When Was It…?

“When was it that we saw you hungry… thirsty… naked… a stranger… sick… or in prison…?- Matthew 25

Whenever I read this parable of The Sheep and the Goats I think of something that Mark Twain said: “It is not those parts of the Bible that I do not understand that bother me. It is the parts of the Bible that I do understand that bother me the most.”

I think I understand a lot of what this parable is about, and because I mostly get it, I am bothered by it; “bothered” in the sense that its message is radical for the direction this parable challenges me to take and live my life.  And if you are not “bothered” by it, then maybe you ought to be. 

First, I want to say something about the context in which the parable appears in Matthew because, in the Bible, context is always critical to understanding. 

This parable is the crescendo of five chapters of confrontative preaching and teaching by Jesus after he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday of Passion Week. In Matthew 21 Jesus enters Jerusalem and goes straight to the temple, and immediately heals the blind and the lame.  Scandalized by such an act, his authority is challenged by the chief priests and religious leaders.  He then tells The Parable of the Vineyard which is an indictment of the very religious leaders who were challenging his authority.

Chapters 22 and 23 are a continuation and escalation of his confrontation with the religious leaders.  In chapter 23 he severely admonishes and exposes the shallow piety and phony religious practice of scribes and Pharisees, accusing them of hypocrisy and ignoring the most important aspects of the faith concerning justice, compassion, and mercy.

In chapter 24 Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple and foretells that the end of the age and final judgment is soon to come, and he implores his disciples to “stay awake” and be faithful for no one knows the times, dates and seasons of that awesome day, not even him, other than that day will come as a great surprise.

Finally in chapter 25, Jesus tells three parables concerning the coming end of the age and what his faithful followers are to be about in getting ready and preparing for it.  Among the three parables are The Sheep and the Goats, and also The Parable of the Talents, which we looked at last week and The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids.

Down through the ages, and our time most certainly being no exception, some Christians have been preoccupied, and even obsessed, with trying to figure when the end of the age will come.  Personally, I do not spend any time on such calculations and prognostications whatsoever – none – zero – nada - and I will tell you why.

First, Jesus said only God the Father knows such things and He’s not telling!  I mean what more needs to be said?  In Matthew 24:36 Jesus said, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”    That should end any discussion or speculation right there, but in case that is not good enough for you, Jesus also said that the Son of Man is coming “at an unexpected hour.”  (Matthew 24:44)  In other words, even if you think you know, you don’t, so don’t even bother trying to figure it out. 

However, for many, I guess these explicit directives of Jesus are not sufficient and lot of energy is spent, (and money made) towards attempting to prognosticate the times of such things.

If Matthew 25 and The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats means anything at all, it is all about what we are supposed to be doing, and the kind of lives things we are supposed to be living in preparation for that final and awesome say Day of the Lord.  After Jesus’ indictment of a shallow, rootless and phony piety, his parable illustrates the authentic kind of piety and action he desires for his disciples to take and live. 

Two years ago this month an Ontario man named Fred Whan, after burning a fish stick at dinner, found, with the help of his son, the face of Jesus on his fish stick. Last year he took it out of the freezer and put it up for auction on Ebay.

Also last year, Diana Duyser of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, told the world she had found an image of the Virgin Mary on her burnt grilled cheese sandwich ten years ago and has kept it in her freezer all this time.  She decided that it was time to auction it off and she did on Ebay - for $28,000!

No matter what you think about these “miraculous” images, they do seem to point to a yearning in our culture to find God and Christ in everyday, ordinary things.  Dan French, a journalist who reported on these images says, “We all long for a faith-worthy sign to give us at least a fleeting clue on how to live our best lives and be our best selves in a confused, nearly un-navigable world.”

I can identify with that statement and perhaps you can as well.  I too look and long for a faith-worthy sign that can empower me to live my best life and be my best self in a confused and un-navigable world.  The problem I have with such cheesy icon worship is what does it ever mean to worship and serve a God whose image I just found on a fish stick or burnt cheese sandwich that ended up as an over-priced commodity on eBay?

Like Jesus did with the scribes and Pharisees whose faith was founded on trivialities and minutiae, I believe Jesus would admonish us for placing our faith in such inconsequential things and believing that it is in places like these that God’s glory and will are revealed.

