Good Without Knowing It

Transcript

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[0:00] Good. So now we go to the sermon. Our sermon text is Matthew 25, 31 through 46, 31 through 46. And here's a little bit of introduction before we go in. This again is Christ the King Sunday. It's the end of our liturgical year. It's the end of our lectionary year. So it's kind of like New Year's Eve. Next Sunday will be kind of like New Year's Day. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. And the church year ends with Jesus on the throne. It's Christ the King Sunday. And it actually dovetails very nicely with all of these parables that we've been seeing leading up to this because it's finally, there's a parable about Jesus as King, Jesus as the Son of Man sitting on the throne in his glory. And that just works. Again, we'll look at the context of this. This is Jesus in the final week of his life, having a confrontation with the religious leaders right outside the temple, right outside the Holy Temple. And so there's a lot of energy in the room, not the room, in the space. There's a lot of confrontation. Jesus doesn't back down from anything. If only, if anything, he just keeps intensifying his message to them. And today we have one of the most intense of all the parables that he delivers. And when

[1:11] this parable is over, it says they go on, everybody goes their own way. Jesus gets ready for the last supper, which he has with his apostles. And the people who are opposed to him set out in earnest to destroy him. And they think that they succeed later in the week. So this is really, this is the end of the formal teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. This is the end of really of what we would call the teachings of Jesus right before the crucifixion. Certainly teachings occur afterwards, but this is the end of his formal ministry. So it's kind of like an exciting day in a way, like we've almost like graduation, like we've made it through the church year. And you know what's great is a new church year is about to dawn. It's 2020 is almost gone, but for the church year, 2020 is gone tonight. And I love that the church year is getting a head start on 2021. And I mean, we just really got to pray that 2021 is a much better year than 2020. I hope that's true liturgically, theologically, and in all ways. And so we're leading the way in that, in that respect, at least. And so my hope is that a new thing will come. I love what John Wenrich says, do you see it? A new thing is springing up. And God does bring new things. And I think that's what we're going to see.

[2:29] As sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

[3:12] Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation 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. I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you looked after me. I was in prison, and you came to visit me.

[3:48] The king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

[4:08] The king will reply, I tell you the truth. Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did not do. You did not do. You didn't do. You didn't do. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food.

[4:33] As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. As you saw your fellow men eat your food. you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison, and you did not look after me.

[4:55] They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you? He will reply, I tell you the truth. Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well, as I mentioned, and maybe this is true of you too, this used to scare me. This used to terrorize me. This used to scare me. This used to scare me. This used to scare me. This used to terrify me, this parable, because, you know, that one phrase in the middle, you know, this fiery place that's set aside for the devil and his angels. And I sure didn't want to go there. And I, even the thought that I might end up there was terrifying, right? So, and then the question comes, have I done enough? Because that's what in this section, at least, seems to matter. Have we done enough? Have I done these six things sufficiently? To end up on the right side of the throne. And so for review, here are the six things. There's just six things here. There are other lists in the Bible, but this list is here. Feed the hungry,

[6:25] give a drink to the thirsty, invite the stranger in, give clothing to those who need it, visit and care for the sick, and visit people in prison. And I ask myself, and I used to ask myself, have I done enough of these things? And you may be asking yourself, have you done enough? And I actually want to leave that question right here. I want you to imagine that it's right here on this spot, and you're probably hearing some noises as I pound on the podium, that that question is sitting right here in front of us, and it won't go away. It's a question that deserves an answer, and we are going to answer it in time, but it will not go politely on its way by itself if we ignore it, because it's there. That question is there. It's posed to us, and it's there. And I want you to imagine that it's in essence by this parable. What have I done? Have I done enough? And we'll return to answer it at the end, so just hold on to that one there. For now, we're going to look at this passage, and I'm going to quickly go through, and we're not going to take audience participation today, but we're going to look at who is who. Who is the king? It's Jesus. Today, we're getting really close. He's talking about the Son of Man. He uses that phrase to describe

[7:38] himself. The Son of Man will come as king and sit in his glory. We've got that. So, that one is the Son of Man. And we're going to look at the passage, and we're going to look at the question then is who are the sheep and the goats? Who are the people who are being judged? And an interesting question that we may not have thought of is that, is Jesus talking about believers or non-believers who are being judged? The people who did or did not do things, are those the people who knew enough and so should have known better? Are these believers, and only the believers are being judged in this? Or are these non-believers? And so, we're going to look at that. So, we're going to look at that.

