Readiness For the Last Day

Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year

Daniel 7:9-14; 2 Peter 3:3-14; Matthew 25:31-46

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

You don’t see it in our reading, but there’s a lot of tension here. The Pharisees keep challenging Jesus to trap Him. The Chief Priests are looking for some way to arrest Him. The elders of the people are angry and demand Jesus explain Himself. And the whole while, our Lord is not playing nice. In fact, He seems to be inciting their rage. He’s called them all hypocrites, and blind guides, and fools, whitewashed tombs. Then He said, “You brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matt. 23:33). 

And we know the disciples are listening to all this, but we’re not told their reaction. What was the expression on their faces? Were they trying to calm Jesus down a bit? We know they were worried about dying at the hands of the Jews, so these conversations must have caused them a great amount of anxiety. 

Well, they finally get Jesus away from all that. They go to the Mount of Olives, and Jesus uses a simple question from the disciples as an opportunity to talk about the Last Day, the day when Christ returns in glory, the day He ushers in the new heaven and the new earth, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. We get two chapters on that. 

But remember, the disciples are scared. They’re confused and anxious. Jesus is days away from the cross. And you would think that when He finds time to sit down with His disciples, you’d think He’d spend that time getting them ready for His arrest and His flogging, His death and resurrection. Shouldn’t He be calming them down and reassuring them? They’re distressed. Shouldn’t He be preparing them for the crucifixion? But instead, Jesus wants to talk about this. He wants to spend two full chapters talking about the Last Day. 

Now, why is that? Why teach about His return in glory, when they’re confused and scared and full of anxiety? This is why: because if you’re ready for Jesus’ return, if you’re ready for the Last Day, then you’re ready for each and every day in between. 

So on to the parable. It comes at the very end of these two chapters about the Last Day, and Jesus describes gathering before Him the sheep and the goats, the blessed and the cursed. And notice that He goes into great depth in His praise of the sheep. He could have just mentioned one or two things, but no, He has this long, drawn-out list of all the things the sheep have done for their Christian neighbor, “the least of these my brothers” (Matt. 25:40). And that is the focus of Jesus’ teaching on the Last Day. He doesn’t tell them, “Make sure you look for this or that thing to happen, and then you’ll know the end is near.” Instead, Jesus points them back to the needs of their neighbor. That is to say, your readiness for Christ’s return, your readiness for the Last Day, shows up in how you treat your neighbor. 

Consider that, when you find yourself concerned about the future, worried what tomorrow will bring, anxious, longing for Jesus to return, and at the same time, unsure what that will mean. You shouldn’t be unsure. You should be confident that Christ died for you. His blood was shed, not for someone else, for you. He bore your Judgement Day at the cross to reconcile you to the Father. That’s done. It’s sure. You should no more worry about the Last Day than Jesus worries about the Last Day because you are clothed in His righteousness. By the waters of your baptism, you are ready for Christ to return. You shouldn’t worry about it at all. But sometimes, you still do. At times, you find yourself a little unsure. So Jesus does this. He points you to your neighbor. That is, you prepare for Christ’s return in your service to one another.

Not in doing great, magnificent things. That’s what the world glorifies. That’s what makes headlines, the acts of heroism and sacrifice. But it turns out, the works that matter on the Last Day are the ones so seemingly humble that the sheep can’t even remember doing them. Jesus says, “You gave me food and drink, you clothed me and visited me.” Jesus praises all of those meager things. And the sheep protest. “Lord, we didn’t do any of those things? We would have. We would have traveled over land and sea to visit you, Jesus, to feed you, to bring you water, we would have broken our backs.”

He says, “Every time you did it to the least of these, my brothers, every time you served a Christian, I received that as service to Myself. Every time you were a blessing to one another, it was as if you were blessing me.” That is the shock of the text. Jesus receives your little acts of service to one another as great service to Him.

You can’t fix the world. You can’t end wars or solve society’s problems. Most of you don’t have the resources to donate large amounts of money or volunteer and make big sacrifices for the Church, establish a great reputation so people will honor your name for ages to come. But God’s not asking you for that. Instead, He points you to the little things. He could have just said to the sheep, “You served me when you served your neighbor,” but Jesus makes a point of listing all of these examples. “I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was a stranger, I was naked, sick, in prison.” He lists all these minor things because it’s shocking to us. No one is going to pull you aside and say, “Hey, did you hear about that woman in town? She did this amazing thing. You’ll never believe it. She gave someone a glass of water.” No one cares. 

Jesus does. He glorifies the acts of compassion that seem like they mean nothing at all. He points them out as what matters on Judgement Day. You’re not asked to save the world or even worry about it. But your Lord is directing you back to the humble ways you serve each other. 

Now, He’s not saying that doing those things earns your place in heaven. We’re the ones who tend to think that. We hear this text, Jesus praising the sheep, and wonder if Jesus is saying we earn salvation by doing this. But He’s not saying to those on His right, “You get to be sheep because you did this stuff.” Sheep are not sheep because they act like sheep. They’re sheep because that’s who they were born to be. You were born to be sheep in the waters of your Baptism. You have been branded as a sheep with the sign of the cross and sealed with the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Shepherd has made you His sheep by His own blood so that on the Last Day, the Day of Judgment, you will be judged not by what you have done, but according to who you are in Christ. 

So here, Jesus isn’t telling them how to get into the Kingdom of heaven. He’s telling them how to be ready for it. And He points you to your neighbor. St. Peter does the same in the Epistle “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved,” since the Last Day is coming, “what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Peter 3:11). You are to be like Christ. This is why Jesus points you to your neighbor. You serve one another because that’s what Christ has done for you. You care for your neighbor because Christ has cared for you. You bear one another’s burdens because Jesus has borne yours to the cross. That’s why the goats didn’t act like Jesus. That’s why they refused to serve one another. They refused Christ. 

But that service is what your Lord praises in you. You don’t feel you deserve that praise, sure. And neither do the sheep of the parable, but there it is. Except, what I find is that some of you think you’re not doing what Jesus describes in this text. You think you’re not serving God like these sheep. Or you think that in order to do this, you have to go out and find someone who’s poor or homeless. You think you have to come across someone with great need. 

But Jesus has already given you people to serve. He’s placed them at your door, in your home. They’re your own relations, your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, coworkers, the people sitting in these very pews. Jesus praises the simple ways you care for your family and friends. Maybe all you did was make dinner. You took out the trash. You did laundry or washed dishes, so your spouse didn’t have to. You cleaned up after your children, again. You helped sort someone’s medication. You made sure to greet your neighbor because you know they’re struggling. You called someone to check on them. You simply came to Church to eat and drink your salvation in the Body and Blood of Christ alongside other struggling saints. You don’t know how encouraging that is to one another. And Jesus praises it. He points you to your neighbor and says, “You’re ready for tomorrow, you’re ready for each and every day until I return, by serving them.” For so has Christ served you.

Of course, it doesn’t feel glorious or praiseworthy, but when you’re anxious, find someone to serve. When you’re troubled, or worried, or scared, find someone to serve. Not to earn anything. Just because this is what Christ’s sheep do as you wait for the day when you will hear the words, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34).

In ☩ Jesus’ name. Amen. 

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.