Feeding Your Sheep: Matthew 25:31-46 - Fifth Sunday in Lent

What does Jesus have against goats? They are not violent, predatory animals who wreak havoc in the barnyard.

According to Heifer International, goats “help families feed themselves.” They are very inexpensive to raise. One goat can produce up to four gallons of milk each day, which can be processed into butter or cheese. Goats need very little land for grazing and will eat pretty much anything you give them. 

But sheep (and shepherds) have a special place in the Scriptures. Many prominent figures from the Old Testament were shepherds, including Abraham, Jacob, Rachel, and David. But sheep are not known for their intelligence or strength. They frequently wander away from the flock and are vulnerable to predatory animals. Yet sheep remain a symbol of God’s people. The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats is no exception.

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The sheep represent those who gave food to the Son of Man when he was hungry, water when he was thirsty, hospitality when he was a stranger, clothing when he was naked, care when he was sick, and visited when he was in prison. These people, like sheep, were unaware of the good they were doing and who they were doing it to. They did what they did because that was their nature. That was who they were. 

The “goats,” on the other hand, failed to do any of the charitable deeds done by the sheep, and left the Son of Man to suffer hunger, thirst, isolation, nakedness, sickness, and imprisonment. Thus, they will go away into eternal punishment. 

Naturally, we want to see ourselves as the righteous sheep, and the people we don’t like as the evil goats. But it’s not the job of a sheep or a goat make that distinction. That’s the shepherd’s job. If we are being honest with ourselves, we are recognizing that no matter how many righteous deeds we may have done, we remain sinners who reject the Son of Man, very often as the very people we consider to be unworthy of our care and concern. And yet, Jesus Christ and his righteousness were born in you when you were baptized. 

So, what if you invited the shepherd to separate the sheep and the goats within yourself? In other words, you ask Jesus to judge you: to reveal your unrighteousness in all its forms: your greed, your pride, your indifference to the suffering of others, your prejudice against people most different from you. You ask is Jesus to crucify everything you have, everything you want, and everything you are that is rooted in sin. 

I know this sounds extreme, because we don’t think of divine judgment as something we would willfully invite. God’s judgment has been something we fear, not only for the harsh truths it would reveal, but for the fact that doing do will expose us as unworthy of heaven. 

Ultimately, God’s judgment is not about condemnation. It is not something meant to imprison you in fear and shame. And it is certainly not about excluding you or anyone else. God’s judgment is about salvation. It’s about transformation. It’s about inclusion. It’s about new life. 

There’s a good reason why sheep are metaphors for God’s people: because we are foolish. Because we often go astray. Because we are vulnerable to the predation of sin. And because we need to be restored to God, time and time again. 

To submit to God’s judgment is to beg God to bring you to righteousness, even if that means bringing you kicking and screaming—not wanting to let go of things you value, not wanting to have your priorities changed, not wanting to be driven out of your comfort zone, not wanting to let go of things which give you security, power, and control. You need to be separated from these things in order for Jesus Christ to live in you and through you. New life begins with God’s judgment; again, not to condemn you but so that you can grow and become all that God created you to be from the foundation of the world. The love of Christ, the mercy of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ, and the peace of Christ will so rule in your heart that you will “do for the least of these” without even thinking about it. 

To invite judgment is to take one of the biggest leaps of faith there is: to trust that God knows, better than you do, and better than the world does, what it means for you to live a purposeful, meaningful, hopeful life. It means trusting in God to be faithful to you, instead you trying desperately to control everything. It means receiving a righteousness that doesn’t make you better than other people, but instead that brings out the best in you. 

Those who know the joy of the Lord best are those who entertain angels unawares. 

For it is only through the grace of God in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, that you can fulfill the purposes for which God created you, blessing the Son of Man in the neighbor as a matter of habit. 

It is only in dying with Christ can you rise with Christ into new life that begins today and reaches its fulfillment in the sweetest words you will ever hear: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” 

Photo by Bogdan Dogaru on Unsplash