WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?
Matthew 25:31-46
Cindy and I were driving to Emmett a few weeks ago for Casey and Alyssa Wilkerson’s wedding rehearsal, and we had a brief conversation in the car about what we were seeing along the way. After we had passed a field with some animals in it, Cindy said something about the goats she had just seen. I remarked that I thought they were sheep. Now granted, Cindy and I aren’t exactly farm folk, but, given a chance at a clear view, we think we’d know the difference between sheep and goats! The challenge in this case was that they were a distance off the road, and we were simply quickly driving by—so neither of us was sure what they were after the fact. I made the same trip by myself the next day for the wedding (since Cindy had to be there much earlier than I did), and I made effort to check out the field again and figure out what we’d seen. That was when I figured out that it was a field of both sheep and goats! Cindy was right and I was right!
Jesus and the people He taught as He walked this earth were far more familiar with such things than Cindy and I are. It was evidently a pretty common sight for them all, and Jesus loved to take common things and use them to help the people understand deep spiritual truths. And so it was that sheep and goats made their way into one of Jesus’ sermon illustration!
One of the things they evidently understood about fields of sheep and goats was that there were times when they had to be separated. I’m told that in the Palestinian countryside the sheep and goats mingled during the day. But at night they were often separated because the sheep tolerated the cool air, but the goats had to be herded together for warmth. Apparently, in sparse grazing areas the animals might be separated during the day as well. And if you turn in your Bibles to Matthew 25, we can read how Jesus used this common practice to teach a significant spiritual truth.
[Read Matthew 25:31-46, NIV]
One of the most significant attributes the faithful follower of Jesus Christ will cultivate in his or her life is that of love—love evidenced in acts of kindness and compassion for others. And, as Jesus noted, there is to be particular concern for those overlooked or ignored. We are called upon to address their needs—to feed the hungry, to welcome strangers into our homes, to provide clothing where needed, to care for the sick, to visit and encourage those in prison. It’s what Jesus did for others. It’s what we, as Christ-followers, are to do as well.
I read an interesting quote from Buddha the other day—“He who loves fifty has fifty woes, he who loves ten has ten woes, he who loves none has no woes.” The statue of the Buddha shows him in the lotus position, with the subtle smile of one who has passed beyond every power on earth to touch him. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, lives now as He did when He walked this earth, with eyes wide open to the needs of others, taking their hurts and needs upon Himself—just as He has taught us to do.
In fact, the words of Jesus which we just read indicate that the way we respond to the overlooked and ignored of our world is the way that we are actually responding to Jesus Himself. He so identifies with the needy that He puts Himself in this position! An act of loving kindness done for someone that is needy is an act of loving kindness done for Jesus Himself, just as indifference to the needs of others reflects a heart of indifference to Jesus Himself.
Matthew 25 can easily be an indictment against Christians who live their lives indifferent to the needs of people. It can easily be an indictment upon the church for its lack of social involvement as kingdom members. Jesus taught that love for God is evidenced by love for our neighbor, that knowing God’s forgiveness will lead us to share mercy, and that experiencing God’s love prompts us to extend that love to others. Here we see that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has always had social implications—even though not all social action has the Gospel. And, as I noted a few weeks ago, the story of the Good Samaritan is the classic illustration of Christian social action.
I want to make sure we don’t miss the seriousness of this passage, for it addresses a subject that many no longer considered politically correct. It announces judgment upon us for ignoring the command of Christ!
I have a hunch that many would leave out verses 41-46 of this passage, because they declare the harsh words of judgment that Jesus pronounced. They draw a line in the sand. But if only shared with the you the “blessing” words of Matthew 25:31-40 and failed to read the rest of what Jesus said, I’d only be giving you half the Gospel! We need to see the big picture! We need to see both sides of the coin! Some people try to edit out the parts of the Gospel that speak of judgment and condemnation, this certainly isn’t all bad news! The Good News is that every one of us can choose the way of blessing—and how grateful I am that Jesus has been clear with us regarding what that is—and what it isn’t!
Part of the message of Matthew 25 is that every one of us will face the judgment of God some day. I know, it’s not a popular thought. We want to think that we can set our own course and determine our own destiny—that no one has the right to tell us how we are to live our lives and that certainly no one has the right to judge us or condemn us according to our choices. And you can think that if you want to, but understand that our Heavenly Father, our Creator, the God of the universe, has made clear to us the fact that we will be held accountable for our actions, that there will come a day of judgment when this life is over, and that he will separate us out, like a farmer separates sheep and goats—and that’s it’s as clear to Him who are truly sheep and who are truly goats—in others words, no one is part this and part that. He’ll put the sheep on his right side, to be with Him forever, and He’ll put the goats on His left side and say, “Get out, worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell!”
