Trinity 26

Matthew 25:31-46 - Trinity 26 - November 17, 2013

The Sheep and the Goats

“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 the Son of God.  Jesus frequently applies this title to Himself in order to emphasize his human nature as true man born of the Virgin Mary.  As Jesus said, for instance, when he healed the paralytic, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins— Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”  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. 

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. 

Trinity 26

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. 

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: