181118 Sermon on Matthew 25:31-46 (Second to Last Sunday of the Church Year), November 18, 2018

181118 Sermon on Matthew 25:31-46 (Second to Last Sunday of the Church Year), November 18, 2018

In our Gospel reading Jesus is speaking about the last day and the judgement of the living and the dead.  All people will come before him on that day, and each will be judged by him.  What was previously hidden will be brought to light.  One of the names for this momentous event is the “apocalypse,” which means uncovering.  Everything will be exposed.  All people will be perfectly divided so that each goes where he or she belongs.  The blessed shall inherit the kingdom that the Father has prepared from the foundation of the world.  The cursed shall enter hell, which was created for the devil and his angels.  Eternity shall be spent in either of these two places, and each individual will be in one or the other.  There is plenty in these words to awaken all of us.

Because these words and ideas are so exalted, magnificent, and generally overlooked by people—including Christians—there are a lot of different things that we could talk about.  But I’d like to focus today on the basis of Jesus’s judgement in the picture he gives us in the Gospel.

The difference between the sheep and the goats is that the sheep fed, gave drink, welcomed, clothed, and visited Jesus.  The goats did not do any of these things.  Which commandment is being talked about here?  All these things have to do with the fifth commandment: You shall not murder.  As Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, you shall not murder does not just mean that I shouldn’t kill my neighbor.  It means that I should be kindly disposed towards my neighbor and help him with whatever his needs might be.  Our Catechism says that the meaning of this commandment is that we should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.  That means that we should give food, drink, clothing, and otherwise support our neighbor so that he or she may live comfortably and pleasantly rather than in wretchedness and suffering.

A person may then wonder about the other commandments.  What about fornicating, adultery and other perversions?  What about stealing and lying?  What about despising preaching, not calling upon God’s name, or not loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind?  These things also will be taken into account in the final judgment because all these things are part of the Ten Commandments.  They make up the will of God as it is given to us in his Law. 

But Jesus must have a definite purpose in mind for speaking only about the fifth commandment.  Jesus obviously knows about the other commandments, but he chooses only this one.  Furthermore, the fifth commandment is not spoken about in a general way, he is speaking only of the actions towards the least of these my brothers.  In so far as a person either ministers or does not minister to the least of Jesus’s brothers, he is either ministering or not ministering to Jesus.

So who are Jesus’s brothers?  For answering this question it is important that we pay close attention to God’s Word.  The answer is a bit surprising and, to be honest, is rather off-putting to our reason.  Jesus’s brothers are not his relatives.  They also are not humanity in general.  They are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.  There are several examples that support this.

One time Jesus was teaching a crowd of people, and the word went through the room that Jesus’s mother and his brothers were looking for him.  They must have had something important that they needed from him.  But Jesus looks around him and says, “These are my mother and my brothers.  Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.”  This strikes the unbeliever as being especially cold that Jesus would choose strangers over his own flesh and blood, but I think we get a taste of that coldness as well.  Instead of his own flesh and blood, he chooses the congregation of hearers.  Family ties will be cut, if there be a need, rather than the ties that a Christian has with the truth, the word and will of God.

On another occasion a woman was filled with an exuberant spirit and blessed Jesus’s mother saying, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.”  But Jesus says, “Blessed, rather, are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.”  This is a very unsentimental thing to say.  This woman had praised his mother, but Jesus puts on a higher level than his mother anybody who will hear the Word of God and keep it.  Jesus’s brothers are not his relatives by blood.  They are those who share his convictions about the Word and will of God.

Jesus’s brothers are also not humanity in general, or all people.  This is a popular way to understand Jesus’s words in our Gospel reading in our day.  It is thought that the least of Jesus’s brothers are the poor and the unfortunate, so that what Jesus is calling for is philanthropy and altruism.  Our reason likes this interpretation because it is obvious that helping the poor is a good thing.  But again, we must consider God’s Word, rather than our reason, and I think there’s a good text to show us that Jesus’s concern was not philanthropy.

Just before Jesus died, during Holy Week, he visited a man named Simon in the town of Bethany, not far from Jerusalem.  While he was there a woman came with a very expensive flask of fragrant oil, which she poured on his head.  She wept at his feet, washing them with her tears, and wiped them off with her hair.  The disciples were indignant.  Evidently the fragrant oil was worth 300 denarii, which is about a year’s worth of wages.  That means that it was worth tens of thousands of dollars in today’s money.  They were indignant because this was wasteful in their eyes.  They said that she could have sold that and given the proceeds to the poor—a very philanthropic and altruistic thing to do.  You can feed a lot of people with tens of thousands of dollars.  But Jesus tells his disciples to leave her alone.  She loved Jesus much because she had been forgiven much.  Her anointing had been an anointing for his upcoming death.  And he said that wherever the Gospel might be preached, this story about her will be told in memory of her deed.  And so it is, that this story is found in all four of the Gospels.

