Sheep on the Right, Goats on the Left!

Last Sunday of the Church Year (Judgment Sunday) 11/23/08

Rev. Steven D. Spencer – Pastor Messiah Lutheran Church, Salem, OR

Matthew 25:31–46

"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."

Grace, peace and mercy from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!

I want you to take a moment to think back to the days you were in elementary school. I know for some of you this will be a bit harder than for others. But in particular think back to a time of playing a team sport, maybe basketball, softball or even kickball.  It might have been during recess or after school with neighborhood friends or even a family event. Usually two captains would be chosen and then everyone would line up in front of them. One by one each team would choose a player. And the fear would be that you might be the very last one chosen. That was the position of shame. No one wanted to be the last chosen. To hear those words; “No, you take him, no you take him!” But regardless once the teams were made up and the game began, no cared who was chosen last. At the end of the game there were winners, with all the bragging rights and there were losers with nothing but shame. We all like to be winner and not losers.

Our text today is nothing like the story I just shared. For the game is over, the battle is won. Jesus has conquered sin, death and the devil. And now is the finale of all of creation.

A few moments ago we confessed. And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end. He comes to judge the living and the dead. Judgment Day! It’s not far off. Nearer now than it was a week ago. How near? We don’t know, and He’s not telling. What will it be like, this day of judgment? Hear the parable of the sheep and the goats.

This is Jesus’ last parable, His last word about the last things before He dies and rises. He looks ahead to His coming in glory, when He will return and all His angels will be with Him, then He shall sit on His throne to judge. His coming at the end of the age will be like a shepherd and his flock at the close of the day. All through the day, sheep and goats they graze together as one flock under one shepherd. Jesus is Lord of all and shepherd of all. Only at the end of the day are they separated into their respective pens. The sheep go to the pen on the shepherd’s right, the goats to the pen on his left.

Judgment is a sorting and a separation. The basis for the shepherd’s sorting is not what they did but what they are - sheep and goats. Not good and bad sheep. Not religious and unreligious goats. Just sheep and goats!

The sheep are identified as the “righteous,” the justified, those declared righteous for Jesus’ sake. The goats are those who refuse to be justified, who reject the gift in favor of their own works, which come up woefully short in the end. Works can’t turn goats into sheep any more than they can make saints our of sinners. Only God can do that. “By grace are you saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not by works” (Ephesians 2:8-9). By His justifying and saving Word, God calls the sinner a saint in Christ, the goat is declared to be a sheep in the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

Only after they are sorted and separated is there any talk of works. Our works will be judged, this is true. But we will not be judged by our works, but only by the work of Jesus, by His perfect life, by His perfect death. The sheep on the right receive a blessing. They are “blessed by the Father.” They have an inheritance, a kingdom prepared for them from before the foundation of the world. That’s Christ talk. When you talk about anything “before the beginning,” it must be in Christ. Christ is the One who was before the foundation of the world, and in Him are found all His sheep.

Their works are praised; a deep mystery is revealed. Something hidden that you would not have known, unless it was revealed to you. The Shepherd King was hidden in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the one needing clothing, the sick one, the one in prison. Who would have known? The sheep had no idea; they are astonished. They say, “When, Lord? When did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or in need of clothing or sick or imprisoned? When did we do these things for you?” They just did them because they needed to be done.

We don’t normally look for God in the least in our society, do we? We may look down on them. We may even look away from them, avert our eyes. But we hardly recognize them as an icon of Jesus in His humility. And we certainly don’t want to see ourselves in that light. Who among you wants to be regarded as “least”? This is not the way of the world. We want to be the winners. Certainly our old Adam protests of such notions. We want to be greatest, a king, the one in charge, a god. We really don’t want to have anything to do with the hungry, thirsty, naked, stranger, imprisoned, sick, with the least, the lost, those losers.

Jesus, quite intentionally I believe, is describing Himself in His own crucified humility. He was hungry with our hunger, thirsty with our thirst, naked with our shame, imprisoned under the Law, sick with our sin. He was all those things, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. “No beauty that we should desire Him,” Isaiah said of the “suffering servant” (Isaiah 53:2). If you’re looking for glory on our terms, you wouldn’t look here.

On the left are the goats. They have no inheritance only a dismissal. “Depart from me, you cursed” (Matthew 25:41). They aren’t blessed but cursed. Not by the Father, please note, simply cursed. The Father curses no one. They are dismissed to an eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell is intended only for the devil and his fallen angels. Not you, me, or any human being in this world. God’s will is that all be saved in Jesus, and come to the knowledge of that truth. Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. If anyone is cursed, if anyone winds up in eternal fire, it will be entirely against God’s good and gracious will to save them.

