By Dallas Burdette February 21, 1998

Thrust Statement: In the Judgment, God will look for living faith.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 25:31-46

 The parable of the sheep and goats is difficult to interpret since Jesus did not interpret this for us. Since interpretation is a human discipline, not an activity of the Holy Spirit, then, I ask you to put up with me as I attempt to unfold its meaning, as I perceive it, for the Christian community. As you read this parable, What comes to your mind? Do you read this as a parable about ethical behavior? Do you read this parable as reflecting the "golden rule" enunciated by Jesus? You remember this rule, don’t you? Matthew records it for us: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12). Do you read this parable as a call to social action concerning the poor? Just what does this parable say to you? Is this a parable about how one is put in a right relationship with God? Does one earn his or her salvation through works? Just what is this parable saying to you?

Surely, as one reads this story, one cannot help but reflect upon this parable as a description of Christian love and charity. This parable has inspired and challenged generations of Christians to care for the needy. Some believers have stressed this parable to the point of neglect of the preaching of the Gospel. Thus, the concern for poverty and social injustice is often referred to as the social gospel. But one must not confuse the gospel with concern for social needs of the people. It is true that every Christian is to be influenced for the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the imprisoned, etc., but every Christian must also be thunderstruck about telling the story of redemption through Jesus Christ.

As we begin this survey of the sheep and the goats, one must never forget the free grace of God in Jesus Christ. Paul expresses it this way: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). On the other hand, one must not forget the next verse. "For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (v.10). In one’s reflection upon good works and the proclamation of the good news about God’s way of salvation through faith, one cannot help but recall the words of Jesus in His response to John’s disciples about His being the Messiah or should they look for another.

"Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor (Matthew 11:4-5).

Not only did Jesus perform deeds of kindness, but He also preached the gospel to the poor. Jesus not only healed sinners of their physical ailments, but He also went to sinners to proclaim God’s way of justification for humanity. Some of the most scornful condemnation Jesus received had to do with his sociability toward sinners. Mark reports one such criticism:

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?" On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:16-17).

Luke, the beloved physician and companion of Paul, also writes about another incident in which the religious leaders complained: "Now the tax collectors and ‘sinners’ were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’" (Luke 15:1-2). Jesus did not apologize for this behavior, but rather, He defended His actions. In fact, Jesus, on this particular occasion, employed three parables—The Parable of the Lost Sheep, The Parable of the Lost Coin, and The Parable of the Lost Son—to gain the sympathy of the crowd. Once He gained their approval for certain action, He said, in effect, "that is what I am doing." He had come to seek the lost sheep just as the woman sought the lost coin, as the shepherd looked for his lost sheep, and as the father welcomed his returning son.

Another parable that has captured the hearts of men and women is the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-17). From this parable it is clear what Jesus values most in men and women. It is not a proud consciousness of his or her moral rectitude, but a deep sense of his or her own need in the presence of God—"God, have mercy on me, a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Jesus treats people with kindness and compassion when they come to Him. He does not pay them what they deserve. Toward the end of Jesus ministry, He left Galilee and entered into the territory of His enemies. Following an encounter with the Pharisees and a rich young ruler, Jesus told the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). In this parable, the employer behaves with outstanding charity. No one receives less than his due, and most receive much more. In the same way, it is kindness and compassion, not mere justice that controls the actions of Jesus. Jesus forgives sins. On one occasion, while visiting in the home of a Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50), a woman came to Him, one described as a sinner, and washed His feet. In the course of the conversation, Jesus said to her: "Your sins are forgiven" (v.48).

Paul reproduces this ministry of Jesus in his writings. Jesus, in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, speaks of the "tax collector" as going down to his house "justified." It is this same thought that Paul picks up in his Roman letter: "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24). Again Paul says, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!" (Romans 5:9).

This brings us back again to the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. If one is saved by God’s grace, Does this do away with good works? The religious leaders, so it seems, were genuinely distressed at the teaching and conduct of Jesus; they feared that He was undermining the very foundation of morality. Paul also dealt with this same fear on the part of some believers. Paul poses the question: "Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law" (Romans 3:31). Paul did not reject the law, but he did reject the law as a means of salvation. As a result of this teaching, Paul was accused of encouraging wickedness by his so-called lawless statements about the law. "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" (Romans 6:1) appears to be their confused disapproval of Paul’s theology. Paul was shocked at the attitude of many of his adversaries. He was stung at their accusations against him: "Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—‘Let us do evil that good may result’?" (Romans 3:8).

