Christ the King Sunday A, November 20, 2011

³¹When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.  ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,  ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.  ³⁴Then 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; ³⁵for 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,  ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'  ³⁷Then 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?  ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?  ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?'  ⁴⁰And 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, you did it to me.'  ⁴¹Then 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;  ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,  ⁴³I 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.'  ⁴⁴Then 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?'  ⁴⁵Then 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.'  ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."     Matthew 25:31-46

Christ the King Sunday is the final day of the church year when we celebrate Christ’s Lordship over the whole universe and look forward to the day when all will recognize Christ’s rule.

On this day especially we acknowledge Christ as the King of all creation.  But Jesus does not meet our preconceived notions of what a king is.  As we follow a three year cycle of gospel readings, each year the lessons for this day comes as a surprise to us.  Last year the Gospel lesson was from Luke, where we see Jesus, humbled and beaten, on trial before Pilate, pronouncing that his kingship is not of this world.  Next year, our ext from Mark will describe Jesus on the cross with a mocking sign over him declaring his crime to be King of the Jews.

Today’s Gospel from Matthew suggests that in Christ’s Kingdom, greatness is not defined by wealth and power, but in simple acts of kindness and mercy.

         The end and beginning of the church brings our attention to the coming day of the Lord, which will be a day of judgment as well as a day of salvation.  Today Jesus tells us what judgment will look like.  And it turns out to be a surprise for everyone.

Jesus uses a familiar scene to describe the Day of Judgment.  To this day it is common in the Middle East to allow sheep and goats to graze together during the day.  At night however, because they have different needs for warmth, they are separated.

One of the themes we find in Matthew is about how the righteous and unrighteous live together in the world.  God and bad exist together in our world and just when we get discouraged and fear there will be no accounting, no justice, Jesus promises that there will be an accounting, a separation of the righteous from the unrighteous.  But it is a judgment of surprise.

It is surprisingly simple.  It does not have to do with your career or occupation.  It has nothing to do with how hard you worked, or how successful you where, how long you lived, what your background was, how popular you were or even what church you belonged to.

It has only to do with the small simple common needs of kindness you offered on behalf of others, done without any though for reward, done so naturally, so without thought that they were easily forgotten.  The judgment is a surprise both to those who showed concern for the needy as well as those who ignored the needy. 

“Lord when did we see you needy”  These acts may have been forgotten by those who did them or those who refused to do them, but they are not so easily forgotten by the One who either received or was denied these acts.  “As you did it for one of these least of mine, you did it for me”

Now this passage can be difficult for those of us who believe that our salvation does not depend upon what we do but on our trust in Christ.  We do read in other places in Scripture that we are saved by grace through faith alone.

Some people even misremember this passage and will quote this as proof that non-Christians are going to hell.  The Christians are the sheep and everyone else is going to eternal punishment.

But Jesus is not talking about non-believers in this passage. This is a lesson for believers.   There are believers who gave Christ food when he was hungry, gave him shelter when he was homeless, visited him when he was sick and in prison.  There are believers who showed him kindness and there are believers who did not show him kindness.  Of course, neither believer knew that it was Christ to whom they were helping or ignoring.  But they were all believers.  

So is Jesus suggesting that we earn our salvation by our actions after all?  Is the ticket to heaven to feed the hungry and clothe the naked?  Nope.  That is not the answer.  The very question, “When, Lord did we see you…” shows that they are acts done without any thought of reward.  They are done as a consequence of our relationships with God.

We do not and cannot bring about a relationship with God through our acts, no matter how good and noble they may be.  God has done that through Jesus.

But there is a natural consequence to how we live in response to that relationship.  Our relationship with Christ changes us.  Or faith will be expressed in the way in which we live.  Jesus is saying that there is something very wrong when people say “Lord, Lord” but then do not live their lives the way he teaches us to live.  Those who come to church and sing hymns and say  nice prayers and talk about Jesus all the time, but then  ignore the needs of those in need around them are not believers at all.  They are in for a surprise at the final judgment.

At the time Jesus was talking to the religious leaders of the day.  Nobody was more religious than they were.  They said Lord Lord all the time with reverence.  They followed all the religious and moral laws.  AT the same time they did their very best to avoid being contaminated by the very people Jesus had come to save, the sinner, the leper, the poor, the outcast.

When they heard “I was hungry and you gave me no food” they could not understand.  They could not comprehend seeing a savior in the face of the poor.  They called themselves believers but the truth was, they did not believe in a God of compassion and mercy.  They expected a Messiah who would judge sinners, not someone who would eat with sinners.  “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to the least of these, you did not to it to me” was a surprise judgment.

This is the surprise judgment.  If you believe in and worship a God of judgment and condemnation you will ignore him when he comes to you in the face of the needy, and you will end up in hell.  Because that is what hell is.  Hell is the place where there is no kindness, no mercy, and no love. 

If you believe and trust in a God of mercy and compassion and love, you will be loving and compassionate and merciful.  As Martin Luther wrote, “A Christian does works of kindness as naturally as the sun shines, a fruit tree bears fruit and three plus four equals seven”

It all begins with God and what he has done for us but it makes a difference in our lives.  We love because God first loved us.  Therefore our lives are filled with acts of love for others.  And at the last when we hear “Come you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 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 welcome me, 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”; it will be indeed a judgment of surprise.

Amen.