I am the first to admit that sometimes, if not most of the time, God seems absent and missing in action in the world. But the truth that jumps off the page and springs out of this parable is the awareness that our God, the one true God; the God who created the universe; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who is in the crucified and risen Jesus, resides most completely in the faces and places of suffering. If it’s the face of God you are looking for, the place to find it is not in fish sticks and cheese sandwiches, but in the suffering faces of the last and least on this planet.  This is a stark contrast to other religions of the world. Other religions of the world talk about their god revealing himself in the beauty of the sunset, the birth of babies, the bounty of nature, or in a perfect piety.

But our God in Jesus Christ is the only God  who enters human life experience totally and completely taking on a personal face and living a real life.

Our God in Jesus Christ is the only God who gets himself crucified. 

Our God in Jesus Christ is the only God who makes himself vulnerable to the despairing realities of being human – even the reality of death.

Our God in Jesus Christ is the only God who doesn’t require that we ascend to Him, but he descends to us.

Our God in Jesus Christ is the only God whose identification and involvement with a suffering and broken humanity is so total and so comprehensive that he says, “…as you did it to one of the least of these… you did it to me.”

This Parable of the Sheep and the Goats declares the mission we are to be about and the value system we are to employ to get ready for the Lord and experience God in the world now.  Our mission is to go out and minister to the Lord himself in the world as we bring mercy, justice, and compassion to the suffering faces and places of humanity. 

I like to think of it this way:  When I bring an expression of mercy or compassion to another, I don’t merely bring Christ to them, but I also I meet Christ in them. 

Ask our youth and adults who traveled to Tanzania last year on the mission trip, or those who have traveled to Mexico any of the past several summers on mission trips to build houses who they perceived to be the most blessed by their mission of mercy.  To a person, they will tell you that it was they who felt the most blessed as a result of the experience, because somehow, and someway, by some incredible miracle when they reached out to serve “the least and last of the members of God’s family” they got in touch like never before with the desperate poverty in their own souls and found themselves ministered to, as much or even more than they ministered to the other.

As the journalist said, “I… long for a faith-worthy sign that can empower me to live my best life and be my best self in a confused and un-navigable world.”

It is the Lord himself who points us in the direction of the least and the last, because His face is seen there – in their faces.  If we take this parable seriously at all we can only come to the conclusion that our Lord’s suffering is not over.  It continues on.  It goes on in the faces and lives of the least and the last, whoever and wherever they may be – around the corner or around the world.  The cross of Jesus is planted all over this earth, and he’s still suffering and dying on it.  It is our mission to bring compassion, justice and mercy to alleviate his suffering.

I find it stunning that the parable begins by saying that the time is coming when all the “nations” of the world will be gathered before the throne of the King.  The Greek word used there is “ethne” which is an inclusive and comprehensive Greek term for all people and governments.  It leaves me with questions; interesting questions.

  - I wonder how our own government and congress are doing as far as the King is concerned, especially after last Friday when severe cuts to programs that serve the least and last among us were passed in a budget resolution: cuts to food stamps, Medicaid and child care; and at the same time more tax cuts for the wealthiest 10% of Americans were also passed. I wonder if they look more like sheep or goats to the king?

  - I wonder how we are doing at Holy Love Lutheran Church when it comes to ministering to the hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers, the sick and imprisoned?  Do we look more like sheep or goats?

  - How are you doing?  How I am doing?    Do we look more like sheep or goats?

One last word:  Jesus did not tell stories like this to frighten or terrify us into action. The Gospel truth we confess is that our status as sheep before God is given to us as a gift by the atoning work of Jesus Christ.  We are saved by grace through faith, not by works.  But the grace of God that washes us clean and lives within us is dynamic and alive, and it is not meant to be kept to ourselves, but meant to be given away, and to shape our lives, and lived to the fullest. 

For me this parable is like a flashing neon sign that points us in the direction the Lord intends for his disciples to go; and to whom the Lord desires for his disciples to go, and how the Lord Jesus intends for his disciples to live.  The added measure of grace is that the Lord Jesus is already out there, in the faces of the last and the least, waiting to meet us and surprise us.