The Text: Matthew 25:31-46

 As good Lutherans, we’ve all been taught we’re saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. We’re not saved by our good works because we’ll never be good enough. Only Christ is good enough. We believe this.

But at first glance, what Jesus says to us today challenges our thinking a bit. It seems in that great and glorious Day of the Lord when we stand in front of our God in judgment, we’re going to be split up into two teams. These two teams will not compete against each other to see who wins, because the result has already been decided.

The ones selected for the winning team will inherit the kingdom of God, which has been prepared for them since the foundation of the universe. Obviously we want to be on that team!

Why? Because the other team of losers are the ones who will enter the eternal fire of hell, which has been prepared for the devil and all his angels.

It’s entry into heaven or hell. We’ll be blessed or cursed. That’s the choice, but it’s not our choice. God chooses. By this time the result is already decided and we can’t appeal his decision.

So the obvious question is: ‘How do we know which team we’re going to be on?’

You might think from today’s text that the answer seems to be based on good works. In other words, those who do all those good things like feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison, and so on, well, they’re in. They go to heaven.

But if you’re not merciful and gracious enough, then you’re out!

So, how many of us are confident we’ve done enough, we’ve ticked all the boxes and willingly and regularly helped those in need?

I thought so!

It seems that the greatest and most unforgivable sin Jesus mentions here is inaction! If you don’t help, serve, show mercy, or welcome people, you’re in deep trouble!

For this reason, this text has the power to make us very worried! After all, how many times have we not acted when we should have? How many times have we kept our hands in our pockets when we saw someone in need of basic help, and did nothing? How many times have we made a conscious decision not to help, or serve, or provide, or give, or visit, or bless?

How often do we think or hope that someone else will feed them, give them a drink, donate to that appeal, or visit them, and so on? How often do we think it’s only the pastor’s job or the elder’s job to visit the shut in and help the needy?

In this case, when you stand in front of Jesus, how do you think he’ll answer you when you say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, but I thought so-and-so was supposed to do that!’?

Jesus is saying our acts of grace and mercy to other people are not optional, but essential – in fact our salvation is dependent on them!

Well, so far it sounds like if we don’t perform acts of mercy by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, providing clothes for those without, or visiting the sick or those in prison, then we’re not going to heaven!

So does that mean faith in Jesus isn’t essential anymore? Isn’t this a little different to what we’ve been taught?

Haven’t we all been taught we’re saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone and not by what we do or don’t do? Have we got it all wrong?

No, because there’s something else strange in this text.

Note the ‘blessed ones’ didn’t even know they were helping Jesus!

They’ve been naturally feeding the hungry, providing drink to the thirsty, welcoming the strangers, covering the naked with clothing, and visiting the sick and those in prison.

For them it was no surprise Jesus expected them to do these things, because they did it naturally anyway, but the surprise for them is when they did these things, no matter what the person looked like or how they acted, they were doing it to Jesus himself!

So here Jesus tells us he fully identifies himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the foreigner, the naked, the sick and those in prison, so much so, that when we provide for these people’s basic needs, we’re doing it for Jesus himself!

This is because Jesus doesn’t abandon the needy, but is there with them in their hunger, in their thirst, in their sicknesses, and in prison with them.

And we thought Jesus is only present in churches! Imagine going to prison and seeing Jesus there! Imagine seeing a homeless person sleeping under a bridge, and that’s where Jesus is!

Now, this doesn’t mean we do these things just because we know we’re doing it for Jesus, but because we’re naturally merciful to all people.

You see, for those who believe in Jesus, helping the needy isn’t an optional extra, but a natural part of their life; a natural extension of their faith in Jesus. In fact only a believer will live in the way this text directs.

To make it plain: Good works won’t save you and get you into heaven. Jesus alone saves you. So yes, you’re saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

But what Jesus is saying here is this gift of grace to have faith in Christ alone doesn’t come alone.

The more we are exposed to the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God and his holy Sacraments, the more we receive Christ’s nature. The more of Christ’s nature we receive, then the more naturally we care for the needy because Jesus identifies and cares for the needy.

So, although faith in Jesus isn’t mentioned, it’s implied because:

Only those who have received the grace of God will become gracious people.

Only those fed and nourished by God will feed and nourish others.

Only those visited by God will visit other people.

Only those healed through the blood of Jesus will visit and care for those who are still sick.

Only those clothed by the righteousness of Christ will seek to cover up other people’s shame by clothing them.

Only those who have been freed from the prisons of hate and fear and guilt will go to visit those in prison.

