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Christ the King., 11/20/2011
Sermon on Matthew 25:31-46, by Hubert Beck
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?" And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Then they also will answer, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?" Then he will answer them, saying, "Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
WHEN? WHO? WHAT? WHY?
It is a source of never-ending interest to ask people what most strikes them about a story or a parable such as our text for this day. What strikes one person may not impact another at all, while yet another aspect of the story may stand out for still someone else.
Moreover, when asked the same question several years later the same two may give entirely different answers. Life experiences play a large part in how we interpret everything from what we see to what we hear to what we read - and those life experiences may change so much during intervening years that what strikes one most at one time may give way to something entirely different when asked the same question about the same story years later.
So what strikes you most about the Gospel reading for today? It would be very fascinating if we could go among you person to person with that question. We would, I am sure, discover a wide variety of answers. It is a parable you have undoubtedly heard many times over - and perhaps have found this or that part of the story more interesting than another at different times of hearing or reading. Since, however, it is not possible to ask you separately one to one what most catches your attention I am limited to telling you what most strikes me about this parable. Hopefully, by hearing what most strikes me, you will either find old insights sharpened or new insights generated. So here, in four parts, are the things that most catch my attention. You can tell me what I missed or what you would have said as we greet one another at the door after the service!
WHEN?
The word that invariably leaps out at me upon every hearing or reading is "When?" Nobody in either group gathered before the King has the slightest inkling of when they did whatever the King said they did! "Lord, when did we see you ..." is the recurring phrase from both "parties" involved.
If the group headed for condemnation had been the ones who said that, I would find it quite reasonable. They were people who were filled with self, unable to see, feel, or address the needs of those around them. That would certainly be the making of the condemnation assigned them, for it would suggest a total unconcern for anybody other than themselves.
The problem, however, is that those who had, indeed, done the very things the King implied they had done were equally unaware of when they had done such things.. I would have thought they would be quite aware of having done those things. But they seem as totally oblivious to having done them as were those who were condemned. So neither side had an advantage, if it can be called that.
Their unawareness, however, is striking to me because it makes me so aware of how important it is that we be unaware of doing the very things that God wants us to do. Things just flow out of such a person because of who the person is, not because of how aware the person is of doing them. In fact, the more aware we become of the good that we do the more likely it is that we will take credit for having done them as self-generated deeds out of our own kindly heart rather than deeds spawned by a different source altogether.
Yes, much better that the things we do for God be deeds done in our least aware moments, for we are our own worst enemies when we become too aware of what we are doing for the King!
WHO?
The very next words that catch my attention upon reading or hearing this parable are the words "hungry and you gave me food (no food)...thirsty and you gave me drink (no drink)...a stranger and you welcomed me (did not welcome me), etc." Such as these are the ones that had either been ignored or helped.
I recognize, of course, that the word "me" in all the commendations and condemnations are the differentiations between the actions or failures to act. But still, the words speak of actions directed toward the needy and helpless of the world. To that extent it is clear that helping them would be an act of kindness, whether it be in the name of the Lord or out of some other motivation.
It is precisely because of that, though, that they catch my attention. First of all, it is said that those who were being condemned were told that they had "given no food to the hungry... given no drink to the thirsty... were an unwelcoming bunch ... neglecting to visit those who needed them in their hours of misery." It is hard to imagine even the most hardened worldling having neglected to do at least a few basic acts of mercy to some disadvantaged people who had crossed their path in the course of their lives. So is their condemnation, described so totally negatively, a sign that they had not done enough of that or that their deeds had been too perfunctorily? Why didn't they get at least a minimal credit for some of the things they had done?
On the other hand, and even more to the point, those who are blessed are said to have done all those things and I find myself examining my own life. While I have wanted to be and have tried to be available for such as those who needed help, I recognize that my efforts have often been far short of what I hear being commended in this parable. I have shut my ears too many times to the cry of those people. I have closed my eyes and even shut my heart against them when I was just too tired, too overwhelmed, too unable to even know what to do in the face of those needs. Even in those moments when I saw the face of Christ in those people I could not bring myself to meet their needs in spite of my best intentions. Moreover, there are so many people with such a multitude of needs spread over the whole face of the earth. How could I possibly address hardly any of those needs. If those on his right hand are blessed because they did all those things, is it because they did them so well, because they saw more clearly than I, because they were stronger than I, because they did so many more of those things than I have done? When I see who the "who" are, I feel condemned, in fact, for my failures in ministering to them have far outnumbered my achievements.
