The Incognito Christ
Matthew 25:31- 46
Introduction: The point of our scripture reading for today reminds me of an ancient legend about one of the early saints. St. Lawrence was one of seven deacons in the church at Rome, in the middle of the second century. Rome, surrounded on every side by threatening enemies, and in a near state of financial collapse, desperately needed money to finance its armies. According to this legend, a high official in Rome demanded that Lawrence hand over the treasure of the church. In response, Lawrence assembled all the poor people, to whom he had already given away the possessions of the church, before the Roman official, and he stretched out his hand to them and said, "These are the treasures of the church." The Roman official was so infuriated that he slowly roasted Lawrence to death on a gridiron. I’ve always found today’s scripture reading particularly sobering and challenging. Our reading is not a parable. It is instead a vision of the Last Judgment. Contrary to the way it is usually interpreted, the passage does not direct our attention so much to the future, as it does to the present, and the ways in which we respond to Christ in the present. The point of our passage is not that Christ is merely present in an indefinite future. Instead, the message is that Christ is here in the present with us, but too often we fail to recognize him. Accordingly, I would like us to examine three fundamental questions that I believe the text is addressing: 1) First, where is Christ present? 2) Second, in light of the passage, What is to be our response to the Christ? and 3) Finally, Why is this presence good news for us? I believe that by approaching the text with these three questions, we can better understand the central message.
I. Where is Christ present? From reading the text, we might be tempted to conclude that Christ is simply present at the right hand of God exalted on the throne of judgment. Although this is true enough, there is another more important point that’s being made. Although Christ is present with God in exaltation, he’s also present with us in this world. Christ is present in our world, but not in the way we expect. As the theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote about Christ, "He goes incognito as a beggar among beggars, as an outcast among the outcast, despairing among the despairing, dying among the dying" (Christ The Center, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, New York: Harper and Row, p. 111). Contrary to our view that God is among the wealthy and powerful, we find Christ makes a most amazing statement, "insofar as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." Jesus is among the little folk. The people we so easily despise and overlook. There he is, among the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the naked, those sick in mind and body, the prisoners. Wherever people are suffering and oppressed, there is Christ. We might wish Jesus to be somewhere else, a place that’s more respectable, an environment that’s more affluent and pleasing. But Jesus is there were he has ever been, on the cross. He’s suffering with those who suffer, dying with those who die, wandering in search of a home with the homeless, sick and in prison with those who are being tortured. He who was himself poor, makes his dwelling among his people, los pobres de mundo, the poor of the earth. He who was born in a feeding trough for animals, lived his life in poverty, wandering as one without a home, teaching love and doing good. The only reward he received was to die a humiliating death as a criminal on a cross. Jesus still suffers with those whose only crime is that they were born. Their only offense is that they desire to live in peace, and raise their families like you and me; to have enough food on the table to stop the gnawing pains of their stomachs, and to have shelter over their heads and warm clothing on their backs. These little folk are so despised and rejected by the world, that they must live as strangers and aliens without a home. These are the ones for whom Christ has prepared a home, for they are his family, his brothers and sisters, since he so intimately identifies himself with them. “Insofar as you have done it to the least of these my brothers, you’ve done it to me.” Years ago, a film was released called El Norte, about the sufferings of migrant workers who come into our nation and risk their lives. It portrays a side of life that none of us has had to experience (thank goodness)! The story concerns a young native American man Enrique, and his young sister, Rosa who flee from Guatemala, after their parents are ruthlessly murdered by soldiers. Enrique and Rosa, after asking for money from their godmother, make a dangerous trek out of Guatemala through Mexico, and finally across the border into El Norte, the U.S. They work very hard, but live in constant fear of being captured by immigration, and being sent back to Guatemala which would mean certain death. There is a very powerful scene in the movie where Rosa is sick and very close to death. Enrique is sitting next to her holding her hand. We hear the following conversation:
Rosa: "Life is very hard here, Enrique. We’re not free. Isn’t it true were not free?”
Enrique: "Yes life is difficult here. You have to work very hard."
Rosa: "In our own land, we have no home. They want to kill us. There is no home for us there. In Mexico there is only poverty. We can’t make a home there either. And here in the north we aren’t accepted. When will we find a home Enrique? Maybe when we die we’ll find a home."
