7-19-2019

Good Morning All,

    Matthew 25:45; ““He will answer them, ‘I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you failed to do for one of my brothers or sisters, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you failed to do for me.’”

    This is one of the closing verses to one of the more perplexing or challenging chapters of the Bible for me.  Being a good Lutheran, I always pause and think, “What does this mean?”  The text is from when Jesus telling his disciples about the final judgement.  He comes and divides the people of all nations into two groups, the sheep and the goats.  The sheep are rewarded with heaven and the goats receive eternal punishment.  There are more than a couple of things that puzzle me about this story from Jesus but we will look at only one and that is the way into heaven.

    Most of us go right to Ephesians chapter two when we talk about how to get to heaven.  Being saved by God is a gift; you had nothing to do with it.  Yet it looks here like you might.  When the Son of Man comes in glory he starts with the sheep.  They are rewarded for the kindness and love they displayed to others and they don’t even know they did it.  The goats failed and were punished.  What is intriguing to me is that the goats were not punished for sins they did; things like stealing or lying about their neighbor or mistreating their parents.  They are punished because they failed to have compassion for their neighbor and it is simple compassion.  They don’t offer water, they don’t offer food, they don’t give clothing or shelter as needed.  They are punished when they lack compassion for their fellow man.

    If you take this thought and then read some of the other parables or stories with this thought; it might enhance or alter the way you read them.  What does Jesus tell the Pharisees to learn? “I desire mercy not sacrifices.”  Look at the Good Samaritan; the neighbor is the one who has compassion.  So, when Jesus tells us that we will know a tree by its fruit, that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, when Paul writes that the fruit of the Spirit is love, patience, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; it is about the outward proof of an inner truth.  We are new creations and it shows.

    A Christian cannot be cold hearted or selfish; it cannot work this way.  A Christian cannot look at someone in pain and say; “why should I help” or “what did they ever do for me?”  A Christian cannot look at their neighbor and say, “Tough luck for you!”  We are to be “mini Jesuses” the light of the world revealing God’s love to the world, one person at a time, one hour at a time.  We are called to service for God, caring for his creation and his creatures (that includes us) and to fail is to deny faith and to deny Jesus.  This little light of mine; I’m going to let it shine.

Father of all mercy, forgive my many failures to show love to those around me.  Give me patience as I go forward to engage, renew and bring your healing to all I meet.  Keep me from withholding your love because of my selfishness.  Strengthen my will to walk with you.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret