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[This sermon is also available in MS Word format]
Last Things
Rollins Chapel
May 27, 2004
Matthew 25:31-46
Richard R. Crocker. College Chaplain
Since this is the last chapel service not only of the term, but of the year, and since we have been talking about heaven and hell, and since some of you will be taking final exams, and since some of you will be graduating, it is appropriate that we think today about last things.
The passage that most informs my thinking about last things is the passage from Matthew that we have just read. It is Jesus’ description of the last judgment. Several things are notable. First, it is notable that this passage occurs only in Matthew’s gospel. We wonder why it was not reported by the other gospel writers. Second, we note that some of the language Jesus uses here – eternal life and eternal punishment – is very traditional. It seems that Jesus here talking about hellfire and streets of gold – notions which I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to question. More on these points later.
But, third, it is important to note that much of Jesus’ teaching in the gospels is best understood as warning. Although there are many sayings of reassurance and comfort, and mercy, there are also many sayings of warning, confrontation and judgement. Jesus constantly warns his hearers that they have misunderstood the law, that their lives are devoted to the wrong things, that they will face judgment. Those who pick up on the theme of warning in Jesus’ teachings are right. It is there. And sometimes the warnings are dire. Jesus definitely does not approach people and offer universal assurance. He does not say – “Oh, don’t worry. Everything will be OK. Nothing matters. Party on.” Rather, he says: “these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Since we have a Jesus who seems to offer warning as well as reassurance, it is important to ask two questions. First, who does he warn? And second, what does he warn people about?
Most of Jesus’ warnings are directed - not toward sinners and distressed people, but toward people who consider themselves righteous. And his warning, consistently, is this: self-righteousness will do you in. Jesus’ message, over and over, is: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Does he proclaim judgment? Yes he does. Against whom is the judgment directed? Toward people who think that they are righteous. Does he proclaim mercy? Yes he does. To whom is the mercy directed? To people who know that they are sinners.
That is the paradox that makes this description of judgment so powerful and so compelling. The people who are found to be worthy of eternal life are not people who have been scrupulous about religious observance or who have a reputation for piety. Rather, they are people who have, unselfconsciously, lived a life of kindness and mercy. They are people who know the need for mercy, and who have shown it to others. They have just responded to need by giving food to those who are hungry, water to the thirsty, and hospitality to strangers. They have visited the sick and the imprisoned. And they did it, not to appear righteous, but just because it was the right thing to do. It was what they wanted to do. So they are surprised to hear that their actions were seen as ministry to Jesus himself. By contrast, those who are condemned are not people who have committed great crimes or scandals. Rather, they are people who simply ignored the need for mercy. They were not aware. They have ignored the people around them.
Now the irony here is that this passage presents a warning so subtle that most of us miss it. I think that’s why only Matthew tells it. The others thought it was too subtle. This passage is a warning to us. It is not an instruction that we should go out and do good deeds so that we will get a reward. No, that is the very opposite of what it means. Who are the people here that Jesus calls righteous? Why, they are people who had no idea at all that they were righteous – who were absolutely unconcerned about it. No, this passage is NOT a new law of piety that counsels us to calculate our good deeds. Rather, it is a warning that unless our lives are so transformed by the mercy of God that showing mercy becomes simply habitual for us, we have missed the point. And to have missed the point is to be condemned – to what? To what we want. Selfishness. You see, for Jesus, hell is a gated community. “Huh?’ you say. ”Gated communities are good.” So the world says. Not Jesus. People who enjoy gated communities probably wouldn’t enjoy heaven very much. They really don’t want to be with needy people. Rather, they want to be kept away from needy people. So the irony here is that what most of us think of as heaven is what Jesus calls hell. What most of us think of as righteous, Jesus condemns. And what we fail to recognize as good, because it does not call attention to itself at all, Jesus praises.
You see the irony here, the paradox, the thing that makes this teaching so slippery? It does not give us a law to obey that will makes us good. Rather, it calls us simply to love mercy. And we can only love mercy if we love it. We can not love it because we are told to. So there is a proclamation of judgement here: the judgement is against us who, sometimes precisely because we are overly concerned about our own righteousness, show no mercy.
It’s a hard teaching, because on one level we can not make ourselves learn it. But it is a simple merciful teaching on another level. It echoes the words of the prophet Micah: “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? No. God hath shown you, you human one, what is good. What does God require of you? Only to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:6-9)
You are facing your final exams. Failure is a possibility – otherwise the exam is a charade. Failing a final exam is really, in the scheme of things, rather minor. We move on; we try again. And, as human beings, we also face a final examination. Failure is a possibility. The test is whether we have learned to love mercy. Failing it is truly tragic. Amen.
Sermon © 2004 Richard R. Crocker. All rights reserved.
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