by Robert Davis
In just a few
weeks, people will be singing a well-known carol.
“Hark, the
herald angels sing! Glory to the newborn King!” we’ll sing, as we
celebrate the coming of Christ, our King, to earth as our savior.
Today, though, we sing
of Christ, our King, in a very different context. Today, in our closing hymn,
we’ll sing “to Jesus Christ, our sovereign king, who is the world’s
salvation!” We’ll describe Jesus in very different words from those
in the Christmas songs.
“Christ, Jesus,
victor!” we’ll sing. “Christ Jesus ruler! Christ Jesus Lord
and Redeemer!”
The newborn king we
sang of last December, the newborn king we’ll sing of next month, today
we see very differently.
“When
the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit
upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him.”
Not surrounded by sleeping
animals, visited by shepherds, but seated upon his glorious throne.
Yet
still, he remains a shepherd himself, as he separates the nations “as a
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”
Shepherd
and king, like the shepherd-king David.
But
king and shepherd like no other.
This
king comes with a message of hope, a message of love, and a message which
presents us with a challenge.
As
the king, Son of God and Son of Man, separates the nations, he issues an
invitation, and he issues a condemnation.
Come, you who are
blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. For I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, ill, in prison, and
you ministered to me. [i]
And so the
righteous are welcomed into the
But it’s
interesting how they respond. I’ve read this passage many times, and
preached about it three times now, and I’ve never noticed it before.
How do the
righteous respond? It’s almost as if they say to the Lord, “Are you
sure you’ve got the right people? We don’t remember doing any of
that!”
How could that be?
After all, these are the righteous ones. These are the people who have done God’s
will in their lives. Why don’t they stand before the Lord, happy, and
thankful, and even a bit proud – in the best sense – of how they’ve
lived for Christ and done the will of the Father?
Why are they so
surprised about their eternal reward? After all, wasn’t that what was
promised to them?
But what do they
say in reply to the King?
Lord, when did we
see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you
a stranger, or naked, ill or in prison?[ii]
And
when the King turns to the others, the accursed, and says,
Depart from me into
the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. You gave me no food, no
drink, no welcome, no clothing. You did not care for me. [iii]
And
they, too, seem surprised. “When did this happen? When did we not
minister to you?”
Why are these
people so clueless? Why are they so surprised at their reward, or their punishment?
After all, the good
people must have known that they were doing good, right? And the evil, didn’t
they really know what they should have been doing?
Ya gotta wonder just
a little, don’t ya?
Is this REALLY the
way things will take place when Christ, our King, returns at the end of time?
So how do we
understand this? What is Christ telling us here, through the words of Matthew?
Well, I’m not
really sure myself. I have a feeling that great theologians have been wondering
about it, and discussing it, for centuries. And I’m no great theologian.
But maybe we can
look at it this way:
A few weeks ago,
when I last stood here, I spoke about the two great commandments, “Love
God above all, and love your neighbor as you love yourself,” as the
foundation of Christian morality. These commandments, Christ told us, are the
foundation upon which all of the other commandments, all the admonitions of the
prophets, all of his parables and teachings stand.
When we take those
commandments to heart, and when we truly live them, they become, I would hope,
the foundation of our own lives.
If the foundation of
a building is strong, and well constructed, we don’t give it much
thought. It’s just there, holding up the structure, giving it stability,
and strength. We live and work in the building, enjoying its warmth, its
comfort. But we don’t really think much about that foundation, do we?
So it is with the
foundation of our life in Christ, the twofold commandment to love.
If it’s
strong, we don’t even know it’s there.
So, in living our
lives, we love.
We love God, and
stand before him in worship.
We love our neighbor,
and when he’s in need, provide for him.
We don’t consciously
look for Christ in our neighbor, but Christ is there. Oh, there are times when
we might be made aware of it, but do we think about it most of the time?
When we went
shopping this week, or looked through our pantries for food to bring to the
altar today for our neighbors, how many of us thought, “I’m feeding
Christ?”
More likely, we
might have thought, “I need to bring this food to Church. People need
this food.” Not, “Christ needs this food.”
We may well be
aware, as we do this, that Christ calls us to do it. That Christ asks us to do
it.
But feed Christ?
Why would we need to feed Christ!
Why, Christ feeds
us!
“Take and
eat. This is my Body.”
“This is the
cup of my Blood. Drink it.”
Look around you
now. Do you see Christ?
Today, Matthew
tells us that we do, indeed, see Christ when we look at others. And not just
those who need those physical things, food, drink, shelter, clothing.
Those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness; Christ is in them, too.
Those who are poor
in spirit, searching for truth, Christ is in them.
Those who are
persecuted for the sake of right, Christ is in them, too. [iv]
In our gospel
today, the King is speaking not only of the physically wanting, but of those
who are in want spiritually as well.
He speaks of those who
suffer because of him, and those who reach out to others because of their love
of him, and because that love brings them to love others.
And he tells us
that these, brothers and sisters of Christ, bear his likeness.
It may be invisible
to us most of the time, and so we may indeed stand before the King at the end
of time and say, “When did we feed you?”
Or we might be able
to take this knowledge from here today, and begin to see more clearly that
Christ is in those around us, and so we might be able to stand before the King
and say, “I tried to see you in others, and tried to do for you in doing
for them.”
Not so easy, but
worth trying, isn’t it?
This weekend,
In Godspell, one of the characters sings a
song adapted from an Anglican hymn, that can be a model for us in living that
life that Christ calls us to live in all of the gospels. A life that will bring
us to stand at his right hand when he comes:
Day
by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day
Three things.
See you, wherever
you are.
Love you, in whomever
you live.
Follow you,
wherever you go.
Every day. All I
ask is that you help me do it.
And then, when I
stand before you, I can trust that I did, indeed, serve you. Even when I couldn’t
see you very well.