A sermon on Matthew 25:31-36 for the Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.

One of the things that really surprised me when we first moved to Florida was that our county’s sheriff is somewhat of a viral sensation. Just scrolling through my social media feeds, I’ll see videos of none other than Grady Judd, Polk County Sheriff. Usually it’s a snapshot of a press conference or a video he’s shooting at his desk where he describes a recent criminal that’s been caught and their usually less-than-intelligent schemes. He never mentions the sentence they’ve received, that progress can take a while, but it’s setting you up to think that the sentence that they are going to receive, no matter what it is, is justified. The evidence is right there, they’re gonna get what’s coming for them, the judgment will be just.

Over the next two Sundays, as we reach the end of the church year, we listen to Jesus’ teaching about the end of the world, Judgment Day. Today Jesus tells us how that’s going to go down and we see Him as the righteous Judge seated on the throne of glory. There’s no trial, the sentence has already been decided, this is, plain and simple, the declaration of judgment. And that judgment is just. Christ is a just judge, both in condemning the sinner and in rewarding the righteous.

I. Condemning the Sinner

This text is really unique in a lot of ways. This is right at the end of Jesus’ teaching on the end times. He’s predicted the destruction of the temple and then moves on to the end of the world and the signs of the times. He’s given a few parables but now there’s no parable, He’s speaking directly and clearly, this is what’s going to happen at the end of the world.

This is the second coming. First He came in humility, now He comes in all of His glory. Still a human, still “the Son of Man,” but now in glory, with all the holy angels, enthroned in majesty and might.

All nations are gathered before Him, all of the dead are risen from their graves, and His first act of judgment is to divide the sheep and the goats, the believers and the unbelievers. And this tells us something about our world today.

Right now, the sheep and the goats are all mingled together and can easily be confused for one another. There are those who look like genuine believers, but they don’t have faith. On the other hand, there are those who don’t seem that Christian, but trust Jesus in their heart.

And on the Last Day, all is revealed. Christ makes no mistakes in separating the sheep from the goats. He passes judgment and presents the supporting evidence.

And what’s really scary in all of this is how easily I can see myself as a goat. I don’t really go out of my way to help the hungry or the thirsty, the naked or the stranger. Sure, I’ll rummage through my pantry every once in a while and get rid of things I wasn’t going to use anyways, but that’s definitely more of an afterthought. I just can’t be bothered to do that kinda stuff.

And when someone approaches me, asking me for something, my gut instinct is to hold them at arm’s length, to question their motives, to not believe their story. I can so easily see myself sharing the objection of those on the left. Sure, if I saw Jesus in need, then I’d help. But I don’t see Him in “the least of these.”

Notice the harshness here. Jesus isn’t even talking about the sin that we actively do. Lord knows I’ve got enough of that. He’s talking about the good things we don’t do, which equally condemn us.

And see the punishment. “[E]verlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Hell was never meant for man, God wants all men to be saved. But when man rejects Christ, he chooses his side and seals his own fate. Hell is real. And that’s terrifying because I know what I deserve.

II. Rewarding the Righteous

But notice that the sheep share the objection of the goats. When Jesus praises them for their good works, they don’t pat themselves on the back and say, “That’s right, Jesus, we get to go to heaven because of the good things we did.” No, they object! I mean, who’s gonna do that? If these are the stakes, I’d be tempted to just let that one slide. But the sheep don’t have the expectation of work righteousness. They know that’s not how it works.

Sometimes we can maybe be a little uncomfortable with texts like these and these are the ones that Roman Catholics or whoever are gonna throw in your face and say, “See, you go to heaven or hell based on your works.” The sheep don’t seem to think that. It’s the goats who believe in work-righteousness, they just think they’ve been denied the opportunity. But the sheep know that something else is going on here. And every detail in this text tells us the same thing.

Look at what the King says to those on His right, “Come, you blessed of My Father.” You don’t work to gain a blessing, a blessing is something that’s given. “[I]nherit the kingdom.” Inherit? There’s nothing you do to earn an inheritance, it’s freely given. “[T]he kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Look at this beautiful comfort that believers have. Before the foundation of the world—before you were born, before anyone was born, before your works could even enter the picture—God chose you and prepared a kingdom for you to inherit.

The sheep don’t object to that. They don’t object to that Gospel-filled invitation because they know that that is how it works. And when Jesus gives the reasoning, the sheep don’t object again and say, “What about all those times that I didn’t?” Those don’t enter the record. Jesus doesn’t mention any of the missed opportunities or times they didn’t help because those sins have been blotted out of the Book of Life by His precious blood.

We aren’t saved by our works because if we were we would be condemned for our sins. We are saved because our sins are forgiven. The sentence that our sins deserved has been placed on Christ. By His death on the cross, He endured God’s wrath so that no more punishment remains for you. And the resurrection is proof of that verdict: not guilty. Christ’s judgment is just because everything that would make you guilty He has taken away. You are saved not on the basis of works you’ve done or haven’t done but because God loves you and chose you and died for you.

So what role do good works play? Jesus clearly references them, so we can’t just wriggle out of that or ignore them entirely. Well, consider what’s been said. Your sins are forgiven. When the Book of Life is opened, the only thing left under your name are the good works because all the sins have been redacted, blotted out, forgiven.

But what makes a good work good? The things that Jesus mentions, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, these are all things that plenty of unbelievers do, so why isn’t that recorded for them? Because good works are evidence of faith.

That’s how Jesus uses them on Judgment Day. He could have said, “Well, I know that these people have faith but these people don’t,” but where’s the fairness in that, no one else besides God can see faith. So He appeals to good works, not as things that save in and of themselves, but as evidence of that which does save, evidence of faith.

The only works that are good works in God’s sight, the only ones that count, are those which proceed from faith. And this is made especially clear by to whom those works are done, “to one of the least of these My brethren.”

Now certainly all of humanity can, in a certain sense, be counted as Jesus’ brethren because He is a true man. But really what this is talking about is Christians. Anyone can show compassion to someone out of pity, unbelievers do that all the time, but to help someone because they are a Christian, that’s something that can only come as a result of God’s love, that’s something that can only come from faith.

We are saved by faith alone, but faith is never alone, it always comes with good works, which are the fruit and evidence of faith. And remember again what Jesus gave as examples. These aren’t huge things. He doesn’t say, “You spent twenty years of your life caring for orphans in Africa.” but, “I was hungry and you fed me.” The good works that we do are so often small things, little things, things no one else will notice, but they’re done out of love for our Savior and to Him that’s a big deal. With that and with you He is well-pleased.

There’s one more application that I want to tease out here that’s not just “we should do more good works,” although we should. But that’s this, notice who Jesus identifies with. Certainly with His brethren, the Church, but especially with the hungry and the thirsty and the naked and the stranger and the sick and imprisoned. Certainly we should have compassion on those people, but there’s also comfort here. When you are hungry or sick, when you are enduring any kind of hardship, Jesus identifies with you. Jesus sees Himself in you. So yes, we are to love others, but that can only come when we recognize ourselves as recipients of Christ’s love, even and especially when everything else doesn’t seem to be going your way. We love because He first loved us. May we always remain in and appreciate that love. Amen.