Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46
I’m going to share a personal experience from this past week. It’s kind of funny in retrospect, I hope, but—trust me—it was so personally horrifying for me that I feel compelled to reassure you in advance that it all turned out perfectly fine. I’m okay. But for about 48 hours, as my poor wife, Lisa, can attest, I was in turmoil.
You see, I had a physical on Monday. And you know how you go get your labs done in advance? Well, I did that. The phlebotomist at my doctor’s office drew blood and sent it off wherever they send these things off. And I show up at my doctor’s office last Monday, and he walks into the exam room with a look of concern on his face as he’s staring at the tablet in front of him. The first thing he says is, “Mr. White, did you fast before they drew blood?”
“Well, of course I did.” I take pride in being a good patient and doing what I’m told. He said, “I’m looking at your blood sugar, and this number indicates that you would have to be an extreme diabetic to have this number! And your triglycerides and cholesterol are off the charts.” And he wasn’t kidding… When I saw the report, like, they have the chart—the range of healthy numbers. And my number was way to the right of that healthy range for things like triglycerides and cholesterol.
Now, my doctor tried to reassure me that “mistakes were made,” that a mix-up at the lab had surely occurred, or that—even more likely—the equipment at the lab had malfunctioned—and that I should expect the re-test to show much better numbers…
And perhaps now is the time to tell you that I’m a bit of a hypochondriac… or maybe just a full-blown hypochondriac? So despite my doctor’s efforts, I did not feel reassured. I was pretty sure I was dying. By the way, my blood was re-tested…
But you know what I also felt, in addition to fear? I felt a deep wound to my pride. Like… I have worked so hard over the past 18 months to get in better shape, to lose weight, to eat better, to “get my steps in” every day. And I’ve already told you about my excessive water drinking. And yet… this report says otherwise: “You have not done enough. You are not good enough!”
Which, when we read the words of today’s Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, we may rightly wonder the same thing about whether or not we have eternal life—whether we are saved: We may rightly wonder, despite our best efforts, whether we are good enough? I mean, what if we try very hard to do the things that Jesus describes in this parable and still fall far short?
How many panhandlers have I passed by when I’m in a big city? For that matter, how many times have I refused to help the poor or homeless in Toccoa? Or how many times have I deliberately avoided putting myself in situations in which I would be asked in the first place?
Is Jesus saying that unless we do this, that, or the other thing—and do it often enough, without fail—we will be excluded from God’s kingdom in Final Judgment?
So, these are questions that today’s sermon will explore. And I want to make three points: Point Number One: We All Act like Goats. Point Number Two: We Need New Hearts, Not Better Records of Service. Point Number Three: Christ Is the Sheep that We Are Unable to Be.
Point Number One…
There’s some debate about whether today’s scripture is even a parable at all. Jesus is describing a real historical event at the end of history as we know it, using straightforward descriptive language, for the most part. The only parable-like part of his words are found in verse 33: “And he [the King, Jesus Christ] will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.”
This a picture with which people in Jesus’ day would easily identify from personal experience. They would know that shepherds grazed sheep and goats together in fields. But each evening, the shepherd would separate sheep from goats because goats needed more warmth than sheep. To the untrained eye, however, sheep and goats are often hard to tell apart. Does anyone besides Cavonna and Sarah and Casey know a quick rule of thumb to distinguish sheep and goats? A goat’s tail points up, and a sheep’s tail points down. I also read that a sheep says, “Bah,” and a goat says, “Mah.” But I don’t know… I know that last year, when Sarah and Casey brought a baby goat to a church event on cold spring morning, holding this baby goat in my arms was about the sweetest thing ever!
I need grandkids! What can I say?
But the point of this pastoral image is to describe the way we humans will be separated on Judgment Day… it will be similar to the way a shepherd separates sheep from goats.
So I call it a parable… It doesn’t matter… What does matter is that it’s a picture of Final Judgment and the terrifying separation of some people from God… eternally…
By the way, this is yet another passage of scripture gives the lie to the squeamishness that too many modern-day Christians have about the doctrine of hell. I don’t know how else to interpret verse 46: “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” As I’ve said many times before, there’s no getting around it: Jesus himself is not squeamish about judgment and hell; he says more about hell than any writer or apostle in the Bible.
