Tag: Matthew 25:31-46

A final judgement: the parable of the sheep and goats

David Herbert4 Comments

The last Sunday of the Christian year (liturgically speaking, the celebration of Christ the King, the Sunday before Advent (Year A)). The readings from Ezekiel 34 and Matthew 25 (the parable of the sheep and goats) are printed below.

The liturgical year leads us to this. Today is the last Sunday before the new year starts next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, when we start a new round of readings, rediscovering the gospel for our dark times. The liturgical year with all its readings and reflections leads us to the kingdom of heaven, to the coronation of Christ the King and the admission that the love and mercy that makes his majesty should be the rule of our lives. It is our final judgement.

Jesus sees himself with those who are hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and in prison. They are his brothers and sisters. He calls them his family. “Just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me”. (Matt 25:40). 

Many of us will be starting to write Christmas cards – some may be of the “holy family” but this passage shakes up our preconceptions of the holy family. The holy family, (the royal family if we accept Christ the King), is made up of those who are hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and prisoner. Jesus is a king like no other, his kingdom is like none other, his royal family is like no other royal family.

It is just like us to idealise the nuclear family – Mum, Dad, baby (and the pet, the wee donkey!), but Jesus “extends” the family. Matthew has already told us of the time when Jesus’ mother and brothers stood waiting to speak to Jesus while he was talking to the crowd. He was told that his Mum and brothers were outside but he said “who is my mother, and where are my brothers?”, and pointing to the disciples he said “here are my mother and brothers”. 

So, here we are in this parable of the sheep and the goats with the family Jesus has extended – with his brothers and sisters, those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, stranger, sick and prisoner and our final judgement is based on whether we have sided with them or whether we have walked by on the other side joining with those who won’t be bothered, or who are too busy, or who think they have enough to bother about, or who join those who scoff at the last and the least pretending that their state is a “lifestyle choice”.

Our final judgement is about our kindness to the last and least who Jesus claims as members of his long lost family. Jesus identifies with them all and it’s his gratitude which places those who follow him and his family on his right hand. 

You gave me food when I was hungry. You gave me drink when I was thirsty. You welcomed me when I was a stranger. You gave me clothes when I had nothing. You took care of me when I was sick. You visited me when I was in prison. 

It’s acts of kindness such as these that sorts the sheep from the goats, that puts some on the right hand of God – the right hand being the the hand of God’s power, the hand of righteousness, the hand that puts things right – and puts some on the wrong hand of God, the dismissive hand, the hand that discards, the hand that says ‘to hell with you’.

(A note on prisons. They served a different purpose in Jesus’ day. It’s where they put people waiting for trial – as with Jesus before his trial, as with Paul, Stephen and John and so many of his brothers and sisters.)

It is about kindness. Kindness appreciates our kinship, that we are one of a kind, humankind. We could say that this final judgement in this parable of the sheep and goats is about the KINDOM extended by Jesus – the kindom (without the g) of the kingdom of heaven. The KINDOM (no G) of God rescues the vulnerable. In the language used by Ezekiel, these too are like sheep and the Lord is their shepherd, searching out those who have become lost, who have strayed, who are injured and who are too weak to withstand the cruelty of the “fat sheep” who “push with flank and shoulder, and butt at all the weak animals with their horns until they have scattered them far and wide.” The kindom of God centres around the victims of the powers that be and those who suffer from the way things are.

Timpsons, the cobblers, is a business that organises itself around kindness. 10% of their workforce is recruited directly from prisons. There are just two rules for staff members: “look the part” and “put the money in the till”. James Timpson is the company’s CEO. He tweets @jamestcobbler, last week listing random acts of kindness of Timpson staff members. It gives some food for thought for those who hunger for kindness.

  • Nigel at Solihull engraved a memorial plaque for a grieving mother
  • Thom at Cambridge cleaned a suit for a customer attending their child’s funeral
  • Raymond at Ponders End donated bone marrow to a stranger
  • Dave at Loudwater gave an elderly couple a lift home with some heavy curtains
  • Darren in Henley bought someone a coffee who was sitting in the middle of the road
  • Terri at Paddock Wood stopped whilst dropping garments back to a branch to help save a person from jumping off a bridge
  • Etc etc

Then the righteous will answer him, “when was it that we saw you?”. It’s as if this final judgement comes as a total surprise to those who are counted as sheep, to those who find themselves on the right side. Nigel, Thom, Raymond and the rest may also be totally surprised to find themselves on the “right side”. “Just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” What they did in kinship and kindness for the grieving mother, the parents who had lost their child, the stranger, the elderly couple, the one thinking of suicide, “you did it to me”, says Jesus.