[8:27] As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that.

[8:38] As we're going to look at that. As we're going to look at that. the least of these my brothers or the NRSV has the least of these my family. There's this kind of this idea of familial connection there. Who are the people who are the recipients, either the recipients or non-recipients of these sort of acts of kindness? And who are the people in need? Now, some interpreters think that this is everybody in the world or this is everybody in the world, but especially those people who need something, who have need in their lives. Other interpreters think that Jesus is talking now about his own disciples, which is very interesting. That the least of these, because the clue is he says my brothers, and he might have even been pointing to his disciples present there. This is an interesting idea. That after he dies, they are going to go out into the world. They're going to be hungry, thirsty. They're going to lose their clothes. Their cloak is going to get stolen or whatever. They're going to be beaten up. They're going to be thrown in prison. And they were, they're going to be sick. If you read the apostle Paul and he talks about all the tribulations he's gone through, this is almost word for word what he endured. So Jesus is throwing his lot in with the people who spread

[10:01] his message and saying, I'm going to look out for you. I'm giving a warning to this world about how they treat my messengers in this world. And they need to treat you well. And I will judge the world. And how they treat my messengers. So it's, it's a beautiful thing in a way, because Jesus is saying, I really care about these people who have carried my, who are going to carry my name into the whole world. So that's one choice that the least of these, my brothers is the apostles. I like that, but you know what? I, I also like that it's everybody in this world. And especially those who have special need, who have nothing, who are vulnerable, who need help. And, you know, we could say things, well, they should help themselves or they should try harder or they should work harder, but some of them do, and they still have nothing. I mean, we have to be honest about that. And so it is incumbent upon those who have more than enough to help them. You choose yourself what Jesus means by who the least of these are. And that's again, how a parable can kind of work is in your mind, you may be thinking, what is it that Jesus is trying to do? And what is it that thinking this week, who are the least? And as you kind of work on that, then the parable works its

[11:19] way into your heart. It germinates. It begins to sprout forth. So I'm going to leave that an open question, who it is that has or has not received. But what's clear is those who have or have not received, Jesus says, it as if Jesus himself is the one who has or has not received this care. And so again, we have this beautiful incarnational sense that Jesus is identifying himself with the people of this world and especially the people in this world who have special need, or he's identifying himself with his apostles who go out and carry his word into the world.

[12:03] One other thing that is a feature of this parable that just deserves a tiny mention is this idea of right. I'm going to take a moment here and I'm going to take a moment here and I'm going to take a moment to do it like this because that's for you at home. Right or left. Is there any significance to that? Is it just a way of dividing from one side of the others to have a line? Well, in the way this parable works, it just means they're being separated. So you can't make too much of whether right or left. But in the ancient world, it turns out that often people thought that the right was a good side and the left was the bad side. And there were things that you would do with your right hand that you wouldn't do with your left hand. And left, this is sad. And you could look it up, especially if you're left handed, left handed. But left handed people were looked down upon. And we know stories of even how left handed people were forced, not even in the last hundred years this has happened. Left handed people had been forced to try to become right hand dominant. And it's hard. It doesn't work. But so sometimes in the ancient world, right was good and left was bad. But for the sake of the internal workings of this parable, it just means we're separating

[13:08] them into two groups. And the separation is interesting. There's no third place in this parable. There's no in between place. There's no neutral place. There's no, you know, there's no purgatory. There's no sort of, I mean, when we played tag when we were kids, there was like this home base where you could touch it and then you can't get tagged and it was sort of this limbo land. There's none of that. And that's important. That kind of drives this parable home. There's the right and then the left. And then there's the left. And those are the two choices that people face when they come before the throne.

