When I was serving as Director of the Hunger Program for the former American Lutheran Church, I preached at various congregations on Sunday mornings. They would often ask me, "Should we read the Matthew 25 passage for the scripture lesson?" This text is a favorite for any gathering around hunger and poverty issues. I've used it often when I speak about hunger.
But the text has a far greater scope and purpose than to muster up a concern for hungry people. The story was not told by Jesus as a fund-raising speech. It was not intended for use in defending the need for a Social Action Committee, or the use of hunger funds for advocacy. One can use this text for many purposes, but we should not overlook the context and overall scope of its purpose as intended by the author.
This text takes us back to Genesis because it deals with the original purpose of God's creation, the ordering of right relationships and use of resources so that all creation may experience wholeness. It takes us back to the Old Testament covenant with God's people which included the expectation to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. It takes us back to the beginning of Matthew's gospel when Matthew describes in the Sermon on the Mount what the kingdom is about, what righteousness is about.
Matthew writes to a church, not just a group of individuals. Some call it a house church. It was a household of Christians trying to live together and follow the way taught by Jesus. They were a prosperous people. It was most likely an urban setting and there was a strong Jewish influence. Matthew wants to remind them what Jesus taught, what was different and unique about Jesus and what this kingdom of Heaven was all about.
What Matthew does is to present Jesus to them and then he lays out some critical decisions they must make if they want to follow him. In doing so, he constantly reminds them of the resistance they will face, the same resistance the prophets faced, that Jesus faced. Matthew talks about the Christians' confrontation with false teachers, hypocrisy in leadership, and the economics of living in a household of people who claim to be disciples of Jesus.
Chapters 24 and 25 come at the end and are critical to this basic outline of what following Jesus means. Matthew has been leading up to it. He has been saying this and that about Jesus, about the kingdom, about discipleship. He had exhorted this house church to seek first this kingdom and its mission of justice, to enter the narrow gate, to love their neighbor and build their house on the rock. Now he reminds them, warns them in a kind of summary way, what all this means. Matthew is saying, let's look at the end in order to give meaning to the present. It is like a teacher telling the students at the beginning of the class what's going to be on the final exam so they can know what is really important to remember along the way. Matthew is telling us what kind of testing or evaluation will be in the finals.
I'd like to share four lessons I have learned from my reading and re-reading of this text in the context of the whole gospel.
1. We are accountable.
It does make a difference how we live, how we respond to God's call. There will be a separation. Some will hear the words "Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Enter." Others will hear the words "Depart from me." Jesus dares to draw a line between people. He sees black and white clearly. We tend to see various shades of gray. Nobody is a one and no one is a ten. Many of us comfort ourselves by claiming to be between four and six. We're middle of the roaders. Everyone does some good sometime. All of us have failed at certain points.
Jesus does not fall into that trap of relativity. We won't be able to hide behind our middle of the road theology. There are sheep and there are goats. There are wise bridesmaids and there are foolish bridesmaids. There is a wide gate and there is a narrow gate. Some build on sand, others build on a rock. There is God or there is mammon. You cannot serve both, Jesus says.
I'm glad I won't be the one who has to tell the sheep from the goats, and you won't either. What is important to remember is that we are accountable. There is a judgment. We will be asked to give an account of how we live our lives, how we use our resources, how we respond to God's will and purpose. In other words, Matthew is telling his readers, his students, there is a final exam in this class.
2. The final exam is simple but not easy.
Throughout the gospel, Matthew has been talking about God's righteousness, which may be better translated as God's justice. "Blessed are those who hunger for justice." The church is to seek, strive for and participate in this justice. Jesus died to make this justice happen on earth. The kingdom of God, the reign of God is the fulfillment of this justice. Justice is the will of God which goes back to Genesis, to creation and to the covenant with Israel.
