Sermon Audio

Peace be to you and grace from Him / Who freed us from our sins / Who loved us all, and shed His blood / That we might saved be.
Sing holy, holy to our Lord / The Lord almighty God / Who was and is, and is to come/ Sing holy, holy Lord.

E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come, st. 1, 2 (by Paul Manz)

In my experience, today’s Gospel lesson is one that has been misinterpreted and incorrectly taught to the laity. For as long as I can remember, I had been taught that the sheep were called sheep because they helped other people in the name of Christ—that they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, made the stranger feel welcomed and invited, clothed the naked, and visited the infirm and imprisoned as if doing so to Christ Himself. Conversely, the goats are goats because they didn’t do any of those things, never recognizing Christ in the helpless or themselves.

Teaching this passage this way does a great disservice to the people of God—as much as teaching any passage falsely does. For one thing, only going so far as I have mentioned leads to the idea that the sheep save themselves by helping the poor and needy and that the goats are damned by their inaction. This goes contrary to every bit of catechesis a Lutheran should receive, contrary to what the Scriptures teach regarding salvation: “The just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4c) That is to say, the just are justified by grace through faith, and this faith is not of the justified’s doing, it is a gift, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (cf. Ephesians 2:8-9) So, to say that the sheep are told, “Come, you blessed of My Father,” on account of helping the helpless is false theology.

For another thing, such a teaching seeks to lead one away from whom the characters in the parable are supposed to represent. Therefore, it is my duty to inform and teach you that the sheep are the justified, the believers; the goats are the unjust, the unbelievers; and the least of the Christ’s brethren are the apostles, and by extension, those who continue in the ministry of the apostles.

Now, before I go any further, a word of consolation for those who might take offense at these character types. This one parable is no reason to stop doing the kinds of things Jesus says the sheep are doing to everyone who is not the least of Christ’s brethren. It is good and salutary to care for your brothers and sisters in Christ, and even to the unbeliever, as much as you are given the ability to do so—to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, make the stranger feel welcomed and invited, cloth the naked, and visit the infirm and imprisoned, whether or not they are a layman or pastor. Read the letter of James or Paul’s letters to the Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians and see how much these men encourage Christians to demonstrate their faith by their works and bear one another’s burdens in love.

However, in this parable, Jesus is speaking specifically of how the just react to His messengers. As I have mentioned, this passage is misinterpreted and wrongly taught to the laity. It wasn’t until I entered the seminary that I was instructed differently. There my eyes were opened to the wonderful commentary that God Himself provided on today’s lesson, given a few chapters back.

It is in Matthew 10 that Jesus sends his disciples out to preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (cf. Matthew 10:5-7) He sends them with this particular instruction: “Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.” (Matthew 10:9-10) As Jesus sends out His disciples, He tells them to take nothing for their journey. They will certainly get hungry and thirsty along the way. Their clothes may wear out. They will be strangers in a less-than-familiar land. They may get sick. They may even be imprisoned, as He declares to them, “But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake...” (Matthew 10:17-18a)

Who will care for them? Those who receive them! The disciples were instructed to inquire who was worthy and stay with them, to greet a house as they enter it so that if it is worthy, their peace will come upon it. (cf. Matthew 10:11-13) These houses will have heard the disciples’ greeting, heard the message they were sent to proclaim—the kingdom of heaven is at hand—and, by God-given faith, received the message, received the messengers, received the One who sent them, and, therefore, received the One who sent Him. It was near the end of St. Matthew’s tenth chapter where Jesus tells His disciples,

He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward. (Matthew 10:40-42)

“He who receives you receives Me.” “Whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water...” To have received a disciple sent to preach the message of Christ is to receive Christ Himself. To give the sent disciples even a cup of cold water is praised by Christ, even as He calls the disciples “little ones,” indeed, the least of all, being merely servants of the God who assumed flesh and was born in stable only to die a criminal’s death, for, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.” (Matthew 10:24) Therefore, Jesus tells the sheep, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

So, now, when the sheep ask, “When did we see you hungry, thristy, a stranger, naked, sick, or in prison?” and the Master replies, “[I]nasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me,” we now understand what He is talking about. Strangers came into their towns and houses and preached of the nearness of the kingdom of God. These “lost sheep of Israel,” as Jesus calls them in Matthew 10 (cf. Matthew 10:6), didn’t recognize them, but welcomed them anyway and believed their message; in response to this message, these lost sheep fed the messengers, gave them drink, clothed them, and visited them when sick or in prison. Where was Christ in all of this? Certainly not visible to eye when looking at the disciples, but received by the ear as the disciples preached.