Their sin was one of omission. They did nothing. They gave nothing to eat to the hungry, nothing to drink to the thirsty, nothing to wear to the naked, nothing for the stranger, nothing for the sick and imprisoned. They did nothing because they did not recognize the King in the losers. “When did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, and did not help you?” Had they known it was the Lord, they would have done something. They are as ignorant of their sin as the sheep were of their good works. And when confronted with their sins of omission, they do the faithless thing - the try to justify themselves. “We didn’t know it was you” (Matthew 25:44).  Exactly!

In rejecting the least and the lost, they rejected their hidden Lord. Their refusal to be numbered with the losers flowed out of their rejection of their Shepherd. They turned their back on every sign of His cross in the world. And in the end, their rejection becomes their own condemnation. They don’t get what they deserve, they get what they desire. They wanted nothing to do with their Shepherd, and now they will live without Him forever. “They will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).

So then which are you? Sheep or a goat? At the end of the parable, at the end of the day, at the end of your life, at the end of the age, which one are you? Are you a sheep of the Good Shepherd’s flock, blessed by His Father, with an eternal inheritance? Or are you a goat, cursed by your own refusal to be justified, cursed to an eternal punishment in eternal fire intended only for fallen angels?

“Simul justus et peccator,” Martin Luther observed of our condition under the Word. “At once righteous and a sinner.” Simultaneously sheep and goat. That’s the mystery of our existence under the Word that is at once Law and Gospel. Don’t get fooled into either/or thinking. In this life, it’s always both/and the answer is yes.

If you look into the mirror of the Law, you will see the face of a goat staring back at you. You will see all your denials and rejections of the least - the unfed hungry, the unquenched thirsty, the unclothed naked, the unwelcomed stranger, the sick or imprisoned that you did not visit or comfort. If you look to the Law for comfort in God’s judgment, you won’t find any. We are all natural born goats. We are sinners, children of Adam and Eve, rebels against our Shepherd and King. Were it not for Jesus, our Good Shepherd and God’s Lamb, we would all hear a divine “Depart from me, you cursed.” Apart from Jesus, there is only eternal punishment, eternal fire, eternal regret at all the opportunities overlooked and lost.

But there is another way to see yourself. Not in the mirror of the Law but in Christ. He is your life. In Adam, you are dead and as doomed as the goats in the parable. But in Christ you are alive to God, people of His pasture, sheep of His fold. Embraced in the death of the Shepherd, goats are declared sheep in the eyes of God. Don’t look to your works. Your works will condemn you. The good in your good works is not even noticeable to you. Look to Jesus Christ. He will tell you who you are.

Look to those concrete, tangible places where Christ places Himself for you. Look to your Baptism. That’s your identity in Christ. In Adam, you’re 100% goat on the left. But in Christ, you are 100% sheep on the right. Embraced in the death of the Lamb, goats are made sheep in the eyes of the Shepherd, cleansed of their sins, united with Him who takes away their sins in His death (T).

Look to the word of forgiveness. Forgiveness received is the difference between a sheep and a goat. Be forgiven and freed in Christ. Learn what it means to live in the freedom of that forgiveness, trusting Jesus and His work and not yourself and your works.

Look to the Lord’s Supper, Christ’s Body and Blood given and shed for you. The Shepherd feeds His sheep with His own death and life. He prepares a table for you in the presence of Thine enemies. Your cups runneth over in the abundance of Jesus’ life poured out for you.

He satisfies your hunger and thirst for righteousness. He clothes you with His perfection, a seamless, spotless robe of white. He welcomes you to His Father’s house and to His table, not as a stranger but as friend and family. He visits you in the prison house of sin and death to set you free. He comes as the divine Physician to heal you. He comes as the perfect Sheep, the unblemished Lamb of God slain for all.

And in Christ, look to the least and lowly and lost around you. They are Christ incognito for you to serve. He is the poor beggar, the orphaned child, the friendless stranger, the dying woman, the imprisoned man. He is all of us in the brokenness and lostness of our humanity. “As often as you have done it for the least of these brothers of mine, you’ve done it to me.”

Don’t do these things to be saved. That would be the way of the goats. Do it because you are saved. That’s way of the sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd and who follow Him through death to life. In Jesus name, Amen and Amen!

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  AMEN!