Lectionary Reflections
Matthew 25:31-46
November 20, 2011

A friend of mine once worked in a toy factory in Burlington, New Jersey, during the summers when she was in college. Her job (and I am not making this up) was to supervise the making of the farm tops the company produced. The top contained a little farm scene with a barn in the middle, a cow and a sheep on one side and a goat and a pig on the other. Her job was to test the tops to see if they spun evenly. She said the faster she spun the tops, the more the animals blurred together. I couldn't help but think of this parable in picturing my friend on the assembly line spinning the farm top. Sheep/goat, sheep/goat, sheep/goat as the top spun faster and faster they blurred together until she couldn't tell one from the other: geep/shoat, geep/shoat, geep/shoat.

Who is a sheep and who is a goat? We may think we have a clear view of that distinction, and a solid basis on which to judge others, but this parable seeks to disabuse us of that self-righteous notion and turn the spotlight on our own actions.

The three parables that precede this one (The Talents, Bridesmaids, Unfaithful and Faithful Slaves) all stress waiting for and preparing (or not) for the return of Christ. This parable takes listeners forward to the moment the Son of Man comes in glory (v. 31). The nations are assembled and the sheep are separated from the goats (vv. 32-33). This parable is similar to the Rich Man and Lazarus in that the time to repent and be converted, the time to care for the poor on one's doorstep, is past. Judgment has arrived.

The parable emphasizes the connection between seeing a need and acting on it. It is reminiscent of the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke. The parable says that all three observers of the man in the ditch "saw him." The first two engaged in a twofold action. They "saw him" and then, in response to that sighting, they "passed by on the other side." The response of the third person is threefold. He "saw him," he was "moved with pity," and then he took concrete action to express his compassion and assist the injured man.

The sequence of seeing, having compassion, and acting is a common one in the gospels. In Luke's Gospel, when Jesus "saw" the woman weeping at the death of her only son, he "had compassion for her," and brought her son to life (Lk. 7:13). When the father "saw" the prodigal son "still far off . . . he was filled with compassion" and ran and embraced him (Lk. 15:20). Matthew and Mark repeatedly tell us that Jesus himself, when he "saw" the crowds, had compassion on them and healed, fed, and taught them (Mt. 9:36, 14:14, 15:32; Mk. 6:34, 8:2).

Here in the parable of the Last Judgment what makes some blessed is the fact that, though they didn't realize it, in seeing the poor and helping them, they saw and helped Jesus. By contrast, what makes others cursed is that they never really did see Jesus suffering and in need because they never really saw the poor. The king addresses each of two groups as either blessed or cursed and announces the consequences—enter into the kingdom or depart from him. He states his criterion for making these assignments, a need that they either met or did not meet: "I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, or in prison and you fed, gave me drink, welcomed me clothes me, visited me, came to see me."