Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
November 2, 1986
Love to the Least
Matthew 25:31-46, NIV
The Judge has been seated. Every eye in the jury is focused on you. The whole courtroom is packed and four televisions stations have sent camera crews. You have been charged with being a Christian. Is there going to be enough evidence to convict you? You had better hope so, because a lot depends on it. When God judges us there will be no plea-bargaining, no probation, no appeals. His sentence will stand for eternity.
Today's passage is about such a trial. It is a very sobering scene. Your first impression may be that it is about shepherds. Verse 32 mentions how a shepherd separates sheep from goats. Even today shepherds in Israel mix these two animals together in their flocks. But at night they have to be separated. The goats huddle by themselves to keep warm while the more valuable sheep prefer to walk around. However, the key idea is not the difference between sheep and goats. The main theme is the process of separation whether it is done by a shepherd or a Judge.
Every person confronts two destinies. You are going to be for Jesus or against him. On the Judgment Day there will be no such thing as wishy-washy. You are decisively for Jesus or you are not and there are only two destinations both of which verse 46 says are eternal. Purgatory and limbo are not in the Bible.
The importance of this passage is that it shows us the basis for our destination. First we have to look at the setting of the trial. Because of the language of verse 31 it obviously has to do with the Second Coming of Jesus to earth. Verse 32 tells us who are involved - all the nations. This can be taken two ways. Some think only the Gentile nations are included here, not Israel. The Greek word that is used often has this distinction, but probably not in this verse because the word "all" is attached. When Jesus speaks of all nations he usually means the whole world, including Israel. For example, at the end of Matthew, Jesus commands to go into all the nations to preach the gospel. The Jews would certainly be included in this.
All the nations are gathered, but only individuals are judged. Who are they? Some believe they are all the people who claim to be Christians. There are genuine believers and phony ones. You'll notice that in verses 37 and 44, both groups call Jesus "Lord." But I think only the sheep considered themselves Christians. Both groups call him "Lord" because on the Judgment Day we will be compelled to do so. The apostle Paul says that on that day every knee will bow (heaven, earth, even hell) and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He won't be everyone's savior but they will have to admit he is "Lord." (Philippians 2:10-11)
So the setting is the judgment of the world, Jew and Gentile, saved and unsaved. The determination of who is saved and who is not, rests on six acts of love. They don't cover every loving thing you can do, but it's a good sample and Jesus must have thought they were important because he repeats the list four times.
The true sheep feed Jesus, give him drink, hospitality, clothes and visit him when he is sick or in prison. Not surprisingly, they cannot remember ever doing this for him. They've never seen him till now. Verse 40 gives Jesus' answer:
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
That's a powerful statement. But before I make some applications we have to dig a little more. Just who are the brothers of Jesus? Many interpreters say it is anyone who is poor or needy. When we help the poor we help Jesus. All through the Bible God shows a special concern for the outcasts of society. Jesus spent most of his time with lepers, prostitutes and sinners. But nowhere else does Jesus call them his brothers.
Another interpretation is that the brothers of Jesus are the Jews. This line of thought says the nations are exclusively Gentiles and their admission to the Millennium depends on how they treated God's people, the Jews. This view has the same weakness as the first one: Jesus never called Jews his brothers. The best way to interpret scripture is to use other Scripture. To unlock Matthew 25 turn to Matthew10:40,42 -
"He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. ... 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."
There are several parallels. Matthew 10:40 says,
"He who receives you receives me."
The parallel in Matthew 25 says:
"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
Matthew 10 mentions a cup of cold water. Matthew 25 mentions giving a drink. Finally, Matthew 10 talks about giving water to a "little one." This is not a small child. Throughout Matthew it stands for Christians, especially those who are spreading the gospel. I believe it helps interpret the "least of the brothers" in Matthew 25.
The only brothers Jesus has are those who do God's will. They are Christians. The "least," or the little ones, is just another way to describe the followers of Jesus. To sum it all up, the term "brothers" is best understood as referring to the followers of Jesus who spread the message of Christ's kingdom. The "sheep" are those among the nations who accept the followers and their message. They become saved and prove it by the way they treat people. This is what Matthew 25 is all about. It doesn't talk about what to do to get saved but what to do when you are. If we are truly Christians the least we can do is love people like Jesus did. He didn't ask himself if they could pay him back or make him look good. He loved people because it was his nature no matter who they were.
Jesus is hungry and naked throughout the world today. At a meeting in our state office I heard about the work our missionaries are doing in Sonabota, Zaire. Sonabota is in an extremely isolated portion of Africa and the small clinic we operate is the only health care for miles. An American Baptist pastor was visiting the clinic and came across a woman on a cot with three dots on her head. It meant she had had triplets. To show how primitive the area is, when the woman came to the clinic one night, one of the local Christians had to run down a path to turn on the electric generator. She had two babies by flashlight and the last by light bulb. The tiny babies were put in electric incubators. Then the generator was turned off - they couldn't afford to keep it running. Instead, the nurses boiled cloth and laid it over the incubators to keep the babies warm.
The pastor was enjoying the woman's story, till a doctor pulled him aside. He said there's something you have to know. This mother has only enough milk for one child, maybe two. She has many other children back home she's still nursing. Right now she is deciding which baby will I feed the most?
A few years later the Baptist pastor returned to Sonabota. He privately asked the doctor how many of the triplets had lived. Only two.
The Africans have an interesting saying - "When you go hunting for ivory, you always find an elephant attached." Our missionaries and the local pastors are doing a fantastic job in proclaiming the gospel. Last year we had eleven thousand baptisms in Zaire, fourteen thousand in Burma and over twenty thousand in India just through the work our small denomination has started. But when these people accept our good news about Jesus we get their whole lives in return. We can't ignore the human need.
There are needs in our own church. Our church is crawling with kids. They are quite literally the little ones Jesus talked about. Do you see them as a mission field or as a nuisance? They have nothing to tithe. They can't teach or serve on committees. Sometimes they make a lot of noise. How do you react to them? Many of these children do not come from Christian families. With a little attention you could make a big impact.
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Typed on April 25, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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