The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Love of God, and The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you All. Amen.
Matthew 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 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 foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels! 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. 43 I was a stranger and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’ 46 And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (NET)
Today is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. The Last Sunday of the Church Year is the culmination of all that has come before. Now some probably think Christmas Day is the high point of the Church Calendar. Others think that Good Friday is. Still others would put Easter there. And indeed, these three events and the Church Festivals that followed are absolutely necessary and to which all history moved toward and flows from. If, however, Christians understood the nature of human history and the work of Christ in the Church, church attendance on the Last Sunday of the Church year would rival that of Christmas and Easter.
The Last Sunday of the Church Year, also known as The Sunday of Fulfillment, and Christ the King Sunday reminds us that all of human history and your own personal time here on earth is moving toward a goal.
Of all the titles that can rightfully be applied to the Office of Public Ministry, the title of “pastor” is the one that Lutherans tends to favor. There’s a reason for that. It is given to us to pastor, shepherd the sheep entrusted to us through this life and into the life of the world to come.
All else that we do in the Word and Sacrament ministry is done with the hope and prayer that Christians will be created and that Christians will be shepherded from this vale of tears into the life of the world to come.
The assigned readings for this morning and the observance of the church calendar calls us to focus on this one fundamental historical fact. Judgment Day, the end of the world is on its way. Christians and the Church are to be ever mindful that our days on this earth are numbered and so are the days of this old sinful world.
All three of the assigned readings tell us about some aspect of the that Last Day. Through the prophet Ezekiel, our Good Shepherd tells us that He will search for His sheep, He will gather His flock, He will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered, and He will bring them to their own land. The Epistle lesson teaches us Christ “must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be eliminated is death.”
This morning’s Gospel lesson is the well known parable of the Sheep and the Goats. Jesus teaches us that His second coming will come “like a thief in the night.” The day and the hour are unknown. His arrival will be sudden and will catch all of us, Christian and unbeliever alike, unaware. When Jesus returns from heaven, He will descend with “the shout of the archangel and with the trumpet of God.”
In the Gospel lesson this morning Jesus says, “He will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”
Of Christ’s first coming, Christmas, the Old Testament taught that in Abraham’s Seed, that is the Promised Messiah, “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” As Jesus was about to ascend into heaven, He instructed the Apostles saying, “Go and make disciples of all nation by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Notice that there is no promise that all nations of the earth will at the coming of Christ, His first advent, will ultimately experience world peace and unity.
Since the fall into sin this world has been divided. Because of sin it will never be united. The only time the Bible talks about a world united and at peace with God and a peace among all the nations or peoples of the world is when it speaks about the new heaven and the new earth. It is a false and misleading dream to think that any religion, philosophy, or government can bring about world peace.
Sin divided man from God and man from fellow man. Even the Greek word for church, ecclesia, means to call out, to separate children of God from the children of this world.
This parable teaches us that Jesus will come again and do visibly what He has done from the beginning of the church. He will call out and separate His flock from all the rest.
On the last day, Jesus will “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.”
When Jesus comes again, the time for baptizing and teaching peoples from all nations will come to an end, abruptly! Christ the King will separate the already separated. The King will say to the Christians (sheep), “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
Conversely, the goats did none of these things. While the sheep inherit the kingdom, Jesus will say to the goats, “depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
The Bible teaches that our inheritance of the kingdom of heaven is based on grace alone and faith alone in Christ alone. That doctrine is to inform all of what we read in the Scripture, including this parable. Now it is true that this parable is used to advance a doctrine of works righteousness. Most look at this parable and see a Jesus who is teaching that we earn our status as sheep and enter the kingdom of heaven by doing charitable works toward those in need, by being “good.”
But the sheep are sheep and as such they do the things that sheep do. It is not what they do that makes them sheep. The goats are goats and as a result do the things that goats do. They do not become goats by doing “goating” things.
It is clear that the sheep are the holy and the goats the unholy. Yet our old sinful nature and our own sins cause the holy to sometimes fear that they might well be “bad/black” sheep. Sheep (true Christians) tend to worry that they aren’t good enough, they haven’t done enough, and have sinned too often and too greatly to stand on the right side of the aisle. The sheep tend to think that there are degrees of “sheeply” nature.
On the other hand the old sinful nature causes the unholy, the goats to assume that they are “good” enough, that they belong to the right and not to the left. The sheep are often pre-occupied with the big bad things they’ve done in this life. The goats are preoccupied with the good things they have done and think they ought to count for something in God’s sight.
Sheep worry that when Judgment Day comes the things “you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops” (Luke 12:3)
But notice in the parable. It’s an all or nothing proposition. Either holy or unholy. On the Last Day, it is either saint or sinner. You’re all in or you’re all out.
In the parable Jesus praises the sheep. He only has good to say to them and about them. There is no qualifier. All of what they have done through their entire earthly life is understood as having been done to Jesus. “I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.”
There is no hint that the sheep are lacking, even though we all know that we fail everyday to think and act toward others as we should. Even though we act like goats sometimes, the King makes no mention of the sheep’s failure even once to serve the neighbor. There is only a complete and perfect declaration. To the righteous He says enter “into eternal life.”
On the other hand the King condemns the goats. The goats focus on the “good things” they have done and they assume that every good deed will be counted to their credit. But the King has nothing good to say to or about the goats. In the eyes of the King, there was never a time in the goats’ earthly lives when they did an act of love and kindness to another because all was born in and tainted by sin.
People think that God keeps an account, a ledger with one column for the good we’ve done and another for the bad. This is the belief that stands behind the idea that there are “bad” sheep” and “good goats.” After all, even the worst human being is kind to someone and even the kindness human being fails someone. This is no how God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work.
All was paid for by Christ. His righteousness is imputed on goats and He makes sheep for His flock. He forgives, forgets, and covers up our sin.
There is an old legend about Martin of Tours. As the legend goes, Martin was at home one day when there came a knock at his door. He answered it, and there was a man standing there who claimed to be Jesus. Martin suspected that the man might actually be the devil who had come to tempt him. Martin decided that he would put the man to the test. He thought for a moment, then asked, “What sin is it that most often takes hold of me that I have had to confess to you over and over again?” Without hesitation the man at the door said, “I don’t remember!” at Martin welcomed His Lord into his home.
Goats on the other hand are goats because they stand before God outside of the garment of faith and in their natural and sinful nakedness. There is no good in them. There is no good that they have done. There is no good that can been seen by God. It was Jesus Who said, “No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18)
For the goat, every supposed “good” they did in life is counted as sin against them because they believe that their own “good” nature, intentions and deeds count for something in God’s sight.
Sheep are sheep because they have been made sheep in the Word and Sacrament ministry of the Church. They depart this world as sheep because they availed themselves of the oil of faith and kept the flame of faith alive. It is by God’s work alone and by faith that Christians appear as sheep.
Their failures to serve God and neighbor and neighbor and God are not written down in a ledger. Their sins are forgiven and forgotten. God only sees and knows is His sheep. It’s all or nothing proposition.
They are sheep because they hear Him say, “I have called you by name. You are mine.” They are sheep because they hear Him. John 10:27 “My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand.”
So it is sheep of little Immanuel, Jesus calls to you and says to you enter “the righteous into eternal life.”
Amen
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.