"lord When Did We See You?"

“Lord When Did We See You?”

Matthew 25:31-46

Martin of Tours was a Roman soldier and a Christian.

One cold winter day, as he was entering a city, a beggar stopped him and asked him for help.

Martin had no money; but the beggar was blue, shivering with cold, and Martin gave him what he had.

He took off his soldier’s coat, worn and frayed as it was; he cut it in two and gave half of it to the man.

Then, that night, he had a dream.

In the dream he saw the heavenly places and all the angels and Jesus among them; and Jesus was wearing half of a Roman soldier’s coat.

One of the angels said to him: “Master, why are you wearing that battered old coat?

Who gave it to you?”

And Jesus answered softly: “My servant Martin gave it to me.”

We see Jesus every day, you and I.

We see Him in the face of the homeless person, the sick, the deranged, the hungry, the stranger, the elderly, the child.

And because of this, we can never look at another person the same way again.

When we see a down and out person sleeping on the street we are looking at Jesus.

When someone is being ugly to us because we cut them off in traffic we are looking into the eyes of Jesus.

When we see the picture of a person on the cover of one of those “locked up” or “right to know” newspapers in a convenience store we are looking at Jesus.

And so, when we see Him, do we look down on Him with an air of “I’m better or more moral or whatever” than Him or do we look at Jesus with empathy, mercy and love?

That is what this parable comes down to.

But you know what?

There are a number of scholars who do not consider this a parable at all.

They don’t consider it to be a metaphor for something else—like the Parable of the Talents or the Parable of the Sower.

The other parables Jesus tells start this way: “The Kingdom of Heaven will be like…”

This passage about the sheep and the goats begins with “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him…”

This is Jesus’ last lecture, His final teaching in the Book of Matthew.

Surely, He saved the most important for last.

If we were to look through the entire New Testament, this passage we are looking at this morning is the only description of the last judgement.

And there is only one criteria here, and that is whether or not we saw Jesus Christ in the face of the needy and whether or not we gave ourselves away in love in His name.

Makes sense.

What did Jesus say the greatest commandment is: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind…and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Then He added, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In other words: “Everything in the Bible hang on these two commandments.”

I think Jesus is saying in this passage what He has been saying all along through His teaching and actions and what He will soon say through His very body on the Cross: that God loves us and all the world so much that God has decided identify with us fully and completely.

And so, we are to recognize God most easily in the face of our neighbor.

When we are loving our neighbor—we are loving God.

When we are not loving our neighbor—we are not loving God.

If we are engaged in abusive behavior toward another, bullying or treating an employee like a slave—that is how we are treating Christ.

If we are holding hatred in our hearts toward another—well, you get the picture.

It’s all about love, is it not?

How cool is that?

And so, for the Christ-follower there is no room for discrimination, no room for hatred, no room for holding grudges, no room for judgements…

…it all fits with everything Jesus has taught us.

The only thing there is room for is love.

That’s why Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies.

And give food and drink to those who persecute us.

In doing so, we are serving Christ.

People aren’t devils.

There is only one devil.

People are fallen and lost creatures created in God’s image to be loved and redeemed.

We are told in 1 John Chapter 4: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his or her brother or sister he is a liar.”

That is some heavy stuff.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these…you did for me.”