The Parable of the Sheep and Goats illustrate graphically Jesus’ insistence on good works. One cannot read this parable and not recall the words of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). For an individual to maintain a right relationship with God, there is an obligation of good conduct on the part of man. This aspect of Jesus’ teachings stands out prominently in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46). God’s prophets were adamant in proclaiming that which pleases God is not words and ceremonies, but obedience to the will of God, especially in the requirements of mercy and justice in the treatment of others. Micah, who prophesied between 735 and 686 BC, went right to the heart of what it is that pleases God.

With what shall I come before the LORD
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy (Micah 6:6-8).

Micah makes crystal clear what it is that makes a man acceptable or unacceptable to God. Isaiah, a contemporary of Micah, also calls attention to the unethical behavior of the nation of Israel: "No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil" (Isaiah 59:4). Following his castigation of them for their wickedness, God sounds a clarion call as to what He expects:

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isaiah 58:4-7).

This sounds very similar to what Jesus says in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me" (Matthew 25:35-36). From this parable, one soon discovers that the parable emphasizes two points: (1) Conduct, not merely faith, as the decisive factor in the judge’s verdict, and (2) Christ draws near to us through our extending deeds of kindness to others. In this parable, Jesus forcefully demonstrates that our acceptance with God depends on the attitude we have taken to others in their need. One cannot ignore the ethical emphasis Jesus lays upon Christian conduct. As one reflects upon this parable, one cannot help but recall similar thoughts expressed by James, our Lord’s brother.

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But Someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? (James 2:14-20).

John, one of the three who constituted the inner circle of disciples, also captures the timeless truths of the principles set forth by Jesus in this Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. John writes:

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his (1 John 3:17-19).

Let us never forget that true justification is that relationship with God made possible to us through what God has done for us in Christ. Paul expresses it this way: "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:19). As a result of what God has accomplished for us through Jesus, then, His life is to flow into ours through compassion, mercy, and love. If this does not begin to happen, then, what has taken place in our lives is not really justification, but something else. The reality of justification is validated by one’s manifestation of love: "faith by itself" writes James, "if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17). The authenticity of justification is proved by love. Is this not what Paul says in the Galatian letter? "By faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Galatians 5:5-6). Love is the work of faith; it cannot be inoperative. Works cannot save one, but if there are no works present in one’s life, then, there must be something not right with one’s faith. Love is the work of faith, and when love is absent, then, this absence betrays the inadequacy of the faith. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he captures the effects of God’s gift of salvation by describing the position of the believer:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:8-10).

CONCLUSION

While this parable might stand alone, nevertheless, the dialogue without the context would resemble an unset jewel. From start to finish, this parable describes an apocalyptic judgment. In its original setting, Jesus renounces the religious leaders for their rejection of His disciples. This judgment scene is very similar to the judgment scene Jesus pictures in the conclusion of His Sermon on the Mount in His denunciation of the religious leaders:

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them (Matthew 7:15-20).

Following the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew records the second major discourse (chapter 10) in which Jesus calls and sends out His disciples to evangelize the lost sheep of the house of Israel (10:6). He warned them:

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. "Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles (10:16-18).

He further warns them that "When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes" (10:23). In the concluding remarks of this second discourse, as reported by Matthew, Jesus again says,

He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. ⁴² And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward (10:40-42).

An act toward His disciples counts as an act toward Him. This same concept is presented to Saul in his persecution of the disciples of Jesus: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4). Just as Jesus accused Paul of persecuting Him, Jesus also accused the religious leaders of neglecting Him through neglecting His disciples: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). In 25:40, Jesus speaks of His disciples as "the least of these brothers of mine," but in 10:42, He describes these same disciples as "little ones." Even though the Parable of the Sheep and Goats rebuked the religious leaders for their rejection of the His disciples, nevertheless, the principles are still applicable toward all God’s people. What does this parable say to you? Does it affect the way you feel about God’s children? What do you intend to do about your relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Preached: Grassy Church of Christ; Arab, Al; February 22, 1998

Baptized: Tara Am Kelly on February 22, 1998; born July 9^th, 1983.