“TRINITY 26”
Saint Matthew 25: 31-46
2nd Last Sunday: 19 November Anno Domini 2023
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
The 2nd last Sunday in the Church year and we again focus on the “last things”—the Eschaton. Preachers would do well to preach, and parishioners would do well to receive the teachings of God, on “the four last things”—death, judgment, heaven, and hell. They matter. They are real. They are at that point all that matter. The separation of the sheep and goats—the final Judgment.
So, it is not so much “who is your Jesus,” as if you can cherry-pick the parts of The New Testament that you like, but Who is Jesus.
Messias; Christ, yes, The Anointed One. Redeemer, Savior, yes, as His Name states—Jesus!
But when you kneel at His footstool to receive His precious true Body and sacred real Blood, you oft times repeat what Saint Thomas said when He was permitted to touch Jesus’ wounds: “My Lord and My God!”
Jesus is God. And The Father Who art in heaven has given to His Only-Begotten Son from Eternity, the role of Judge. Did you not just confess: “and He shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.”
Of course, for this is what Saint Matthew records Jesus as saying during the Tuesday of Passion Week—hours before His suffering and death on the cross for all of your sins.
Hear The Word of The Lord. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” Words written by David the Shepherd about Christ The Good Shepherd. John quotes Jesus saying: “I am The Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and I am known of Mine” [Jn. 10.14]; and again “My sheep hear My voice…and they follow Me” [Jn. 10.27].
The relationship of sheep to their shepherd must be likened unto faith—faith, a supernatural/supranatural relationship of trust. This protection and feeding and watering and care is all worked by the shepherd. The sheep are ignorant of the inner-workings of the shepherd’s mind.
There you have it.
No time spent this year with this sermon trying to explain the 4-H/animal husbandry differences between sheep and goats in the 1st century A.D.
Jesus comes at the end and all the dead are raised from the dirt, and they, along with all the living who are “quick” and not dead at that final Advent will before His throne of judgment. For those who died in unbelief and obdurate and stubborn rejection of The Shepherd—they are sent away into everlasting punishment; hell; damnation. Those who died In Christ, i.e., in The Faith as believers/trusters in their Shepherd’s Person (Who He is) and Work (what He did/does) are sheep—lost lambs rescued/Redeemed/ “Righteous” who shall go into life eternal. Somber words indeed. Or, as Saint Peter reminds you: “seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” [2 Pe. 3. 11-12].
The fact that neither the damned goats nor the saved sheep can up with memories of when they rejected Jesus by rejecting others or by serving Jesus by serving others has nothing to do with memory loss or being initially “groggy” after Resurrection. No. Many pagans, heathens, and haters of Jesus feed hungry people, clothe naked people, etc. But works apart from faith are dead. Sadly, too many Christians, who claim to follow Christ, “drop the ball” far too often. Those of faith, sin by not “loving their neighbors as themselves.” I should not have to tell you that you break the 2nd Table of The Law daily. But you do. But also, you are + Baptized. You are new creations. I know who you are and so does St. Paul: “for [you] are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that [you] should walk in them.” And by Grace through faith, IN CHRIST, you do.
So yes, feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked and destitute, visit the sick and the unjustly imprisoned. And do all the other good works that The Holy Spirit constrains you to do because you are IN CHRIST!
Clinging to His Word; reading, marking, learning, inwardly digesting His Scriptures; receiving His “bodily” Body and Blood for forgiveness, strength, and peace; you have a Good Shepherd Who lays down His life for you. He visits you in the prison of your loneliness, depression, and despair. He waters you from The Font and cools and refreshes you in this desert of sin. He clothes you with His own robes which are His flesh and blood. And that same Body and Blood, He feeds you with.
“Come ye blessed of The Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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