And if that weren’t bad enough, here’s the frightening, undeniable truth of the matter: from the most straightforward reading of this parable, it seems like the sole basis for determining admission into the kingdom of heaven—or, likewise, exclusion from it—is what? What we do or do not do… our actions… our good works.
In fact, there’s a famous song about today’s scripture from 1981 by a great singer-songwriter named Keith Green—a pioneer of Contemporary Christian Music. He died tragically in a plane crash in 1982, but he wrote and recorded some of the most convicting and theologically rich Christian songs of his generation. And one of them is called “The Sheep and the Goats.” And the last line of this long, dramatic song suite, recounting today’s parable, has Green saying these words: “And my friends, the only difference between the sheep and the goats, according to this scripture… is what they did, and didn’t do.”
Is that true? Is that the only difference? Because if so, I’m in trouble! And so are you! And so is Keith Green, for that matter!
And I take no comfort whatsoever in the way we’ve usually heard this scripture preached: “Be like the sheep! Don’t be like those bad old goats! After all, when you ‘do it unto the least of these,’ you’re really ‘doing it unto’ Jesus himself!”
But that can’t be the right application of this scripture! It just can’t be! Why? Because look at verses 37 through 39:
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?”
Please notice: the people regarded as “sheep” in this parable had no idea that they were doing anything special. They certainly didn’t know that in doing it “unto the least of these” they were doing it unto Jesus! They were unaware. Their desire to show compassion to the “least” was completely unself-conscious. They weren’t motivated to do it because someone was telling them, “You have to or else!” or even, “If you do it, you’ll really be serving Christ!”
They were doing it for one reason only: This was just who they were. These actions reflected their character. It reflected their hearts.
And yet… Preachers like me tell our congregations, “Be conscious… Be aware… Be mindful of the fact that when you perform these acts of kindness, you’re really doing them for Jesus!”
And that’s a contradiction: the moment you become aware that you’re “doing it unto Jesus” is the very moment you’re no longer acting like a sheep!
Am I making sense? I can’t command you to be “be like a sheep,” because if you try to act like a sheep—and you start thinking, “I need to be like a sheep. I need to be like a sheep. I need to be like a sheep!”—the moment you start thinking that way, you’re no longer acting like a sheep! Because the sheep are unaware that they’re doing anything special, much less doing something special for Jesus himself!
Besides, if we know that we’re “doing it unto Jesus,” if that’s our motivation, then we will be acting just like goats! Look at how the goats respond in verse 44:
Then they also will answer, 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?’
The subtext of the goats’ objection is clear: “Lord, we didn’t know that that hungry man was you… We didn’t know that that naked person was you… We didn’t know that that sick person was you… We didn’t know that that prisoner was you… Because obviously, if we had known, we would have gladly done this compassionate deed out of a sense of duty!” And you know what? I think the “goats” are being sincere in verse 44. If the goats had known they were doing it unto Jesus, then they would have done it.
Besides, as we see in the gospels with the scribes and Pharisees, the problem with these very religious people was not that they were lazy or unwilling to perform righteous acts; or that they were unwilling to be generous when necessary. Their problem was their motivation for doing these things. In other words, the problem was in their hearts.
And this brings us to Point Number Two: We need new hearts…
See here’s the problem with the way we often read this parable: we read this parable and think of it not as the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, but as the Parable of the Good Sheep and the Bad Sheep. If you’re a bad sheep, after all, then you can repent—change your behavior, and do things, through God’s grace, to become a good sheep. “I’m a bad sheep! I need to go volunteer at a soup kitchen right away, then I’ll become a good sheep.” A bad sheep becoming a good sheep seems very possible.
But you know what seems impossible? A goat turning himself into a sheep. A goat can change his appearance to look more like a sheep. He can change his behavior to act more like a sheep. He can have surgery on his upturned tail, perhaps. He can get hair implants or extensions. He can change his voice to sound more like a sheep. He can learn to say, “Bah,” instead of “Mah.” But guess what? He will always still be a goat.
And that’s what Jesus is talking about: not good sheep versus bad sheep, but sheep versus goats. He’s not telling us a story mostly about our behavior; he’s telling us a story mostly about our identity. We don’t do these good deeds in order to become sheep; we do these good deeds because we already are sheep.
