Matthew 25:31-46 - Trinity 26 - November 16, 2014
And Their Works Do Follow Them
In
our Old Testament lesson, the prophet Daniel received a vision of the very same
event that Jesus described in our Gospel lesson. He saw the Ancient of Days gather the nations
for the final judgment. The Ancient of
Days is God. Ancient is not simply to say that he is very old. It is to say, rather, that he is eternal. It bends the mind to try and comprehend it,
doesn’t it? But we can’t, because God
cannot be measured by time. He has quite
simply always been. He lives in the
eternal Day. Time itself has a
beginning, and it will soon have an end.
All that will remain is God and his word. That’s why we listen to it now while time
still exists. And Their Works Do Follow Them
What
a beautiful name God gives himself to express the fact that he is eternal: Ancient of Days. This name got me thinking about another place
in Scripture where the word day is
used not for any specific period of time, but likewise for the eternal Day that
has neither beginning nor end. It comes
from Psalm 2 where the second Person of the holy Trinity says the following:
I will declare the decree: the Lord has
said to Me, “You are My Son,
today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of
the earth for Your possession.”
Now,
first of all, it must be clear that there was never a time when the Son was not
begotten of the Father. The Ancient of
Days says to his eternal Son, You are My
Son; today I have begotten you. He
says this outside of time.
Ask of Me and I will give you the
nations for Your inheritance. Ah, but here it is that the eternal God has
entered our time. Ask of Me. This is what the
Father says to his Son only after he was born of a woman in the fullness of
time (when he bound himself to human events in history); this is what he says
to his Son only after he placed himself under the law (when he bound himself to
fulfill it in our place); this is what he says to his Son only after his Son
had the book of judgment opened and pronounced against him and him alone while
he hung dying on the cross, suffering the guilt and blame and divine punishment
for every transgression, every false word, and every selfish thought that was
ever recorded. Ask of Me, the Father says, after he raised his Son from death to
sit at his right hand. Ask of Me.
From
eternity, the Son of God has possessed the authority to pass judgment against
sin. He need not ask for this. It has always been his prerogative to condemn
all nations. But as the Son of Man he
was sent by the Father to rescue our fallen race. In due time he took all judgment upon
himself. He redeemed all nations by shedding
his blood as payment. He received all
authority in heaven and on earth – not to condemn, but to save. This means that we are his. We are his birthright. We are his inheritance. He who suffered and died for us now sits at
the right hand of God for us. And it is
from there that he desires nothing more than to rule all people in mercy by
forgiving us all our sins. This is what
the Father tells him to ask for. “Ask of Me,” the Father says, “and I
will give them to you. Ask of Me, and my word will go out that there is no
longer any condemnation for those who are found believing in you. Ask of Me, and what is yours will be yours.”
So
what did he do? He asked. The Son of Man asked. And he received. “All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given unto me [because I
asked for it. Therefore, I declare the
decree:] go and make disciples of all
nations, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you.”
It
is as if he said, “A book will be
opened. All things will be exposed. All sinners will be seen for what they truly are. But I want you to open this book.
Open it now. Pronounce what this
book tells you. Proclaim to all humanity
that I have done it. I have obeyed God
with a pure heart, and I give my purity to you.
I have hated what is evil, and I bore what was evil for you. I have not sinned, but I have taken your sins
of thought, word, and deed and made them my own. I please God.
He delights in me. But what I
have is yours. Through my work for you,
you please God too and he delights in you.
Listen to me, and I will give you eternal life for your inheritance.”
This
is the gospel. In the forgiveness of sins, God gives to us
everything that his Son has earned. And
the Son gives us everything his Father told him to ask for. God clothes us in the perfect obedience of
Christ that covers all our unrighteousness.
He gives us his favor and calls us blessed. In the forgiveness of sins, Jesus silences
all judgment against us and promises that the blessing we hear today will be
the blessing that we hear when the dead are raised on the last day.
Let
us take a look at this day. It is not
the eternal Day. It will be a real day
in time – to be sure the last day of time – but nonetheless a point in real
history that will soon come. God will
sit on his throne. His angels will
gather all people to himself. A book
will be opened, which tells the thoughts, words, and deeds of all men
ever. It will be publicly read for all
creation of all time to hear. The final
verdict of heaven or hell will be spoken upon every soul which on that day will
stand resurrected before God’s glory.
Now,
this is a terrifying thing. The
Athanasian Creed says it in a way that might make it sound even more terrifying: “And
[all] shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good
shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil, into everlasting
fire.” This really is what Scripture
teaches. But before we consider what it
will look like for us to give an account of our own works – whether good or bad
– let’s look at what else will happen on this day.
