Trinity 26

Matthew 25:31-46- Trinity 26- November 13, 2011 

  We Shall Be Judged by Our Works

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.”  The Son of Man is a title that Jesus frequently uses for Himself that puts especial emphasis on His human nature as true man born of the Virgin Mary.  As Jesus said, e.g. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  During His earthly life, Jesus hid His glory as the Son of God behind a lowly appearance, so that, besides the occasional miracle, all people could see was His humanity – a man like anyone else.  Yet while Jesus hid from the world His divine nature, He nonetheless remained fully God.  By hiding His glory, and submitting Himself to the law, Jesus served sinners as only God is able to do, all the way to the cross where He suffered and died in our place.  It is this man who is going to return to judge all the living and the dead for all eyes to see. 

Jesus was glorified when He was raised from the dead, but He continues now to hide His glory.  In fact, today Jesus hides not only His divine nature, but also His human nature.  Think about it.  We can’t see Him.  We can’t touch Him.  Just as He once hid His eternal glory in humility as a man, so He now hides both His divine and His human natures under even humbler appearances.  He comes to serve you through the words of sinful men like me.  But these words have God’s promise and power to forgive you your sins.  We see simple water, but through the promise of Christ, it is a washing of regeneration and a renewing of the Holy Spirit – It is a Holy Baptism that washes our sin away and gives us eternal life.  We see mere bread and wine.  That’s all we taste too.  But in it and through it the Son of Man comes to serve us with His own body and blood that bore our sin on the cross.  There is no greater glory in either heaven or on earth than where the incarnate Son of God forgives sinners their sins. 

When He was born, Jesus hid from the world His divinity.  When He ascended, Jesus hid from the world His humanity as well.  But when Jesus comes again, He will unhide both.  He will reveal to the world that He is both God and Man.  But that is not all He will unhide and reveal.  Every heart, every righteous deed ever done, and every sin ever committed will be publicly shown for what it has been.  And so, WE SHALL BE JUDGED BY OUR WORKS. 

“Before Him will be gathered all the nations.”  Right before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave the commission to His chosen Apostles to make disciples of all nations by baptizing, and teaching, and, well, by doing the very things that are still done right here at Trinity Lutheran Church.  Just as no one is excluded from the promise of the Gospel, which is for all nations, so also no one will be excluded when Jesus returns.  Everyone who rests in the grave will be raised.  As the Son of Man gathers all nations to Himself, His task will be clear.  There will be no trial; there will be no defense or deliberation.  No. Christ will sit on the throne of His glory and He will simply declare judgment on everyone who has ever lived.  

Jesus tells us that He will separate the righteous from the unrighteous as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  Many people have tried very hard to do the same thing today: to purify the church from all false believers.  And so they make up all sorts of rules for Christian behavior in order to set apart those who are truly committed to the Lord.  They imagine that by increasing the demands of the law, we can make God’s blessing more certain.  But the reason every attempt by man to separate the sheep and the goats always fails is for one simple reason: No matter how many rules or how much advice we follow, we remain incapable of separating ourselves from our sin.  Only God can do that.  And He does it through the Gospel alone. 

Only the forgiveness of sins is able to give to the righteous the righteousness they need.  When Jesus separates us from all unbelievers on the last day, it will be the final answering of all our prayers to lead us out of temptation and deliver us from evil.  But it won’t be a surprise.  We will not be standing there in anxious anticipation waiting for our names to be called, as the generations are slowly listed off.  No.  That’s not an accurate image to hold in your mind.  When Jesus will call us to be separated from all unrighteousness forever, He will use the same words that He uses today to separate us from our own unrighteousness.  He will call us with the words of the Gospel.  Listen to what He will say:  “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” 

Come.  Consider this word next to that which Jesus speaks to you as often as you hear His voice: “Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  “Come unto me, all you who are burdened by sin and guilt, and I will take it upon Myself.”  All who heed these words on earth will most certainly hear them again as we are ushered into the eternal rest that He has promised.  And who are those who are blessed by the Father forever other than those who were once baptized into the death of His Son?  It is there where we were first blessed by God and clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  It is there that we became co-heirs of everything that He earned in our place.  “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  Judgment Day won’t be the first time that Jesus will have spoken these words to us. 