I don’t know about you but the questions posed by the sheep (on the right side) and the goats (on the wrong side) weigh heavy with me. “When was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?” I struggle to remember when I ever did any of those things, but I can remember so many times when I have walked by on the wrong side, avoiding their troubles.

How do I justify myself in the final judgement? I can’t and perhaps you can’t. Part of it may be that we are pre-occupied with ourselves. And part of it may be that we just don’t know what to do in the midst of so much trouble.

So what do we do?

We can put in plenty of practice. Practice seeing Christ at the heart of his extended family, a heavenly kin(g)dom on earth amongst brothers and sisters who, in the way of the world, are hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick or in prison. Practice seeing Christ not at the heart of a nuclear family, the so-called “holy family”, but at the heart of the family he has extended by his search and rescue as the good shepherd of those scattered, lost and bruised.

Put in the practice of prayer. Grow your prayer from the love of your own nuclear family to this kin(g)dom of God and let the people of his extended family populate our prayers. 

Pray for those who go hungry, depending on food banks. Pray for your brothers and sisters who are parched and who don’t have easy access to water. Pray for your brothers and sisters who come amongst us as strangers, newcomers and refugees, that we may welcome them and that they feel at home. Carry on praying for those who are sick and for your brothers and sisters in prison. 

These are the people to populate our prayers – the brothers and sisters of Christ the king – his royal family. And give thanks for all those who join them, on their side, the right side, in their various practical acts of kindness.

We can never do enough. We are not asked to do enough to save the world. The kingdom of God, with Christ as king, is the kingdom where the last and the least are prized. We may be surprised that Christ makes so much of the little we do, even a cup of water for the thirsty, or a knitted blanket for the poorly clad, or just a smile, a word, or a touch. They are the seeds that grow.

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

Therefore, says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prine among them; I, the Lord have spoken.

Matthew 25:31-end

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 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 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.”

So late in the day – the parable of the labourers in the vineyard

David Herbert1 Comment

So late in the day. This is a sermon on the parable of the labourers in the vineyard from Matthew 20:1-16 (text below). It’s for a small congregation in rural Warwickshire who only meet once a month and use the Book of Common Prayer for their worship. Interestingly there is a local landlord and the villagers are his tenants.

So late in the day I am realising how earth shattering Jesus’ teaching is, shaking us to our foundations. None more so than this parable of the labourers in the vineyard in which the time of the day is so important. It is late in the day.

Preparing this has shaken me up – me, now so long in the tooth and late in the day.

I am in my 70s. I’ve been preaching for 50 years. I am white, educated, male. I have been privileged, among the first chosen, and never short of work.

So, so, so late in the day I come to this parable and I am shaken to my core by Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of heaven where the last come first and the first come last.

I realise that even so late in the day I have much work to do. At last I realise I am among the last. It has taken me so long.

The landowner in Jesus’s parable of the kingdom seems outrageously unfair and the labourers who have worked the longest hours are right to complain that they could have worked for just one hour for the same pay. They complain: “You have made us all equal”.

Imagine your local landowner doing something like that.

Now, remember the horrors of your school PE lessons when two people were chosen by the teacher to pick sides. You may have been one of the lucky ones to be amongst those picked first. You may have even been one of the gifted and talented privileged to choose the teams. Or you may have been the one picked last with your arm forlornly over your head the longest calling half-heartedly “pick me”. It was always humiliating to be amongst the last to be picked – to be one of the “also rans”.

We easily understood how those decisions and choices were made. Those who were “best” were chosen first because they were “winners”, or they had friends in high places. Those chosen last are the “losers”, who, because they are “losers” are the Billy-no-mates. If ever they complain they’re told to get over it, “life’s like that”, “get used to it”. Life isn’t fair, Everybody isn’t equal.

