Matthew 25:31-46 - Judgment Day Surprises - November 22, 2020

For two weeks we’ve been focusing on the end times, especially on the fact that because we do not know when Jesus will return that we need to be prepared for his return at any moment. Today, the last Sunday of the church year, our attention shifts to what will happen when he returns; when all the nations will be gathered in his presence. And today, Jesus reveals that Judgment Day will bring some surprises.

The first surprise – which may come as a shock to us as confessional Lutherans – is the important role that works will play on that Day. “What? No, no, no. We are saved by grace alone, Pastor.” Well, the evidence regarding works is kind of overwhelming. In the Athanasian Creed we confess “at his coming all people will rise with their own bodies to answer for their personal deeds. Those who have done good will enter eternal life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.” Then we have 2 Corinthians 5:10 which tells us that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he did while in the body, whether good or bad. And right here, doesn’t Jesus say that the sheep will enter eternal life because they did good things and the goats will go away to eternal punishment because they didn’t?  

So…surprise! It really does matter how you live and what you do or don’t do. Specifically it really matters if you fail to do good. That’s kind of surprising, isn’t it? The goats were convicted and condemned, not because they were Muslims or Mormons; not because they were pedophiles or rapists or murderers or thieves or that they dared to celebrate Thanksgiving. No, the evidence that they belonged in hell was what they didn’t do; that they didn’t feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or visit the sick.

If that’s the criteria for judgment, where does that leave us? When you look at your life, which side of Jesus do you belong on? How many hungry people have you fed lately? When’s the last time you gave a cup of cold water to anyone? What about the beggar on the on-ramp to the beltline – did you give him anything the last time you went shopping? Have you ever visited anybody in prison? “But pastor, I picked up a gift tag for the needy in McFarland, I give blood to the Red Cross, I toss a few coins in those red Salvation Army cans, I might even throw a few dollars in the ammo can in the back for the LMSG.”

Be very careful in asserting those sorts of justifications. Why? Well, who tries to justify themselves by what they’ve done on Judgment Day? Not the sheep but the goats. It’s not the sheep but the goats who think that their works can justify them in Christ’s courtroom. Jesus exposes everything they have failed to do for all the world to see and what do they say? “When did we see you and not help you? (We helped all sorts of people, we did all kinds of good deeds.)” That’s the tell-tale sign of someone who’s getting ready to spend eternity in a furnace. The person who claims that they have done their best, tried to be nice, and helped anyone they saw in need. The people who point to their charity, to their selfless acts, to the fact that they have loved their neighbor as themselves – those will be the goats bleating in dismay as they are dismissed from Jesus’ presence.

The sheep on the other hand…what do they say? “When did we ever do any of those things?” Why would they say that? How could they not? They have examined their hearts and their lives under the brilliant light of God’s Law, just like we did in our first hymn and the confession of sins, and – no surprise here – they don’t find anything good; nothing but sins of doing things they shouldn’t have, sins of not doing the things they should have, and a sinful nature that wants to keep right on that same path of sin. They confess that they don’t deserve to enter eternal life according to the demands of the law. So the real question is not “why will so many be damned?” but rather “how can anyone be saved?”

You know what the problem is, don’t you? It’s our innate tendency to read these words as Law. Perhaps no text has been more twisted and abused than this one in support of the social gospel, that is, that Christianity’s greatest goal is community service. In other words, if you want to find yourself on the right side on Judgment Day, then you had better go volunteer in a homeless shelter, you better visit the sick, you better invite perfect strangers into your home – here and now. The underlying assumption that these words are primarily Law couldn’t be more wrong. Let’s correct that assumption by getting these words back in their proper context. These are some of Jesus’ last words to his disciples before his suffering and death. Over the course of the next three days the disciples are going to be exposed as horrible sinners. They will fail Jesus in every way possible. They will fail to volunteer to wash his feet (John 13:1-17), they will abandon him (Matthew 26:56), betray him (Matthew 26:49) and deny him (Matthew 26:69-75), they will watch him die without even offering him a cup of water (John 19:28-29), and when he had given up his spirit they were too cowardly to take his body down from the cross to give it a proper burial (Matthew 27:57-60). Jesus knows all this. Do you think that he’s going to take some of his last moments on earth to institute a community service program? Do you think his greatest concern is that they would set up a food pantry or homeless shelter after he’s gone? More importantly, do you think Jesus wants to leave them with the Law ringing in their ears? Imagine you have just a few minutes to speak to a relative who is dying in an ICU somewhere where you can’t go, are you going to give them a dose of law or gospel?

And that’s the next Judgment Day surprise. This text is really good news, genuine Gospel, not the social gospel. It starts with the identity of the Judge. Who is it? The Son of Man. The same Son of Man who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). And that’s why he doesn’t need a shred of evidence to separate the nations, because it’s on the basis of his sacrifice for sinners. He does it as easily as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. Now, I’m no shepherd, but even I know that if you’re separating sheep from goats you don’t do it based on what they do; you do it based on who they are!

