PART 4 of 4: THE KING WHO JUDGES

Matthew 25:31-46

Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’
He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Backgrounder

Jesus is a judge. There is nowhere else to go than to him, when we leave this life. Jesus will one day judge the whole world. And who wants to be judged?

When we think about being judged, we often feel shame. Maybe this is because we are often hardest on ourselves. A lot of mental illness, anxiety or depression, come from such feelings, and amplifies them. Even people who aren’t clinically mentally ill may judge themselves inadequate, incompetent, worthless, just not good enough.

And yet Jesus is truly a judge. Why might we want – even need – Jesus to be our judge? First, we are made to desire justice. We want to live in a world where people who harm the innocent are held to account, even punished for their wrongdoing. The world needs to be set right when we do wrong.

Second, only once we are judged are we ready for the next step: reconciliation. Sin – the name we give to wrongdoing in the faith – is a wound to relationship. Only once we accept judgement, the truth of who we have been, can we await reconciliation.

Third, judgement and reconciliation open the way to healing. God gives us his Holy Spirit to come and heal what we, in our sinfulness, have broken.

But let’s complicate matters quite a bit more. The whole world is enmeshed in sin, and we are simply unable to untangle the knots of harm which we have caused each other. The Bible says that this mess in which we are entangled is ancestral, stemming from the first sin, falling away from God.

Jesus is our judge, because only in his love can we both see who we really are, and receive the healing that will make us whole.