[13:48] And related to that, we see that there's this sort of good news, bad news about justice showing up again, that God actually does judge this earth and he judges it perfectly because he knows everything that has happened. And so there for those people who suffer under injustice, even though it may not happen in this world, it's not going to happen in this world. And so there's this hope that in this lifetime, there is this hope that in the future, all the rights will be made, all the wrongs will be made right. The rights won't be made wrong. I started wrong there. The wrongs will be made right. And it's hard to wait for that, but it will happen. And so there is this wonderful sense of justice that we wouldn't want to cheapen and say, oh, in the end, God's going to, you know, let it all pass. You all, you know, you imagine if you were a student, for example, and you had studied really hard, you know, you had to go to the professor. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college.

[14:56] That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. That professor didn't want you to go to college. workers, the parable of the vineyard where, you know, those people who worked less time were all given the same pay. So it's challenging, kind of hold all those things in tension. So we'll get to some of that a little bit later. One thing we noticed though is that God doesn't judge in real time. God's not like a traffic cop watching us every moment and correcting us, putting us back on course. That would be a bad situation for us. There would be no freedom every time we made a mistake. Can you imagine if you were driving too fast and God just pulled your foot away from the accelerator? I mean, you would not have any agency or autonomy left in your life. And I mean, on some levels, it would be wonderful if God were to stop me

[15:56] just as I'm about to say something dumb or mean or hurtful. You know, I would like that, but then again, I wouldn't like that. I need to make my own mistakes. I need to learn from them. So there's not real time justice. But there's justice at the end of a time, at the end of all time. And it seems that a life that has lived outside itself is rewarded. A life of generosity towards other people, especially those in need, is rewarded. And a life that is not that way is being punished. And that's God's justice on display. You should really be asking yourself, and especially if you're putting on your sort of Reformation or Protestant hat right now, you should be asking yourself, does this undermine, does this parable undermine what we've been taught so much, which is that we are not saved by doing good works, but we're saved by the faith that we have in the saving work of Jesus Christ and the grace of God that flows from what he did for us.

[16:59] And it's a very good question. It's a very good question. This parable poses an important challenge to that doctrine. And that doctrine is not, didn't come out of nowhere. It's developed very much from the gospels, but probably even more so from Paul's letter to the Romans and also Paul's letter to the Galatians and even Paul's letter to the Ephesians. But mostly the Romans and the Galatians is this very strong message that you are saved, but not by your works. You're saved by faith through grace, by grace through faith. You could get that in the right order. Okay. You're saved by faith through grace. You could get that in the right order. You're saved by faith. by grace through faith. And if this was as simple as this, I would be saved by all the good things I did for other people. Then it would be a fairly easy thing to do. I could just make sure I did these things all the time. I make sure I feed the hungry, visit the sick, visit those in prison, right? Give clothes to those who need it. Live, you know, a life outside myself, hopefully. But where's the motivation there? You know, if I'm doing this for this other person, am I really doing it for them then? Or am I doing it for myself? That other person then just becomes

[18:16] sort of a means by which I get what I want. Instead of what if what I want is solely to bless them without any thought of any reward for myself. And so now we're starting to see which way does our life want to go? Which way do we want this to line up?

[18:36] The other thing is that if this was solely about all the good things that I did, all the people that I helped, there's still the problem of my sin. And you only have to look at the first few chapters of the Bible in Genesis to say that the problem of our sin is a severe problem that separates us from God in these intense ways. And just going and doing good things for other people for the sake of my own benefit.

[19:06] But it doesn't address the problem of my sin at all. It doesn't say anything about my heart, my motivation, the things I say, the other things I say or do that could hurt other people, or blaspheme God, or you could go through the list of the Ten Commandments. And so we get ourselves into a really tough spot then if we say, well, this is now our theology, that we have to do these six good things and we'll be one of the sheep. It doesn't answer the question of sin. It doesn't get to the motivation of our heart. Why are we doing those things? And so if we're talking about our sin, I want to add another question then. You know, one question that I've set here is, have I done enough to help people in need? Because this parable is telling me I really need to do that. And the other question is, how or have I sufficiently atoned for my own sin? How have I cleansed my own list of wrongdoing? How can I end the separation from God if this is all on my own effort too?

