+ Last Sunday of the Church Year - November 26, 2023+
Series A: Ezekiel 34:11-24, 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, Matthew 25:31-46
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Anytime you’re on social media you’ll see these links to click…take this quiz and find out what Disney princess you are, or what Marvel superhero you are like. We do the same thing when we read stories or watch movies…we find a way to imagine ourselves in the story.
When we hear Jesus’ parable of the sheep and goats, as we did today on this Last Sunday of the Church year, I would guess many of us have that question in mind. We try and find ourselves in this parable of Jesus. Where am I in this story? Who am I, a sheep or a goat?
We’ve been hearing and singing about the Last Day these past several Sundays. We know that we’ve been living in the last days since Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection for us. We know his return is promised in Scripture. We confess in the Creed that we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Still we hear Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25 and we wonder. Who am I? So let’s take a closer look at Jesus’ parable of the sheep and goats and see what our Lord has to say.
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations
Before we even get to the separation or the judgment, there’s the resurrection of the body. It’s quite the scene Jesus paints here. The dead are raised. The living have put on immortality. One of my pastor friends served at a church that had a cemetery, and he would often say, if I am alive when Christ returns I hope I’m sitting right here on the steps overlooking the cemetery as the saints rise from the dead.
The Last Day, Jesus says, is a day of revealing. And first he reveals who he is. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He’s not simply the Savior of some but the Savior of the world. He is not simply the Good Shepherd of a select few but of the inclusive many. In His flesh, He embodies all, just as Adam embodied all into disobedience and death. When Adam fell, we all fell, and were born fallen in Adam’s fall. But Christ in His humanity is the second Adam, Adam 2.0, Adam set right before God. In the first Adam, you die, in the second Adam you live. In the first Adam you are condemned, in the second Adam you are justified and forgiven.
Then comes the separation. But notice something important. Jesus separates the sheep and the goats not on the basis of what they have done or not done, but rather who or what they are, sheep or goats.
The sheep are called “the righteous.” Counted. Reckoned. Declared. Covered in the righteousness blood of Christ the Passover Lamb. They’re placed on Jesus’ right, the place of honor. And their works are judged, it’s true. But they’re not judged by their works – but by Jesus’ works - his perfect life, his perfect death. The talk about works comes after the separation. First, Jesus blesses. “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Then there’s another surprise. Jesus reveals that he was hidden all along in the lives of his people. The phone call to a brother or sister in Christ who was sick, the clothing you gave, the food you brought when there was a death or illness in the family. Small, hidden, ordinary things…but that’s where Jesus hides himself. “I was hungry and you fed me; thirsty and you gave me drink; a stranger and you welcomed me; naked and clothed me; sick and you visited me; in prison and you came to me.”
The sheep are astonished. “When Lord? When did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked or in prison?” They had no idea that Jesus was hidden in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. “As you did these things for the least of these my brothers you did it to me.”
Again, it’s not about what they do but who they are. They simply did what needed to be done. Sheep don’t count what they’ve done. They don’t need to. Jesus has already counted them righteous, blessed by what he has done for them
Then there are the goats. Those on Jesus’ left. No inheritance. No blessing. Only dismissal. “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Notice that hell isn’t made for you or any human being; it’s for the devil and his minions. God’s will is that all would be saved in Jesus, that goats become sheep through the Lamb.
The goats are surprised as well, but for a different reason. They were keeping track of all their good deeds. They are as ignorant of their sin as the sheep were of their good works. When confronted with their sin they do the faithless thing - try to justify themselves. “When did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, and did not help you? If we had only known we could have kept a record.”
This is why, in his book The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis says that in the end, there are those who say to God, Thy will be done – as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. And there are also those to whom God says, thy will be done. Those who wanted nothing to do with Jesus the Shepherd get not what they deserve but what they desire. Ok, have it your way.
So we come again to the question of the day. Who am I? When we look at ourselves in the revealing light of God’s Law, all we see is the face of a stinking, stubborn goat staring right back at us. Apart from Christ, outside of Jesus, that’s who we were. Lost and condemned creatures. Poor miserable sinners. Natural born goats.
But there’s another way to see yourself, to answer that question, who am I? It’s true that in Adam we are all goats, but in Christ you are made sheep. Dead in Adam. Alive in Christ. You are covered by the blood of the Lamb. After all, sheep don’t follow themselves; they look to their Shepherd. In Christ you are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his loving, pierced hands.
When Jesus tells this parable, remember that He who is the King and the Judge is also your Good Shepherd. “Behold I, I myself will search for my flock and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so I will seek out my sheep and I will rescue them…”
What kind of shepherd thinks that the life of his sheep is more important than his own? What kind of shepherd, to save his sheep from being devoured, would throw his body between the sheep and the wolf? What kind of shepherd loves the least of his brothers so much that he would hang hungry, starved and naked as a prisoner in our sin and death?
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there is only one who has done all this for you, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away your sin. All of it. As he prayed to the Father in Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion, his sacrifice for you, he prayed, “Thy Will be done.”
“I am your Good Shepherd,” Jesus says “I know my sheep by name and I lead them out. For you who are hungry, I will feed you with my own body; take, eat. For you who are thirsty, I have thirsted on the cross; take drink, this is my blood poured out with forgiveness on your sin parched lips. Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world. You are no longer strangers here. You are no longer a goat. You have been set free from that pen. Your naked guilt is covered by pure Lamb’s wool, dipped in blood. And all that was once was scarlet is now white as snow.”
Who am I? Who are you? Christ our Lord tells you exactly who you are. Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You are his declared righteous, redeemed, rescued sheep. You are baptized and embraced forever in the arms of Jesus. That’s who you are now and forever.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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