You Did It to Me

Jesu Juva

St. Matthew 25:31-46                                           

November 26, 2023

Last Sunday A                                               

 Dear saints of our Savior~

          And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead.  We confess those words every Sunday; today we hear what they mean—from the mouth of Jesus.  Our Lord’s teaching on the sheep and the goats is His final word from His final discourse.  It’s His last Word on the last things—spoken as He began the last days leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection.

          The Last Day is first and foremost a day of resurrection.  If Jesus is to judge the living and the dead, then He first has to raise the dead and change the living.  And the big surprise is that all will rise.  Every last dead person will be raised to greet the glorious coming of the Lord Jesus.  That includes the unbelieving dead, the agnostic dead, the atheist dead, and every other sort of dead.  At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.  Every tongue confess.  And what a shock—what a surprise this will be for all those who thought this Jesus stuff was just a bunch of nonsense.  Scoffers and scorners and skeptics will be raised.  Even those who spent a lifetime on earth refusing Jesus and rejecting Jesus and urging others to do the same—even they will be raised.  All the nations will be gathered before the Son of Man sitting on His glorious throne.

          And [Jesus] will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  First things first.  Before there is any talk about good works, there will be a separation—a sorting and sifting of sheep and goats.  Sheep to the honorable right and goats to the dishonorable left.  During the day the sheep and the goats hang out together in the pasture.  During the day there’s little to distinguish these two groups.  During the day, as you look out over the pasture of this world, you can’t always tell who’s righteous or unrighteous, who has faith and who doesn’t.

          But on judgement day the sheep and the goats part company forever.  Notice what’s going on at this point:   The separation is not based on works.  Works haven’t even been mentioned yet.  It’s not about what they did or did not do.  The separation is about what they are.  What they did or did not do was merely a reflection of what they are.  Sheep do sheep stuff.  Goats do goat stuff.  Good trees bear good fruit because they are good trees.

          The righteous sheep are invited to inherit a kingdom prepared for them since before the foundation of the world—before God ever said, “Let there be light.”  The unrighteous goats are on their way into eternal fire.  But even that fire wasn’t prepared for them.  It was prepared for the devil and his angels—because, after all, God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.  And this separation—this great division of humanity—isn’t based on what anyone did or didn’t do.  It isn’t based on those who sinned a little versus those who sinned a lot.  It is based on what they are.

          And what are they?  The sheep are righteous.  They are justified by grace, through faith, for Jesus’ sake.  The difference between sheep and goats is the difference between faith and unbelief.  Without faith it is impossible to please God, no matter how much good you do.  No matter how many naked you clothe and how many hungry you feed—without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).

          But here’s where things get interesting.  Because the good works of the righteous—no matter how seemingly small or insignificant—the good works of the righteous are magnified and honored, elevated and celebrated!  It turns out that all the good works you do in faith—all that you’ve sacrificed and suffered—all the ways you have lifted up and loved those around you—those good works will follow behind you in shining splendor for all eternity.  I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; thirsty and you gave me something to drink. 

          Now comes the surprise—an amazing, mysterious surprise.  But it’s not what you think.  The surprise is not that the righteous faithful did all of these good works.  Of course they did!  How could they not?  Faith without works is dead.  Everybody knows that.  But what nobody could ever know or even imagine—what is stunning beyond all telling—is that this vast array of good works were done to Jesus—for Jesus.  You may have been aiming your works at the lost, the least, and the lowly—the sick, the sad, and the suffering—but in, with and under what you did for them . . . Jesus says, “You did it to me.”  Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.  Jesus doesn’t say, “it’s just as if” you did it to me . . . or that Jesus is symbolically on the receiving end of your good works.  No, He says “you did it to me,” (period).

          Who could have guessed this?  Who ever would have figured out that our humblest charity could be so wondrously honored by Jesus? 

          But wait, there’s more!  The works Jesus singles out here are those done “to the least of these my brothers.”  Who are the least of Jesus’ brothers?  In Matthew’s gospel that word “brother” always signifies a fellow believer—a fellow disciple—and sometimes it refers specifically to apostles and pastors as those who are hungry, thirsty, and imprisoned.  This means that the works that most clearly identify you as the light of the world are those done for fellow believers—for the household of faith.  Random acts of kindness are nice.  Paying for everyone’s drinks in the Starbucks drive-thru is a generous thing to do.  But intentional acts intended to support and strengthen and feed and clothe your fellow believers—that’s where it’s at.  That’s what Jesus will be talking about at the end of days, as time gives way to eternity. 

          This final surprise changes everything for us here and now today.  Every hour of every day is now packed with potential—the potential to do good—and to do it all for Jesus who loved you and gave Himself for you.  No longer can you claim that your life has no meaning, no purpose—or that your daily grind is pointless drudgery.  Quite the opposite!  Whatsoever you do for the least of Jesus’ brothers, you are doing it for Jesus.  Luther said that if we really believed this, that, “our coffers . . . and compassion would be open at once for the benefit of the brethren.  There would be no ill will . . . and we would seize upon this honor . . . ahead of others and say, ‘O Lord Jesus, come to me; enjoy my bread, wine, silver and gold.  How well it has been invested by me when I invest it in You” (Treasury of Daily Prayer).

          You did it to me.  Those words change everything.  Some day you will hear the Savior say them.  Your faith has saved you.  And that faith flows from seeing Jesus Himself as the least of all.  On the cross, Jesus became the least of all to save us all.  On the cross, bearing your sin, Jesus was hungry.  Jesus was thirsty.  Jesus was naked, sick, imprisoned, and a stranger to the world—so that He might save the world, including you. 

          When you see a brother in need and hurting, think of Jesus who hurt on the cross.  When you see a helpless sister, think of Jesus who hung helpless on the cross.  When you come alongside someone who has been crushed by the burdens of this world, remember Jesus who was crushed for our iniquities—who died for our sin and rose to give us eternal victory.

          Can you see Jesus in those around you who need the good you can provide?  That takes faith.  But by that faith we also know that, when God looks at you, He sees Jesus—in you.  He sees a sheep, faithfully following its Shepherd.  You do good—not to earn you way into the flock of the faithful.  You do good because you already are a sheep of the Good Shepherd—because a heavenly inheritance awaits you—because the good you do is done to Jesus.  So let’s get busy.

          In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.