emanuel Reformed Church in Thomasville, NC on Sunday, the 22nd of March, 2015.]
31 “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. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
--Matthew 25:31-46 (NKJV)
Let us pray… Father, open our eyes that we might see; open our ears that we might hear; open our hearts that we might receive the message You have for us tonight. In the glorious name of Christ Jesus we pray. Amen.
Lent is that time in our Christian calendar when we repent of our sin and remember the tremendous sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. Our scripture this evening comes from the time after Jesus made His final, and triumphant, entry into Jerusalem, as He was facing His last days on earth and that great sacrifice just ahead.
While this isn’t the well-known Sermon on the Mount, recorded earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, this is part of a long sequence Jesus related to His disciples from the Mount of Olives, preparing them for what was to come. In fact, this is the last parable Jesus gave in the last sermon He delivered. But this particular passage speaks to us today as well, with a message we would be well-advised to heed, for this brings home the full reality of judgment.
As usual, Jesus painted images with His words, putting His lessons into a context the people could easily understand. Here He speaks of a shepherd separating his sheep from his goats, an action His disciples would have seen as familiar. It was common to have goats and sheep grazing together, but at night the goats would be separated to keep them warm while the more valuable sheep were allowed to stay in the open air as they preferred.
The prophet Ezekiel centuries earlier used a very similar analogy, in chapter 34 verse 17 of his book when he spoke for God saying…
17 ‘And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.”’--Ezekiel 34:17 (NKJV)
In both cases, when judging the sheep on the right and the goats on the left, Jesus will use the same criteria: “Did you give Me food when I was hungry? Did you give Me something to drink when I was thirsty? Did you take Me in and show me hospitality when I was a stranger in your land? Did you clothe Me when I was naked? Did you visit Me when I was sick? Did you come to Me when I was imprisoned?”
And both sides will respond in almost the same way: Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or in need of clothing, or ill, or in prison? And Jesus will answer both the right and the left, the way you treated the very least among you, that is how you treated Me. Matthew quoted Jesus as saying, “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”
Those of us that understand that we are saved only by God’s grace realize that no amount of good works will ever gain us entry into heaven. Our salvation is based solely on our belief in Jesus as His Son and our acceptance of Him as our Master. But it sounds like Jesus is contradicting that, saying that if we do all these good things He listed that we will go to heaven.
Emanuel family, there is no contradiction. For if we truly believe in Jesus as Lord, accept Him as our Master, love Him as our Savior, then we will do anything He wants us to do. Do You remember what Jesus said are the two most important things to do? To love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. And to love each other as we love ourselves.
Brothers and sisters, this is the ultimate expression of loving one another. This is putting love into practice. Feeding the hungry, providing drink for the thirsty, clothing the needy, being kind to the stranger, visiting the sick and the incarcerated… When we take care of the least of these among us - the poorest, the neediest - Jesus sees it as an active extension of His commandment to us to love one another as we love ourselves.
So we have to ask, when was the last time we worked a soup kitchen or homeless shelter feeding program? When did we help pass out coffee or bottles of water and ham sandwiches? When did we last go through our list of friends and acquaintances collecting gently used clothing for redistribution to the poor? What do you think in your heart of all those aliens in our country, whether legally or not – how do you personally treat the strangers in our land? When did you last participate in a jail or prison ministry, or go out visiting the hospitalized, institutionalized, or homebound?
I know for a fact that some of you do these, or at least some of these, on a regular basis. And I know you will be placed on the right hand of Jesus our Lord. But I also know many of us fail this test, some miserably.
Folks, the choice is ours. When Jesus gathers us all together to judge us, do we want to be sent to His right hand or His left?
It really is that simple. Do we want to be in the long line to the left, or the shorter one to the right? If we want to go to the right, we need to believe in and love Jesus with all our heart. We need to accept Him as our Master and do what He tells us to do – feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, be kind to those who “ain’t from around here”. We will be judged.
Left or right?
Choose.
Amen.
Let us pray… Lord Jesus, we do believe in You. You are the one true Son of God, sent by the Father to offer us the gift of everlasting life. We recognize You as our Savior, Christ Jesus; now please help us accept You as our Master, as the One who rules over us, Whose will we have sworn to obey.
Gracious Lord, we do not want to be culled out and sent to the left with the goats. You have made it very clear what we must do to be counted among Your sheep. First and foremost we must believe in You and accept You as our Lord, our Master. Precious Jesus, if there is one present tonight who does not know You or who is unsure in their belief, then please lead them to me or their pastor that we might help bring them to You.
And then You show us, Lord, that we must love each other, no matter what. We must show that love in tangible ways, put that love into practice by helping others when they are in need. We must understand that You consider us to be ignoring You when we ignore others in their time of need. Lord, may we never ignore You.
Christ Jesus, You are our Lord, You are our Master, You are our Savior. And it is in Your beautiful name we pray.
Amen.
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