[20:13] Well, the time has come now to answer both of these questions. And as it turns out, the answer to both of these questions is actually in this parable itself. And this is the most important part of the parable. It's hidden in the middle of the parable, right? And to get at it, you might have to remember a question. If you're old enough, you'll remember this, but it goes like this. The people who are being addressed here, the sheep and the goats, what did they know and when did they know it? What did they know and when did they know it? That was a question that was in our country around 1973, 1974. So if you're younger than that, then you don't know what I'm talking about. Look it up. It's going to be interesting for you. Look it up. What did they know and when did they know it? But that's the question we're asking here about these people. We get the idea that the ones who did not have the right to do it, they did not have the right to do it. And so they were helping Jesus. They didn't get that. When did we see you? And we really sense that maybe if they thought that was Jesus they were helping, they would have done it because Jesus is good. Jesus is the king. Helping the king is only going to help me. It's nice to know important people.

[21:22] It's nice to know famous people. Do favors for them. They'll do favors back. So if we had only known, Jesus, that you were sick, we would have definitely visited you. But we didn't know it was you. So there was nothing in it for us. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't didn't know it was you. So we didn't know it was you. So we didn't helping Jesus. They were just as surprised as the goats. And I love this. Without that little sentence there, this whole parable would definitely be a work, what we would call a works righteousness parable. And it probably wouldn't comport or belong with the rest of our scriptures. It would

[22:23] have, it would have stood out way too much from the rest of the scriptures. But that this sentence is here in a sense redeems the parable. The parable doesn't need redeeming, but it, it re-centers the parable appropriately in our understanding that it is not works that save you, but works are so important. And we're going to get into that. So the ones who did help also did not know that they were helping Jesus. Jesus, we, we, we helped all these people and we didn't know that we were helping you when we helped them. We just, that's just what we do. You know, that's just, that's just how we are. That's how we roll. We, if we had known that it was you, that would have been great, I guess, but you know, we, we maybe wouldn't have clearly wouldn't change our motivation. Wouldn't have changed the outcome much because we were just helping people. So now we're getting to an answer to both these thorny questions, right? Have you done enough? And how do you atone for your own sin?

[23:20] The sheep were just going about their business, having relationships with other people that were marked by faithful care for other people's wellbeing. And, and now they're actually being told that those relationships and helps were directly directed at Jesus himself. Jesus identifies so much with the people receiving this care that in, in that incarnational way. And I think, and this is where we draw some inferences here is that the sheep were doing this because they already had a deep relationship with Jesus and they were being led by the spirit. I don't think it's possible to live that kind of life. I don't think it's possible because of our fallen human nature. I don't think it's possible to live that kind of life unless the spirit guides us. The spirit is able to wake us from our selfishness and make us people who truly care about other people. I think that's not within me naturally. That's not in my DNA, the spirit, you know, this, my natural inclination is to take care of only myself or to do things that are not in my DNA. And I think that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the nature. That's the nature. That's the nature. That's the nature. That's the nature. That's the nature. That's I'm not going to even tell you all the outcomes at the end.

[25:03] Your faithful position now is to follow the prompting of the Spirit and go and help that person. I know. I also know when I haven't done that. I know when I haven't done that. I might have said this before. I was driving along the highway in South Dakota.

[25:22] And I usually don't. I have picked up hitchhikers in the past and I have given people rides to gas stations. And I know it can be a dangerous thing to do. And I don't do it much anymore because there's honestly, there's just not a lot of people in the Silicon Valley looking for rides like that. As far as I can tell, I haven't seen too many around here. But in South Dakota, it was different. And there was a man holding a gas can walking along the road and his thumb was out with his other hand and his back was to me. And I just kind of flew on by. And I had all these thoughts in my head like, oh, somebody else will help. Or he can walk. He looks able-bodied.

