Matthew 25:40, 45 — And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. … Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
Every time I read these words, as I did in our devotion this morning, I am struck with an awareness of the awful consequences of my actions. Do right, and be one of the blessed, move on to eternal life. Miss the opportunity , and be one of the cursed, move on to eternal damnation.
There is a change of pace in Jesus’s teaching as He comes to this passage. He has used parables to describe the Kingdom of Heaven — but there is nothing of the parable in the description of the judgment. Here is concrete reality — this is what will happen when the Son of man shall come in his majesty. When He comes in majesty I will be judged as I have treated the brothers, the fellow disciples — the “ones” that I will meet.
Perhaps the teaching seems simple, but in it is a deep lesson. The hypocrite will look for the celebrity, the leader, the “important” person in the ministry and look to serve his every need. The true saint will not “look” for anyone — but will see the need in even “one of the least of these my brethren”. The true saint will notice the simplest need; see the need for food, water, a welcome, clothes, a visit … And take care of it.
The contrast in judgment reflects the contrasts in the attitude if the sheep and the goats. The goats completely miss the point. It’s as if they say “Well, Lord, of course if we had seen you, we would have taken care of your every need. We longed to serve you!” The sheep say, “Oh that? We didn’t do anything special. This is what people do isn’t it?” There is a humble inability to see anything special in what they did.
Do you remember the last charge Jesus gave to Peter? “Feed my sheep”. He had such love and compassion for His flock. Once again Alexander Mackaren shines a light:
The best token of a Christian’s love to Jesus Christ is his service of man for Christ’s sake. ‘Lovest thou Me?’ ‘Yea! Lord.’ Thou hast said; go and do, ‘Feed My lambs; feed My sheep.’ … if you want men to believe in your love, however Jesus Christ may know it, go and work in the Master’s vineyard. The service of man is the garb of the love of God.
In the end, if we would be saints, we must be shepherds, we must take care of our fellow sheep. If we don’t, we’re kidding ourselves about our faith, and we’ll end up in a herd of goats!