Matthew 25:31-46.
“You ought to be congratulated”
Scripture Readings:-
James 1:19-27
Matthew 25:31-46 (text)
Congregation in the Lord,
The basic teaching of this passage is obvious … Jesus summarizes it in verse 46. “Then they (the goats) will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous (sheep will go) to eternal life”. There is no confusion. There are no issues left hanging in the air. On the day of judgement our destiny will be clearly revealed by Jesus who is the righteous judge. But what is not so clear is the standard which is used to bring this judgement about. Let’s compare verse 40 with verse 45
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me’.” (verse 40)
“He (the King) will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me’.” (verse 45)
The ultimate destiny of the sheep and the goats totally hinges around the way they treated “the least of these”. So if we are going to understand this passage properly we need to answer the question, “Who are the least?”.
At first glance the answer seems to be quite simple. The least seem to be the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the unclothed, the sick and the prisoner. The people in our society who are down and out. Those who are considered to be a drain to social resources. Those who are on the fringes because of their actions. The uncared for. The unloved. The difficult to get along with. These are the least. This means that the sheep are the ones who have carefully looked after such people, while the goats are the ones who have ignored their responsibility to such people.
That is what seems to be happening at first glance – but first impressions are not always the best. If we were to hold onto this first impression we are actually undermining the very foundation of Scripture. Think about the relief work which is done by the United Nations. Or the aid agencies which are connected to organisations like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. They all help the stranger who is hungry and thirsty. They give support to the unclothed, the sick and the prisoner. They are doing great work and spending millions of dollars. But for all that work many of the people involved in these organizations and religious groups will not be among the sheep. It has to be so because many of the people in these organizations have not confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
The foundation of Scripture is a foundation of salvation by grace alone. In no way can this passage be interpreted to mean that the sheep earned their salvation but the goats didn’t earn it. Look at verse 34. “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’.” One does not earn an inheritance … an inheritance is given. All the sheep have been bought at a price. All the sheep have received the gift of life at the greatest of costs. For the same King who sits robed in majesty, who judges all the nations, who wears the crown of glory, this same King once wore a crown of thorns. This King was despised and rejected, betrayed and abandoned and left all alone to die. All of the work necessary to enable the sheep to be where they are has been done by Christ. There is nothing we can do to earn a place next to the King. This is a central truth of the Scriptures – and it is a central truth embedded in this passage.
But it still looks like this passage is teaching that we are saved by our works. The sheep are given eternal life because whatever they did for one of the least of these brothers of Jesus, they did for Jesus. The goats are sent to eternal punishment because whatever they did not do for one of the least of these brothers of Jesus, they did not do for Jesus. So how can we be sure that this passage is not going against the foundational truth that we are saved by grace alone? The answer comes by once again having a closer look at verse 40:-
“The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me’.”
Again we ask, “Who are the least?”. As we saw earlier, at first glance, it looks like the least are all the people in our society who are uncared for, unloved, and difficult to get along with. The down and out. Those who are on the fringes. Those who are a drain on social resources. So let’s move on from a first glance to a more in depth gaze. To do that we need to go back to Matthew 10.
We start at Matthew 10:5-7:-
“These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instruction. “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near’.”
These words introduce us to the setting of what is happening in this chapter. Jesus is organising the disciples to go onto a preaching tour and He is giving them some parting instructions.
During the preaching tour they will meet with mixed reactions. These reactions are described in Matthew 10:12-15:-
“As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town”.
Once the reactions have been established Jesus tells the disciples what they ought to do when they receive a specific response. This is described in Matthew 10:40-42:-
“He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward”.
When we put all these verses together we see that there are those who are going to receive the teaching of the disciples and there are those who won’t. Those who don’t receive the teaching of the disciples will also want nothing to do with the disciples as people. Those who do receive the disciples will be willing to help and support in the cause, and so they will also care for the disciples. And because they have received the disciples they have, in effect, received Jesus. That is what is happening in Matthew 10. Now let’s move back to our text especially verse 40 again:-
“The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me’.”
Not everyone who is hungry, thirsty, a stranger, unclothed, sick and in prison is a brother of Jesus. So this passage is not saying, “Help the one in need and go to heaven; ignore them and you’ll be condemned”. Rather this is a passage that deals with our response to the messengers and representatives of Jesus. The ones who go hungry and thirsty for the sake of Jesus and the Word. The ones who are strangers in this world but who want to spread the message of salvation. The ones who have been persecuted, and suffered sickness, and imprisoned because they make sharing the Word a priority. The sheep have done what they have done because they recognised the value of the message which the hungry, thirsty, sick, unclothed, stranger in prison was bringing. They realised that these people where messengers of hope and restoration. And so they did what was necessary to help them. The goats wanted nothing to do with this message so they also ignored the messengers. The big issue in this passage is not, “Who have you been helping?’. The big issue in this passage is, “How have you responded to the message of salvation?”.