This parable uses the labour market as its backdrop. The labour market works pretty much the same way as teams are chosen in PE. The strong candidates, with their strong applications, with their right qualifications and their right experience are the ones chosen first. They’ve often been to the right schools and know the right people. Other candidates show their weaknesses and carry penalties such as their not-so-good education possibly because of the poverty of their childhood, or the way they talk, or look, or the colour of their skin, or their gender or their age. There will always be people who are chosen last, who might eventually be told that there is a little job they can do to help. That little job will keep the wolf from the door, but the gap between those who are chosen first (the well paid) and those chosen last (the poorly paid) gets wider and wider.

This is the economic order we live with in the kingdoms of this world. This is the rule: the first will be first and the last will be last.

In the parables treasured by the church, Jesus points us to a different kingdom – the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is nothing like the kingdoms on earth because in the kingdom of heaven the rule is not that the first will be forever first and the last forever last. The rule of the kingdom of heaven puts the first last and the last first.

The landowner is strict in his instructions to the manager. He tells him to call the labourers and give them their pay. “Begin with the last, then go to the first.” This is how the last come to be first and the first come to be last. It is the deliberate choice of the landowner who, of course, is God.

Jesus’s teaching really does shake us to our foundations.

Here was something for them to really complain about – those complaining would have been those who were first – those who had lost out in the landowner’s deliberate discrimination in favour of those hired at last. It’s their complaint that makes them last. They complain “you have made us all equal”. That is a complaint against the landowner, against God and against the last. It’s a complaint that makes them unfit for the kingdom of heaven. Of course they will be last in that kingdom where the truth is that the first will be last and the last will be first.

It’s not the first time in Matthew’s gospel that we have heard that the first will be last and the last first. In the previous chapter (19:16-30), when Jesus is explaining to his followers how difficult it is for those who are rich to enter the kingdom of heaven (as hard as it is for a camel to climb through the eye of a needle!), he uses the same rule. “Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” And he says that this will happen “at the renewal of all things”.

What can we take from this?

The first thing is that there is hope for those who are last in the choices and power dynamics of the world and that they have every reason to fervently and faithfully pray for the “renewal of all things” because they are the first choice of God.

The second thing is that those who have been used to the privileges and power of being among the first have a choice to make. They (we?) can choose to complain or not complain. They (we?) can choose to join the complaints about the apparent injustice of the rule of the kingdom of heaven (which puts the last first), implying that they will have no part in such a rule or kingdom.

Or they (we?) can choose to celebrate with the last at the renewal of all things. They (we?) can help them (us?) to be first. They (we?) can take their side. Even so late in the day they (we?) can take the side of the refugee, the poor, the sick, the disabled, the weak, the voiceless, the excluded, the ridiculed, joining their prayer for the renewal of all things, joining God’s pleasure in those otherwise forgotten and often forsaken.

All of us have that choice to make – and we make that choice in our prayer. There are people who always come first in our way of thinking and there are people who always come last. If we pray as our Saviour taught us, for his kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, we will be praying for those who are the last or seldom chosen. When we make that choice we join Jesus and Mary in their prayer. 

Mary’s joy in God is captured in her song. Her soul rejoices that God has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant, that he scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, that he brings down the powerful from their thrones, lifting up the lowly, filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty. (Luke 1:46-55)

These are the people Jesus has chosen to be uppermost in his mind. He names them in his teaching (Matthew 25: 31-46) in the parable of the sheep and the goats. Those chosen are the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner. These are the people who come first to Jesus and they are the ones who come first in the prayer of the church. Among them are those who want to join Jesus in his prayer for the renewal of all things.

It’s not that we don’t also pray for those who come first. We do pray for those who come first, our leaders. Our prayer for them is that the last will always be first for them, that everything will be for their sake. So we will pray this morning for King Charles and the government that their governance will be governed by the rule that the last come first and the first come last.

In the parable the landowner, the owner of all, gives very careful instructions to his “manager”. The instruction is: begin with the last then go to the first. The question for all those who hear the parable is CAN WE MANAGE THAT? Can we manage to do that and manage the complaints and grumbling that come our way for always beginning with those who come last in the kingdoms and empires on earth? It is, after all, teaching like this that crucified Jesus.

St John the Baptist, Lower Shuckburgh – September 24th 2023

Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”