Matthew 25:31-46 - Christ the King

Matthew 25:31-46
What is a king? What does it mean to have
a king? Who is a king? In this land of
democracy, which was built throwing off our
ties to a king and breaking out on our own
without the fetters of a dieing feudal system
and its monarchy, what does it mean to say
that Christ is king? England still has a queen
and will someday in my lifetime have a King.
But the monarchy there is little more than a
living parade, a living heirloom of by gone
days of England’s past. But many countries
still have kings in far off places of this world.

This past week when I was at the District
Pastors and Spouses retreat, a group of us
went to eat at a Thai restaurant. On three of
the walls of the restaurant was the picture of
this very regal looking couple. When we
asked the waitress who this couple was, she
told us that they were the king and queen of
Thailand. From what I understand the king
and queen of Thailand are held in great
affection by the Thai people. The waitress told
us quite a bit about how wonderful this couple
is and how much they are revered and
respected by Thai people everywhere. The
owners of this restaurant live here in the
states, but they still honor and revere the king
of their native land.

I can ascertain that a good king is respected
and honored by his people. A good king is
kind and just and is loved by all those whom
he rules. But a king does not have to be these
thing in order to be king. A king is a king by
birth by lineage or by coo, by over throwing a
the current king and taking over his throne
and establishing his line and his lineage as the
new succession to the throne. A king is king
by power of the law but ironically in many
ways is above the law and not required to
adhere to the very law which makes him king.

A king can still be king due to this power he
wields even if he is cruel and tyrannical. A
king can still be king even if he squanders the
people’s money and mistreats them at every
turn. As long as he can hold onto his power
the king. History shows us that a king can be
good or bad; kind and just or tyrannical and
bent on nothing but his own gain.
So there are kings who are revered and
honored, kings who deserve to be praised for
their kindness, generosity and the just way
they rule the people. When we look to God
we, as Christians would expect that Jesus as
king would be the later. But what kind of king
is in this passage? This passage presents to us
a king who divides people as a shepherd
separates sheep from goats. The sheep he
allows into his kingdom and the goats are
throw out, not allowed to enter. The way that
I understand it a king just accepts the people
he is given. Just as he was born to be king
everyone else who was born within the
borders of his kingdom are born to be his
subjects but Christ the king is picky. He does
not simply want subjects, he wants a certain
kind of subjects. He wants subjects who live
and act in ways which he deems worthy, just.
He only wants subjects who are righteous, for
it is those whom he calls righteous he decides
are the sheep and accepts, it is those who do
not live in righteous ways whom he calls goats
and casts out.

Jesus is not only our king but he is choosey
about those who will be in his kingdom.
Jesus, the Son of Man will sit on the throne of
Heaven and divide up those who are in his
kingdom and those who are not. On his left
he puts the goats on his left saying to them
that he was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked,
sick and in prison and you did not feed me,
give me something to drink, welcome me,
cloth me, take care of me or visit me. To the
right he puts the sheep and he will likewise
say to them, I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger,
naked, sick and in prison and when you saw
me you fed me, gave me a drink, welcomed
me, clothed me, took care of me, and visited
me. To those on his right he praise them and
welcomed them into his eternal kingdom, to
those on his left he will cast out of his
kingdom where they punished.

And all the good protestant Christians who
know that the grace of God and the gift of
eternal life are freely given to those who have
believed and have and not earned entrance
into God’s kingdom by merit or by good
works, look on wondering, “when was it that
the world turned upside down and how is it
that everything we believed to be true about
how these things work can proved to be
false?” What is Jesus saying? Earning our
way into God’s eternal kingdom is earned by
giving to those who are less fortunate than
ourselves. That can’t be right, can it? It goes
against everything that I have ever been
taught, when it comes to how the grace, and
forgiveness of God works.

But that is what Jesus says there. I just read
it, “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; 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, 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.'. . .‘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.'. .
.‘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.' And these will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life."

It says it right there if you give food the
hungry, water to the thirsty, welcome the
stranger, cloth the naked, take care of the sick
and visit the imprisoned we will be called
righteous and welcomed into eternal life.
Jesus says it, so it must be true.

