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Posted At: 10:48am by Brent Kuhlman
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Second-Last Sunday in the Church Year Trinity Lutheran Church 13 November 2005 Murdock, NE
+ Jesu Juva +
St. Matthew 25:31-46
Well, Jesus is into telling parables again. During the last few days of His life no less. Watch out! His parables are meant to grab your attention. Like hitting you over the head with a two-by-four. Stagger you. Shock you. Outrage you.
Today He serves up a judgment parable. Judgment Day theme. The Last Day. "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats."
Good Shepherd Jesus. Savior of all the sheep and all the goats. The Lord's Ranch is big enough for them all. He has more than enough pens. Died for the sheep AND the goats. Good Shepherd SAVIOR Jesus doesn't discriminate. His death counts for both sheep and goats.
The Good Shepherd is also the Judge of the Last Day. And you know how a judge can be. One track mind. Bullish. Stubborn. That describes Judge Jesus pretty well too. Judge Jesus has one thing in mind. Bullish and stubborn about one thing. And that's His Good Friday salvation job for the world. His Good Friday sacrifice for sinners. Where all sin is forgiven. Big ones. Little ones. Doesn't matter. For one and all. No matter who's the sinner. All are forgiven in the leastness, lastness, and lostness of Christ's crushed, broken and bloody Body that hangs on the Cross. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Shepherd Judge Jesus is dead set on giving sinners what they don't deserve.
He knows what they deserve. But He's always in a Good Friday - forgiveness mood. And that takes Him to Calvary. The sinners' substitute. He takes what sinners deserve. Death and damnation. And in exchange He gives salvation free of charge. Without any merit or worthiness in you, me or the world.
Well, that's precisely what the goats didn't want. Don't want. Now or ever. They insist on not having salvation the Christ crucified way. They choke on a forgiveness free for all. It's a chicken bone in their throat. They're all about salvation by score keeping. Salvation by bookkeeping. Salvation by how well they do in life.
Don't believe me? Then listen to the goats who've been given only the Lord to trust in just like the sheep. "Gee Lord," say the goats. "Was that you who was hungry? The one with the 'Work for Food' sign? Holy smoke! If we had known that, we would have at least offered you a box lunch and a crisp twenty. Called Social Services."
"You were that fella who begged us for a cool cup of water on that blistering summer day? If we'd known that, we'd have cracked open a six pack. Maybe even a kegger. What a great time that would have been!"
"You were that goth-like critter with pants below your crack knocking on our door at midnight? Well we never! We wish we'd have known that. We wouldn't have slammed the door in your face then and told you to 'Get lost loser!' We'd have let you in, given you the sleeper sofa and let you borrow the shower, scissors and shaving cream." "No way! You've got to be kidding?
You were that nude dude? Man! How embarrassing! If only we'd known. We'd have russled up some old boxers, holely jeans, worn out Nikes and other hand me downs from closet or the second hand store. We had to cover our kids' eyes. You weren't a pretty sight! But if we'd known it was you Lord, we'd have done the right thing. Don't ever say we're not religious."
"Is that right? You were that terminally ill patient weren't you? We're ashamed of ourselves! If we had known that was you, we would have straightened up and flown right. Set up some kind of foundation. Contacted the Make A Wish people. Better yet, we would have searched heaven and hell for a cure. Lobbied Congress for billions to research the cause of your illness."
"You were the prisoner? The one rotting away? Who wrote us that letter asking for visitors? The warden encouraged the Visit A Prisoner Program and we laughed it off. But if we'd known you were the prisoner, we'd have bee-lined it to the state pen. Stayed past visiting hours. Staged a 24-7-365 protest until you were released! What on earth were we thinking?" "Holy cow! If we'd only known! We would have worked hard at this religion of ours. Put in overtime. No sick days or vacation. We would have made that call to the Salvation Army. Offered the use of our car. Made a generous donation. Promised to light a candle and say a prayer for you.
You know. All that religion stuff we would have done in a heart beat. Why? Because that's what heaven costs. After all, you just don't give heaven away for free to just anybody. Have to draw the line you know. Heaven's only for those who deserve it. Who work extremely hard for it. If we'd only known it was you Lord!"
Now you know why Good Shepherd Judge Jesus will separate the goats from the sheep on the Last Day. And why He tells the goats: "You insist that I'm a nothing. You'd rather trust in what you would have done rather than my death for you. I died even for all your not doing. But you insist on trusting on what YOU would have done. Do you know where that kind of mistrust gets you? It takes you to an eternal place of torment never prepared for you. Never intended for you. A place only prepared for the devil and his evil angels?
You don't care? Never did, did you? All right. Have it your way . . . as your punishment. Be my guest. Here's the door. You've bought yourselves a one way ticket to hell." Is that what you want dear people of Trinity? Do you? . . .
I didn't think so. You're prepared for the Last Day Judgment. You will stand before Good Shepherd Judge Jesus as sheep. What ever you did for the least, lost, and last of the world, you did to Jesus. Not to win heaven. That's already been won by Jesus. In His death for you. And the Good Friday forgiveness of sins delivered to you in your Baptism and Lord's Supper. Jesus is everything. We are nothing. What joy to hear His words: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
Happy trusting only in Jesus. Now and forever.
In the Name of Jesus.
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