In other words, Christ-centred people will naturally become needy-centred people. It almost goes without saying then: self-centred people will naturally ignore the needy.

Notice we’re not expected to heal people or release them from prison, etc, but simply supply their basic needs – a meal, a drink, clothing, welcoming, and visiting. No big miracles required, just little ministries of grace and mercy. Those who love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, will also love their neighbours, and show it in real, tangible actions. This is something we can all do, no matter how young or how old – just to help as you are able.

All of us have the ability to help those who are vulnerable and needy in society: the ones most other people isolate or ignore, such as the infirm, the lonely, those in nursing homes, the foreigner, the outcast, the unborn, and so on.

Strangely, as we attend to the needs of others, we’re also attending to our own salvation. Notice this doesn’t mean we’re saved by our good works. Again, to make it clear, we’re saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone! But the result of having faith in Christ is our natural service to those around you.

This is because the fruit of our faith is shown – not through our holier-than-thou attitudes or long-winded sermons, but through our actions. Jesus expects good fruit to be produced on a good tree; and good fruit will naturally be produced on every tree firmly rooted in Christ alone. Those who don’t produce good fruit simply aren’t firmly rooted in Christ.

Christ is preparing us through his Word and feeding us with his very own body and blood, which carries his grace-filled and merciful nature to us.

The Holy Spirit is equipping us for works of service which will minister to the needs of those around us – to feed the hungry, provide a drink to the thirsty, welcome the alien or stranger, clothe those not adequately dressed, and visit those who are sick or who feel imprisoned.

Our help may not always be appreciated, but if we choose not to ignore their needs and do these things Jesus talks about, we may be surprised to find we’re feeding and helping Jesus himself.

Then we’ll be on the team surprised to hear those most welcome words of Jesus, ‘Come into the kingdom of heaven which has been prepared for you since the foundation of the universe.’

And may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Colossions 1: 11-20; St Luke 23:23-43; & St Luke 13:22-30

He said to them, ²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵ Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

²⁶ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

²⁸ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹ People will come from east and west and north and south and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

The lectionary for today relates to the fact that it is the last Sunday of the church year. The subject of the lessons from the holy gospel is that the end of the church year is a time of fulfilment, Jesus ministry is fulfilled when He is crowned with thorns as the crucified King. And we shall see how the gospel lessons interpret this. To understand we must realise the Gospel narrative uses various words in the Greek language which indicate time not simply in terms of its chronology, its chronos (χρόνος). For example, the kind of thing Shakespeare had in mind in his famous soliloquy by Macbeth at the news of the death of Lady Macbeth: –

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

20Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

25That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

That is chronological (χρόνος) time. But the gospel also uses another word to speak of time not of time which just finishes, which comes to an end: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow kind of time. But time understood as having a purpose. We have no English word which expresses time as having a purpose, we only have words for time which expresses duration, a beginning and an end. But there is another word used in the NT for time which expresses not simply the passing of time, as in (χρόνος) chronological time, but time in terms of purpose. This word is Chairos (καιρός) which means fulfilment of purpose.

We can understand something of this mystery relating to our experience of time when we consider the relationship between the two lessons from the holy gospel of St Luke before us today. The reading set for the day, St Luke 33., the crucifixion of Jesus, his awful death on the cross between two thieves. The other from St Luke 13: 22ff, we read; –

Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. ²³ Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”

He said to them, ²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵ Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

²⁶ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

²⁸ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹ People will come from east and west and north and south and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

In St Luke’s gospel the whole narrative of Jesus ministry is considered in terms of its (καιρός), its purpose. So, we read in chapter 9: verse 51 that “When the days drew near for him (Jesus) to be received up he set his face steadfastly toward Jerusalem.”  From this point in the gospel narrative everything that happens is related to the fulfilment of Jesus ministry in Jerusalem and the crucifixion. This is the purpose of Jesus journey to Jerusalem and for the next 15 chapters of the gospel; that is the context and meaning of all that happens and is said.

This journey upon which Jesus embarks, “Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem”, lasts until chapter 23 & 24 of the gospel with the crucifixion and its aftermath and then into the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where we see the purpose of the journey fulfilled when, after the cross and resurrection, Jesus is “received up” into heaven as the risen Lord of the church.

It is in this context, this very specific context, that we must understand Jesus words that meet us in the gospel reading. For we must understand our journey, our life’s time, in the light of this journey of Jesus to Jerusalem. For our life’s time is given purpose and meaning by Jesus life’s time in His journey to Jerusalem.

