CELC Christ The King Sunday

Christ the King Sunday – November 20, 2005

Matthew 25:31-46

Some news we don’t want to hear. We don’t want to hear the doctor tell us we have cancer. It is not good news.

People also do not want to hear the proverbial “repent, the end is near.” It is not good news and we would rather put off repenting for another time.

Today you are going to hear something you may not want to hear. Today the end is not near, the end is here! This is the last Sunday of the church year, Christ the King Sunday. And this is good news. It is good news because on this day we once again hear that God in Christ will return to judge the sheep and the goats.

It is good news today if you are among the sheep and not the goats. Our Lord Jesus tells us that he put the sheep on his right hand while the goats are on the left. The sheep are the redeemed and the goats are the condemned. So, if you are among the sheep, this is a good news day.

It is not good news if you are a goat. You know goats cannot be sheep. Or can they? If we turn to the Lamb of God himself and his cross we can see that goats can become sheep. That is what the cross is all about. In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we see the mercy and love of God that transforms you from goats to sheep. It is through the cross that God makes you what you cannot make yourself: sheep that have been redeemed in the blood of the Lamb himself.

And we do begin as goats, don’t we? Isn’t it true that we have seen the hungry, the homeless, the naked, the least, the less and the forgettable? Having seen them, did we feed them? Having seen them did we provide shelter to them? Having seen them did we share a coat with them? Jesus tells us today that the goats don’t do these deeds of love. Jesus tells us today that the goats do not serve him by serving the least. Have we not looked past the least and the less, not serving them?

Indeed, we are the goats, aren’t we?

That is why the cross is so very important. Through the cross we are transformed from goats to sheep. The book of Revelation tells us that the white robes of the saints are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb himself. Through the cross we are sheep.

The gospel lesson today tells us what life is like for the sheep. First, the sheep care for others without noticing. The sheep do unconscious deeds of love for the least and the less. So when Jesus says, as the sheep clothed the naked or fed the hungry they clothed him and fed him, the sheep are surprised. They are surprised because they were unaware. The sheep are surprised because they are not doing anything special in their eyes. Understand that their ‘goat’ eyes have been transformed by the cross to eyes of sheep, and thus they see the least and the less in need and care for them. These are unconscious and unselfish deeds of love by the sheep that listen to the voice of Christ, the Lamb of God, and follow him.

Remember the image our Lord himself uses in John, chapter 15. There he tells us that he is the vine and we are the branches and the branches bear fruit. So it is with goats that are transformed into sheep: the deeds they do are not calculated to win approval. The deeds they do simply grow out of God’s love for them in Christ.

So, the sheep do not keep score. Score keeping is one of the great activities of our time. Janet and I have friends that keep score. If he spends some money, say to buy that new driver which will possibly improve his golf game, she has to spend the same amount of money on something for herself. Lots of score keeping goes on in that family. At times this score keeping has driven a wedge between husband and wife.

Sheep don’t keep score. Sheep rejoice that the least and the less are fed, clothed, visited, care for as they need.

There is a final dimension of the goats-become-sheep-in-the-cross that is so very, very important to note today. Remember in the gospel lesson that Jesus says the sheep will “inherit” the kingdom. Jesus does not say that the sheep have ‘earned’ the kingdom. It is the cross once again. Transformed goats know they do not deserve the kingdom no matter what they do to try and earn it. The good news today is that the sheep inherit the kingdom, a gift of God in the cross.

Thus it may be a good day to open ourselves to God, to repent, and become aware that the God of the cross is the same God who lives in our hearts, making not goats of us, but sheep that inherit the kingdom. You should know though, as it has been said, “…when Jesus does come into our heart, he brings all of needy humanity along him.” (Richard Jensen) Amen.

§ Pastor Robert F. Holley