Matthew 25:31-46
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ | “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” |
Sheep Go To Heaven
Do you remember the Eddie Murphy movie Trading Places? Its a comedy in which a wealthy stock trader and a street con man trade places due to a ridiculous bet. The wealthy man loses his job, his home and his friends while the con man gets that Wall Street job. Towards the end of the film the wealthy man says "I had the most absurd nightmare. I was poor and no one liked me. I lost my job, I lost my house, Penelope hated me and it was all because of this terrible, awful con man."
In this passage in Matthew 25, the Big JC discusses the division of non believers and believers. It wasn't rich and poor, men and women, criminal and innocent or the homeless and those in castles. God doesn't see those things. He see our hearts and divides us accordingly; sheep are innocent, mild, patient and useful while goats are unsavory and unruly. Haven't we all done that? We are all guilty, at least once, of seeing that homeless man and instantly making that snap judgement that they must be lazy or an addict or a gang member or what ever else.
But Jesus tells us that those are exactly the ones that we need to shower with love. It can be easy to love the well off but we need to love even the least of Gods people. If you can't love them for who they are you can at least love them for Whose they are. Remember, the second lie that Satan tries to tell us is that we do not have a relationship with Christ. That our identity in Christ really doesn't amount to anything and that we are worthless; a worm. When we deny help to the least of Gods people all we do is help to further that lie in their own lives.
I see these people every day at work. I feed between 150 - 200 homeless people every night. What's bizarre is that there are many, many of them have a feeling of entitlement. And ya know what?? THEY SHOULD! It's true that we don't owe them a meal and they maybe aren't entitled to free meals they are entitled to be taken care of by Christians because Christ commands us to! These men and women come into my building, a Christian mission who feed the hungry in our area. It's expected that they will be fed. But what isn't expected is that they will be treated with respect and dignity. But we should be doing that too! Feed the hungry, water the thirsty, clothe the needy, housed strangers and visited with the sick and imprisoned. How do we visit with people, how do we spend time with people, how do we help people without dignity? It isn't possible.
We never know exactly how many people will need meals on any given day. But whether it's one or 300 there is a poster near our serving line that reminds us of who and Whose our friends are. It's a constant reminder of the fact that what we do or don't do for our brothers are the things that we do or don't do for Christ. It's a simple prayer; "Lord, we know You will be coming through the line today, so help us to treat You well."
In this passage in Matthew 25, the Big JC discusses the division of non believers and believers. It wasn't rich and poor, men and women, criminal and innocent or the homeless and those in castles. God doesn't see those things. He see our hearts and divides us accordingly; sheep are innocent, mild, patient and useful while goats are unsavory and unruly. Haven't we all done that? We are all guilty, at least once, of seeing that homeless man and instantly making that snap judgement that they must be lazy or an addict or a gang member or what ever else.
But Jesus tells us that those are exactly the ones that we need to shower with love. It can be easy to love the well off but we need to love even the least of Gods people. If you can't love them for who they are you can at least love them for Whose they are. Remember, the second lie that Satan tries to tell us is that we do not have a relationship with Christ. That our identity in Christ really doesn't amount to anything and that we are worthless; a worm. When we deny help to the least of Gods people all we do is help to further that lie in their own lives.
I see these people every day at work. I feed between 150 - 200 homeless people every night. What's bizarre is that there are many, many of them have a feeling of entitlement. And ya know what?? THEY SHOULD! It's true that we don't owe them a meal and they maybe aren't entitled to free meals they are entitled to be taken care of by Christians because Christ commands us to! These men and women come into my building, a Christian mission who feed the hungry in our area. It's expected that they will be fed. But what isn't expected is that they will be treated with respect and dignity. But we should be doing that too! Feed the hungry, water the thirsty, clothe the needy, housed strangers and visited with the sick and imprisoned. How do we visit with people, how do we spend time with people, how do we help people without dignity? It isn't possible.
We never know exactly how many people will need meals on any given day. But whether it's one or 300 there is a poster near our serving line that reminds us of who and Whose our friends are. It's a constant reminder of the fact that what we do or don't do for our brothers are the things that we do or don't do for Christ. It's a simple prayer; "Lord, we know You will be coming through the line today, so help us to treat You well."