The journey which Jesus undertakes to Jerusalem is one which started as he “set his face steadfastly” toward that city. We are to see in this, that the passion of Christ which he here sets his face toward, is not an accident that overtakes Jesus. His cross is not some fate which happens to him. His passion is that which He sees as the fulfilment of His life. This fulfilment is his identification with us as the Son of God. His taking to himself our flesh, with all that that entails in terms of what it means for him. Here he enters the far country of our human godforsakenness. This is the journey which Jesus is travelling, this is the way he embraces in v.51 of the 9th chapter of St. Luke when he sets his face “steadfastly to go to Jerusalem”.

It is in the light of this very specific journey that we must understand our journey as this is referred to by Jesus words in the lesson from St Luke 13. Which I read.

Jesus speaks of a narrow way, of few there be who find it; of exclusion, a shut door, and weeping and gnashing of teeth; of the last who shall be first and the first who shall be last.

Where is the popular image of Jesus as the Galilean carpenter, the itinerant teacher with his homespun philosophy of the golden rule; who speaks of the fatherly care of God for all people. These sayings are particularly harsh on those who acted on the assumption that they had a friendly relationship with God, that God was as it were one of them, a “mate”. They say, “We ate and drank with you and you taught in our streets.” To them the reply is, “I do not know where you come from.” The final judgment will bring many surprises; those that think they are in will be out and those who appear to be out will be in.

There have been those in the history of the church who, confronted with this puzzle, have propounded a teaching which said that since God’s judgment is just, and since we cannot do anything to justify ourselves, and since some will be excluded by God’s judgment there must be a hidden eternal decree by which God elects some and excludes or damns others. Those who accepted this preposterous thesis nevertheless sought assurance in signs of God’s election of them according to the material blessings which they claimed God had given them. Poverty on the other hand was understood as a sign of God’s judgment. Some social historians have attempted to blame this doctrine as having a significant influence upon the easy acceptance by Christians of the excesses of early capitalism. And this doctrine is not too removed from those incredible TV evangelists who peddle the teaching that if you have worldly success then God is on your side. There are many to whom this godless doctrine is their practical rule of thumb for understanding God’s action in their life: the acquisition of private wealth as a sign of God’s blessing and poverty as a sign of God’s judgment.

Well these harsh words of Jesus turn this comfortable doctrine which infects the church and the lives of many Christian people upside down. Jesus says there is no way we can know, in terms of who we are that God is on our side, that the door will not be shut in our face: that we will not hear the reply to our pleas, since we believed we were on familiar terms with God,  Jesus the Judge says to these people, “I do not know where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!”

But how is this harsh exclusiveness in Jesus words about God’s judgment to be understood?

 How are the terrible misunderstandings of such words in the history of the church to be avoided?

We must not lose sight of the fact that Jesus utters these words on his way to Jerusalem where he is to die. The Son of God descends to the depths of our human condition before God in this his final godforsakenness. Thus, the words of Jesus in their harshness are meant, in the first instance, to draw our attention to the immeasurable cost of human redemption. The fact that our relationship with God is bought at such terrible price. The eternal Son of God, clothing himself with our humanity and shedding his blood, means that our relationship with God is not a truth or reality controllable or manipulated by our petty religious foibles or fancies.

These harsh words of Jesus are intended to indicate that the narrow way that leads to life, or the door that is to be opened, is not a way or a door that can be found and opened by us at all. It can only be opened for us not by us. It is precisely in this that the narrowness of the way consists.

There is nothing mysterious about feeling we are on good terms with God when our natural inclinations and temporal interests are served by that fact. We too can say, like the people outside the shut door, “We have eaten and drank with you and you have taught in our streets.”

What is mysterious to us is that the narrow way that leads to life before God is not found by us. The harsh words that exclude all human attempts to find an easy way to God and avoid the contradictions of the human condition: the narrowness of the way, the harshness of the judgment, is meant to lead us to the awful humility of God who in the inconceivable freedom of grace takes the godforsakenness of our human condition upon his own heart and bears it, and in bearing it, bears it away from us. It is this singular mysterious action of God, which is the narrow way that leads to life, the door that shuts out all those whom believe they can find their own way to God by their good deeds, their happy personal circumstance, or spiritual experiences and ecstatic ecstasies.

The harsh words of Jesus are meant to drive us to depend upon God’s free grace. And this grace alone! God’s mercy is not an abstract idea of goodness; it is demonstrated to all who hear these words from the One who speaks them. In Jesus, the one who “sets his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem” for our sake. It is this One, the crucified God who is the judge of the world whom we must name as our King and only saviour, when we stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is in and through his redeeming work that our life, in its ending, is fulfilled in its purpose.

Dr. Gordon Watson.