Matthew knows, as did Jesus, that we often make things complicated that are not complicated. So in this final section of Matthew's story of Jesus, a kind of let's get right down to the basics is the theme. What do we mean when we say justice - kingdom of God - loving your neighbor - following Jesus - having oil in your lamps - being responsible. If you want it put simply, here it is, says Jesus.
Giving food to the hungry.
Giving water to the thirsty.
Welcoming the stranger.
Clothing the naked.
Caring for the sick.
Visiting those in prison.
It's so simple it's almost an insult. And to add to the insult, the list is repeated four times in 10 verses just in case we miss the point. Where else in the Bible do you see something repeated four times in 10 verses?
Nowhere else in the sayings of Jesus do we find this detailed description of the last judgment. It is put very simply. You don't have to sift through volumes of theology or long chapters of introduction to get at the meaning of what the kingdom is about. It is so simple we can easily miss it.
What God wants from us is essential kindness, love of neighbor. What the righteousness, the justice of God is about is helping people who are in need. The church's mission is to reorder relationships and resources so that those on the bottom rung, the forgotten ones, are included in the blessings of creation. The kingdom is about people helping people. It is bringing healing and harmony where there is hurt and discord.
It is simple but not easy. It's not easy because there are many forces around us that make it difficult. Greed can make it difficult. Cultural and economic values can make it difficult. Structural systems and accepted traditions make it difficult. Misguided theology and false teaching make it difficult. Idols of worship and misdirected allegiances, ignorance, misinformation, lust for power, status and control make it difficult.
It may sound simple to feed hungry people, welcome strangers, and it is. But it is not easy. The fact is the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Hunger in the world is worse today than it was 10 years ago. Tax laws continue to put a heavier burden on the poor. Women and children suffer the most from injustices. If it is so simple, why is it so difficult? The cross is a constant reminder that to love one's neighbor is not always easy or well received.
3. There are surprises, unexpected discoveries, that disturb, yet serve to enlighten us.
Matthew includes these surprises now so that they can serve to warn us, alert us, help us not to be surprised when it's too late. Maybe the surprises are meant to teach us some basic theology.
Those who are invited to come and inherit the kingdom are surprised. Notice. "Lord, when did we do all those kindnesses to you?" They seemed unaware of the full implications of their lives centered around justice toward hurting people. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the righteous don't claim to be righteous.
Likewise, the people excluded from the kingdom are surprised. "Lord, when did we not feed you?" You've got to be kidding. Everything we've done has been Christ-centered. We base everything on the Bible. Our pastors always preach Christ-centered sermons. Surprise! "I was hungry, but you did not feed me. Not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven."
Let's be honest. That's potentially very disturbing for most of us, not just the people in Matthew's church. What really counts before God is a list of things not often found on our list, our criteria for ultimate concerns. True spirituality is often measured in our commitment to Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, commitment to the church. All of these are important, but none of them are found in this final exam material. There is nothing said here about justification by faith, being born again, or baptized. There is no mention of belief systems, forgiveness, or proper understanding of grace. Again, important teachings in the Bible, but not in the list of criteria by which we ultimately answer to God. All of these other aspects of our theology are tested or sifted to see if they result in the simple goal of righteousness and justice. Put very surprisingly simple, it means meeting the basic needs of our neighbors, especially those who are victims of greed, injustice, and violence.
Another aspect of the surprise element may be the fact that Jesus claims to be found, to be present in the lives of the poor and oppressed. "In that you have done it to these, you have done it to me." It is a surprise to learn that by feeding the hungry, we are feeding Jesus. We serve God by serving those in need. It ought not surprise us because throughout the scriptures, God seems to side with the underside of society, those who have been left out, the voiceless and those who have been victims of oppression. When the Word became flesh Jesus was born of Mary who was among the poor of her day. The fact that this may surprise us could be an indication that we don't know our Bible very well or that we have interpreted our Bibles with a bias toward the privileged and powerful.
