THE ENDGAME
Text: Matthew 25:31 - 46
Matthew 25: 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. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then 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; 35 for 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, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then 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? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And 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,[a] you did it to me.’ 41 Then 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; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I 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.’ 44 Then 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?’ 45 Then 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.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said “We judge ourselves by what we are capable of doing; others judge us by what we have done”.— http://www.moreillustrations.com/Illustrations/judgment%205.html
God will judge us based upon what we did with the talents, time, opportunities, abilities and goodwill we had as disciples. Will we be salty and bright with all of those things?
Who doesn't want to be the sheep in this story? Who doesn’t want to receive the kingdom that was prepared before the world began?
Is compassion based on belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Acts 4:11 - 12 points out that those who have rejected Jesus have rejected the cornerstone. “Matthew 25 has three parables about three different angles of apathy that are warnings to the Church about its responsibility. Matthew 25:1-13 is the parable of the ten virgins. It is about five people who were getting ready as well as the other five who procrastinated until it was too late to do something about salvation.
Matthew 25:14-30 gives the parable of the talents. It is a story about how we are to use the gifts that God gave us by applying them without withholding any potential.
Matthew 25:31-46 is the story of the sheep and the goats, and it is a story about hospitality [and reciprocity, and spiritual negligence]”. (from my book: J. McKinley Williams III. The Seven Deadly Sins How They Rival God’s Love. Redemption Press, 2013, p. 42). Fruits and faith go together for those who believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. As the three parables of Matthew 25 point out, complacency, laziness and indifference invite condemnation.
This parable about the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31- 46) illustrates three things, compassion, reciprocity and judgment.
COMPASSION
Do our actions make a difference?
1) The needy: You see someone who is in need who is hungry, thirsty, estranged from others, naked, sick or in prison.
2) Criticism and judgment: What do you do? How many will be critical and judgmental? How can we judge a stranger that could be a victim of one or more of the things on this list?
3) Conclusions: If we don’t know them, then how can we draw honest conclusions? What if you do know that person in need?
4) Compassion: Are we not called to show compassion whether friend or foe? What would Jesus do?
Is compassion caught or taught? “There is the story of this woman who was a dog trainer and had heard about a theory she wanted to test. She had that dogs that have compassion will stand by their master when they see their master is hurt. Dogs that are angry might bite. She tested the theory on her two dogs while eating pizza for supper. She pretended to be hurt and fell in the floor. The dogs looked at her and then each other and then headed for her pizza”. (Edward K. Rowell and Bonne L. Steffen. Humor for Preaching and Teaching. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996). It is ironic that the dog species, who is supposed to be man’s best friend, echoed the behavior that humans often exhibit.
How many classes of sin are described in this parable? 1) The sins of commission: There are the sins of commission where we missed the mark of God’s call on our lives because we sinned by doing the things we were not supposed to do. 2) The sins of omission: Sins of omission are the things that we left undone that we she have done. Our ministry to the least of these involves both kinds of these sins when we do not do what Jesus would have us do.
RECIPROCITY
What does reciprocity mean to you?
1) Golden Rule: Does it mean do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12)? God demonstrated his love for us while we were still His enemies (Romans 5:8)while His only begotten Son Jesus (John 3:16) died on the cross to take away our sins (John 1:29) and give us His righteousness (II Corinthians 5:21).
2) God’s love calls us to be transformed: God’s love transforms us (Romans 12:1) from who were were in a life of sin to who were are as new creatures in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17 paraphrased). Do our lives bear the testimony that God’s Holy Spirit is at work in our lives that we are God’s children---God’s adopted children in our ways (Romans 8:14- 16)? Do we pick our crosses and follow in the footsteps of Christ as His disciples? Luke 14:27 says “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (ESV).
There is a story that recently circulated on the internet about how a 10,000 member congregation got humbled. The story went something like this.
It was a Sunday morning when the new pastor was to come for his very first sermon. Outside the church, a man who was obviously homeless showed up asking for food and something to drink. He was ignored by almost everyone, except for three people. One of the ushers escorted him. Many people looked at him as if he were out of place.
The worship service began and it was time for the sermon. The church Lay Leaders who had been leading the service was telling everyone that the new preacher was among them and would soon deliver the sermon. All eyes were searching for this new preacher with applause. When it came time to introduce the new preacher, the man who appeared to be homeless went to the pulpit. The lay leaders were in on this plan to introduce the new preacher.
He began to recite the text of Matthew 25:31 - 46. It had to sting when he when he read…. “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. …”(Matthew 25:42 - 43 paraphrased). He (Pastor Jeremiah Steepek) then proceeded to say “After he recited this, he looked towards the congregation and told them all what he had experienced that morning... many began to cry and many heads were bowed in shame... he then said... Today I see a gathering of people... not a church of Jesus Christ. The world has enough people, but not enough disciples... when will YOU decide to become disciples? He then dismissed service until next week... Being a Christian is more than something you claim. It's something you live by and share with others” COLLECTED VIA E-MAIL, JULY 2013 https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pastor-present-2/ Some from the snopes.com website suspect that this is a good story but not necessarily true. Others have pointed out how this story represents how some pastors have actually got introduced this way to their new congregations.