To put it another way: these acts of compassionate love are the “fruits” of being sheep, not the “roots.” They’re the fruits, not the roots. Jesus makes this point in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 7:
You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 1
Good fruit does not make a tree healthy; good fruit is a sign of a tree that is already healthy.
In fact, we need to interpret the fruits of compassionate actions that characterize sheep as nothing more than, or nothing other than, what the Bible describes elsewhere as the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 2 If the Holy Spirit, who has been given to each us believers in Christ, is working in our hearts to produce these kinds of virtues, then the loving actions will naturally follow.
And—to use a good theological word for it—this work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts is sanctification. Every single Christian—which by definition means you’ve been born again through faith in Christ, adopted into God’s family, and been given the Holy Spirit to dwell within you—but every single Christian is being sanctified… is being changed from within… is, in other words, bearing the fruit of the Spirit—slowly but surely…
Such that… when we face Christ our King in Final Judgment, he will be able to see evidence through loving, compassionate actions in our lives, that we truly belong to him.
I had an interview last week with the reporter from WNEG radio about our church’s disaffiliation. I told her that our church, and the 260 other churches last week, made the difficult decision to separate from the United Methodist Church that we love for one overarching reason: We simply want to be more faithful to our Lord and what he clearly tells us in his Word.
And I said this: “When we voted to disaffiliate, we were not saying that we are morally superior to these other Methodists, or these other churches, that chose to remain United Methodist.”Heaven forbid!
Because, I said, we are all still sinners in need of God’s grace at every moment. I told her, “All of us at Toccoa First Methodist are works in progress. God isn’t finished with us yet.”
But we are in progress, by all means. And when we stand before Christ our King in judgment, he will see evidence of this progress… if we are Christians at all.
If there isn’t evidence of that progress, then that’s a warning sign that we still need regeneration.
And here’s where we Methodists help; because we offer an important theological emphasis that—I’m afraid to say—too many churches in our community fail to emphasize. See, there is deadly dangerous idea in the culture of Toccoa and Stephens County that says something like this: It says that salvation is based on something that happened in your past: That moment that you “made a decision” to receive Christ as Savior and Lord is what’s most important. That moment that you prayed a sinner’s prayer, that moment you walked down the aisle at a revival or a camp meeting, that moment you made a profession of faith, that moment you got confirmed, that moment you got baptized. That’s what counts. Once you’ve done that thing, once you’ve made that decision, once you’ve completed that task, then you can just get on with your life, secure in the knowledge that no matter what “fruit of the Spirit” is missing from your life, you’re A-OK with God. It doesn’t matter that you never darken the door of the church. It doesn’t matter that you disobey the Lord by refusing to worship him alongside your brothers and sisters in Christ. It doesn’t matter that you never read scripture or pray or partake of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. It doesn’t matter that your life shows forth so little evidence of sanctification. Because what really matters is something that one thing you said or did 50 years ago!
Dear friends, as I told a women’s Bible study at our church recently, that is, quite literally, a damnable lie. Jesus tells us so in today’s scripture!
And that’s Point Number Two: We need new hearts… And scripture says that one necessary sign of having a new heart is a changed life. The Holy Spirit is really changing you, and there will be evidence of this change in our lives.
And if that troubles your conscience, the last thing I want you to do is to say, “I don’t have enough good works! I need to try harder. I need to help more. I need to do more for the least of Christ’s brothers and sisters.” No, the solution to your troubled consciences is to remember the gospel… and to remember what Jesus has done for us. And this is Point Number Three…
Let me tell you the truth about my own heart: Apart from God’s free gift of grace, I am someone who is hungry. I’m desperately hungry for the “bread of life” that Jesus Christ offers me, the “food that endures to eternal life.” 3 Apart from God’s grace, I am someone who’s thirsty. Desperately thirsty for the “living water” that Jesus Christ offers me, which, when I drink it, will become “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 4
Apart from grace, I’m a stranger… who desperately needs Jesus Christ to prepare a room for me in his Father’s house—who will take me to live with him there forever. 5 Apart from grace, I am naked, and I desperately need Jesus Christ to clothe me in “garments of salvation” and a “robe of righteousness,”6 as Isaiah says.
