“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered
all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right,
but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come,
you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world… ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the
least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you
cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels… ‘Truly, I
say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do
it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous
into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)
Jesus said that a
tree is known by its fruit. In this weaving together of a literal event with a
figurative illustration Jesus turns the spotlight to the fruit as the judgment
on the trees. He describes the fruit of the righteous in how they loved others
as Jesus loved them. He shows the fruitlessness of the unrighteous in how they
could not love others as Jesus loved them since they had never surrendered to
God’s love.
Please remember that
a parable is a generalized picture about something. It isn’t a doctrinal
treatise on every aspect of Jesus’ return, the coming judgment, or how
precisely God will show the righteous that all their sins have been blotted out
of his book while he shows the unrighteous every nuance of every sin they have
ever committed.
Rather, Jesus is
speaking to his Jewish disciples in the hours after leaving Jerusalem for the
last time. He has told them that the Temple will be destroyed. That would make
no sense to them since the Messiah was supposed to come to Jerusalem and sit on
David’s throne. When they asked, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what
will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3),
they weren’t thinking of Jesus’ second coming as we understand it. They were wondering how Jesus would come to Jerusalem and take David's throne if the temple was going to be destroyed. They still
hadn’t connected to what Jesus told them about his crucifixion and
resurrection. What Jesus was telling them was way bigger than what they had
asked, and we can only imagine how their minds must have been reeling to hear Jesus
speaking in terms they had never even thought about.
What do we do with
this passage? If we are already one of the sheep of God, this parable is
another reminder to be the “faithful and wise servant” who is actively serving
the servants of God. In present terms, that would mean pursuing agapè love and
earnestly desiring the spiritual gifts we need to respond to whatever is going
on in anyone’s life. Jesus is simply telling his disciples that what matters is
how we are serving one another in love, not arguing and debating the meanings
and applications of prophecy.[1]
If we read this and
realize we are a goat because we have never received Jesus Christ as our Lord and
Savior, this parable is a reminder of Jesus’ words, “The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark
1:14-15). If you will “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe
in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with
the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and
is saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
No one knows when Jesus
will return. He WILL appear “in his glory”. Everyone will be either a sheep or
a goat at his coming. And whatever Jesus says to us in that judgment will be
exactly what fits whatever we did to him in the here and now.
© 2024
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who 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 drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 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?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 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?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)
[1] I am not criticizing people who study prophecy. That’s not the point. I’m simply pointing out that Jesus keeps putting the attention on how we are serving the servants of God, and he uses adjectives like “faithful”, “wise”, and “good”, to describe what that looks like. Even if we are prophecy buffs in our spare time (so to speak), our primary focus in life is how we are speaking the truth in love to build up the body of Christ around us.
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