Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Sheep and goats

Matthew 25:31-46 NASB

"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
"Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ "Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ "The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
"Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ "Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ "Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."


My thoughts -

This passage really tears me up. I don't like judgement. I don't like condemnation. I don't like wrath. Give me grace any day. Give me mercy. Give me forgiveness. These things feel good. I like them.

And yet, what of justice? Do I not care for justice? And when I pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven do I not mean it? How will it be done of God's followers do not do it? Are we waiting and hoping that God will miraculously do it for us? Are we not called to do God's will?

So Jesus is speaking of salvation and damnation here and I think we have totally missed it. We want to hear what we like. We want to be happy. We want it to be easy. So we don't think Jesus means what he says. Not really. We're not required to do anything. We don't really have to. We just need to "accept" Jesus. We need to say the right prayer and believe. Jesus is an academic proposition, something to be affirmed. We claim to believe and it's all good. It's smooth sailing. We're home free.

And yet when Jesus talks of salvation it seems like it's an awfully demanding thing. Sell all you have and give to the poor. If you hand causes you to sin cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin gauge it out. Be perfect as God is perfect. Care for the poor, feed the hungry, give the thirsty something to drink, give shelter to the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick and imprisoned. And if you don't do these things, well then clearly you don't know me and I don't know you.

Do we hear this message? Does it sink in? Can we claim salvation in Christ and refuse to do God's will? Can we claim salvation in Christ but not work to have God's will done on earth as it is in heaven? Can we claim to have salvation in Christ but not care for all of God's children? Can we claim salvation in Christ but ignore God's concern for the weak, the lost, the poor, the oppressed and the broken? Is salvation something that's good to have only of it makes no demands on us?

Where did we get the idea that we just have to believe the right things, say the right prayer, check the box marked "I accept Jesus" and then we're saved?

Certainly not from Jesus!
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