With Whom do You Identify?
Matthew 24:31-45
Sometimes, when I exit off 83 and onto Mt. Rose I’ll see
someone standing on the lane divider holding a cardboard sign. He is often disheveled and unshaven, wearing a
coat worn and dirty holding a cup and maybe a sign that identifies his
need. He wants money.
Maybe you’ve seen him too. Now, sometimes we roll down
the window and drop a dollar and then drive on, but most times we pass by
without speaking or even looking. We’ve
seen him before, a thousand times before, and we’re pretty sure that any money
he gets goes straight into a bottle. We
wonder why he doesn’t get a job, and why he doesn’t clean himself up?
It’s not so much that we don’t care, but we know that a
casual dollar dropped into a cup will not solve his problem and may even add to
it. Because we don’t know what we should
really do, we flick a switch in our hearts so that we can walk by without
feeling so bad. We can only absorb so much suffering. Our empathy dries
up. The temptation to flick that switch
and turn off our compassion is powerful and easy to understand, but we will see
that compassion fatigue may have lasting consequences.
In these powerful words of scripture Jesus describes the
burden we bear for turning our heads and walking by. Let us pray:
Lord,
sometimes the suffering we see swallows us up.
We grow weary in well doing.[1] Our hearts become hardened and our souls
calloused. Soften our hearts we pray and
grant us wisdom so that acts of kindness shall not be wasted, but heal and make
whole once more. Amen.
This passage looks a little bit like a parable, but it
lacks the language Jesus often uses to begin these stories. He does not say, “the kingdom of God is like,
or may be compared to.”[2] This is not an allegory. His words are straightforward. This is the way it will be.
“When
the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will
sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before
him and he will separate people one form another as a shepherd separates the
sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats
at his left.”[3]
I
don’t know how often any of us really think about this “Day of the Lord”, when
Gods judgment shall be revealed. Some of
us see that day on a far distant horizon, years and years away; and so we
figure there will always be time to clean up our act and get right with
God. We don’t worry because we think
there is no hurry. There will always be more time.
Many
do not consider at all this “Day of the Lord” because they don’t believe it
will ever happen. Since the Bible says,
“God is love”,[4]
and because the Bible says, “love will cover a multitude of sins”[5]; they
believe God will open wide the gates of his kingdom to everyone, no matter what
they have believed or how they have lived.
In
this view, those who have tried to live a righteous life or strived for
personal holiness have done so in vain.
Those who have chosen to “eat, drink and be merry”[6]
have chosen a wiser path because they get to enjoy the best of both worlds, the
pleasures of sin and the promise of eternal life.
In
this view, Jesus’ words of judgment don’t make any sense, because he says our
actions and attitudes do have consequences.
But, they are his words, and I believe the only words we have for
salvation. The Apostle Peter put it this way, “Lord where else can we go. You have the words of eternal life.”[7] In this passage Jesus says clearly there will
come a day when the “goats shall be separated from the sheep.”
What
stands out in God’s judgment is how surprised everyone will be when this
happens. Both those who are identified
as goats to be excluded from God’s kingdom and those recognized as sheep, to be
welcomed into heaven, are equally astonished.
Those on the outside who find the door slammed in their faces do a
double take and ask, “what happened?”
Those on the inside are equally incredulous and ask “how did I get here?” No one expected to be where they were in
relationship to God. Heaven and hell it
seems will be a surprise to everyone. No
one has really figured it out. So, Jesus
explains.
First,
he turns to those on his right hand, to the sheep, the ones who are welcomed
into God’s kingdom, and says, the reason you are here is because “you gave me
food when I was hungry, and drink when I was thirsty, and when I was a stranger
you welcomed me.”[8]
The
sheep are puzzled. “Lord, when did we
ever see you hungry and give you food, thirsty and give you something to drink,
a stranger and welcome you?”[9] They don’t think they’ve done anything
special, and they are flat out positive that they never did anything out of the
ordinary for Jesus. All they did was to
“treat others as they would want to be treated.”[10] We call this the Golden Rule because we
believe this is a valued way to live.
But, these sheep that Jesus described, just thought it was the way you
are supposed to live.
When
they see someone hungry, they make sure they are fed. When they see someone thirsty, they get them
something to drink. When they see
someone with any kind of physical or spiritual need they do their best to meet
it. They don’t do it for the glory, or
so that people will speak well of them.
They don’t do it to make up for some past sin. They don’t do it so that God will have to
welcome them into heaven. They just do
it because it is the right thing to do.
That is why Jesus calls these people righteous. They do the right thing because it is the
right thing.
This
is what those whom Jesus described as goats could not understand. When Jesus told them, “I was hungry
and you gave me nothing to eat and I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to
drink and I was a stranger and you did not welcome me” and that’s why
“you must go away into eternal punishment,” those on his left hand
protested. That’s not true, they
shouted. We never saw you hungry or
thirst or a stranger. If you had come to
our church on Sunday morning we’d have brought you right up front and let you
sit next to the pastor. We’d have had a
big congregational dinner and put you in a place of honor. We’d have taken up a special offering. But, Jesus you never showed up. We never saw you.
