Matthew 25:31-46

The Final Judgment As Told By Christ

32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;

33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

34 "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

35 '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;

36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?

38 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?

39 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

40 "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

41 "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;

43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'

44 "Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'

45 "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'

46 "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Judgment Day

This passage is a wake up call for Christians who proclaim to live "the life" Jesus commanded.

 

One intriguing point starts at verse 37, "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ..." and they go on to repeat the circumstances Christ has pointed out. We may not always recognize Him either.

This brings to mind a story I once heard (not sure who shared this with me) about Mother Teresa and a missionary who visited her in Calcutta.

Mother Teresa met this young missionary and escorted him to the mission. Along the way there was a young man lying beside the road with a dreadful disease (maybe leprosy).

The young man was covered in sores which were oozing fluid (sorry to be graphic) and was filthy from his life in the streets.

This did not hinder Mother Teresa. She stopped and knelt down beside the young man. She swept him up in her arms to give him comfort and a prayer.

When they reached their destination, the missionary was still in awe of what he had seen.

Mother Teresa ask him, "Have you ever seen Jesus' face?" to which the young man said no, not in person.

She replied, "That young man lying beside the road was Jesus." The missionary finally understood.

How many times per day do we see Jesus? Do we feed, clothe and give him a place to stay when he's homeless?

On the day of judgment God will separate those who did these things from those who didn't. And, I want to be on the right side although I have plenty of adjustments to make in caring for others.

Let's try to make a point to imagine Jesus each time we see someone who needs physical help, minister to those needs first and then tell them the story of Christ and His salvation.

 

 

Love in Christ

- Bob

Matthew 25:14-30 - The Parable Of 5 Talents - How should we invest our time and money? This story is a most powerful one that Christ took very seriously in this lesson from the Book of Matthew.