I saw in the night visions, [Daniel writes,] and behold, with the clouds of
heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and
was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a
kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
one that shall not be destroyed.
Do
you see what will happen? Think about
it. God will judge. Yes, but God will not judge according to his
divine right to condemn sinners.
No. He will pass judgment by
granting to the Son of Man the authority to do all the judging — the Son of Man
who bore your sins – the Son of Man who asked for his inheritance by asking
that you hear the gospel – the Son of Man who tells you beforehand what he will
say.
All
authority is his right now. And so what
does he say right now? He says, “Come
unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give your rest.” He says to Peter and to all pastors, “Feed
my sheep. Preach the gospel. Forgive sins.”
And
on the last day, all authority will remain his.
And what will he say? He will say
to the sheep who have been fed, to those who labored and found rest in his
wounds, to those who needed the gospel and received the forgiveness of their
sins: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world.”
First he
calls us blessed. This is how we know
right now that we are among his sheep. “My
sheep hear My voice,” he says, “and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life. And no one will be able to snatch them out of
my hand.” First, he calls us
blessed. “Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord does not impute iniquity.” First
he calls us blessed. We know we are
blessed even now because we are blessed by faith in this here promise – that
our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake, that they are covered by his blood, that
instead of our guilt, God imputes the righteousness of his Son who bore our
guilt for us. First we are blessed. Faith is certain of this. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord
from henceforth.”
But what
follows? “Yea,’ saith the Spirit, ‘that
they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.”
Our
works follow us. They follow us into the
grave. They follow us into the
judgment. They follow us into the
inheritance that is prepared for us by Christ who saves us. Our works follow us. This is why Jesus will say:
“for I was hungry
and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and
you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me;
I was in prison and you came to Me.”
It
is no good to ignore this plain fact that the Bible teaches us: we will be
judged by our works. We will. But look how he judges us. What works does he mention? He doesn’t speak of some great status of
holiness that we arrived at while living here.
He doesn’t speak of how we conquered our sins and truly gave our life to
the Lord. He mentions nothing of the
sort. Rather, he praises the righteous
works that his saints do for their fellow Christians on earth. And we do.
We are called to holiness. He
calls us blessed because of what he has done.
But he blesses not just what we are; he blesses what we do.
He
praises the mother who nurtured her children at home, who clothed and fed them
and nursed them to health with the knowledge that they she was tending to the
least of Christ’s brothers and sisters who are called great in the kingdom of
God. She received no thanks on earth,
but she will be blessed by Jesus. He
praises the father who taught his children the word of God, who raised them to
fear and love their Father in heaven by bringing them to the Divine Service of
his Son, and ranking this more highly than whatever other hobby or profit might
have otherwise been pursued on Sunday morning.
Such a father is mocked by the world, but Jesus will remember his work
in heaven. He praises the pastor who
preached the word of God faithfully, even though this put him in prison or made
him a social outcast and a seeming failure in the eyes of the world. Having fed the lambs of the Good Shepherd, the
Good Shepherd will receive this service as having been fed himself. Jesus praises the Christian who hungered and
thirsted for righteousness and so supported his pastor who preached the gospel
and saw to it that his needs were met. The
gospel is free. But Jesus will see to it
that your kindness be praised in the judgment, because your kindness is not
shown to man, but to your God who became man for you.
Jesus
praises the one who served him by serving his Christians on earth. His Christians are the most precious things
he owns – as precious to him as his own glory.
They are his eternal inheritance.
Everything that we do for one another, every effort to be reconciled
with a brother or sister who annoys us, every word of defense or olive branch
we extend will be praised by the Son of Man as a precious service rendered to
him. Every exhortation to live a godly
life or to go to church will be praised.
Every gift that you have offered to a believer in Christ will be
cherished for all eternity by him who has already given you the gift of
life.
Our
works follow us. Just as good works
follow the faith that justifies, so our good works will follow us who are
already eternally blessed. Lord, when did we? will be answered kindly
since all that we are and do is covered by the blood that bought us and that
renders us fit for glory. Lord, when did we not? will be silenced
forever. Those who do not love the
forgiveness of sins work for themselves.
Their good deeds and pleasant words and noble thoughts will all be
exposed as the sins that they are. They
did not serve Christ, because they would not be served by him. But we are.
We are served by him who takes our exposed consciences, our revealed
hearts, our lives that seem more filled with sin than anything praiseworthy,
and he forgives us. He gives us his
inheritance. He gives us to live with
one another in love today, and with him in joy forever – in the eternal Day of
his divine glory. Amen.
