There are, of course, another set of sayings that have tended to be common to all families. How about this one? "Hurry up and get ready, or you'll be late!" Or this one - "Stop fussing! You'll have to make do with what you've got!" Or - "Whatever have you been doing?"
I don't know whether any of those sayings are ever used at your place. In a way, the three of them relate to the three stories of Matthew 25.
"Hurry up and get ready, or you'll be late!" A fortnight ago we were thinking about the story of the ten girls, five wise and five foolish. The foolish ones just weren't prepared. Perhaps they might have accused the bridegroom of being late. But they weren't ready until too late - the door was closed!
"Stop fussing! You'll have to make do with what you've got!" Last week was about the three servants and what they did with the money entrusted to them by their master in his absence. Two of them made good use of it. They were able to give their master double what he had entrusted to them. The third one complained about his master's expectations and failed to make any use of what he had.
"Whatever have you been doing?" This frequently-used parental complaint is reflected in today's story in which the King is calling all peoples to account for what they have been doing with their lives. In a sense it is reflected in all three stories which remind us that Jesus is coming again and that we have to be ready for him.
From the earliest times, sheep were an important part of the Israelite economy. In the early days, almost every family owned a few sheep and therefore someone in the family was a shepherd. Goats were also important. They often grazed together with the sheep and sometimes had to be separated from them. Goats had a bad reputation. They were regarded as stubborn and aggressive, and, when kept with sheep, they tended to be the dominant animals in the group. They might have seemed like one flock, but the shepherd knew and, when bringing them into the fold at night, would separate them into two groups.
It is against this background that Jesus painted the picture of the final judgment in today's reading. The Son of Man - that is the very quiet title Jesus used for himself - the Son of Man is going to come as King with all his angels and he will sit down on his royal throne. The people of all nations will be gathered before him.
It is a very awesome thought. Jesus had come to live in the world in great humility and with many limitations. He became hungry, thirsty, got tired… But he is going to come back again in all the glory that he had laid aside and everyone - without any exceptions - will be gathered before him. Herod will be there. Pontius Pilate will be there. Hitler will be there. Stalin will be there… Billions will be gathered there, and Jesus will know every thought, every word, every action, every plot, every lie, every clever manoeuvre…
The people of the world will be divided into two groups "just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." We tend to pin a lot of faith on what we call "grey areas". Many things, we say, aren't black and white. But on that Day, a division will take place. The two groups will be as clearly distinguished as the sheep and goats are to the shepherd.
The people on his right are the ones who "got it right." To them the Son of Man says, "Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom that has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me."
They didn't know they had served Christ in these ways. "I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!"
The people on his left were sent "away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels" for their failure to serve Christ in these ways. They profess ignorance of ever having failed to do so.
Now here's a problem to consider. Jesus told the parable. We are "in the know." Many, of course, aren't. But how can we who have heard the parable ever say, "Lord, when did we ever see you hungry, thirsty, naked..."? We can read this parable and then make sure that we support the victims of the natural and man-made disasters that afflict this world... We can recognise the good work done by church agencies such as Life Line, Blue Nursing, Children's Homes, Hospital and Prison Chaplaincy and ensure that these get generous support over and above our regular weekly giving. Then, when the judgment comes, we will be able to say to the Lord, "Yes, Lord, we did, didn't we? We served you through the Christmas Bowl. We helped you with a retiring offering. We gave generously to the special appeal..."
The whole tenor of New Testament teaching is that we can't earn our way to heaven. Salvation is "not of works, lest anyone should boast." Yet somehow we have understood this picture of the last judgment in a way that makes our good works the final test after all!
As we read we notice that both groups failed to recognise that they were serving (or not serving) Jesus (note verses 37 and 44). It was not as if one group was consciously trying to score points while the other lot forgot to do anything about it. Looking at it that way misses the whole point.
Jesus said we are to "love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength" and then to "love our neighbour as we love ourself." Our big sin is that we try to live independently of God. We forsake our relationship with the Creator. Even our goodness is "me being good", a sort of independent goodness that we can claim as part of "doing my own thing."
The picture Jesus paints always gives us a great deal to ponder. It is not a scoreboard on which to check our progress towards eternity, but an indicator of what is happening within us. The fact that God's gift of life is growing within us will be visible as we share it with others. This will be one of the clear signs that we have made the gift our own.
We haven't really grasped God's gift of life if we fail to see that it is for others too. Some use this idea of eternal life simply to boost their own self-image. In reality, they live independently of God and forfeit a claim on real life.
Jesus emphasised that sharing must follow receiving. Notice his theme. Because we have been loved by God, we must love. "I tell you: love your enemies, and pray for those who mistreat you, so that you will become the sons of your Father in heaven" (Mt.5.44-45) "I am your Lord and Teacher, and I have just washed your feet. You then, should wash one another's feet" (Jn.13.14).
"A new commandment I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then all will know that you are my disciples" (Jn.13.34-5).
Because God forgives us, we must forgive others. "Forgive us what we owe you, as we forgive what others owe us" (Mt.6.12). Peter's question, "Lord, how many times can my brother sin against me and I have to forgive him? Seven times?" missed the whole point (Mt.18.21-35). Receiving God's forgiveness lays upon us the necessity of forgiving others.
Two things stand out with sharpness in Jesus' picture of the last judgment. One is the extent to which Jesus felt the pain and suffering of the world about him. The other is that he expressed his severe judgment concerning the failure to do good. As with the parables of the ten girls and the three servants, his focus was not on positive wrong-doing as much as on what are sometimes called "sins of omission."
We all live, and will continue to live, in an unevenly distributed world. That puts us in the position of being able to be on one side of the King or the other.
Sometimes in the course of a meal I may find that the bread, butter, jam and sundry other items happen to be in front of me. But I don't say, "How lucky I am! All of this is for me!" Not at all! I have the privilege of passing the food to others who need it - I should have noticed their need sooner! What is given to me is given in trust - not to hoard, but to share!
"Whatever have you been doing?" He already knows, of course! He came and lived and died so that we could be forgiven, so that we could be made new, so that we could "possess the kingdom which has been prepared for us ever since the creation of the world." The eternal fire was never intended for human beings - it was "prepared for the Devil and his angels."
By his death on the cross, the Lord has made every provision so that every sin can be forgiven. This offer only has to be accepted by faith. But the difference will be seen in our lives and in our world. The lives of Christ's people are meant to express within the world the kind of caring and sharing that was God's original intention for human life anyway.
Back to Sermons