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You believe, teach and confess that there will be a resurrection of the dead. You know that not just the family of Jesus will come back to life but that also all the family of Satan will be cognizant again. There will be a judgment of these souls, along with their bodies, for their decision to reject the Lord and His Anointed. The ones who did not believe in Jesus as the Christ are the goats. The ones who did not believe in Jesus of the Creeds, "True God of God and True Man born of the Virgin" are the goats. The ones who rejected His Body given on Calvary and His Blood spilled on that tree are the goats.

Good works do not save; Jesus saves. Good works don't forgive sin; Jesus does. The difference between a sheep and a goat is not whether one has visited the sick and clothed the naked while the other has not. The difference between a sheep and a goat is that the sheep has been plucked up by the Good Shepherd and placed into His verdant fold while the goat has wrestled, kicked, bit, and butted his way out of the Shepherd's embrace and gone his own "Billy-goat" way after the "tin-cans" of the world.

The "Stranger" that the Lord speaks of in this morning's text is the fact that no one sees the Second Person of the Holy Trinity by sight, evidence or rational work. The Redeemer sent by the Father in Heaven appears as a stranger to the five senses. The Son of God veiled, hid, His Godhood in His assumed flesh and blood.

It is not about you; it is about the Lord-the Messiah. It's not about what you do with fervor and energy or how hard you try; it's about what the Nazarene did perfectly for thirty-three years; about what He did during the last week of His life of "humility."

An earthly existence lived by "glory," that is by "sight," can do a lot of "good works" as the World judges. One's sinful nature, just like the non-believing nature of a "goat," can do many wonderful things in a civil, materialistic, moral way. These actions are not good works; they do not justify or save. Grace is not worked by you it is given by the Lord.

Do you perfectly give food to those you could help; those you could keep from starving or ease their pain? Do you perfectly take in to your homes the homeless or do you help the Church establish places of refuge for them? Do you visit all the sick and sorrowing that you could? The answer is no. The answer to questions coming from any and all of the Ten Commandments is: no.

Do goats, that is, do non-believers perform acts of feeding, visiting, clothing and assisting their fellow citizens; yes they do. Are these "good works" in the eyes of the perfect and Holy Trinity; no they are not. Apart from faith in Christ Jesus the God/Man, no act is good. The goats do not have faith for they have rejected the Word. The goats live their lives by sight, proof, verification and self. They do not see Jesus, with the eyes, thus they claim they are innocent of not doing the things which He asks to be done. Jesus only asks for one thing: "repent and believe;" and even this one thing is not done by self-activity but rather received as free Gospel gift.

Do Sheep, do you, perform acts of feeding, visiting, clothing and assisting your fellow citizens; yes you do. Are these "good works" in the eyes of the perfect and Holy Trinity; yes, yes they are. All good deeds, even done imperfectly, are nonetheless good works when done by a brother and sister of Jesus. The actions of Christians are going to be Christ-like. As an Apple Tree is going to produce apples, a Believer is going to do good works. What are good works? Do actions have to be the ones enumerated by Christ to be considered good? The answer to these questions is both yes and no. Yes you are to love your neighbor as yourself, so naturally the things that Jesus mentions should be done. But you remember that any activity done in faith is a good work. The smallest and most simple activities performed by you faithfully in your daily vocations are good works. But, do these elementary and routine good works justify your acceptance by the Father; do they earn you anything? No. Even the life-long actions, done in Faith, by the most hard working and diligent Sheep counts as nothing in securing that Sheep a place in the Green Pasture.

The Lord wants your hearts and minds not just your hands and pocketbooks. The Lord wants your souls and spirits to be one with His. The Lord has done the work and the dying. The Lord has done the obeying and the bleeding. The Lord gives you the faith to believe in Him and His Works. Jesus is the stranger in so far as you cannot see Him with your eyes but must believe on Him and In Him by His Word. You do the only good work that He demands MUST be done when you have Him. You have Him as He gives Himself to you. Your hunger and thirst are satisfied because He hungered and thirsted on your behalf. Jesus brave the desert wilderness and the void of crucifixion, hell and tomb. You are taken in to the Church and given the highest place at the Table because Jesus left the glories of Paradise and came into the world to make you the new home by His own Body and Blood. Your nakedness is covered because He was stripped and nailed on high; because His seamless cloak is now your Baptismal/Wedding garment. Your imprisonment in jail is over because Jesus bore the eternal bonds of Hell itself at Calvary. All the good works that Jesus did and does are your very own good works because He says they are! The Savior Who saves you is the Holy One Who makes you Holy; that is, Who sanctifies you with a Holy Life of good works.

Don't feel it? Don't recognize these works of faith when you examine your daily actions and inactions? Don't feel like you measure up to what He says you should be doing in this Gospel reading?

Then stop looking at yourself. It isn't about you. Stop measuring your merits and righteous reactions and hear more of His Word. Do what He draws you to do; what He enables you to do and what He empowers you to do. Hear His loving forgiveness. Remember your Holy Washing; it makes you Holy; full of good works. Eat His Body and drink His Blood in His New Testament Kingdom. You have inherited, already, the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The Son of Man has come to you this day in His glory; the glory of Word and Supper, and all the holy angels are with Him. He sits now on the throne of glory, His altar, His paten, His chalice. He has gathered you the sheep before Him.

Receive forgiveness. You are forgiven.

In the Name + of Jesus