What about reciprocity in real life? The preacher in this story that I just shared with you proved to illustrate an unforgettable object lesson. How would it make you feel if you had been one of the people in attendance at that that church? Would you feel shame? Does God want us to share His love to others as God has shared His live with us?
Remember how Paul once said not to give in to conforming to the world’s patterns (Romans 12:2)? If our conformity to the world’s pattern were to change our outward appearance to something hideous, then how would we feel? Remember the moral of the Beauty and the Beast story? The Beast was a former prince who let his pride and arrogance get the best of him. He might have been eye candy on the outside, but on the inside he had an ugly side. There was a lady whom he ignored who put a curse on him. His curse was that he became without what he was within---a beast. Max Lucado took this same story and put it’s conclusion in a biblical perspective:
“But here the correlation with Beauty and the Beast ends. In the fable, the beauty kisses the beast. In the Bible, the beauty does much more. He becomes the beast so the beast can become the beauty. Jesus changes places with us. We, like Adam, were under a curse, but Jesus "changed places with us and put himself under that curse" (Gal. 3:13).” (Max Lucado. He Chose The Nails. Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000, p. 20). Jesus took the beastliness of our sin to the cross to give us the beauty of His righteousness.
JUDGMENT
Who doesn’t want to be a sheep in this story?
1) Sheep: Obviously, the sheep are the good guys. As we mentioned at the beginning, “who doesn’t want to be the sheep in this story?” The sheep who were on the right, receive the kingdom before the world began. (Matthew 25:34 CEB). That means a world that is trouble free. It will be a utopia---a perfect world. No more viruses, pandemics, doctors, dentists, hospitals, politics, medicines, pain suffering, famine, war natural disasters tears or death. Or , as it says in Revelation no more sea which is a metaphor for suffering in the book of Revelation (Revelation 20:1)! Who would not want that world?
2) Goats: Who would want to be with the goats? The goats, who were on the left, receive the terrible things where they will join the unending fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41 CEB paraphrased). Notice, that God prepared this place the devil and his fallen angels, and not for us. Paul shares with us that “God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the foundation of the world. God destined us to be His adopted children through Jesus Christ because of His love” (Ephesians 1:3 - 5 a CEB).
What about the least of these?
1) Parable: In Matthew 25:31- 46, Jesus tells a parable about how the nations will be gathered, separated and judged by the Son of Man. The judgement is not based on the law or heritage, but how we have ministered to or rejected the needs of those around us.
2) The simple things: William Barclay said, ”the needs of others in the simple things--- [are] the kind of help that any man can give.” (William Barclay. And Jesus Said. Philadelphia:Westminster press, 1970, p. 107). The one thing that is more than evident throughout this whole parable is that judgment is exercised on how well or how poorly we exercised compassion in our calling as Jesus’s disciples who are called to follow in His footsteps. Obviously, behavior and belief go together.
3) A funeral home director: There is the story about a woman who worked for a funeral home director who was in business for over fifty years. He was always seen with a little black book that he carried with him for all of those years. That little black back became the topic of many speculations as to what was in it. What were those notes he was always writing in it? One speculated that he kept a list of his girlfriends in it. Another speculated that he kept his horse race bets in it. This employee who is telling us this story even believed at first that this funeral home director might be a womanizer.
This speculation had gone on for three years. One day, the funeral director died because of a heart attack. Four days later they had his funeral. It was packed. Even the governor was at his funeral. Flowers were everywhere.
The minister asked the funeral director’s widow to come and share a word about his character. She was carrying the mystery black book. She held up the book and many of you saw him carry this book with him. She read the first entry of the book dated April 17, 1920---Mary Flannery, she is alone. The next entry August 8, 1920 ---Frieda M. Gale, she is all alone. You see when he made funeral arrangements or saw somebody at a funeral he knew was all alone, he would write their names in this book. Then every Christmas Eve, he would call each person and invite them to share a Christmas dinner at our house. I want you to know that this was the true character of my husband; he was concerned, compassionate and caring. This is what this little black book was all about, and I also want you to know that this being 1971, he did this for fifty Christmases. (Amy Newark. A Book of Christmas Miracles. Chicken Soup for the Soul. 2017, pp. 189 - 191). His life was a testimony of sharing love with others as God had shared His love with him.
Romans 1:20 says “Ever since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities----God’s eternal power and divine nature---have been clearly seen, because they are understood through the things that God has made. So humans are without excuse” (CEB). The endgame moment will come for us all individually or collectively. It will come when our appointed time has come as individuals (Hebrews 9:27). Or, It will come when Christ comes back in His majesty and all of His angels The gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world as a testimony to all the nations. Then the end will come (Matthew 24:14). That is why Christ will judge individuals, nations, believers and unbelievers. Will we be among the sheep or the goats? The two things that we all want to hear are “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23) and “Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began” (Matthew 25:34 CEB). Do our actions not testify which kingdom we are choosing in the ways that we minister to the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40) every day? God wants us all to be His sheep!
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
