Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel of Matthew, the 25th chapter:
“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.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Have you ever heard of a triptych? A triptych is a piece of work that is divided into three panels. They were very popular during the Reformation, as the painting itself could help educate people on Biblical narratives, like Abraham and Isaac, Adam and Eve, and, of course, the life of Christ. A triptych could depict something like the crucifixion of Jesus in the center panel, with John praying at the foot of the cross on the left panel, and Jesus’ mother, Mary, weeping on the right panel. Basically, the whole thing is showing one major scene, one major depiction, using three perspectives.
What’s going on in Matthew 25 is a triptych of sorts. The parable of the 10 virgins, the parable of the unfaithful steward and the talents, and now the telling of the Last Judgment. These are three pictures that are telling the same story, the same story from three perspectives, the story of faith.
With the virgins, we had the perspective that you cannot buy your way into your eternal reward, but that you should be ready and watchful for the end. With the unfaithful steward, we had a man who rejected the gift of God given to Him and squandered it unfruitfully. And now, we have this story, not so much a parable, but a glimpse of what will happen when our Risen and Victorious Lord descends from heaven and brings the Last Judgment with Him.
If this worries us, remember we confess this in our creeds. The Apostles’ Creed: “The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.” The Nicene Creed: “He… ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.” The Athanasian Creed: “He… is seated at the right hand of the Father, from whence He will come to judge the living and the dead. At His coming all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds. And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire. This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.”
Our creeds demand that we believe in this second coming of Christ, and that we know we shall all be raised, believer and unbeliever, and that we Christians shall inherit eternal life. That’s not a popular thing to say today: that only Christians will be welcomed into the eternal reward with Christ. But, it’s true, and it is only Christians, saved by Water and the Word, that beg their Lord for mercy in light of the grace won for them through Jesus Christ and His death in our place. Only Christians ask for Christ. Everyone else asks for their idols.
Perhaps this bothers us a little. We don’t like the idea of people going to hell. And that’s understandable. The idea of someone, as Jesus says, going into eternal punishment, eternal fire, a place of darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, that doesn’t really sit well with anyone who knows the incomparable love of our Father. But, our Father is not mean for sending people to hell. He is not capricious. He is not impulsive. He is not.
God loves the world. And He loves the world in this way: that He has given His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ did not come, and He is not coming back, in order that He can turn His nose up and say nanny-nanny-boo-boo to all those as they march through the gates of hell right into the grasp of Satan. Rather, our Lord, who at the sight of the death of His friend, Lazarus, wept. Our Lord is the one who, watching the funeral procession of the son of the widow of Nain, could not bear it and brought the boy back to his mother. Our Lord is the one who made the dead girl only asleep, and so He woke her up.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has great compassion upon this world and its inhabitants. He loves all people and He has died for all people. But some use this Matthew passage today to say, look here, Jesus makes it clear He has died only for some, for He separates the nations into sheep and goats, as if He made them that way.
But, that is not our Lord. Our Lord does not delight in the death of the wicked. Our Lord, in His love, does not predestine some to go to hell. Our Lord has given to all the gift of heaven. What does He say to the sheep? “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” This was prepared for them before the foundation of the world. The kingdom is where our Lord is. And He has been since before anything was created; He has been since eternity. But, notice it was prepared for THEM. It was prepared for the blessed by God the Father. And how is this blessing given?
Certainly, through Baptism, where the Spirit of God descends upon us, bringing to us the gift of faith and saves us. Certainly, God blesses us through His Word, where we are given eyes to see through our ears as we hear God’s Good News. Certainly, we are blessed by god through the Supper, where our Lord gives to us His own body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith.
But are we blessed elsewhere? Well, God sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. God gives all created gifts to all men, doesn’t He? I believe that God has made me and all creatures. He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my limbs, my reason, and all my senses, and still preserves them. In addition, He has given me clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, wife and children, fields, cattle, and all my goods. He provides me richly and daily with all that I need to support this body and life. He protects me from all danger and guards me and preserves me from all evil. He does all this out of pure, fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this I ought to thank Him, praise Him, serve Him, and obey Him. This is most certainly true.
Our Lord has given to us all gifts, and He gives them also to all men. There is nothing we do to deserve them, nothing to earn them. God is God and He is good. And He gives these things, even faith, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, so that all would believe in Him. Yet, many reject our Lord and His gifts. That’s what we heard in the parable of the unrighteous steward and the talents. And rejecting those gifts, they seek to bring their own gifts to the Lord and buy their way in to His favor, as we heard in the parable of the virgins.
But, here, in today’s narrative of Christ, we finally discover, once and for all, that doesn’t cut the mustard. Instead, those having rejected the gifts of their Lord will be greeted with these words: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” They are cursed, yes, but not because the Lord has made them so, but because they have made themselves so and they have sided with Satan, the one who would destroy even your faith. For what does Jesus say? If Jesus had made them depraved, made them go to hell, then hell would have been prepared for them. But, what does He say? The eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, the ones who attempt to deceive us, the ones who rebelled against their God, the ones who would rather see you dead than in the hands of your loving Father.
Our Lord has blessed even those who reject all the gifts. But, at the end, they stand accursed before the Son and His judgment. There is nothing they can do then. There is no time to get the water that quenches the fire. There is no way to attempt to steward faith in Christ. All they can do is be led into the punishment that they have asked for in rejecting the work of the Son.
Again, I know, not a very popular position these days. Jesus Christ is the way, and the truth, and life, and He is the only one of those. He is the only road that leads to the Kingdom of God. There are no coexist stickers in eternity. There is only faith in Christ.
And this faith that we have is good. It is pure gift. And because it is free, because it is from Jesus Himself, there is nothing that we need do to earn heaven out of it, earn favor out of it. Yet, the good works toward our neighbor, and, even as Jesus says, especially to Christians, the least of these, my BROTHERS, in faith, those works flow from our faith. Good works flow from our faith and you don’t even know it or realize it most of the time. When did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and minister to you? You don’t even know you’re doing it. But you are.
And these good works are not for you, but they are for your neighbor, that they would persevere in the faith, comforted by the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. That’s a lot of comfort. And this comfort for others helps them. It comes out of our faith, but it helps them.
But, remember, this does not earn you heaven. Not at all. And you may even do these things imperfectly and sinfully, yet because of Christ, because of His forgiveness, because of His redemption, they are made perfect in Him. All things are made perfect in Him.
But, without Him, we find that we are condemned by our works, as all unbelievers are. Without faith, we have no hope. Our works stand to condemn us for they are all we bring to the table. Yet, with faith, we bring the completed work of Christ to the table. We throw it down before the throne of God and say, “Look at that! That’s mine! You gave it to me and you promised me eternal life with Christ!” And so He has, and so He will give it to you.
Our Lord has saved you, dear friends. This is the triptych. He has given you virgins faith to be ready for the end. He has given you talents, tons, of faith to use as liberally as you desire. He has given you faith in Him to be welcomed into the kingdom of God. Faith is the triptych, faith is the picture. Faith is always the picture. Faith belongs to our Lord and He has given you that perfect gift now for forever. It is His, so you are His, and He is yours from here to eternity. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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