Reading for April 11-15
Preparation for Holy Week
Thursday
The Final Judgment
"But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.
Then 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 creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.'
Then these righteous ones will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?'
And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'
Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, 'Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn't feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn't give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn't invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn't give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn't visit me.'
Then they will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?'
And he will answer, 'I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.'
And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life." Matthew 25:31-46 (NLT)
Pastor's Reflection
Jesus' description of the final judgment is very different to much that we've been taught about "getting into heaven when we die".
He says nothing about justification by faith alone, nothing about repentance or a sinners prayer and nothing about verbalizing trust in Jesus so that you have your ticket to heaven before it's too late.
Of course we must take scripture as a whole and one passage does not an entire theology make. Yet.........
Jesus instead chooses to tell us that when we help someone in need, we are actually seeing and helping Jesus. When we see someone in need (Jesus says that person is he) and do not help him, we are refusing to serve Him.
And he ties the final destination of either heaven or hell to our actions or inaction toward those in need.
It seems to me that at the very least I must examine "my ticket to heaven" (believing in Jesus) and think through how that "ticket" connects with my actions toward those in need.
Were you in church on Sunday? Did you see those 29 orphans in the slums of Kwa Njenga sing and greet us live via skype?? If you did, you saw Jesus. You saw 29 of Jesus' faces. You heard Him sing, you saw Him smile and He was very, very happy with all who saw His need and met it.
Some of the translations I've read of this passage seem to say that the nations will be separated and judged. My Messianic friends believe this passage directly refers to the "nations" relationships toward Israel. I don't know. I certainly don't believe that interpretation would negate my personal responsibilities toward any of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked and the prisoner, but it does influence my thoughts regarding that tiny nation and God's Chosen People.
ReplyDeleteWe do so need to be giving people. To think outside ourselves. When we help others, I believe we are allowing God's love to manifest itself through us in a way that brings a feeling of 'home' to the giver, like 'this is what we're meant to do'.
ReplyDeleteWould you agree that "giving" can be many things: providing love instead of vengeance, swallowing pride to bend to submission, expressing affection to one who never feels a touch, providing company to someone too lonely to see others out, showing another how to do for themselves so they can feel fulfilled instead of so we can be fulfilled. The list goes on.
I just saw a report by John Stossel on how people are deceitfully manipulated into giving by professional pan handlers. People would pretend to be needy and make quite a good living out of it. There was none of that on Sunday. If we listen to the Holy Spirit and give as He directs, we don't need to worry any further than that.
As to judgement, heard a teaching by Woodrow Kroll that said there were two seats of judgement, one that separated the believers from the non believers and the other where believers are judged for their 'reward'. If interested one can find it on "Back to the Bible with Woodrow Kroll".
But, we must be careful when we tie it to our salvation, lest our motivation ruin it all. We must always remember that our righteousness, ("the righteous will go to eternal life" ) is not ever of our own doing, but only that of our savior Christ. It is a free gift, one, Jesus, I am grateful for every day.