The Church as the Body of Christ is a gift of God to the world so that the world will be led into the reign of God.

The Church is called to feed the lambs and the sheep, to bring them to good pasture lands and clean water, to shepherd the weak, the lost, those who have wandered off, those who are wounded, those attacked by their enemies, and provide protection for the sheep in the field and in the fold.

In the Gospel message in Matthew 25.31-46, the Son of Man will come to judge His people, he will separate them like the sheep from the goats.

Many of us are very familiar with this text. To some, this narrative is called as the “great surprise” because indeed, the people in the narrative were quite surprised when they learned that their acts were actually acts done or not done towards God.

In Ezekiel 34 God had spoken through the prophet about how God will judge between sheep, between ram and goats.

God expressed dissatisfaction with the “shepherds” over God’s people. They are the kings and leaders who did what was evil in God’s sight. They were corrupt, unjust and oppressive to their people. They capitulated to foreign powers rather than remaining loyal to God.

God also exposed the decadent (corrupt) culture amongst the people where there was disregard for the welfare of others.

God was so incensed by the way Israel and Judea were behaving. Their kings were unfaithful and unjust, and the people’s way of thinking have been corrupted by a lack of compassion. There was disregard even for those of their own tribes.

Jesus echoed God’s judgement after a series of parable about the Kingdom of God and Christ’s return. How will the people and nations be judged?

By their acts.

To those on the right (sheep), the Lord said: Welcome to my kingdom because I was hungry… thirsty… a stranger… naked …sick… in prison…  They asked: Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and fed you…?  And to respond to their big surprise, the Lord said: Whatever you did to these least of followers of mine, you did it for me.

To those on the left (goats), the Lord said: Away from me…   I was hungry and you did not feed me… thirsty… a stranger… naked …sick… in prison… They asked: Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and did not fed you…?  And to their unpleasant surprise, the Lord said: Whenever you refused to help these least of followers of mine, you did it to me.

How will we be judged by God when the time comes? If judgement will result to our belonging to or being excluded from God’s reign, how can God find favour in us so that we can enter God’s kingdom?

Our weakness is that we fail to recognize the God who is dwelling with us and the God who is in the image of our neighbour.

We have the hungry people to look after. There about a third of the world population mostly in third world countries who go to bed hungry. The poverty in the world has continued to grow not because people are lazy, uneducated or do not believe in certain kind of religion but because there is inequality and injustice in the world. In societies like the Philippines, it is the small farmers who work the farm are poor and hungry. It is the workers in the factories who are made destitute by low wages. Corporate greed or the insatiable appetite for super profits and the monopoly of world’s resources in the control of a few are the reasons why there is massive poverty.

We are confronted today with the problem of water shortage like in the island of Tuvalu. Yet, thirst may not only be the need of water or something to drink. Our Lord Jesus Christ who said on the cross “I thirst” may mean the same kind of thirst which he felt when he was abandoned – a thirst for company, for concern, a thirst for compassion. Many people in the world are in a state of being abandoned by their leaders who would rather serve foreign masters rather than the people who elected them in power. In their powerlessness, because all their rights have been taken away and they are silenced, they know no one who would care or stand for them. They are like sheep without a shepherd.

Many people are becoming strangers to their own country because they are made to wander away from their homes as their communities, both in rural and urban areas, are destroyed in order to give way to big corporate buildings, mega malls, hotels and resorts. More people are becoming strangers in foreign lands because their villages are destroyed by wars and they seek places if faraway lands just to be safe and begin a new life.

Nakedness is not only being without clothes. Nakedness is also being stripped of one’s dignity and defences and so one is exposed not only to the physical elements of nature but to the cruelties of people in power who can do what they want to a weakened and emaciated people. Is it not this is the situation of the original inhabitants of this land now called Australia? In their early stage of development they were taken advantage by colonizers. Today, giant multinational mining companies deprive the indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands in order to exploit the vast natural resources at the expense of the land and the people.

The sick are not only those who are lying in hospital beds. They are lucky because somehow they can access the latest medical technologies and advanced medicines. But the majority of the world’s population do not have access to such. Babies, if not their mothers, die during delivery because of reproductive health issues attributable to poverty. There is a big discrepancy in the proportion of population to the number of medical health worker especially in poor countries. Rural villages have no clinics or hospitals. Doctors and other health workers are a rare to find in far-flung villages around the world where even curable diseases become fatal because no treatment is available. Imagine those who are not able to access medical care in this time of pandemic?

It is very clear for me what prison is. It is a place where the so-called scum of the earth are found. They are called “eyesore” of society. But prisons and jail systems are only a reflection of what a society is. Nelson Mandela in his book A Long Walk to Freedom said: “A nation will not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.” For me, the lowest ones are those who are found in jails. Most come from the poorest sectors of society. Jails are built against those who act differently or away from the norms of society. These include prisoners of conscience and political detainees. Because of the stigma of being in prison, it becomes easy for society to abandon, forget, and even curse them into forsakenness.

Yes, my friends, this is the situation of humanity today. God’s unique creature, given a special place in the awesome work of God suffers the outcome of injustice and oppression in the world. Human suffering is God’s suffering too. This is why whatever we do or do not do in behalf of these least of our brothers and sisters is directed to no less than the God we profess to love and serve.

On judgement day, as taught by Jesus through this parable, God will not be asking what religion you practiced? What denominational church you belong? What particular creed you recite?

But instead, God will look into our lives to see if we did what we were supposed to do to God’s people.

In our Bible study last Monday, we ended the session in this way: Jesus has taught us, and continues to teach us, where our service and ministry should be targeted. Loving our neighbour is no longer a hit or miss transaction. When facing our Creator, we can no longer ask: ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’  because we already know the answer.

Worse, it might be insulting to God to ask ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you? because we cannot pretend to be innocent of Jesus’ teaching, we cannot say we are blind not to see the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, stranger and the captive; or claim to be unknowledgeable of social realities.

So how will we be judged? A commentary runs like this:

The community is sent out from the Lord’s Supper as body of Christ only to discover that the body of Christ is already waiting for the community in those suffering in the world. Then, in yet another Gospel reversal, it would appear that the judgment we are all subject to is not one from on high but a judgment that is spoken through the need of our neighbor.[1]

God’s judgement can be through the eyes of our neighbour.

Amen.

[1] Commentary on Matthew 25:31-46, Dirk Land, The Working Preacher, November 22, 2020; https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/christ-the-king/commentary-on-matthew-2531-46 (accessed 20 Nov 2020).