So it is today. Men are sent by God to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of God, even in a place unfamiliar to them. Some are received, their message received and believed. On the last day, to those who received the Christ’s sent ones will be spoken, “Come, you blessed of 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 took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” And, as in the parable, they will wonder, “When never saw You like this; when did we do these things?” “You did it to my sent ones; you did it to Me,” Jesus replies.

It works in reverse, too. For if it didn’t, pastors could get an inflated ego from this passage (and perhaps that is the impetus behind refusing to teach that the least of Christ’s brethren are His sent ones). This parable is a reminder to the pastor that he is rightly received as Christ’s representative so long as he preaches the Word of God, and is therefore a constant reminder to preach that Word of God. It is a reminder to him that he is not greater than those to whom he was sent, for Christ refers to him in this passage as the least of His brethren, not the greatest. So, he is kept in check and by the grace of God continues to preach the Word of God, not because he wants to be cared for, but because it is the solemn task he was given by the Master. The caring will happen and is nothing to be worried about.

The care that believers show their pastor is the response of God-given faith to the message of Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of sins. Doing these things doesn’t merit it. Again, I can speak from experience, for a man “from” Florida by way of Oregon and many other places was sent to this place with this message: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He is certainly not a great man, nothing spectacular to look at, a fallen human being like his father Adam before Him. Yet, many here have received and believed this message. Many have heard and received from him as if from Christ Himself the forgiveness of their sins. And those many have responded by caring for him and his family, feeding him and giving him drink, clothing him, and caring for him when he was sick. And, as much as he is Christ’s representative in this place, inasmuch as these were done to him, they were done to Christ.

But there are those here, perhaps not so much as in other places, who saw the man more than they heard the message. There are those who did not receive him and his message, just as there were those who did not receive the disciples. Luke’s telling of the sending of the 70 helps to fill in a gap: “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” (Luke 10:16) The judgment on those who reject Christ’s messengers is not pleasant: “And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!” (Matthew 10:14-15) So it is to the goats that Jesus declares, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting 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 take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.”

And let us be perfectly clear. Inasmuch as it is not the activity of the believer that saves them, it is not the inactivity of the unbeliever that condemns him. Just as the believer acts out of a God-given response to God-given faith, so the unbeliever doesn’t act, or perhaps acts in the opposite direction, out of a rejection of God’s grace. For as much as a believer demonstrates his faith by what he does, so does an unbeliever demonstrate his faithlessness by what he does, here written as rejecting the sent messengers of Christ, not feeding or giving them drink, not welcoming them, not clothing them, and not visiting them when sick or in prison.

Therefore, here is the judgment to be made on the last day: the sheep—the believers—are given entrance into the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world; the goats—the unbelievers—are cast into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, a sentence much worse than what befell Sodom and Gomorrah.

So, what is my point in all of this? Simply this: the parable in today’s Gospel lesson teaches exactly what the rest of Scripture teaches, especially as it is explained in Matthew 10, and has been repeated throughout this sermon: people are saved by grace through faith, it is only unbelief that condemns. “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) It does not teach salvation by works, either that people are saved by helping any helpless person, or that people are saved by helping a more specific helpless person—the preacher of the Word. Conversely, it does not teach condemnation by works, but by unbelieving. It goes simply like this: Jesus sends His disciples or apostles—His pastors—they preach the Word, many receive the Word and believe it—they are given faith by this proclaimed Word—and on account of this they are saved: “The just shall live by his faith.” Only because they have received the Word proclaimed to them do they receive the messenger sent to them, and care for him as if for Christ Himself. And this, without keeping score, without having a mind to the fact that they are doing as much to Christ as they do it to His messenger.

Feeding, giving drink, welcoming the stranger, clothing, visiting the infirm and imprisoned sent one of Christ is done out of thanksgiving for having received forgiveness, life, and salvation, not as a condition for it. These are done out of a sense of wanting the proclamation of Christ crucified to continue, in their midst as much as to all nations. In essence, having heard the Word of sins forgiven, the God-given response is, “Stay a while, have something to eat and drink, let us care for you, and tell us again of the forgiveness of our sins. We want to hear more.”

Therefore, I will tell you more. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Christ is coming, is coming soon. “Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.” (Revelation 12:12a) Rejoice as well, you saints on earth, for He comes quickly to judge the earth. (cf. E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come, st. 3) He comes to pronounce the judgment made at the cross, where He died for the sins of the world, where He died for your sins, dear saints here in this place. Therefore, this is the judgment pronounced of you: you are not guilty, you are forgiven for all of your sins. “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

E’en so Lord Jesus quickly come / And night shall be no more / They need no light, no lamp, nor sun / For Christ will be their All!

E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come, st. 4