It is just in that moment, though, that I see another thing about the "who?" I see that those approved and those condemned are also the "who?" in the parable. The "who" are not only the needy. They are also the "do-ers" or "neglecters" in this parable. They are the "who" about whose fate Jesus was speaking. And when I read or hear the parable on this level I discover another significant aspect of the story.
The parable is, to be sure, a parable of "The Final Judgment." Jesus was speaking of that moment when all of creation will be called to account. Typical cartoonish versions of this moment - not to speak of common personal mental images of this moment - envision people coming one by one before the Lord to give the account of their lives. Cartoon versions of this moment sometimes are frightening and sometimes, well, "cartoonish," but nearly all of them picture judgment taking place as a line of people gathered either before Peter with a "book of accounts" or God in some form asking those before him to give an account of their lives - few, if any, of which, of course, are satisfactory.
The only individual in the parable, however, is "the Son of Man," who is "the King sitting on his glorious throne" before the throng. There is not one single individual other than him found in the parable. "Before him will be gathered all the nations,, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." Unless you consider the "separation process" in some kind of personal way, all you have, in fact, are two huge companies of people. They are not asked what they have done or not done, because what they have done or not done is the very basis upon which they have been placed in the company in which we find them in the parable. They are not asked about that. They are told what they have done or not done.
The question, then, is this: In which company have you placed yourself in life? Have you placed yourself among those who have cared for the needy or those who have neglected the needy? Our Lord did not ask each of us to address every need that ever has arisen! It is not you or me individually, but we together, collectively, who stand before God as those to whom he has entrusted the keeping of the hosts of destitute and underprivileged. For that matter, the "needy" are not limited to those standing on street corners seeking handouts or those in the homeless shelter who have reached the end of their resources. They include the person next door who needs a word of encouragement; the person in the pew next to you whose distress you may not know, but who needs you at his side; the mother who is overwhelmed with responsibility; the sister whose health is failing and needs a shoulder to lean on; a child struggling to keep her head above water in a troubled family across the street. Have you placed yourself among such as those who are devoted to the welfare of the neighbor - or have you placed yourself among those whose basic and only real concern is care for nothing other than one's self-satisfaction, self-indulgence, self-concern?.
WHAT?
When I become absorbed with the "who?" in this parable I find a new question raising itself up before me that might easily have escaped me had I not asked the previous questions. Exactly what was said to those gathered before him? Being a good Christian - and a good Lutheran, I might add - I would have expected the King to say to those on his right hand, "Welcome, faithful believers, into my kingdom. Welcome, you who heard my word and trusted it for your salvation. By grace I am saving you on the basis of the faith you have clung to so sturdily through all the vicissitudes of life. ‘Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'"
And I would have expected him to say to those on his left hand, "Depart from me, for I spoke to you in my son Jesus Christ and you ignored me. Be gone, for you wanted nothing to do with my word when I offered it to you, preferring to live by the strength of a word that you concocted for yourself. You wanted nothing to do with me in life, so I will honor your wish and have nothing at all to do with you from this time forth." Yes, if we Lutherans were speaking or writing this parable we may have said or written it that way.
But Jesus didn't say anything of the kind. He did not commend faith. He commended deeds! What he did say was this: "I have seen what you have done about the hungry and the thirsty and the stranger and the naked and the sick and the imprisoned" He said the same thing to both groups. He didn't ask for an answer. He made a statement - an affirmation of the one group and a charge against the other group. It catches one who is looking for a judgment on the basis of faith off-guard, for it has everything to do with doing.
WHY?
Well, not everything!
Having noted the previous attention-grabbing words and phrases, one may pay less attention to the simple phrase "to me" than should rightly be given to it. In that phrase the "why?" explains much of what we have noted or questioned in the "when?" "who?" and "what?" of which we have spoken.
Why are those gathered before the King commended or condemned? Because of that on which they have had their eyes focused, their ears attuned, their hearts turned, and their energies directed through the whole of life.
