Matthew 25:31-46 (NRSV)
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,g you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Whatever distinguishes these two groups from one another, they do share at least one thing in common: both have spent their days without realizing something.
Interestingly, both groups ask exactly same question: “When did all that happen?” Jesus tells the righteous folks that he was grateful for all the ways they had fed, welcomed, clothed, cared for, and visited him. But the righteous, can’t figure out where or when in the world they did any of those things for Jesus, and so they search their BlackBerrys, scratch their heads and ask, “Is that right? Well when did we do all that for you Lord, because this thing is supposed to keep track of my life?”
Conversely, the folks on the left-hand side cannot for the life of them recall ever even seeing Jesus, much less encountering him in need of anything, and so they search their iPads for when that might have happened, asking, ” How could this be? This thing keeps my schedule, if I did it, it would be right here! Jesus, tell me again, what day was that???”
One group did the right things to Jesus, the other group failed, but neither realized it.
Do we see those folks living in the margins? And when we see them, are we moved to help, however we are able? Notice that Jesus’ words do not call us to a life of heroics and miraculous deeds. The kinds of ministries Jesus is talking about here are ordinary and basic. He doesn’t say that we must heal the sick, but that it is enough to tend to their needs. He doesn’t say that those in prison must be set free by us, but that it is enough just to visit them in prison. The rest of the list is also about common sense and decency: when someone is hungry, you do what you can to get her food. A thirsty person needs water. It’s a basic thing. Someone shivering in the chill of anOregon winter evening needs a coat. Those who have no place to sleep or rest need shelter from the elements. It’s all basic stuff.
Jesus isn’t directing us to fix the economy. He is not asking us to come up with a cure for cancer. He’s not expecting us to solve global poverty. Such grand things, if we can do them, are important, but here, Jesus is taking us down to the street level of both seeing and then ministering in ordinary situations.
No matter what we do, no matter where we are, no matter which political party has the clout, for whatever reason, there will always be hungry, thirsty, cold, homeless, sick, and jailed people. That’s the way it is, Jesus says. But how will you respond, because somehow… they are all Jesus.
The Rev. Jane Baker – FaithEvangelicalLutheranChurch,Roseburg
