"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Matthew 25:31-46
Questions & Observations:
Who shepherds the goats?
Shepherds keep goats as well as sheep in scripture. It appears that we don’t know the difference, are we sheep or are we goats? Knowing is not possible—only believing is possible. Can we see that the sheep didn’t “know” why they were sheep? It sure looks like they were surprised when Jesus tells them they were serving him. Let me say that again, they didn’t know they were serving Jesus. The flip side is also true. The goats didn’t know that they were not serving Jesus. It’s not a works based issue, it’s a faith issue. Are we to work? Sure we are but good deeds, no matter how many, are not the way in. Did the goats work? It doesn’t say they didn’t, does it? It says they didn’t help Jesus when he was hungry, thirsty etc. So bad & good is not the issue here. It’s not morally awesome sheep get in while disgustingly sinful goats are screwed. Nope—righteousness is about faith from first to last. The shepherd is looking for those who are serving him in faith without even knowing it. Question: who are the brothers that Jesus tells us to serve? Answer: we have no clue! You and I can’t see the difference between sheep and goats. Every time we try we judge and fail (perhaps making us less lamb-ish or faithful.) Jesus loves sheep and goats and died for all…only the sheep clearly trust in that but the sheep don’t have goat detectors we are to serve in faith. When we serve because of our wisdom or our knowledge the best we can say is that we are serving for Jesus. When we serve in faith regardless of wisdom and knowledge maybe we aren’t doing it for Jesus, instead we may just be doing it to Jesus.