In fact, those are the very first words out of the Judge’s mouth, aren’t they? He identifies his sheep: come, you who are blessed by my Father – those blessed to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16) – inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world – again, more good news, more gospel – not only is an inheritance a free gift but it was prepared long before the sheep had done anything, either good or bad, in their lives. And only then, only after the separation has taken place does Jesus present the evidence that the sheep are indeed the righteous: you fed me, gave me something to drink, welcomed me into your home, clothed me, took care of me, and visited me – when you did these things for other believers. This is where so many get this backwards: they define the righteous as those who never fail to feed the hungry, water the thirsty, take in strangers, clothe the naked, look after the sick, and visit the imprisoned. They make works the source rather than the product of saving faith. Show me where the Bible teaches that we become righteous by what we do, and I’ll be the one who’s surprised! I’m only aware of passages like Isaiah 64 and Romans 3 which say that all our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth (Isaiah 64:6) and there is no one who is righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10).

Well, if we can’t become righteous by what we do, then how do we get it? I quoted 2 Corinthians 5 before. If you keep reading in that chapter you come to verse 21, where Paul writes God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Here’s the key: the righteousness the judge credited to the sheep – the righteousness you can claim for yourself right now – is not really theirs or yours. It’s Jesus’ righteousness, freely credited to you by God’s grace, received by you through faith. In other words, if you wonder where you will stand on Judgment Day, don’t think of your life, but Jesus’. Don’t point to your paltry good works but Jesus’ perfect life, death and resurrection. If you ever wonder where your righteousness comes from, don’t look in the mirror, look to the cross!

“Then why does he go into such detail about works if he isn’t trying to motivate us to do more good works here and now?” Courtrooms need evidence. However, in this courtroom, the evidence isn’t for the benefit of the Judge but for ours. Remember that Jesus is trying to assure his disciples – who will fail to do anything good for him as he dies for them – that their salvation is sure. And, he’s also assuring us, people who live in a world filled with shades of gray – where you usually can’t see the difference between the sheep and the goats. Right now, the righteous don’t look any different than the unrighteous. In fact, the unrighteous sometimes even look a whole lot better than the righteous. There are billions of people who couldn’t care less about God’s Word, the Absolution, Baptism, or Holy Communion – but they put us to shame with their good works. And it could make us wonder: do we really have this right? Can we really be sure that we will end up on the right side on Judgment Day if we make our highest priority simply receiving Christ’s gifts here instead of doing good for others out there? And so Jesus is comforting us: “Don’t worry about what you see right now; everything will be properly sorted out on Judgment Day.”

Remember, this is a courtroom. The evidence is what matters. And what is the evidence that the goats are in fact, goats, deserving of hell? The evidence proves that they didn’t do a single good thing in this life because they didn’t do a single thing out of faith in Christ. As Paul says, everything that does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). A life lived in unbelief, no matter how good outwardly, is a life worthy of hell.

Ah, but now it’s your turn. Think of the evidence as a video of your life. Everything you’ve ever thought, said or done is on there for all to see. Jesus calls your name and orders that your video be played on the biggest screen you’ve ever seen. You hide your face; you try to shrink into the ground. Before God and all creation your entire life is about to be exposed and you know exactly what it will show. Surprise! None of the filthy thoughts, loveless words or selfish actions that you know you’ve done are there. Why not? Because your life has passed through the filter of Christ’s blood in baptism; been wiped clean by Absolution; and been rerecorded with the perfect life of Christ in Holy Communion. As you dare to peek between your fingers to see what everyone else is seeing in your life, you nearly faint in shock. None of the disrespect you showed as a child, none of the wild and reckless behavior you showed as a teenager, none of your lustfulness or covetousness or hatefulness is showing up. Instead, all the video shows are the good things you did – including all of the good things you did that you don’t even remember doing. The video ends and Jesus slams down his gavel. “See, world, here’s the evidence that this is my sheep who will spend eternity with me in glory.” So surprise! Judgment Day is about works, only not yours, but Jesus’ for you.

No more surprises. Jesus is fair and impartial (Romans 2:11). He judges all by the same standard. He exposes the faithless goats by their failure to do anything through faith in Jesus. He reveals the sheep by failing to find any sin and revealing the evidence of faith in their lives. this is Gospel! This is what the disciples needed to hear just before they failed to feed, water, clothe, deny, betray and abandon the One who came to die for them. This is what we, who know exactly how badly we have failed to serve and love our Savior for yet another church year, need to hear today. Because while this text is about works and you don’t have any, this is good news, because you won’t be judged on your works but on Jesus’ perfect life, death and resurrection. Therefore, all you really have to know about Judgment Day is that the sheep who listen to his voice today (John 10:27) will hear his gracious invitation to glory on the Last Day. Amen.