“…you did it to me….” (Matt 25:40)
Matthew 25:31-46 (Year A: Christ the King 22nd November 2020)
This Sunday is, in the Church calendar, the feast of Christ the King. Images of kings and queens don’t quite work in our modern, secularist, non-monarchical age. Language, rituals and attire befitting medieval Lords and vassals – all under the heavenly King – do not easily sit with 21st century notions of church as communion served and led by those who ‘come from the ranks’ and are accountable to the ranks.
It is a relief to focus, this Sunday, on the end of Chapter 25 of the gospel of Matthew. After giving a scalding to the religious authorities of his time in previous chapters of this Gospel, Jesus is now turning his attention to matters social. He is bringing us down to earth by turning the notion of Kingship and Kingdom into something so practical and so this-worldly that he overturns the assumptions, practices and interpretations not only of those hearing him but us, today, listening in this place or at this time.
Royalty and images of royalty run through the Old and New Testaments. Jesus adds a new dimension in claiming a Kingdom of Heaven – distinct from the earthly notions and realities entertained in the world around him. He turns everything upside down by declaring the values of a kingdom where those least powerful, least honoured, least regarded are placed in a position of kings and queens. He goes even further by saying ‘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.’ (25:40) The corollary is clear: ‘just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me’ (25:45).
Nobody has ever identified himself or herself so radically and so completely with those in need as Jesus did – neither before then or after then.
Sometimes we can read these passages as being all about good living – doling out a bit of our time and a bit of our money ‘to those in need’. At worst it can become a type of direct debit comfort to the conscience.
The writer, Ron Rolheiser, tells a story about a town built just beyond the bend of large river. One day three bodies were sighted floating along downstream in the river. One body was dead so they buried it. One was alive, but quite ill, so they put that person into the hospital. The third turned out to be a healthy child, who was placed with a family who cared for the child and who took her to school. ‘However, during all these years and despite all that generosity and effort, nobody thought to go up the river, beyond the bend that hid from their sight what was above them, and find out why, daily, those bodies came floating down the river’.
The story is about how we behave towards one another in a world where our sights need to be raised and our hearts enlarged. This calls us out of a narrow interpretation of need, its response and our role.
It never ceases to amaze me how some Christians will parse and quote, literally, from the Bible to prove a particular theological or moral point while ignoring wide swathes of scripture. So, let’s get a little bit literal this Sunday….
Bishop Frank Weston, an Anglican bishop from Zanzibar in the early decades of the 20th century declared in the context of an Anglo-Catholic gathering in 1923:
The one thing England needs to learn is that Christ is in and amid matter, God in flesh, God in sacrament.
He went on to say the following:
But I say to you, and I say it with all the earnestness that I have, if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in His Blessed Sacrament, then, when you come out from before your tabernacles, you must walk with Christ, mystically present in you through the streets of this country, and find the same Christ in the peoples of your cities and villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slums … It is folly – it is madness – to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children.
Such a challenging insight was not novel. Saint Ignatius of Antioch writing in a letter to the Smyrnaeans, not long after the Gospel of John was written down declared:
Consider how contrary to the mind of God are the heterodox in regard to the grace of God which has come to us. They have no regard for charity, none for the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, none for the man in prison, the hungry or the thirsty. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His graciousness, raised from the dead.
And writing two centuries later, Saint Basil the Great said:
The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.
This concludes – for now – the long discourse by Jesus to his disciples. In the Gospel of Matthew, we move immediately to passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. However, that will wait until Passiontide and Eastertide next year. In the meantime, we enter a new year of readings next Sunday with the beginning of Advent. Roll on Mark for Year B of the Sunday cycle!
(words above = 997)
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Further reading: notes and questions, verse by verse
Preliminaries
This passage comes at the end of a series of discourses addressed to the disciples of Jesus. The discourses focus on the end of time, the coming of the Lord and the great judgment. The context, audience and aim of these discourses are very much of a Jewish religious flavour. The very early Jewish-Christian community is finding its way in the midst of huge trials, personal and family trauma as well as unrelenting opposition (mostly) in the synagogues and other places of gathering. While this passage (which is unique to Matthew among the Gospels) does not explicitly mention faith, it is be clear from all of the New Testament writers, including Matthew, that faith understood as a living personal relationship with Jesus is the first movement within the human heart towards God. The point, however, is that ‘works’ which are the outpouring of faith and its expression fulfils the new law of love
31-33 The Son of Man
'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. 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, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
See Daniel 7:13-14:
As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him.To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.
See, also Act 7:56
‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’
See, also Acts 14:14
Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand!The Son of Man is a human being – but when read with the eyes of resurrection faith the Son of Man is human being and God-in-man. God in Jesus is King, Son, Judge and Shepherd. Shepherds mind sheep and goats together. However, at night they were separated while the goats usually slept indoors. They are also separated when animals are to be transferred from one place to another.
34- The Son of Man
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.A kingdom has been prepared for us. However, this does not imply that we are predestined while others are not. The Kingdom is for everyone but some exclude themselves.
35- Human suffering and human compassion
.. 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,
Ireland is known, generally, for its hospitality towards strangers. Yet, we have seen the rise of the scandalous ‘direct provision’ system in recent times. Even if Ireland – North and South – has not seen the level of vicious racial hatred and far-right extremism seen in many other European countries, cases of racism and exclusion are widespread and possibly growing. And, we should not forget that modern Irish history is a sad story of ethnic, religious and political conflict and animosity in which all the churches to a greater or lesser extent have made at least an indirect contribution. That is not to deny the very positive and courageous actions of some in reaching out across sectarian divides.
36- homeless, sick and excluded
.. 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.”
Our prison population (as a percentage of the total) is not as large as it is in many other countries. However, the state of our prisons has been the subject of many reports which have drawn attention to a violation of human rights and dignity.
And then there are those around us who are mistreated, excluded and discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, ways of life and culture and political opinion. These latter forms of exclusion are no less real but sometimes subtle compared to the economic and social ones discussed here.
37-39 But where and who?
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? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?”
But, where are you, Lord? Are you to be found in the heavens or in the sanctuary? Are you to be found in the desert and in the heights of contemplation? Are you listening to our prayer?
Alas, we sought you in the slums and on the streets of Belfast, Dublin and Cork. You were uncouth, rough and we did not know you then.
40-44 I am looking at you right now
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, you did it to me.” 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; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 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.” 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?”
You were a drug addict and you were one of those who will not find work and earn a living. Move out of my way. It is up to the agencies and charities, or perhaps the police, to sort your sort out. I am busy. I don’t see you. If I do and I give a few coppers I don’t really look at you or greet you as a human being but as some sort of victim or just as ‘one of them’.
45 I am in the one next to you now; I am in the least of all, the poorest, the most despised
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.”
Proverbs (14.31): Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honour him.
Who is the least, the most vulnerable, the most fragile of human beings in this world? Might we fail in some way to cherish, protect, feed, affirm and respect ALL human life ALL the time? What of those who hunger to tell their story and to be heard? Victims of abuse or oppression who are not really listened to. These, too, are among the ‘least of these’.
46 Our choice
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’
We have choices and we are responsible for these choices. God does not exclude us. Rather, we may choose to exclude ourselves from the Kingdom. At the end of our lives we will be judged but we will be judged on one thing only – love. Literalists and ‘one-storyists’ be aware!
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