When Christ will call us to Himself, we will respond by gathering to His right hand in the same way that we respond to His voice today by gathering where the word of God is preached and the sacraments are administered.  Now, this is not just flowery or poetic apocalyptic speech.  It is true.  God’s saints and the unbelievers will be separated on Christ’s Day of Judgment in the same way that we are separated today: by the Gospel.  “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.  He who does not believe shall be condemned.” 

O may we all hear when our Shepherd doth call
In accents persuasive and tender
That while there is time we make haste one and all
And find Him our mighty defender. 
Have mercy upon us O Jesus. 

God’s right hand represents the power of the Gospel to save us.  But Jesus will gather the goats on His left hand.  This means that they will be gathered far away and separate from the Gospel that they rejected.  The time to hear it will be over.  To all unbelievers, to all worshipers of false gods, to all atheists, all drunkards and fornicators, to all hypocrites who hide themselves in the church – Christ will say, “Depart from Me.”   

But they who have always resisted His grace
And on their own virtue depended
Shall then be condemned and cast out from His face
Eternally lost and unfriended.
Have mercy upon us O Jesus. 

We are saved from real sin and real death and real hell by grace alone, through faith alone without any merit or worthiness in us.  Those who trust in the merits of Christ alone in order to withstand God’s judgment will be welcomed into eternal life.  That is why we continually listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd who answers our prayer for mercy by leading us out of death and into life even today.  He requires nothing of us, but simply gives to us what He has earned by laying down His life for the sheep. 

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus teaches that WE SHALL BE JUDGED BY OUR WORKS.  But how does this fit?  We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and yet we will be judged by what we do?  Isn’t this a contradiction?  Let’s listen again to what Jesus will say: “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, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”  

Have you ever heard it said that if you notice a good work that you have done, then it ceases to be a good work?  I remember being told this.  And I suppose it might have helped to keep me from dwelling too much on my own goodness.  “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”  But this doesn’t mean that we don’t know what good works are.  We have learned the 10 Commandments.  We have been taught what it means to love and serve our neighbor.  And this is what we do.  Notice that the saints on Christ’s right hand don’t take issue with the fact that they did these things.  What throws them off is when Jesus said, “You did this to Me.” 

Christians cannot see Jesus.  He hides from us both His human and His divine natures.  In order to be served by Christ, we go to where the Gospel is preached and to where Jesus forgives us our sin in His holy Sacrament.  But in order to serve Christ, where do we go?  How do we show our gratitude?  Christians cannot see Jesus.  But we can see our neighbor.  St. Paul writes, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”   We serve Jesus by serving the least of His brothers, that is, by serving His Christians just as Christ served us. 

For surely Jesus hungered and thirsted as He suffered the load of our sin and acquired the righteousness for which we also hunger and thirst.  Therefore we also give good things to our brothers in need.  Surely Jesus was made a stranger to God, as His Father turned from Him His face in order to shine His gracious face upon us.  And so we too are kind to those who have no friends.  Surely Jesus was naked as He bore our sin on the cross, exposed to God’s judgment, even as He thereby earned the robe of righteousness that covers us in our shame.  And so we also cover and forgive the sins of those who sin against us.  Surely Jesus was sick and without strength as He was crushed by the heavy hand of justice.  Yet He undertook our salvation while we were yet without strength ourselves.  That is why we also lift up those who cannot stand.  Surely Jesus suffered the prison of hell and by so doing saved us from it, so that through His death, we might be set free and live.  That is why we also show compassion to those who are tied down and bound by the sins and cares of this world. 

When Christians bear each other’s burdens, they bear Christ’s burden.  That is what Jesus promises.  And God accepts our service to one another as though it were service rendered to Him – no matter how imperfect it is.  He does this by grace alone.  Through faith, all our unrighteousness is replaced by Jesus’ good works, and all our good works are perfected by Jesus’ righteousness.  Yes, WE SHALL BE JUDGED BY OUR WORKS.  But thank God that we are saved from condemnation only by the work that Jesus has done. 

The goats on Christ’s left hand will ask, “When did we see you in need, and not minister to you?”  Even unbelievers can do what appear to be good works.   But nothing that is done apart from faith in the Gospel can please God.  Our works cannot save us.  As Isaiah says, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”  That is why we continue to look to Christ for the righteousness that we need.   And we receive it.  We don’t look to what we have done or not done to see whether we are blessed by God.  Instead, we continue to listen to His word.  We hear His words of Grace that give us eternal life today, so that we will also hear His voice when He will welcome us into eternal life tomorrow. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.