Now let’s just stop and think about what is really happening here. There is a whole group of people who have just been told that they are cursed and they will spend the rest of their lives in an eternal fire along with the devil and all his angels of darkness. What is the reason? It is not because they are thieves and murderers. It is not because they were drunkards and drug addicts. It is not because they had uncontrollable rage and were abusive. It is not because they were sexual predators and rapists. The contrast in this passage is not between the sheep and the wolves. It is between the sheep and the goats.
That is a significant contrast since the typical goat and the typical sheep in Israel look very similar. It is easy to tell the difference between a sheep and a wolf. It wasn’t always easy to tell the difference between a sheep and a goat. When Jesus talks about the sheep and the goats He is not talking here about the difference between the scum of society and the cream of the crop. The only issue that separates the two groups is the way they have treated the representatives of Christ who have come to bring the message of salvation.
That is a staggering truth. The way we … we as the Gospel messengers … the way we are treated by the people around us determines how Jesus will decide their ultimate destiny. Jesus identifies with us in such a close manner that whatever happens to us happens to Him. Do you remember how it worked for Paul on the road to Damascus? I’ll read you Paul’s own words from Acts 22:4-8:-
“I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. "About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ’Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute Me?’ ’Who are you, Lord?’ I asked”.
Obviously the actions of Paul against Christians is not just an action against individuals … it is also an action against Jesus Himself. Those who reject the representatives of Jesus by implication are rejecting Jesus Himself. As a result they will be placed among the goats and sent off to be eternal cell mates with the devil.
That is what this passage is about. And that truth ought to cause us to have two responses. The first response has to do with the people around us. No matter what the people around us have done we should still be concerned for their ultimate eternal destiny. Despite how much we have been hurt we have to keep on bringing the message of salvation – for who would want to leave anyone among the goats. We need to tell not-yet-believers that there is a day of judgement … but that day does not need to be a day of hopelessness. For one thing the Judge has not always sat in heaven, waiting for judgment. Indeed, He has done much to prepare people for a favourable judgment.
• At times He was hungry, as when He was tempted in the wilderness and remained righteous for you.
• At times He was thirsty especially when He suffered on the cross.
• At times He was a stranger. His own hometown rejected Him and sought to kill Him.
• At times He was naked, for the soldiers stripped Him bare before they drove the nails into His hands and feet.
• At times He, too, was sick. For He bore your sickness and infirmity on the cross.
• And while He was never imprisoned, He was put into the brutal custody of Roman guards who scourged Him before His death.
As Jesus went through all of this He suffered alone. In the end even God turned His back. Jesus did it all because He wanted us to have the chance to be with the sheep. He is the Judge who has suffered much to us for judgment day.
We need to take that message so that people can have hope. That is the first response. The second response has to do with the way we see each other and deal with each other. We need to be making sure that we do not treat each other in a goat-like manner. Our society trains us from an early age in the fine art of goatliness. We learn quickly as children that if we identify ourselves with the weird kid, or the outcast kid, or the loser kid, we run the risk of being branded as weird, outcast and losers ourselves. It’s guilt by association so you avoid it. Instead you look out for number one. These are the harsh lessons society has to offer us. But then Jesus comes to us with a different agenda. Whatever you do, or do not do, for the least of these, you do, or do not do, for Me.
The least of these brothers of Jesus are not out there in the streets of our city … they are here tonight and with us in our church community. Among the many people we talk to, we almost never talk to them. Among the many names that we remember, theirs is the name we forget. Among the many friends we have, they are not one of them. In between all the things that demand our attention in life, they are on the outside edge of our awareness, unnoticed, peripheral, always there but never receiving any of our time. They never receive a slot in our busy agendas. To get involved in their lives will be too expensive. Our involvement with them will give little or no return.
That might be how we think, but this passage challenges us to re-evaluate such thinking. We have the least among us. Whatever we do for them, we are doing for Jesus. The way we treat them is the way we are treating Jesus. This passage is not just about the way people act towards us. It is also about the way we act towards other Gospel representatives. My friends let that truth guide you the next time you are in a position to do something for the least of the brothers and sisters of Jesus.
Amen.
