Debbie Cato
October 9, 2022
Lord,
open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the
scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you
say to us this day. Silence
in us any voice but your own, that, hearing, we may be obedient to your
will. Help us to live always for your
glory, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
The Right
and The Left
This is a powerful
passage. The story of the sheep and the goats. Those sorted on the right and the left. The Last Judgment as it’s titled. It is especially important because in
Matthew’s Gospel, it is the final story in Jesus’ public teaching
ministry. It makes sense that the last
thing Jesus would say would be something that he would want us to remember;
something important – something with eternal consequences.
And then, in Matthew’s
Gospel, Jesus meets up with his eleven remaining disciples and hands them their
life’s assignment. Jesus says: “Go out into the world & proclaim the
good news of the Kingdom of Heaven.” And; if we call
ourselves disciples of Christ, this is our life assignment as well: Go out
into the world and proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven.
I think this powerful passage that we read this morning is actually a reminder to us of what our life mission is and how Jesus feels about his followers taking the assignment seriously. It is another picture of what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like. And since this is the final teaching in Jesus’ public ministry, Matthew wants imprinted on our conscience, a question that we won’t easily forget. Are we sheep? Or are we goats? In the end, will you be on the right or on the left?
This is not a new
teaching Jesus saved for the end of his ministry! Jesus gives us a glimpse of this new kingdom
at the very beginning of his ministry when he stands in the synagogue in
Nazareth, opens the scroll and says:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because God has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
God has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
“Today,[Jesus says,] this scripture
is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Matthew’s thesis in his gospel is that Jesus is all about heralding in a new kingdom; the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God. A kingdom that is “upside down” from the world as we know it. A kingdom full of good news for the poor. A kingdom where the oppressed are freed, the blind are healed. A kingdom where humility and service are valued. A kingdom where there is a new kind of justice. Where the weak are strong. A Kingdom where the least are first. A kingdom where physical, spiritual, emotional, & mental healing are the norm.
This is radical stuff! What we would call, liberal thinking today! But it’s not just Jesus’ words that are radical. Something about His person is distinctive. People swarm to hear him teach; to be near him; to just touch a corner of his clothing. He radiates love and compassion! He heals the sick; He touches the untouchables; He eats with sinners; He spends time with children; He talks with women. Jesus feeds the hungry; He values the “worthless”. Jesus hangs out with people that normally nobody wants to hang out with! Ordinary, everyday people like you and me.
When asked what the
greatest commandment is, Jesus says, “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind …..
AND love your neighbor as yourself.” You see, Jesus knows that we can’t really love
God if we don’t love one another.
Jesus doesn’t focus on
the rules; on the letter of the law. He
cares more about the heart. He teaches about
love and justice and this “Kingdom of Heaven” thing. In fact, Jesus’ teachings are so radical that
he upsets the religious leaders. Jesus
turns the world upside down!
Jesus spends 3 years
teaching his disciples and the thousands of people who cross his path, how to
love and treat one another. For 3 years,
Jesus teaches what the Kingdom of Heaven is about – this upside-down place that
will come about by loving one another in the same way that God loves us. So, it really shouldn’t shock us that Jesus
says that the final judgment
will be about
separating the sheep from the goats. And
now when He knows His ministry is coming to an end, He says:
“When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and
all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious
throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the
people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his
right and goats to his left.
“Then the King will say to those
on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by God! Take what’s coming to you in
this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s
why:
I
was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
Do you hear it? Do
you hear what Jesus is saying? Have you
loved the hungry? Have you loved the
stranger? Have you cared for the
poor? You see, the Kingdom of God is the
goal of history. It’s the goal here
on earth! It is Christ’s goal, and so it must be the goal of every one of us
who calls ourselves a follower of Christ.
White Lake, North Dakota is a small, sheltered community. One Sunday morning late in November, members
arriving for worship were met by a disturbing sight. A homeless man sat on the front steps of their
church, wearing tattered clothing, a wool cap pulled down over his eyes, clutching
a bottle in fingerless gloves. They had never seen anyone like this in White
Lake. Not in White Lake.
Most worshipers simply walked around the man or carefully stepped over him, as he sat there shivering. Some muttered words of disapproval, and others suggested that he move to another doorway before the Sunday school children arrived and saw him. One member told the man in no uncertain terms, that the church was no place for someone like him. At one point, a kind woman brought the man a Styrofoam cup of hot coffee, but not one person asked the man to come in out of the cold, and nobody invited him to join them in worship.
Imagine, then, the people’s surprise during the entrance hymn,
when their homeless friend made his way into the church, staggered down the
aisle, and made his way to the front pew.
Just as someone stood up to physically remove him, the man took off his
dirty, old coat and cap. It was then
that the congregation recognized that this man was actually their pastor!
The pastor stood in the pulpit and began his remarks that
morning by saying, “I did not do this to embarrass you or to poke you in the
eye. I did it to remind all of us that
this homeless man is a person that Jesus loves, and Jesus calls us to love him,
too.”[1]
It’s easy
to hear this and think to ourselves that we would have responded
differently. But would we? How often do you drive past the person
holding a sign by the grocery store, saying that her children are hungry? Or the person sitting outside Walmart, cold
and hungry?
How often do you call your aging parent who lives across the country? Or visit them in assisted living? Or call the friend with cancer? Or the one recently widowed? We get busy and the weeks fly by, don’t they?
Do you speak up when someone is being harassed? Bullied? Treated unfairly? Do you think about what scripture teaches when you vote? Do you wonder how policies will affect the “less thans”?
This
passage warns us that Jesus will recognize the sheep and the goats by the way we
live our lives and Jesus cares more about the heart than he does about the
rules.
Wherever there is a social injustice – and there are plenty!
- Jesus calls on us to reach out and
help. To be radical. To speak up. turning things upside down; To be the correction
that needs to happen. Today’s passage teaches us that helping someone who is
hurting; helping someone in need; caring about those that God himself cares
about; is the same as helping Jesus himself.
We live in a hurt and broken world. People are suffering in many ways – all around
us and all over the world. We don’t have
to look far to see that. There is need
everywhere. It can be overwhelming.
But, I think this Scripture calls us individually, and as God’s Church, to have compassion and love at the very core of our being; to naturally care about those who are hurting; those who go without. I think this Scripture calls us to see every person as a person made in the image of God – a person that Christ loves. I think this Scripture calls us to serve and to care and to love because God loves. It tells us that the way we live our life matters to God.
Will
Jesus tell you to go right or go left? Will
I be a sheep or a goat? I guess I’ll
find out. Until then, I’m going to keep trying
my best to live as Christ wants me to live.
Imperfectly, I know. But still
trying my best. What about you? Let
us pray:
Loving God,
We need your help to live as you want us to live. It’s so easy to get caught up in our own
stuff. Help us to care about those that
you care about. Help us to be the kind
of people that you created us to be. In
Jesus name. Amen.
[1] Sermon Writer:
Resources for Lectionary Preaching.
What the Saints Do. A
sermon by Pastor Steven Molin.
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