There are hundreds of thousands of Enriques and Rosas, some of them in the Dallas area, who are searching for a life, a home; a place where they can be accepted and have some dignity. Wherever they wander and suffer, Christ wanders and suffers with them, for he is one of them. "Insofar as you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." We come now to the second point:
II. What is to be our response to the Christ? One way we don’t respond is to ignore Christ. We certainly would not, nor could we ignore his presence, as Christ sits to judge the whole world. Why should we ignore his presence with us in humility in the poor, the suffering and marginalized? It’s interesting to observe in our passage that Christ judges the nations. We all know that we shall stand before Christ in the last judgment as individuals, but do we realize that Christ will also judge the nations? Is our nation responding to Christ by responding to the needy with whom he so closely identified? Have we been concerned enough as a nation with responding to the needs of the hungry, the homeless, the naked, those who are sick and shackled in prisons? How would our nation fare under the standard of Christ’s judgment? What a difference it would make in the world as well as our nation, if instead of predicating our economic and foreign policies on self-interest, we predicated our national policies upon love and concern for the benefit of our poorer neighbors! Wouldn’t our nation be responding to Christ, if it acted in the interest of the poorer nations, instead of our own national interest. What a difference it would make, if instead of viewing the great wealth of this nation as our possession, if instead we looked at that wealth as a gift given to us by God, to manage as responsible stewards, to benefit the poor and suffering! With such national policies, there might be no more South Africas or El Salvadors. If our nation were to make the concerns of the poor its own concern, Marxism and terrorism could never get a favorable hearing! How different Christ’s words sound from the standards of our society! Some years ago, there was a cover article on the front of a major magazine, which had written in red, bold letters with a black background, "GREED: The new motivating factor." The lengthy article spoke about how the major interest among many young persons today, is to make as much money as one possibly can, with no concern for anyone else. This greed is unabashed and unashamed; it makes no apology for its lust for wealth. It is sad to say, that it seems the predominant ethic of our society is a form of social Darwinism. You remember our old friend Charles Darwin, who propagated the theory of evolution. Social Darwinism is little more than evolutionary theory applied to economics. In this case, survival of the fittest simply means that might makes right. Only the strong should survive. We should not be the least concerned about the weak or the suffering. To help the poor and the helpless, is to resist the laws of nature most notably, self-preservation. Such is the teaching and perspective of the world. But Christ appeared in a different way. With whom did Christ associate himself? Was it with the rich and powerful? Was he a close friend with Herod or Pontius Pilate? Did he try to please the religious teachers and influential lawyers of his day? The Bible tells us that it was not to the well respected and powerful that Christ came, but to the poor and rejected. He associated with harlots and swindlers, with ignorant, uneducated fishermen, and even a couple of political subversives. He spoke with Samaritan half-breeds, healed gentiles who were considered dogs by the Israelites, healed and taught the poor and ignorant, and even promised paradise to a condemned thief. Christ identified himself with the refuse of the world, with all those rejected and discarded. He associated with the poor and despised in his life and ministry, and he is present with us today among the same people as the incognito one, in the guise of the poor. But what is to be our response to the incognito Christ? What our scripture text is calling us to is not simply charity, but justice. Our gospel reading is a call to operate and live from a Kingdom perspective. Christ is calling us to operate with the perspective and concerns of the poor in mind. If Christ himself identifies with the poor, where else can we his disciples be? Must we not be at work with our Master laboring where he is present, strengthening those who are weak, bringing comfort to the comfortless, and working for justice for those who suffer injustice? Where else can we be but with Christ, the same Christ who reveals God’s strength in his weakness, God’s acceptance of the outcast in his rejection by the world, God’s riches through his poverty, God’s comfort through his pain, and God’s glorious resurrection through his humiliating death on the cross? Listen to what the Peruvian theologian, Gustavo Gutierrez says about following Christ, "To be followers of Jesus requires that they walk and be committed to the poor; when they do, then they experience an encounter with the Lord who is simultaneously revealed and hidden in the faces of the poor" (We Drink From Our Own Wells, Gustavo Gutierrez, Mary Knoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1983, p. 38). I think Mother Teresa of Calcutta expresses it best when she says, "In the eucharist I see Christ in the appearance of bread. In the slums, I see Christ in the distressing disguise of the poor. The Eucharist and the poor are but one love for me. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them"(My Life For the Poor, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, New York: Harper and Row, 1985, p. 97).
III. But why is Christ’s presence in the poor good news for us? The answer to this question can again be found in our text. Notice what the righteous reply to Christ the Judge in verse 38. They are completely unaware of any good works that they have done for Christ. The one who is vindicated by the judge is the one unaware of having performed any good work. Faith knows of no good works. It acts out of love. It responds to God’s initial love. Faith does not act out of obligation or much worse, guilt. Faith acts in response to love. Our justification does not rely upon our good works, but rather in our response to Jesus Christ. It is in responding to the poor, that we respond to Jesus Christ, who is himself incognito in the poor. The good news of this text is that our own liberation can be found by living in solidarity with the poor and suffering. This is good news for us, because God doesn’t intend for us to live as unloving, uncaring, avaricious people. His will for us, is that we might become his agents of love and justice in a world filled with hate and injustice. Christ comes incognito to free us to become like himself, taking our stand with the poor and oppressed. The brilliant musician, doctor and theologian Albert Schweitzer speaks to us about the incognito Christ, and his work of liberation in the following words, "He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake-side, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word: ’Follow thou me!’ and sets us to the tasks which he has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is." (The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Albert Schweitzer, New York: Macmillian, 1975, p.403)
Conclusion: The Incognito Christ is present among us in the guise of the poor, the suffering, the marginalized and the alienated. If we would follow Him today, we must take our place among them.
