Sheep and Goats

Welcome to the Knox Talks blog. Here you can find recent and past sermons relating scripture to a wide variety of topics. I would like to thank Shelley Rose for transcribing my notes into text for the blog.

Sheep and Goats

Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46

On the liturgical calendar, today is “Reign of Christ” Sunday. The lesson of the Sheep and Goats is designed to show Christ in his position of Judge, choosing between the Sheep and the Goats in terms of who will receive an eternal reward or eternal punishment.

In my opinion, this use of this passage highlights the degree to which the Christian Church has lost the message of Jesus and accepted the very abuses of power that Jesus sought to overturn: the powerful ruler on his throne issuing judgments of life and death. Jesus might as well have been portrayed as just another king or emperor except that his judgment will be holy and perfect, unlike the flawed judgment of human rulers.

The traditional reading of this passage leads to all kinds of problems because it misses the point: this lesson is really about relationships, not judgment.

The image of the good shepherd recurs in scripture from the time of King David onward and that image is often applied to Jesus. Sheep and goats were often mixed together in the field along with the flocks of several shepherds. A good shepherd would have a relationship with the animals, calling them when it was time to separate from the rest. They would respond to that familiar voice and once you’ve separated your own animals from another flock, separating sheep and goats within your flock is easy-peasy: no judgment, no condemnation, no sense that the goats are bad.

The shepherd image is to establish how well the Son of Man knows us, and can tell us apart. Yes, the next step is all about judgment and a royal throne is mentioned. Daniel’s image of the Son of Man sitting on the throne of King David is almost certainly the source of this idea

But look at the criteria used for the judgment of the people separated on the right hand and on the left; (yes, this also reveals an ancient bias against lefties that no one questioned for centuries) but the judgement is all about relationships: how did the people treat others?

It’s not about what people believed, not about what positions they defended, not about what wonderful projects they accomplished. It was all about whether they had helped others in very basic, human ways: food, water, shelter, clothing, welcoming strangers, visiting prisoners. It was about addressing the most basic physical and emotional needs of people, particularly people on the margins: the ones most likely to be lacking the basics of life.

The image of the king in this story should not be to inspire fear of judgment but to inspire a sense of the importance of the people who need help, because we are told in plain language that when we help some marginalized person, we are actually helping Jesus himself. We should help that stranger in need as cheerfully as if they were the king, Jesus himself, the most celebrated, the most important person in the land.

So if we want to talk about the reign of Christ, let’s put aside all the imperial and royal assumptions that history has tacked onto our faith. Let’s remember that Jesus started and ended his teachings with relationships, the ways we love our neighbours, the ways we help everyone who needs it.

Putting the naked, thirsty, hungry, imprisoned stranger on the same level as the Son of Man coming in glory is as clear an example of “the first being last and the last being first” as I can imagine.

Let’s keep this powerful image in mind as we contemplate our ongoing relationships with others. Amen.