My goodness! How can the loving Heavenly Father ever condemn anyone to hell? And what would be His criteria for doing such?
Here are the words of Jesus, telling us that if we are indifferent to the needs of people around us that we have been indifferent to Jesus Himself, and that we are in danger of God’s judgment. Why would I emphasize this matter of judgment in this message? Because I want us to catch the full implication of what Jesus is saying. He’s not only telling us to love others and to take care of the needs of the overlooked and ignored of our society. He’s telling us this is serious…we need to listen!…and that there will be serious consequences if we fail to respond to what He’s calling us to do and to be!
I know, we don’t want to think that we’re accountable to anyone, let alone to God. But let me ask you something: if it’s okay and even a good thing for parents to give guidelines to their children, why is it so hard to understand that our loving, Creator God would give us guidelines regarding the way in which we are to live our lives and to experience life at its best?
Someone refuse to believe that God will ever judge us, but that doesn’t change the truth that He will. There are those who are convinced that the Holocaust never happened, but it doesn’t change the reality that it did. There are those who believe that there’s nothing wrong with sexual relations with a child, but that doesn’t change the truth that there’s something perverted and terribly wrong with doing so! We don’t each get to write our own truth. God determines that, and He’s been gracious enough to lay it out before us.
This passage can easily also rile those of us who do not believe that we are saved by our own works. Many of us have held long and hard to biblical words such as what we find in Ephesians 2:8-9—
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
And what we have understood from God’s Word is that none of us can “earn” our salvation—by being “good enough” or by doing enough good things! We can’t be that good!
But we need to go one verse further into the Ephesians passage to get the full implication of what the Apostle Paul was saying—
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
In other words, our good works don’t earn us our relationship with God, but rather they are to flow out of our relationship with God that has been made possibly by the sacrificial death of Jesus. He paid the penalty for our sins that we could never pay! Romans 6:23 tells us,
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Our salvation is a gift from God! But what Jesus is saying to us is that we are called then, in response to God’s love and mercy for us, to pour out such love and mercy upon others. Our acts of loving kindness don’t save us—Jesus has already done that!
So…back to the Matthew 25 passage…how are we to carry this out? How are we to feed the hungry and cloth those who need it and offer shelter to the homeless and care for the sick and visit the imprisoned? How are we to live out such a life of loving response to human need?
Last Sunday we talked about the vast human need around the world today. And while we can’t all go and certainly can’t all go to all the people of the world to take care of their needs, there are means by which we can address such things. Our prayerful and generous support of Nazarene World Missions is one way we can do this. There are also specific ministries such as Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and Hands of Hope that are addressing such matters—and our support of them addresses the needs of people far away.
But there are also needs all around us. How many of you have passed people standing on street corners here in Treasure Valley who were holding up cardboard signs saying things like, “Homeless. Need money. Anything will help”? Do you feel as guilty as I do when you drive on? I know, most of us have heard stories of how such funds can be abused, and so many of us refuse to give handouts in such settings…but we can’t do nothing, can we?
Of course, a significant dimension of such Christ-like love and care takes place when we address such needs one-on-one with people we already know personally. And I certainly encourage that!
And there are organizations that some of you are already working with to address human need here in our area. One of the significant ways we have done that as a church is in our organization of and our support of the Meridian Food Bank. Several of our people donate a lot of time and energy to making this happen—including those who have worked in our garden this summer! And I applaud what all of you are doing and thank you! Let’s continue to support Meridian Food Bank!
But I also want to let you know this morning of another means by which you can respond to the needs of the often overlooked and ignored of our valley. It’s an organization called “Love in the Name of Christ”—or, “Love INC” for short. Their director Lois Tupyi, is here this morning, and I’ve asked her to take some time to explain to us ways we as a church can partner with Love INC in addressing the needs of people in our area.
[Lois Tupyi of Love INC]
Everyone has gifts and talents which they can contribute. As the old song declared, “Little is much when God is in it!” Let me encourage you not to be afraid of mark a card this morning, but rather to see it as an opportunity to further explore possibly means by which you can get involved in this. You’re not signing anything in blood! You’re not obligating yourself! But remember what I said earlier, “We can’t do nothing!”
There are a few of you who are doing all one can be expected to do in efforts to respond to the needs of others, and you don’t need to feel guilty at all for not responding to this. But there are so many others who just haven’t known what they could do—and here’s an opportunity to try to get some handles on that.