Apart from grace, I’m sick—sick with my own sinfulness, and I desperately need for Jesus Christ the Great Physician to forgive me, to heal me forever—so that even when I die, I’ll still be well.
Apart from grace I’m in prison because of my sin. I’m enslaved to it, and I desperately need Jesus Christ to “proclaim liberty to captives” like me, to set me free with the truth of his gospel message. 7
When I consider just how needy I am… apart from God’s grace… I know that I’m the “least of these,” too—alongside all these others. And so are you—even if we don’t currently have the same desperate physical needs that Jesus mentions.
After all, do you know who the neediest people in the world are right now—not necessarily the ones who suffer the most physically in this world. No, the neediest people in the world are the ones who will face Jesus Christ our King on Judgment Day without having received the gift of forgiveness, the gift of new birth, the gift of eternal life that is ours as a free gift through Christ’s death and resurrection.
Remember I said earlier that there’s nothing a goat can do to become a sheep? I should have said, “There’s nothing a goat can do to become a sheep—apart from divine intervention, apart from a miracle.” It takes a miracle for a goat to become a sheep. Fortunately, that’s what God has done for us in Christ.
No one in the history of the world was able to do all of these sheep-like things and avoid doing all of these goat-like things except for Christ. He was the sheep that we are unable to be. He was the sheep on our behalf. In fact, the Bible uses special language to describe the kind of sheep he was: he was the Lamb.
In Isaiah 53, which prophecies Christ, it says: “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” 8 In the first chapter of John’s gospel, when John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him, he says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Revelation chapter 7 describes saints and angels worshiping this Lamb, and it says that the robes that the saints are wearing have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb. 9 It is only the blood of the Lamb that cleanses us from sin, not anything we do. In fact, as John the Baptist implied, Jesus Christ our Lamb took away our sins, died for our sins, paid the penalty for our sins. He takes away our sin and shame and guilt.
And because of that, now, when Satan our Accuser tries to blackmail us with those words of guilt and fear and shame, when he says to us, “You’re not feeding the hungry enough; you’re not clothing the naked enough; you’re not visiting the sick enough. You’re not doing enough. You’re a goat, not a sheep. Get to work. Work harder! Do more! Or else. Because God can’t stand how lazy you are.He’s disappointed in you. He keeps waiting for you to get your act together, and you keep letting him down. No wonder he’s not blessing you. And you’re not going to make the cut when that Day of Judgment comes.”
We can now rebuke the Enemy with these words:
It’s true that if you judge me based on who I am and what I do, I am a goat. On my own, apart from God’s grace, I can’t be a sheep; apart from God’s grace, I can’t do anything of significance; apart from God’s grace, I can never please God. Apart from God’s grace, I can’t be a sheep.
Fortunately for me, there is a Sheep—a Lamb, in fact—who did it all for me. And my life is now found in him… My life is now found in Christ… in such a way that what’s true of him is now true of me! When my Father looks at me, he doesn’t see the filthy rags of my own righteousness, he sees only the righteousness of his Son, which covers me. My Father says of me, “You’re my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” Your Father says to you, “You’re my beloved son, you’re my beloved daughter with whom I am well pleased.” Are you with me, brothers and sister?
You see, all those promises of scripture, for which my own sinfulness ought to disqualify me, are now true for me… for me of all people! Can you believe it? And all these promises are true for you, because you’re a child of God through faith in Christ.You and I couldn’t be more highly favored by God than we are right now!We couldn’t be more loved by God than we are right now. God’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot hear. God’s mighty hand will work powerful things in my life and in your life. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” You better believe that’s true for each one of God’s children here at Toccoa First Methodist! Do you believe it?
So let us approach the throne of grace boldly and with confidence knowing that our Father wants to give us all the grace, all the strength, all the power that we need to face any circumstance, to overcome any obstacle, to win a victory over every enemy, to be more than conquerors. For God gave us a Spirit not of fear, but of power, and love, and self-control.
God is for us! Who can possibly be against us?
And this Lamb is the only reason I can live my life, not with worry, fear, and guilt, but with confidence, and joy, and peace.
Amen.