Monday 11/24/14

This week’s Monday Morning Bible Breakdown is on the Gospel from last night: Matthew 25:31-46.

Jesus said to his disciples:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his 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,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left,
'Depart from me, you accursed,
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,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
Then they will answer and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?’
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life."

Last night’s passage is all about the final judgment; who will be taken to heaven, and who will not. It is always a strange and difficult topic for me to discuss because I never want to “scare” someone into doing good. I don’t think Christ would have wanted to either. It seems inconsistent with most of his teachings. Still, His word is His word, and in this passage he discusses what must be done if we want salvation.

The first part is fun enough to talk about. Jesus descending on a glorious throne surrounded by angels is a wonderful visual. The idea of Him separating everyone into two groups is a little more nerve racking, particularly if you are not sure which group you are going to be in. Sheep on the right, goats on the left. Sheep go to heaven, goats… well, you don’t want to be a goat. I’ve always wondered about that symbolism. Goats don’t seem so bad, but in the Bible they are always getting a bad rap. Sheep go to heaven, goats go to Hell.

Sheep and goats are not that different. They basically do the same things. Often shepherds had flocks of both. Both provide good meat. Both provide good milk. Neither of them are aggressive. Both are loyal. In fact, goats are often more loyal. A goat will follow you around the yard like a dog. Sheep do not like anything getting too close to them except other sheep. Sheep produce wool, so they do have that over goats. Still, it doesn’t seem like enough.

For those of you who don’t know, I have been the proud owner of an Icelandic sheep named Delilah for about a month now. It is not a lot of time spent being a shepherd, but I did a lot of research before I bought her. My “farming operation” (if it’s even fair to call it that) is very small scale, but many of the books and articles I was reading were about very large scale operations. One thing that kept popping up was that if you have both sheep and goats, let the sheep into a new pasture first, and only after they have eaten should you let the goats in.

Goats are nature’s garbage disposals. A herd of goats will eat the grass right down to the ground. They will keep eating well after they have gotten all the nutrients that they need. Sheep, on the other hand, will eat the grass down to a certain level and then stop. When sheep feed on a pasture, it regrows quickly. When goats feed on a pasture, that pasture is done for a while.

I find this fact to be enlightening, particularly when you consider Jesus’ words to the sheep and the goats. He thanks the sheep for feeding Him when He was hungry, giving Him something to drink when He was thirsty, welcoming Him when He was a stranger, clothing Him when He was naked, caring for Him when He was sick, and visiting Him when He was in prison. He shames the goats for failing to do the very same things.

What separates the sheep from the goats is that the goats are self-centered and short sighted. The goats see everything around them as their own, and gobble it up greedily. Sheep, on the other hand, take what they need and leave the rest for someone else. The sheep make sure others are taken care of. The goats look out for themselves.

Sometimes we are too lazy to look out for others. Often it is inconvenient, awkward, or difficult to help someone. Sometimes, when we see a hungry person, we don’t want to share because we only have a little and we are hungry ourselves. Sometimes we don’t want to welcome a stranger because we are shy. Sometimes we don’t want to care for the sick because it makes us realize our own mortality and makes us uncomfortable. Sometimes we don’t want to help others because they are ungrateful.

When we avoid these works of mercy, we often make excuses. “That person wouldn’t be hungry if he weren’t a junky.” “If he didn’t commit a crime, he wouldn’t be in jail.” “That person is sick because they didn’t take care of themselves and made poor life choices.” “I’ve been here longer, that stranger should introduce himself to me, not the other way around.” Notice the words of Christ in the passage, though. He does not say, “I was hungry because I lost everything in a fire.” He does not say, “I was in jail unjustly.” He does not say, “I was sick through no fault of my own.” Jesus does not tell us to ask why the needy need, he just tells us to take care of them, no matter what.

Go and do likewise.