Second
Last Sunday of the Church Year
November
19, 2017
Matthew
25:40
You
Did It For Me
In
the name of the Father and of the ☩
Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Why
do you make sure that your wife knows who fixed the dripping faucet?
Why
do you make sure to let your husband know that you changed the dirty
diaper?
Why
do you tell your parents that you put away your backpack?
What's
the common thread here?
All
these things justify ourselves to others. We show that we have value;
we are worth keeping around.
This
is the way much of the world's population has lived and will continue
to live: they need to prove that they are good. Some are trying to
prove it to God; others are trying to prove it to other people.
Their
natural and chosen way of living makes them all shopkeepers. They are
always adding things up and balancing the scales.
Am
I getting a good enough return on investment?
Are
my nice deeds being noticed?
Is
my life making me happy?
But
it's never enough. On the outside they might do a good job of
pretending that things are going well, but the pressure to be worthy
is always there. They believe that lasting happiness and endless love
are just a day away, if they just try harder.
The
one sin they will never commit is confessing this way of life is
sinful. It is sinful and deadly because it rejects Jesus as Savior
from sin. These people admit they aren't perfect, but they claim to
be without sin. And since they reject their sin, they reject the
Savior from sin.
They
are the ultimate Do-It-Yourself-ers and just like the guy at the K &
K who asks what the jig-a-ma-thig is for, they are going to ruin
everything.
At
the end of life, they will hear Jesus declare His judgment of all
their deeds:
‘Depart
from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave Me
nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, 43I
was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you
did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look
after Me.’ 44They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we
see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or
in prison, and did not help you?’ 45He will reply, ‘I
tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of
these, you did not do for Me.’ 46Then they will go away
to eternal punishment
MATTHEW
25:41b–46a NIV 1984
Even
at the end they are trying to argue their case, “When could we have
done all these things?” They still cling to the illusion that they
can justify themselves—just give us more time and we'll do it and
better.
Near
the end of the Athanasian Creed, the events of Matthew 25 are summed
up:
At
His coming all people will rise with their own bodies to answer for
their personal deeds. Those who have done good will enter eternal
life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.
Jesus
speaks of judgment based on personal deeds, our fruits of faith. But
He's not judging based on your self-worth or performance. He's giving
mercy because of who you are. And who you are is what He's
made you to be.
You
were a creature with no value and no worth. At birth you were only
worthy to be thrown into eternal fire because you were worthless.
Scripture is clear:
“There
is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who
understands, no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
ROMANS
3:10b–12 NIV 1984
You
hear these words and protest, but not because it is untrue, but
because it is! It's the child who broke the vase who gets defensive
when accused of breaking the vase, not the kid who was in another
room drawing on the wall. And this is just as true, if not more so,
when adults are caught out.
Our
hope is not in proving we are worth. We have none. Our hope is not in
arguing with God—we have no case, only crates upon crates of
damning evidence.
Our
only hope is Christ and the worth He gives you. In Holy Baptism He
took a corpse and made it alive. He made little Ezekeihal alive
yesterday in Baptism; He made you alive in Baptism years ago.
Ezekeihal's vocation is to be a baby and a Christian, which are very
alike. Both are all about receiving. Good things are done for us and
to us. We live because we receive food.
In
time we acquire new vocations, new people to care for. And you care
for them, not because you are trying to show your worth, but because
you're alive. Living people feed other human beings, clothe them,
visit them, and care for them when they're sick.
You
don't owe God anything for the sake of Christ Jesus. On the
cross He gave up His life; His death sends away all owing. It is
finished.
And
so we live without any debt to God, without pressure to justify our
worth, because our worth is Jesus. We now live for others and serve
them and care for them. These are our personal deeds that Christ
judges as our fruits of faith.
This
is why you will be puzzled by Jesus' commendation, “When did we
help You, Jesus?” You were just living, the faucet got fixed, the
diaper got changed, the backpack got hung up, and all the rest of it.
And then Christ will return and
The
King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of
the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.’
MATTHEW
25:40 NIV 1984
For
even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to
give His life as a ransom for many. Amen.
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