Don't be surprised, don't be disturbed when you are reminded that our response to the simple human needs of our neighbors - physical, material needs, as well as the need for love and participation in earth's resources - is what discipleship is about. If you want to find Jesus today, you will find him by feeding the hungry. If our lives are in tune with the biblical message, this should not surprise us.
4. My final point is on the application of this story for the church today.
The reminder of being accountable, the simple meaning of discipleship and kingdom righteousness, the surprise element as a practical lesson for our theology; all these lessons can and should be applied to our ministry, our reason for being as a church. Matthew shared this story - given by Jesus - to help followers of Jesus focus on what is the essence of the kingdom of God. He wanted to show how the future coming of the kingdom impacts our lives today. This text, as much as any other, should be the guide for mission statements, budgets, programs and staffing in our churches.
I believe this story is leading us to repent, to focus, and to celebrate as we seek to reorder our relationships and resources in response to the good news of the gospel.
We need to repent of making complicated what is so simple. We need to repent of placing our primary emphasis on right formulas, right worship, right intellectualizing, rather than on serving human needs. We need to repent of our complicit acceptance of systems and traditions that have put people into situations of being hungry, poor, strangers, naked, sick and imprisoned. We need to repent of structuring the church in such a way that it has been co-dependent on addiction to wealth and missed the essential element of mission. We need to repent of being selfish in displaying more concern for our salvation than for the needs of the least of these.
To feed the hungry today means more than simple food shared with those who can't afford bread. It means a change in the ordering of relationships and resources so that all people can share in the blessings of creation. For that to happen, there needs to be some radical conversions in the hearts of people as well as the economics of the household. When Matthew included this story of Jesus in his gospel, he wanted it to lead to basic change. God is calling for repentance. That is good news, especially for the victims.
This story of the great judgment is also meant to give us something on which to focus as we guide the ship called the church through rough waters. When you take another look at this list, repeated four times, you sense a central focus on people - on certain kinds of people. Their needs all touch the heart and call for a life of compassion. In other words, in all of our theology, our music, our worship, our programs and budgeting, there needs to be a focus on compassion and mercy for people, a focus outward.
This means that when we balance the inward journey and the outward journey in our spiritual lives, we will see the ultimate focus on our love for neighbor. The final exam will not be based on how well we did in silent reflection, improving our self image, being freed from guilt, but rather in how did all these worthwhile goals help us participate in righteousness and justice. A focus on the end always helps us keep our balance and make corrections when we go astray. Jesus tells us this story so that we will have a compass, a perspective, that will guide our decisions. We would be wise to come back again and again to this text to get refocused as individuals and as a church.
Finally, we apply this text to the household of God as we celebrate the grace of God. Listening to this story can be a grace experience.
- We celebrate the fact that we are given a peek at the final exam ahead of time so we can get ready. That's grace.
- We celebrate the forgiveness found when we fall short, when we repent of our sin of failure to focus on the least of these. We don't have to be tied up in guilt. We yet have time to confess our sins. God forgives. That's grace.
- We can celebrate all those who are today feeding the hungry, clothing the naked. They may not be part of our household, but someday the King will say to them, "Come ... inherit." Instead of checking their labels or creeds, let's celebrate all who are involved in the ministry described in today's story. That's grace.
- We can celebrate the presence of Jesus we find today in shared bread. As we share bread at the altar, we celebrate his presence. As we share bread with the hungry, we know that he is present there. Let's celebrate those who have shared themselves with us. Jesus is present in the sacrament of bread and wine as well as the sacrament of people in need. That's grace.
- We can celebrate God's continual concern for this earth of ours, so beautifully created for all to enjoy. God hasn't given up. There is still a concerted effort to correct injustice, to reorder our relationships and resources. God's justice will prevail. It is this future hope that guides our present action. God's purpose in creation we celebrate. That's grace.
May God help us to re-read the story once more, the story of when it all ends, and by that re-reading, may God's spirit help us to repent, to focus and to celebrate. Thanks to our text today we know what will be in the final exam. Amen.