“CHRIST MAKES YOU BLESSED OF HIS FATHER”
Saint Matthew 25: 31-46
2nd Last Sunday: 15 November Anno Domini 2015
Father Jay Watson SSP
From the professional football franchise in St. Louis to the logos of the Great Northern Railway and T. Rowe Price, rams, mountain goats, and bighorns have been portrayed as sure footed, strong, and independent. And from pagan zodiac symbols to heathenish and satanic artwork, goats have been seen as evil and demonic—i.e. “self-centered” i.e.—sure footed, strong and independent.
And though baby goats jumping around like “superballs” on YouTube make anyone smile, God uses them as representatives of the damned in The Lord’s words from Matthew’s 25th chapter.
Goats are independent. They are ornery, mischievous, at times belligerent, and they will eat anything. Sheep need a shepherd. Lambs are in constant need of a Shepherd.
Repent of the sinful self that is always keeping score and “logging” everything into a ledger of what you’ve done and who “owes you.” Repent of wanting to be in charge, in control, the “captain of your own fate” or…the tough “eat what you want” goat boy/girl.
The goats on the left—damned, and the sheep on Christ’s right hand—saved, are judged by Christ The Judge and not by themselves. No one in a court of law passes verdict on themselves. No one, by good deeds and charitable actions, can make an actual crime that they’ve committed disappear. Jesus judges but He judges not simply with justice but with mercy. He gives completion to the sentence with perfect and uncompromising justice by letting Himself be judged guilty by The Father. Jesus chooses to be condemned for all your goat-like unbelief, weak belief, and presumptuous belief; as well as suffering and dying for your daily acts of hatred and unlove.
It is what Jesus says it is. You sheep are blessed of Jesus’ Father because Jesus says so. His Word is creative. He chose you and you are chosen. But His selection is IN HIM—i.e. it is in His Way and Life. It is by His incarnation, law-keeping, and atoning suffering and death on the cross that you are chosen and declared not-guilty. You are absolved in His Blood shed and by His Body sacrificed. You do inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You inherit through The Son who as John writes in Revelation is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” [Rev. 13.8b] You will have His very last will and Testament on this altar!
But Christ says something else…something that troubles you and causes you to constantly misinterpret and doubt Him. The God/Man says that when He was hungry you fed Him; when He was thirsty you gave Him drink; when He was naked you clothed Him; when He was a stranger you took Him in; and when He was sick or in prison you visited Him. He says it. It is. Repent and believe.
You may not remember doing it. You certainly did not do it perfectly. You did none of it by yourself or unaided. You did none of it because you prayed hard, worked hard, read the Bible with more fervor, or wished it so.
“Then shall He answer…saying, ‘Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’”
Everything that The Holy Ghost constrains you to do in your daily walk is a “good work” done for and to The Lord Christ! Your works of love to your neighbor and your Heavenly Father are the works of Jesus IN YOU. This is because Jesus DID all the works of love, of both Tables, perfectly, for you and for your credit! You do these works by the faith He has given you to believe, trust, and fear Him above all things. You perform these acts which He will credit you for, at the Last Judgment, that you will be unaware of, by His Grace—His love and mercy and forgiveness.
Even as Christ once referenced His own 12 Disciples as “little ones,” and “he who is least among you,” which of course means His modern pastors too are “little ones,” He claimed this as the ultimate truth about Himself when talking about John the Baptist: “…He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (John)” [Lk. 7.28b]
Jesus is the least because He left Heaven, became Incarnate, and veiled His Divinity to take His “state of humiliation” for all of you. Jesus is the leper, the naked, the palsied, the lonely, the hungry, and the thirsty, in your place, in your stead, so that you would be inheritors of the Kingdom…of The King…of The Kings peace, Body, Blood, and love. Come ye righteous, In Jesus, into life eternal.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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