But, Jesus said, “I was there.” I was there in every beggar who asked for a
handout. I was there with every woman who showed up pregnant and alone,
frightened and confused, who only needed some help and comfort and
understanding and guidance. I was there with her child growing within, a child
whose future was held in her hands and yours. I was there with every widow grieving
because her world was suddenly turned upside down at the loss of her husband of
fifty years. I was there with the man
who just lost his job and the teenager who ran away from home. I was there with the immigrant who was
overwhelmed by a culture he did not understand.
I
was there Jesus said. You looked right
at me, but did not see me, so you turned away.
And when you turned away, you ignored the beggar and the woman pregnant
and alone. You ignored the child growing within. You ignored the widow and the teenager and
the immigrant. God, who is filled with
love and compassion for people just like that, will not ignore apathy. God
cannot and will not betray their suffering.
God will not tell them their suffering made no difference. God will not tell them that it made no
difference whether those who called themselves by his name helped or not.
Every
time I read this passage I am convicted.
Every time I look with irritation at someone who just walked in off the
street, and interrupts my sermon preparation, with another sad story I feel
bad. I feel bad not so much for their plight, but because my impatience reveals
just how far short I have fallen from the glory of God.[11] I feel bad because my first instinct is to
just toss them a couple of bucks and get them out of the office so that I can
continue in my study of God’s Word.
But,
when I return to my study, the Word reads differently. It doesn’t warm my
heart. I feel instead cold and guilty
like I did when Mom caught me with my hand in the cookie jar. God’s Word “is
quick and powerful, and sharper than a double-edged sword. It discerns the soul and spirit and the
thoughts and intents of the heart.”[12] It shows me that the intention of my heart
was not to minister, really minister to the real needs; but only to salve my
conscience with a couple of bucks I’ll never miss.
That’s
what God’s judgment reveals here. God’s
judgment is not based on some eternal balance sheet where the goal is to garner
more credits than debits. God will not
ask to see the line item for charitable contributions on your income tax
form. God is not going to enter the good
deeds you’ve done and the sins you’ve committed into some computer spreadsheet
that will automatically spit out a bottom line, which will determine your eternal
destiny. God does not keep score like
that.
God
is going to look to the heart. The heart
will reveal whether you do the right thing because it is the right thing or
whether you do the right thing for the wrong reasons. It is your motive that
matters. Jesus did not describe this judgment so that we will feel guilty and
reluctantly throw a couple of bucks into the bucket at Christmas time. He did it so that we can see how we harden
our hearts every time we turn our heads from those who suffer. He offered this warning so that we might know
how seriously God takes those who suffer and how God looks at those who ignore
such suffering. Our hearts are hardened
or softened by the choices we make every day.
That’s why they matter so much.
If we ever hope to see the face of Jesus in heaven, we must first learn
to see his face in those who suffer and are alone and frightened and poor.
Let
me tell you how I think that happens. A
couple of years ago, you saw a lot of venders in the mall who sold a kind of poster
that always appeared to me as a pattern of chaotic scribbles. Beneath the scribbles buried somehow was a
real picture. I never saw the picture
but only saw the pattern. I was told
that only people who have vision in both eyes could see it.
Those
people who could see the pictures told me that if you tried to seek it you
couldn’t. You could only see the picture
if you were really looking at something else.
You had to somehow look through the clutter. I think that’s how we see the face of Jesus.
Those
who minister to the poor begin to see Jesus when they see the beggar as a real
person and not just an annoyance. Those
who minister to women alone and pregnant begin to see Jesus when they see her
and her child not just as a problem that needs a solution, but as people facing
physical, material, and spiritual needs.
Those who minister to the grieving begin to see Jesus in the face of
their loss because they recognize the loss God felt when he gave his only begotten
son.[13] Those who minister to immigrants begin to see
Jesus when they recognize that they like Jesus, have no place to rest their
heads.[14]
In
other words, they do not see Jesus not in a sunset, or in a book of theology,
which is where we expect to find him.
They don’t even see his face in a prayer closet or a worship
service. They see the face of Jesus in
the least of these, in those who face real and desperate need. It is in the acts of charity that we begin to
see his face through the clutter of this world.
So,
what does this mean when you drive by the guy disheveled and unshaven, wearing
a coat worn and dirty standing on the side of the road holding a cardboard sign? Does it mean you have to drop a buck in his
cup? Does it mean you’re supposed to
stop and try to get to know each and every one you pass?
No,
the suffering will swallow you up. There
were times when even Jesus could not meet every need. The better way is to support those who have
been called by God to minister to a specific need, who can take the time to
figure out what the real problem is. The
better way is to encourage those willing to meet with the woman, pregnant and
abandoned, who understand the complex facets of her dilemma. The better way is to minister in areas with
which you have some experience and knowledge.
We
really can’t be all things to all people, but we can do something for someone
who needs some help. Living a righteous
life is really a matter of doing the right things for the right reasons. It is living by the Golden rule because that
is the only rule that makes sense.
The
decisions we make here will either harden or soften our hearts. Sometimes a soul can become so calloused
that even God’s Spirit can barely penetrate.
When that happens we may find ourselves far from God. As you have done it to the least of these,
Jesus said, you do it unto me. If
we ever hope to see the face of Jesus in heaven, we need to see his face in the
least of these.
Let us pray:
Lord, you have promised that whatsoever is done for the
least of these is received as being done unto you: Grant us grace to be ever willing and ready
to minister to the needs of those far and near, through Jesus Christ who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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