[26:02] But that the spirit said, you need to stop. And the reason I remember it so well is because I disobeyed. I just said, no. I kind of shook it off like, you know, like maybe a duck shakes water off its back or something like that. Don't invade my thoughts right now, spirit. I don't want that. And I kept on driving. But it has haunted me to this day.

[26:26] That moment that I. That I didn't follow the prompting of the spirit. And I know many of you, maybe you could have that experience. But I know also many of us have an experience where we listened to the prompting of the spirit. And we did what we were told to do. And it was the right thing. It always ended up being the right thing. It always ended up being the thing that God wanted to happen. And so was there a conversation that was going to happen with that man on the way to the gas station that never took place? I think so. Was there some act of kindness he needed to receive at that moment in his life? That I deprived him of? I think so. I don't know who he is. I can't go back to South Dakota and fix it. I have to live with that for the rest of my life. And God also forgives. Which is, praise God that he does that.

[27:12] So, I think the sheep are the people who have been living by the spirit. They have been doing what supernaturally they've been enabled to do by the spirit. And thus, they have no idea that they were helped. They were not helping Jesus. They just did what came supernaturally to them. And the people who didn't do those things, it's because they were acting out of their natural inclinations to take care of themselves. And there was nothing in it for them to help somebody else. And there was no voice in there. Or if there was a voice, it was very quiet. Or if there was a voice, they had gotten really good at shaking it off and saying, don't invade my thoughts. And they kept on doing what they did. And here then at the end. The judgment between the sheep and the goats isn't just you did these things or you didn't do these things. The judgment is you lived outside yourself because you were prompted to do so by the spirit. Because you have this living and life-giving relationship with the son, with the king. Or on the other side is you didn't do these things because you live only for yourself. And you have no meaningful relationship with the spirit. And no meaningful relationship with the king. Okay. And thus there's this separation.

[28:30] And for us then that squares the question of have we done enough? And can we atone for our own sins? And the answer is no, you've never done enough. And you never will do enough. That's why and thus not doing enough is part of your sin. But your sin is taken away. All you're being asked to do is be faithful for this day. Let the spirit guide you in all that you do. And God will take care of that. And that's the freedom that you have is that you can then go on with your life.

[29:06] So maybe we should ask ourselves should we be worried, right? Should we be worried? Should we be terrified by this parable, right? And I was reminded of the Narnia books. Remember the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, right? We have this Jesus in this story who's coming as the son of man in a cloud and sitting on his throne in glory and judging the earth. It's stark, right? And Jesus is upping, sort of upping. He's turning up the volume. He's turning up the heat in this confrontation right before his death. So I want to bring you back if you've read these. If you haven't read them, you've got to read them. You've got to read the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. And the book that I'm going to read from. The book that I'm going to read from is called The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And there's this conversation between a girl named Susan and a talking beaver. His name is Mr. Beaver. That wasn't very original, but that wasn't really the point. So the name Aslan comes up. That name has come up several times in the book, and the children are beginning to wonder who this is.

[30:21] And so one of the children asks, who is Aslan? Who is this Aslan that you keep talking about? And Mr. Beaver says, Aslan is a lion. The lion. The great lion. Ooh, said Susan. I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.

[30:47] Safe, said Mr. Beaver. Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you. And I kind of like to think of this, that's the end of that, as sort of the Aslan parable in a way, right? This, maybe the king lion parable. Not the lion king parable. That's totally different. This is the king lion parable. He's not safe. Jesus is not safe. He calls this world to judgment and accountability, and there's punishment, and there's reward. But you know what else? He's also good. He wants to connect with the world. He wants to connect with you so closely that you do the right thing without knowing it. That's what Jesus wants. And that you meet him in the world through every act of care for people in need. That's what this king lion wants. And he chooses between the sheep and the goats, and then we need to choose which way we want to live. The life outside of ourselves that's guided by the spirit, or the life dedicated solely to ourselves. That's always looking for our own interests. I leave you with that thought, and let's pray.

[31:58] Heavenly Father, thank you again for your word. This final word of this season, this word from the throne. Thank you for your grace, but also thank you that you're not totally safe, but that you're good. Help us to choose the good. In Jesus' name, amen.