And it is true, but it true because faith and
belief came first. Those who live the love of
God in their lives, those who accept the truth
of the gospel of Jesus Christ and have faith in
him for eternal life will visit the sick, cloth the
naked, welcome the stranger, give water to the
thirsty and feed the hungry. They will do all
these things because their faith compels them
to, because the love they have from Jesus will
not allow them to not.

Faith is a strange kind of belief. Faith is a
belief that is lived, it is a belief which can only
exist in action. You can believe that the earth
is round. You can believe that the world is
made up of tiny electrically charged particles
whose properties dictate how our world
works but those kind of beliefs require
nothing of us. We either believe that these
unseen forces are at work in our world or we
don’t. There is nothing that believing or not
believing in electrons requires of us, but faith
in Jesus Christ requires something of us. It
moves us, it changes us and spurs us into
action.

Once you know the truth of the gospel,
once you come to and understanding of the
God of the universe and that God’s love for
each and every one of us, that love, that truth
changes who we are, it changes how we live.
It compels us to move in our world in loving
ways. The love of God is a love that requires
us to then in turn love those around us. If we
truly understand that God loves us and calls
for us to love the world around us, we can not
see one who is hungry and desire to feed, see
one who is thirty and desire to quench that
thirst, we can not see one whom God loves
and cherishes in pain or in need and not desire
to reach out with the love that God had given
to us and share that love by soothing that
pain or meeting that need.

If we truly believe that God loves us. If we
truly believe that Jesus Christ showed that
love in his life, teachings, death and
resurrection and that love calls us into
relationship with the God of the universe and
then we can not help but be filled with that
love, that love fills us, lives in us and is
worked out in our actions and interactions in
this world. The love we have for Christ is
manifested in our love for those around us.
Christ, the king of heaven, knows that if we
truly love him then that love will be lived out
in how we treat those around us. When we
love Jesus we will treat each and everyone we
meet as if that person were Jesus. As
Christians we should see Jesus in everyone we
meet, in everyone with whom we interact. We
should treat our boss, our siblings, our
parents, the stranger we pass on the street
with the love, the dignity and the respect with
which we would treat them if we truly
believed them to be Jesus Christ himself.
No this passage is not putting forth a works
related righteousness. This passage is not
telling us how to earn our way to heaven, this
passage is describing what a life lived in love
with God, in love with Jesus Christ will look
like. This is not a prescription of how to get to
Heaven, feed three hungry people, take a cup
of cold water to one who is thirsty and call me
in the morning. This is a description of what a
life lived completely and totally given over to
God will look like; if you love Jesus. If you
live the love of God in this world, the hungry
will be fed the thirsty will be quenched, the
stranger will be welcomed, the naked will be
clothed, the sick will be taken care of and the
prisoner will be visited. Those who are in
need around you will be provided for. You
will live a life of compassion. You will love
each and every person as if they themselves
were God. You will speak to each person you
meet as if they were Jesus Christ. Everyone
you meet will be treated as if they were your
God and your savior. You will honor
everyone as if they were you king. When you
love God, you will love your neighbor. When
you love Jesus Christ you will love the outcast
and the lonely. The love of God will be the
hallmark of your life. When people encounter
you they will encounter the love of God in
you, because you are loving them as if they are
God.

We love because God loves. We love
because we believe. We love because our faith
compels us to. We can not love Jesus without
loving those around us. We can not be people
of faith unless we are feeding the hungry,
quenching the thirst of the thirsty, clothing the
naked, welcoming the stranger, taking care of
the sick and visiting those in prison, because
that is what a life of faith will look like to one
who is observing it from the outside. It will be
a life marked by action, a life marked by love
moving; a life marked by someone who can
not stand by and to allow those around them
to suffer. Our faith moves us in ways that will
not allow suffering to continue to go on
around us in this world. A true believer in
Jesus Christ will not go unmoved when
another is suffering. A true adherent to the
faith can not but help but be torn apart when
one around them is hurting. We, as follows of
Christ will be forced into action by our faith
and by our love for Jesus to mend the broken,
and be balm to those who are hurting. The
love of Christ compels us, moves us and
transforms us in ways that we are ruled by an
over powering, outreaching love that will not
stop until we have loved all those we touch
and are moving to right the wrongs that Jesus
himself came to this world to right.