“What’s He Going to Say?"

November 26, 2023 David Shirey

November 26, 2023

Matthew 25:31-46

Broadway Christian Church

David A. Shirey

It’s Christ the King Sunday on the calendar—the Christian calendar, that is. Our secular year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31, but the Christian year begins next Sunday on the first Sunday of Advent when we look back to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and forward to his coming again in glory. The Christian year ends today at the end of November with a Sunday on which we celebrate that the one born in the manger is now enthroned over all nations: Christ the King.

I didn't know it until this week, but the history of this Sunday is revealing. Christ the King Sunday was established by Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) in 1925 to counter destructive forces rising in the world a century ago including fascism under Mussolini in Italy, communism in Russia, and the beginnings of Nazism in Germany. In the face of those totalitarian, nationalistic ideologies, the Pope designated a Sunday to proclaim Christ is King, Sovereign of all nations.

In this morning’s parable, all nations are gathered before the Son of God. Ellen read how when Jesus “comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of 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.” (Matthew 25:31-32). The word translated “nations” is from the Greek word ἔθνη ethne. Think of our word ethnic. It’s the word Jews used for Gentiles back then. It’s also the word for nations in general. Got the image? All humanity’s ethnicities and all the world’s nations—all the kingdoms of this world are gathered around the King.

What’s he going to say to them?

Before we get to that, let’s remember that Jesus didn’t want to be a king. During his temptation at the beginning of his ministry when the devil showed him “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor,” Jesus flatly said, “Go away.” (Matthew 4:8-10). Also, in John’s Gospel, we’re told, “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew … to a mountain by himself” (John 6:15). He went away. He wasn’t interested in our kind of kingship! And to reinforce that, he made a statement on Palm Sunday when, heralded as Messiah/King, he rode into Jerusalem not on a warhorse, but on a donkey. No wonder the people asked, “Who’s this?” “What kind of king…?” And when Pilate asked him point blank, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered with a non-answer, “You say that I am” (John 18:37). We seem to have a contradiction here. The calendar says Christ the King Sunday but Jesus didn't want to be a king.

At least, not a king by earthly standards. Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Archdiocese of Detroit got it right when he noted three things identified with earthly kings. Kings have power; kings have wealth; kings lord over others to get their way. But with Christ the King, none of those is true.[1] Rather than using his power for domination, Jesus used his for others’ elevation, especially the most vulnerable. As for wealth, the proverbial “king’s ransom,” he gave away his life “as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45). And rather than leveraging his power to rule over others, Paul says “he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7). He was a different kind of king.

So here we are on Christ the King Sunday with the One who would not be king addressing those who would be king and are – all the kingdoms of this world and their leaders. What’s he say to them? He says there’s going to be a Judgment Day. Throughout the Bible, there are references to a day, the Day of the Lord, when all humanity will give an accounting for our lives. Our lives will be audited. The Apostles Creed proclaims, “On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father Almighty, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.”

Which raises the question: By what criteria will we be judged? “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the nations are gathered before him... he shall separate people one from another … by what criteria? When I was in school, I mostly paid attention to what the teacher was saying. But when the teacher said, “This is going to be on the test,” I was all ears. Well, the Bible says one day our lives are going to be graded – judged. So, when the Teacher, the Rabbi from Galilee, tells us what’s going to be on the Test, the criteria by which God will judge us, we’re all ears.

Simply stated, Jesus says the criteria by which individuals and nations will be judged is, “Did you care?” Did you respond to human need? Did your lives, your legislation, your budgets and policies, evidence care for the most vulnerable? Says Jesus, “Inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these-- the hungry and thirsty, those with fragile health and without healthcare, the incarcerated, the stranger, you pass the test. The Bible names again and again a holy trinity of humanity that is due individuals’, governments’, and nations’ special concern: the widow, the orphan, and the stranger (the immigrant). James Forbes, former pastor of the Riverside Church in NYC, said, “No one gets into heaven without a letter of reference from the poor.” Jesus says the question on the Test is, Did you care?

It’s interesting to note what Jesus did not say is the criteria for judgment:

It’s not whether people made the Good Confession or not. Earlier in Matthew, he says, “Not all who say ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 7:15).
It’s not whether people prophesied, cast out demons, or performed miracles.
It’s not whether they spoke in tongues.
It’s not whether they were baptized by immersion or sprinkled as infants.
It’s not whether they affirmed any of the thousands of Creeds that bodies of believers have memorized and confessed across the years.

The criteria Christ the King will use to judge us is none of the above things that Christians across time have gotten so hung up and divided ourselves over.

According to Jesus’ final parable, the criteria for sheephood or goatship is “Inasmuch as you did it unto the least of these.” Did you advocate for the vulnerable? Did you create social systems that deliver care? Do your laws and policies alleviate suffering? Does the budget down at city hall make a priority for the most vulnerable on the city’s streets? Did you care most for “the least?” Some? Any?

Way back in the beginning of the Bible is the story of Cain and Abel. Remember it? Cain murders his brother. God confronts him on what was the first judgment day. God asked Cain, “Where is your brother?” And Cain answered, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). According to Christ the King on the last judgement day, the answer to Cain’s question is an emphatic Yes. Yes, you are your brother’s keeper. All people, all governments, all rulers are accountable first, foremost and finally for the keeping of and caring for our brothers and sisters. When our forebears of the faith made a list of the dispositions and demeanors that are diametrically opposed to God’s purposes, they named what are called the Seven Deadly Sins. One of them, poorly translated sloth, is from the Greek word acedia that literally means, “I don't care.” Judging by Jesus’ last teaching, not caring is the greatest sin of all.

Not to be missed is that this is Jesus’ last teaching in Matthew’s Gospel before Holy Week begins. We speak of famous last words. What someone says last matters. Some people’s last words are keepsakes while others are comical. On the comical side: When asked why he was reading a Bible on his deathbed, W.C. Fields is reported to have said, “I’m looking for loopholes.” The 19th century author Oscar Wilde said, “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.” As for the keepsakes, Edison is to have said, “It is very beautiful over there” while Henry Ward Beecher, the great 19th century New England preacher, said, “Now comes the mystery.” But no one’s last words are as important as Jesus’ last teaching in Matthew’s Gospel that urges us to care for the most vulnerable.

And here’s the clincher according to Jesus: when we do something for “the least of these” we do it for him. And so it is I smiled when I saw the first Christmas decoration to go up at Broadway was the Tree of Hope whose primary ornaments are not little drummer boys or candy canes or wise men, but the names of brothers and sisters for whom we can care. Likewise, I smiled when for each of the past two weeks I attended two different adult Sunday School classes and both classes began not with reading a Scripture passage, but with doing this passage by sending around a clipboard with the names of the family members adopted by the class through the Volunteer Action Council’s Holiday Program. And yet again, at the Ministry Outreach Meeting on Monday, I smiled when, before the Order of Worship has been set the for Christmas Eve services, they made sure and set an offering to be divided between Love Columbia and the ministry being done as we speak by our Disciples Week of Compassion partners on the ground during the Middle East Crisis in Israel and Gaza. Ornaments hung with the names of others, families adopted, an offering taken for those in need near and far: sounds like Jesus’ Christmas wish list to me. When we do it for others, we’re doing it for him.

Sounds to me like somebody is trying to take Jesus at his word.

Which leads to him say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”

Which are the best last words anyone could say … or hear.

May it be so!

Let all the faithful subjects of Christ the King say AMEN

[1] Thomas Gumbleton, “Jesus is a king, but not a king in the world's definition,” National Catholic Reporter, Dec. 4, 2013