What is the difference between philanthropy and what this woman did?  Philanthropy is limited only to this earthly life.  It tries to make this life and this world as pleasant as possible by various means.  This woman, on the other hand, loves Jesus with her whole being.  She loves him more than this world.  Jesus is more important than anything else.  He is the only thing that she wants.  So it is, also, with all of those whom Jesus calls “brothers” in our Gospel reading today.  Christians love Jesus and want to be with him more than anything.  The Christian’s task is not to fix the world.  All the fiddling and fixing that people occupy themselves with cannot do anything to reconcile the sinner to God, but Jesus can and he does.  And so Christians bear witness to Jesus as the Savior, and urge everyone to put aside whatever other thoughts they might have about the meaning of life, and to wet his feet with their tears, and honor him with the best that we can give him as an anointing for his head.

So when Jesus says that insofar as you did these kind things to the least of these his brothers you did it unto him, he is speaking about the way that his disciples are treated.  Jesus’s family is not one of blood, but one of shared conviction and love.  They love God, his Word, and his will.  They seek to promote this and further it, come what may.  But what always happens as a response is that this preaching of Christ and him crucified is opposed.  It is opposed from the outside by people who think that it is unintelligent or immoral or ineffective or a waste or a drag on society.  It is opposed from within by people who do not want to live according to God’s Word, but want to do as they please.  When someone tells them that they can’t do what they want they get angry and retaliate. 

The opposition from without and within is seen first of all in Jesus and then in all who follow after him.  Sometimes Jesus triggered a great deal of interest and great crowds gathered around him, but this was always short lived.  They would soon get offended by what he taught and leave.  To make a long story short, as you know, it got to the point where no one supported him.  He was abandoned by even his close friends and left to die alone on the cross.  Why?  Because he was a wrong-doer?  No, but because he loved the Father and did his will in spite of whatever the devil or the world might say against it.  He was murdered, people broke the fifth commandment against him, like Abel of old, because he stepped on the toes of those who wanted to continue on in their wickedness and resented his call to repentance. 

Wherever the Christian Church has not lost its saltiness, this same kind of thing happens up to the present day.  Through the testimony of Christians the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment, and the world does not like being convicted. 

Our congregation has by no means been perfectly faithful in carrying out the preaching that the world finds so offensive, but you know full well that even with our half-heartedness that we have managed to acquire a reputation in town.  Not everybody likes us.  Why?  We’re too harsh, too judgmental, too old fashioned.  We won’t automatically marry and bury whoever asks to be married or buried just to make whoever it is that we are dealing with happy.  It is not our only concern that everybody like us or that the customer is always right.  And so there are some people who are quite gleeful to hear that our congregation is only staying the same or getting smaller.  I have found this attitude especially in members who have become estranged from us for whatever reason over the years.  Our troubles delight them, because for them it is proof that we obviously are wrong.

And what are you going to do about it?  Here we have arrived at what I think is the basis for the final judgment that Jesus is talking about in our Gospel reading.  What are you going to do about it?  Are you going to join in with Jesus and the least of his brothers, who are regarded so poorly by the world or are you going to side with the relatives, friends, and neighbors who really don’t care about what is true or untrue—what God’s will might be so long as they are happy?  When your fellow Christian is singled out and condemned and cast out, will you reject popular opinion and join him or her and visit him or her?  It requires courage to do that.  If you associate with those whom the world thinks is crazy or are losers, then they are going to say the same thing about you.  And they won’t think twice in doing so.

Note how the goats are incapable of understanding Jesus’s words to them in our reading.  Not only do people think that it is nothing to pass judgment against Christians and their convictions, they even think that it is good and proper for them to do so.  Popular opinion is on their side.  “Religion shouldn’t be taken so seriously,” they say.  “We have the problem of the poor and other big problems, why are they making such a big deal about God’s Word or the Sacraments,” they say.  And so they say, “Forget them.  Leave them to their own devices.”  And so Jesus, who is in and among these the least of his brothers, is not ministered to, but that this is what is actually taking place is the furthest thing from the minds of the goats.  They will be utterly surprised when they are condemned for siding with the world rather than with the despised Christians.

All too often we are earthly minded.  We think only of how our words or actions are going to impress or distress other people.  We like our peace and quiet and our selfish Old Adam is very good at knowing how to maintain that equilibrium that is best for us and our happiness.  But we must remember that we are dealing with Jesus and with God as we deal with one another.  If someone else is standing up for what is true and right and God’s will, then we must stand together with them—whoever they might be—come what may. 

And let no one be cocky about this.  Remember the example of St. Peter who was quite sure that he would never leave Jesus.  Even if he had to die, he said, he would never leave him.  Saying that you are Jesus’s brother is one thing.  Actually being his brother—ministering to him in the least of his brothers—is another.

And so we need to have our heart stirred, not just to generosity, but also to courage.  Not only are we to give to those who are needy, we are to give to those who are needy and unpopular for standing up for the truth that offends.  Actions speak louder than words, and so by our actions we give proof of our hope—that we do not hope in the help of this world or our fellow man, but that Jesus is everything.  I think this is why Jesus narrows down the judgement the way that he does.  The proof is in the pudding.  It is faith that saves, and faith alone, but our actions towards the words and promises of God show what we really fear, love, and trust.  But realize that all fearing, loving and trusting in anything besides God will put us to shame in the end.  It might work pretty well in this life, but we need Jesus as our advocate on the day of Judgement.  Whoever puts their trust in him will not be disappointed.