Grace is in the Details

 

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.’  Matthew 25:34

 

If there is an Action/Consequence parable, at first glance, the parable of the sheep and the goats found in Matthew 25 would appear to be it.  Because our default way of viewing or interpreting everything is from the position of Action/Consequence, when we read verses 31-46 that is all we can initially see.  But, in order to find the truth of Death/Resurrection in any passage of scripture, we are called to dig; we are asked to seek.  It is only as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes that we are enabled to follow the trail which leads us to the deeper meaning of any scripture.

One thing I have found is, when I read scripture from an Action/Consequence point of view I typically don’t get “bogged down in the details”.  After a superficial skimming of the passage, something usually jumps out which causes me to feel guilt or fear and has a blinding effect which prevents me from noticing that the details don’t necessarily support the interpretation which caused me to feel that way.  After only a surface reading of this parable, it appears that it is a story about the Big Reveal at the Day of Judgment, when Jesus announces who will go to heaven and who won’t; and why.  The ‘why’, in this instance, appears to be based on whether or not you helped people who were in need.  Enter the guilt and fear.

Now let’s take a closer look at the details.  The setting for this parable begins in Matthew 24 where Jesus’ disciples ask him to tell them what signs will precede his return to earth at the end of time. After giving them a checklist of events, he tells them that no one knows the actual time he will return except his Father; and that, list or no list, people will be taken by surprise when he comes back.  He follows with a series of parables describing the state of those who profess to be watching for his return and what he will actually find at that time. Three of those parables are found in Matthew 25, and the parable of the sheep and the goats is the final one of those three. 

As we saw, in the previous parables (See This Little Light of Mine and Love Isn’t Love ‘Til You Give it Away) Jesus uses a bridegroom and a master to represent himself, but in this parable there is no disguising who the central figure is.  Jesus begins by saying,

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.” (verses 31-33)

In this parable, Jesus unabashedly represents himself as the King, sitting on his glorious throne, surrounded by all of his angels, ready to judge the people of every nation.  There is no mistaking the fact that Jesus is painting the scene of the final Judgment Day, and that he will be the Judge. His process will be to “separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

Let’s think about that process for a minute.  On Judgment Day Jesus is not decreeing, ‘You will be a sheep’ and ‘you will be a goat’.  They already are what they are.  He is not separating them by their behavior. Their behavior did not determine whether they were a sheep or a goat; the opposite is true, they behaved the way they did because of what they were – either a sheep or a goat.  Jesus is simply separating the flocks.  John 10:27-28 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  We become Jesus’ sheep in only one way:  by believing in him as our Lord and Savior.  (See John3:16)  We do not work for it, earn it or deserve it. We accept his finished work on our behalf, and we are his sheep.

Once the separating process has been accomplished, Jesus continues, “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.’” (Verse 34) From the foundation of the world, the kingdom has been prepared for the sheep; for those who belong to Jesus. If you belong to Jesus, you are indeed blessed by the Father and the kingdom is yours!

When viewing this parable through the Action/Consequence lens, the next verses seem to be the most important because they appear give us a to-do list; the very criteria we fear God will use to determine whether or not we are worthy of eternal life:

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” (verses 35,36)

But, if you are viewing this parable through the Death/Resurrection Lens, you will interpret verses 35 and 36 in light of what you just learned from pondering the details in the previous verses:

1.       Behavior does not determine whether a person is a sheep or a goat.  What you are determines what you do.  If you’re a sheep you will do sheep things.  If you’re a goat you will act like a goat.  

2.      What makes you a sheep is belief in Jesus. Period. 

3.      Jesus is the judge; he knows about number 2 above.  He did not suddenly come up with a new set of rules.

Through the lens of Death/Resurrection we see that the verses cannot be the How-to-Inherit-Eternal-Life checklist.

Let’s continue looking at the story.

“Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’” (verses 37-39)

Notice that those who are called “righteous”, not because of their own goodness, but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ freely credited to them, were not even aware of having done these things.  Why?  Because they were simply doing what sheep do.  They weren’t going down the checklist of things they had to do for, or to, Jesus.  Instead, they were living their lives based on what Jesus had done for them. 

The sheep were living from the recognition that they had been hungry and thirsty and Jesus had satisfied their need:

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:35

They remembered that they were strangers and Jesus had taken them in:

…remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  Ephesians 2:12-13

They knew that they had been naked and Jesus clothed them:

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

They understood that they had been sick and Jesus brought them healing:

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Matthew 9:10-13

They grasped that they had been imprisoned and Jesus had set them free:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;  Isaiah 61:1

In the parable, the King responded, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (verse 40)

Jesus came to this world and stood in the place of all who are hungry and thirsty, alone and naked, sick and in prison; which is every one of us. He became one of us, for the express purpose of providing for our needs.  Those who have humbly, gratefully accepted his provisions are simply sharing the news, like ‘beggars telling other beggars where to find bread’ as Martin Luther once expressed it.  Or, in this story, like sheep telling other sheep where to find pasture. 

The parable concludes with the goats.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, 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, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (verses 41-46)

The goats are those who those who never believed in Jesus or accepted his provisions. They were as unaware of their behavior as the sheep had been.  They were simply living like goats.  Perhaps some of them had been trying to live moral lives in an attempt to justify their own existence or look good to others, but their behavior had nothing to do with recognition of their own neediness, or Jesus’ provision for that need. Whatever ‘help’ they may have offered to others was empty help.

Now, standing before the King, In light of the curse being pronounced upon them, they were indignantly protesting that, if they had only been notified of the specific instances where they had been expected to help Jesus himself, they certainly would have.  They were still missing the point that Jesus came to be the representative of all who are in need, and that everyone is in need.

The goats went away to spend an eternity of being hungry, thirsty, alienated, naked, sick and in prison; but those who had done nothing but live as sheep, in joyful acceptance of Jesus’ provisions, went into eternal life.