Those commended have seen the King in the brothers and sisters whom they have encountered. They have seen in the pain and suffering of the needy the pain and suffering that their King endured when he descended from his heavenly throne to dwell among us. It is as though they said to the King, "We had a veritable treasure trove of things to give you when you appeared, but while we were waiting for you to appear this and that person crossed our path, came to our attention, and we took portions of that which we were going to give you to alleviate their need. Now you appear before we can replenish the treasure we wanted to give you, and we have nothing in our purse whatever to offer you." And God will say, "Good! ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' You have emptied your purse in my behalf, whether you knew it or not. All that I wanted when I came to you was an empty purse!"
These, then, are they who have seen that in every hungry and thirsty person the crucified King had donned a camouflage suit to see if we would see his suffering and dying in them. They have seen that in every stranger an alien bearing the clothing of a visitor from eternity had appeared. They have seen in the naked the exposed body of the Son of Man, the King, hanging on a cross from which all human dignity had been removed. They have seen in the sick the paralytic lowered through the room over whom Jesus pronounced forgiveness before the words, "Rise, pick up your bed and go home," (Matthew 9:6) not to speak of the countless others over whom Jesus raised his healing hand. They see in the prisoners of the world the universal prison of sin whose doors were opened through the redemptive suffering and death and resurrection of the one who spoke this parable. He held the key to that prison of sin and opened it for all who would follow him out of it. These were the eyes and ears and hands and feet and voices of those commended by the King. "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
To those condemned a very different word fell over them, for their eyes and ears and voices and lives were focused in quite another way. Their "when?" spoke of an inability to see or hear the desperate cries of those around them. Oh, they knew about them, of course, but they may have feebly responded to the King, saying, "We have all this stuff that we have accumulated through sound business investments, frugal living, and a wise use of our resources. You speak as though we were selfish, but we tell you that we were actually storing them up for the time when you would become present among us. We were holding them for you as a welcome gift. Now here, take it all, for we have quite a storehouse of treasure to give you and we hope you thoroughly appreciate it."
And the Lord may have answered, "Do you take me for a fool? Do you think that I believe for a minute that you were gathering all that for me? If you were serious about that, you would have seen me among you in those with shabby clothing, hungry faces, the foreigner in your midst. You cannot deceive me with talk like that for a moment! You want to give it to me now? What use do I have for it? The end is at hand and I already have more than I need. You keep it. Carry it with you into the eternal fire and see what good it will do for you. ‘Truly, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.'"
The "why?" will be fully revealed when "the Son of Man comes in his glory," opening his hands for all to see the nail marks as he reaches them out toward his own, extending his arms in such a way as to reveal the wound in his side while embracing those whose lives were lived "as to me."
Then we will see what should be plain to us already now - that his "what did you do?" is only the back side of "by what faith have you done these things?" Those who have lived as unto the Lord could do so only because the Holy Spirit had given them eyes to see Christ in every brother and sister whom they met; because the Holy Spirit had given them ears to hear the cries of the tormented of the earth as though they were the cries of the Christ on the cross; because the Holy Spirit had spread their hands out to the thirsty as though in them they heard Christ's cry of "I thirst" on the cross; because the Holy Spirit had opened their hearts to recognize the strangers among them as though they saw the "stranger from heaven" appear among them.
In this gracious work of the Spirit, poured out in the waters of baptism, nourished on the body and blood of Christ on the journey through life, the words of our Lord ring out to us today, bidding us to see and hear him in everybody - in parents and children, husbands and wives, neighbors and fellow-workers, those reported in the paper or on TV as suffering from earthquakes and tsunamis, tornadoes and hurricanes, drought and floods, disasters of every kind resulting in hunger and thirst, nakedness and sickness. The "when?" "what?" "who?" and "why?" are all wrapped together in this parable of the Last Judgment where the Suffering One will be revealed as the King of glory.
The parable tells us of a King who comes among us decked out in the needs of the world, as the Helper who, himself, needs the help of our hands, a crucified one who needed others to lay his body in the grave. In his resurrection, however, he also showed himself to truly be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To those with eyes and ears through which to see and hear the King present in this dual way - a paradoxical way, in fact - of needing help and being the helper, both at the same time, it will be discovered that the word "judgment" not only means condemnation, but it also, and above all, means commendation for those who live as bearers of the presence of him who gave his life for us, through whom we, in turn, give our lives for others. "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!"