From the Daily Lectionary for Wednesday in the Sixth Week after Pentecost
Matthew 25:31-46
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the 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 people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
This passage in Matthew’s Gospel is the culmination of Jesus’ teaching. If you wanted to get the “Cliff’s Notes” version of this Gospel, this passage will do the trick. All the parables and the teachings of Jesus are exemplified in this apocalyptic allegory. The first thing that we must remember is that salvation is about people, not a person. Salvation has to do with the viability of a society, and its sustainability. The bible, both New Testament and Hebrew scripture, is concerned, first and foremost, with the viability of Israel as God’s chosen people to be a light of justice to the world. Their success as a people is contingent to being true to their God and to the ways of God prescribed in the Law, the Torah. Jesus’ teaching is a reinterpretation of Torah for his own time and place, examining the ancient question: “How then shall we live?” Plato coined the question during the emergence of the Greek City State, the Polis, which, for Plato, was an earthly image of divine order.
Matthew has relentlessly critiqued the powers that be in his world, noting that a society structured in rigid hierarchy in which wealth and power and dignity are possessed by a select few, is ultimately unsustainable; that the only way a society can thrive is to live under the rubric of justice for all, in shared wealth, without distinctions of social class.. In other words, until all people are restored to equal status in community, then that community is lacking, unhealthy, of unlike mind; its zeal and passion, its very soul, is compromised.
Two things about this passage: First, Matthew in the words of Jesus is speaking of how societies should behave, what their priorities should be. This is not an admonition as to how each one of us treats the marginalized; this is about how a society treats its marginalized. Again, I say, that makes our faith a public enterprise. Our faith serves the public good. Our individual salvation is only attained to the extent that the community in which we live is saved… and by “saved,” I mean an equilibrium of well-being and dignity.
Second, we are given in this passage a view onto Matthew’s interpretation of Jesus’ resurrection. The apocalyptic figure of the “Son of Man” is equated with the post-resurrected Jesus. In the Book of Daniel, the Son of Man comes in clouds of glory and military triumph… but here Matthew turns the ancient prophecy on its head. Jesus returns as the hungry, and the poor, the prisoner, and the sick… the least of us in this world. It is an image of utter vulnerability… and then of course the startling revelation: that to serve these, the least of us, we are serving God. This is the way societies make it in a world wracked by greed and self-interest. To take care of our least, to grant them dignity is to undermine the oppressive power of empire.
As we approach an incomparably important election in this country, ask the question as to who will lead us in a reorientation towards the care of the left out of our system. Who will clothe the naked, feed the poor, give drink to the thirsty? Who will see the prisoner as a sister, a brother… as children of God? Who will care first, not for corporate profit or further tax breaks for the “1 per cent,” but for the sick and vulnerable among us?
In our parlance of the year 2020: sick lives matter; poor lives matter; hungry and thirsty lives matter; the lives of the incarcerated matter… you may add to the list, but the bottom line is, that there is no salvation for any of us until the victim, the least among us are restored to dignity. It’s why Justice is at the heart of the Gospel message, because justice strains at the monolith of hierarchy, seeking to distribute God’s favor to all of God’s people. Justice is the means of salvation; justice is the means of Love in the world; and we, good people, we are people who love.
A Prayer for the Future of the Human Race (BCP p. 828)
O God, you have blessed us and given us dominion over all the earth: Increase our reverence before the mystery of life; and give us new insight into your purposes for the human race, and new wisdom and determination in making provision for its future in accordance with your will; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
