December 18th, 2021
Matthew 25.31-46
31 “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. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Give Me the Bottom Line
Give me the bottom line. You may be the type of person who prefers this approach. Cut through all of the extraneous and just tell me what I need to know. Religious culture isn’t exempt. We have a tendency to codify the truths that have been hard-won so that they will be repeatable for others, particularly for those generations rising in the ranks after us.
Here are some examples from the Bible’s greatest hits album:
“What must I do to be saved?”, the Roman jailer asks Peter and Silas.
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”, asks the rich young ruler.
“What is the greatest commandment?”, the religious leaders ask Jesus.
“What is it that God requires of you, o’ human being?”, Micah asks his listeners.
“Care for widows and orphans”, James says is pure religion.
Believe me, I’m sympathetic. All of these quotes are trying to take the complexity of some of life’s hardest questions and simplify it. That is comforting, at least at first. But usually, upon further consideration, those truths that we have distilled down to their simplest form require that we complicate them again.
This teaching of Jesus about the nature of the final judgment is one of those simple-not-simple teachings. This is a bottom-line sort of sermon, isn’t it? All the nations are gathered together and will be separated out, one to punishment, one to eternal life. And what will the criteria for who goes where be? Maybe I’m reading this wrong, but it sounds a little bit like a bottom line. Feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, befriend the stranger, visit those in prison.
Those things.
Do those things.
As a chaplain at one of our Episcopal schools, I have the honor of being part of the interview process for new faculty. Part of my task is to make sure they have some sense of what it means to teach at an Episcopal school. My opener is not intended to be a gotcha question, but rather a starting place to give me an idea of what they might know. I ask them, “What do you know about the Episcopal Church?”
One of the recent candidates was a Baptist, and her son a Baptist minister. She said she asked him about the Episcopal Church and he told her that we were a Matthew 25 church more than a Matthew 28 church, a Sheep and Goats Christianity more than a Great Commission Christianity. I was so delighted with her answer I sort of made a gleeful snort! She was immediately concerned she had said something untoward. “Not at all,” I replied, “That is a delightful answer!”
Matthew 28 refers to one of Jesus’ final exchanges with the apostles before his final ascension, where he tells them he is going to send them to the ends of the earth to teach others what he commanded and to baptize them in the name of the Trinity. He is commissioning them to go and make new disciples. This exchange could very well be considered yet another place where one of those bottom lines is offered.
But none of these bottom lines aren’t simple. Perhaps on the surface, they seem to be, but any thoughtful consideration of what they look like in practice will have their complications re-emerge. Simple-not-simple. But take comfort in that God loves cares for you enough that he gives you these solid entry points to live into his mission. And trust his never-failing grace as you work it out.
The Rev’d Canon Tim Sean Youmans
Vicar of St. Edward the Confessor Chapel, Casady School
Canon for Youth and Family, St. Paul’s Cathedral
Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma