The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

 © 2023, John Tamilio III

Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical year.  We began Year A (with its focus on the Gospel of Matthew) on November 27, 2022.  Today is the last day in that cycle.  The new year starts next week as we venture into Advent: the season when we prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus as we reflect upon his Second Coming.

We are not reading the end of the Gospel of Matthew, but we are close to it.  Matthew has twenty-eight chapters.  The last three focus on the Last Supper, the Betrayal of Jesus, his Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Great Commission.  Today, we are at the very end of Matthew 25, which is about the final judgment.  Being his last teaching, it must be important.

And it is.  And it challenges what we typically think about when we contemplate how we will be judged whether it is when we die or when Jesus returns at the end of time.

Let’s back up a little bit.

Christians who are part of the Reformed tradition, which means most Protestants, adhere to Paul’s teachings about salvation, particularly Ephesians 2:8-9, which reads, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works so that no one can boast.”  In other words, salvation is a gift from God.  We cannot earn it.  It is offered by grace.  It is a free gift that we did not and cannot possibly earn.  We receive it through faith.

However, if you read through Scripture (the Old Testament and the New) you will find plenty of verses that salvation is based on what we do, and the lives we live.  There are several brief passages and certain often-quoted ones, such as James, who, in his Letter, says, “Faith without works is dead.”  And then we have this passage.  Again, being one of Jesus’ final lessons, it must be of the utmost importance.  Notice something in this story: it isn’t a landowner putting his acreage in the hands of his farmhands, or a king throwing a party, or a merchant in search of a pearl — it is Jesus himself.  He says, that “the Son of Man” will come “in all his glory” and “all the nations of the world will be gathered before them.”  Then, they will be judged.  But they won’t be judged on what they believe — or maybe they will!

I have read this story (which is one of my favorites) countless times.  I am beginning to see something else here.  I am beginning to see that the strict separation of faith and works is an inaccurate way of interpreting this lesson.  Maybe it is a combination of the two, or maybe one is contingent upon the other.  Let’s think for a moment…

The sheep receive entrance into heaven because of what they did: they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, and visited the sick and imprisoned.  They did not realize that when they did this, that they were doing it to and for Jesus himself.  The goats did not feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, or visit the sick and imprisoned.  They also did not realize that they did not do this for Jesus.  In other words, both groups are unaware of the larger significance of their actions (or the lack thereof).

There is so much going on in this story.  We could spend all day analyzing it.  I believe that the key comes in ignorance.  As I just mentioned, the meaning is found in the fact that neither the sheep nor the goats are aware of what they are doing (or aren’t doing).

So, where does that leave us?

I have long argued that I do not think that our good deeds earn us salvation.  I am with Martin Luther on this one.  During the Reformation, Luther, railing against abuses of power in the Catholic Church, claimed that we are not saved by paying for papal indulgences, for example.  We are not saved based on how righteous we are, because, in part, none of us measure up to the righteousness of God.  Rather, we are saved by grace.  It isn’t something we earn.  It isn’t based on works.  It is by grace — and by grace alone — that we are saved.

Our deeds (our good works) are the result of our salvation.  Being saved means, in part, that we live the life God intended us to live — one of peace, reconciliation, and love.  This doesn’t mean that every helping hand is saved and that those who keep to themselves and do not typically help others are in some way condemned.  It is not that strict a separation.  The meaning is deeper.

I think that when you are saved when you accept Christ as Lord over your life, a change occurs deep within the recesses of your being.  You are not the same.  You are a new creation.  You cannot help but live your life differently when this happens because you see everything differently.  You’ve received a new lens through which you see the world.  No, life does not become sunshine and rainbows.  The world will still look broken.  Despair will still be rampant.  None of that will change, but you will have been changed and you will see your place in the world differently.  In other words, your compass has been recalibrated.  That which provides you with direction is now different.  You see the world through the eyes of Christ.  Again, this does not mean that everything is perfect.  Quite the contrary.  You see the world in stark realism.  You know there is pain everywhere.  You know that sin abounds.

Everything is the same, but you’re not.  You’ve changed.  You realize many things.  First, Jesus is the answer to the problems that plague our existence.  You also realize that you are an ambassador of Christ, so when you pray for an answer to hunger, homelessness, loneliness, and a host of other earthly troubles — you realize that the answer to all of this is you.  It lies (at least in part) in your hands.  The sixteenth-century Spanish nun and mystic Saint Teresa of Ávila put it best:

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which He looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are His body.

But it isn’t just about doing or believing.  It is about a different way of seeing everything.  To be saved means, at least in part, to see the world (which includes yourself and all others) from a Christocentric perspective.  It does not mean that everything is perfect.  It means that everything and everyone is loved by God in spite of being imperfect.  It is the realization that God desires all people to be saved — to be in a true, genuine relationship with him.  Our thoughts, our faith, our words, and our deeds all combine in ways that we cannot even begin to understand to exude a new reality: a people who want to share what they have found.  It’s a new way of being, a new way of living, a new way of loving, a new way of serving, even a new way of worshipping — for we worship with our entire lives, our whole selves.  Our lives become lives of worship.

Live a worshipful life, my friends.  Live it to the hilt.  Amen.