Loving God, in experiencing both the best and the worst of what life has to offer, Jesus truly came for all people.  Fill us with his mercy and compassion, and help us to see Jesus in all whom we meet; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Within the broader sweep of the gospel of Matthew, the parable that we heard today comes just before the events that are often referred to as the passion narrative.  Soon, Jesus will be experiencing many of the things that have just been mentioned.  He will be hungry and thirsty and stripped naked.  He will be arrested and imprisoned.  He will be treated as an outcast and stranger, and even those who have been closest to him will claim not to know him.  His body will become weak from flogging and blood loss – surely pretty much the same thing as being sick.  In short, he will quite literally experience being hungry and thirsty and a stranger and naked and sick and in prison.  And so, in this sense, today’s gospel leads us into Holy Week.

    At the same time, the parable of the last judgment is like a book end to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew, with the passage that is known as the Beatitudes at the other end (Mt. 5:1-12).  When we think about those who are identified as blessed in the Beatitudes - like those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and the poor in spirit and the pure in heart and the merciful - there are some pretty strong connections with both the sheep and the “least of these” who are mentioned in today’s gospel.

    What we emerge with when we consider the broader scope of Jesus’ teaching is actually an entirely different world view, where we see other people in light of the kingdom of heaven and live with Jesus as the one who rules over our lives.  This is a world where the pure in heart and the merciful are blessed, and where the one who is king and judge identifies himself with those who are in need.  This is a world where the meek actually do inherit the earth and where those who do not keep score are rewarded.  This is very different from the world in which we actually live!

    However, we need to back up for just a moment and consider carefully the parable that we heard today.  It is fairly easy to read this particular gospel in a legalistic and guilt inducing way.  It is easy to boil everything down to works righteousness and to say, “You’d better be out there feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and visiting those who are sick and in prison and welcoming those who are strangers.  Get a move on, because this is how you will save yourself.”  However, is this actually the message in today’s parable?...

    [show picture of sheep and goat] So here we have a sheep who says, “I fed the hungry,” and a goat who says, “Whatever.”  However, what’s wrong with this picture?... Probably the biggest thing would be that the sheep in the parable had no idea what they were doing.  They don’t come to the last judgment and say, “I fed the hungry.”  In fact, they are totally surprised when they are pronounced blessed and are told how they have looked after the king during his time of need.

    At the same time, we’re not told that the goats didn’t care.  All we’re told is that they had never noticed the king in any sort of need.  It might even be that they did some good along the way.  Maybe they had helped the people who they thought they were supposed to help.  This just didn’t include “the least of these” - the outcasts, the poor, and the neediest people.

    In the end, both groups are surprised to discover that the king has been living among them all along and has been hungry and thirsty and naked and sick and in prison and a stranger.  This is why it simply doesn’t work to take this parable and make it into “here’s what you need to do in order to get your reward.”  As soon as we are keeping score and making sure that we have done all of the good deeds that we need to do, we are not counted among the sheep in the parable who had no idea what they were doing.  And so, what is the message for us to take away from today’s gospel?

    For one thing, we are invited to view the world and the people in it through the lens of Jesus.  We are invited to see Jesus in the people we meet, and especially in the people who are most in need.  We are invited to quite literally make love of God and love of neighbour into exactly the same thing – for God is there, in that neighbour.  We are invited to treat every person we meet as if that person is Jesus.

    This is how Mother Teresa approached her work among the poorest of the poor in Calcutta.  No matter how revolting the leprosy was that attacked their bodies, she treated each person as if they were Jesus.  This is what kept her going in this very difficult work.

    Of course, not all of us are a Mother Teresa.  However, we are still called to do whatever is within our capacity to do.  We are, in fact, called to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and care for those who are sick and in prison.  We are called to give the thirsty a drink and to welcome those who are strangers.  However, we don’t do it in order to keep score and in order to earn our way in.  Instead, we do it out of love for Jesus and because we have already been welcomed as inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.

    At the same time, today’s gospel answers the question of where Jesus is when there are people who are hungry or thirsty or in need.  The answer is that Jesus is right there with them, experiencing their pain and praying for the mercy and compassion of others to move them to help.  And so, should we be the ones who are hungry or sick or a stranger or in prison, Jesus is right there with us, sharing our grief and our pain.  In the same way, whenever we find ourselves in a position to help those who are hungry or naked or sick or a stranger or in prison, we know that Jesus is there with us then as well.

    Just as the kingdom of heaven is quite different from the way that the world around us functions, so the one who sits on the throne as king and judge is very different from all other kings and judges.  He doesn’t hang out in luxury and comfort with the movers and the shakers.  He doesn’t consider himself to be too good to serve or to suffer or to give his life for others.  Instead, he identifies himself with the least ones and pronounces blessing on those who are meek and pure in heart and merciful.

    Let us then live as those who have inherited the kingdom – as those who live with Christ ruling our lives.  Let us live in love for God and neighbour, which come together wherever the least ones are found.  Let us treat others as if they are Jesus, helping whenever and however we are able.  And let us give thanks that Christ continues to be with us, especially in those times of our greatest need.  Thanks be to God for the one who has given his life for ours.  Amen.

Lent 5 (NL 1)                                Matthew 25:31-46
March 22, 2015
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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