Christ the King - Proper 29

Well, here we have it. If you ever had any doubts about what to do now that you are a Christian, this is it.
Feed the hungry. Quench the thirsty. House the stranger. Clothe the naked. Comfort the sick. Visit the prisoner.

I could go on about what it means to feed, clothe, house and comfort people, but you already know how to do those things. You already know what it means, and you already do some or all of these acts of mercy. So I am not going to give examples of how to do them. I am not going to advertise the organizations in the church that specialize in them. And I am not going to show how they were radical new statements of hospitality in the first century. Two thousand years later, after whole societies have been built on these rule of hospitality; these are still radical new statements about how to treat our fellow man.

But why frame this as an example of rewards and punishments? Wasn't it enough just to tell us how to be righteous? Why do we have to be so complicated, bringing in parables of kings and listing off not only the reward for action, but the punishment for inaction?

Why? Because people don't just need to know how; they need to know what to why, and they want to know what to expect as a result. Jesus spoke in parables not only so his listener could understand the concepts, he spoke this way so that even we would be able to find the meaning. So lets talk about how the framing of this list of good deeds gives us even more information about how to be followers of Christ.

Since we know how, what we really need to consider is why do we have to do anything at all? Paul is pretty clear in his letters that Jesus did all the work so to speak, and that in his death we are forgiven our sin, and thus relived of our guilt for failing to do God's will. So just why are we getting a list of work to do to be considered righteous by God?

Because for the writer of Matthew, Jesus is come for the Jews. And the Jews are a covenant people. In a covenant, both parties have responsibilities. The covenant relationship places emphasis on our free will, and it demands that we claim the responsibilities that we are given. In this passage, Jesus is laying out the new covenant. What God does for the people who do the right thing, and what God will not do for the people who do not hold up their part of the bargain.

So here we are, we know how to act to be good Christians, do this list of actions. We know why to do these things, because we are a covenant people with responsibilities. What is the result? What good comes from doing these things.

If we are about anything as Christians, it is about people, about relationships. So now that we know what to do, and why. Lets look at the people involved so that we can see the result.

Who are the people bound by this covenant? Who is Jesus talking to? It is always important when reading passages of Scripture to consider who is the audience. Who is being told to do these things? Jesus sometime addresses the crowds, sometimes his disciples and sometimes Pharisees and other Jewish leaders. Well, in this case, Jesus is talking to his disciples. So, it isn't just anyone that Jesus is addressing, but the core of his followers. The leadership that will be in place after he is gone. We are the inheritors of that leadership, and so this passage has special meaning for us about what to do.

In this parable, Jesus first gathers all the people of the world. Everyone. Don't forget about everyone. Because then he is going to separate our sheep and goats. The righteous from the unrighteous. Then he is going to describe their actions and their reward.

Jesus starts with the righteous. “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom,” he says, to people that follow his commands. When did we do that, they ask? And he tells them, “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, my brethren, you did it to me.”

How many of you think, that because you are ever conscious of your duty to other Christians that you are righteous, that you are going to be rewarded with eternal life?

Remember, Jesus is talking to his disciples, and like any parent, even when he is making the grand statement, he is still talking about someone standing in the room. So when the king is separating those who act according to God's will from those who don't, he is sorting the disciples. In his story, the king tells the unrighteous goats, you never did anything for anyone, “you did not do it to one of the least of these,” and so you are banished to the outer darkness.

Now how many of you are thinking, hmm, maybe I ought to go talk to Prison Ministries, I just don't visit enough prisoners.

I am not going to do a big word study of the ancient Greek, but the thing to notice that when Jesus is listing off the benefits of being in accord with the covenant, he is talking about having done these deeds for his family, for other Christians.

But when he is listing off the sins of the unrighteous, he says, “one of the least of these.” The word here, in the Greek is not a family word, it is a general people word. Here he is talking about “all the nations,” the Christians, the Jews, and the Gentiles, and every other oppressor they have not yet encountered. He is saying, you aren't showing this extreme compassion to all people, and so you are not experiencing the glory of God.

When we started the story, we could feel so comfortable, knowing that with all this insider knowledge we would be considered righteous. We were so sure that all this covenant asked us to do was take care of our fellow Christians and God would take care of us.

Yes, this tells us what to do: the how of acting as Christians.
Yes, this tells us why to do it: because we are free agents in a covenant with God.

But in the middle of all this grand expression of good and evil; Jesus is teaching us what we can expect from keeping this covenant. Not only is he offering us direction about discipleship, but all we need to know about evangelism. Jesus is telling us how to make more Christians. If we do these things, we will bring more people to God, and we won't have to stand on street corners and yell, “Repent, for the end is near.” We won't have to offer video conferences about what it means to be episcopalian. We only have to do the things we are told, and those people will be so moved by our actions, that they will ask us what we are about.

If you feed the hungry, they will want to know why you are giving your food away.

If you offer your water to the thirsty, they will want to know why you are sharing.

If you give a stranger a place to sleep, they will wonder what is wrong with you.

If you give someone clothing, even unto the shirt off your back, people are going to want to know what you know that they don't.

If you care for the sick, they will want to know why you aren't afraid to catch their illness.

If you visit the prisoner, they will want to know why you are not afraid of them.

And they will ask.

The real question is, what will we say? What will we tell someone when they ask why we have stepped so far out of our own self interest? Will we say something about liberal politics? Will we say something about community service?

Or will we tell them, because someone once did this for me.
Even if you grew up in the Church, if you have not experienced the incomprehensible love of another person, offered in Christ's name, you will not stay in the Church. If you have not offered this love in Christ's name, you will not really be one. Oh, you may fill out forms saying you are a Christian of one sort or another, but you will not really be one.

You will really be a goat, and like the goats, you will not know the blessings of the kingdom, the kingdom prepared and waiting, since the beginning of the world. It is here, it is waiting, why are we?