The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats is about the judgment of \u201cthe nations\u201d (or \u201cgoyim\u201d to use the Hebraism that lies behind that translation.\u00a0 It is a term that refers to those \u201coutside the covenant people\u201d.\u00a0 For Jews, it meant Gentiles.\u00a0 For Christians, its meanng shifts to \u201cthose outside the household of faith\u201d.<\/p>\n
The hopeful implication of the story is that salvation does not extend merely to those in visible communion with the Church.\u00a0 None of the saved sheep had the slightest idea they were serving the King when they stand before him on Judgement Day.\u00a0 \u201cLord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, a prisoner?\u201d they all ask.\u00a0 They just thought they were doing the decent thing.\u00a0 They had no clue that in serving the least of these, they were rendering love and even worship to Jesus Christ himself.\u00a0 They may well have thought themselves atheists.\u00a0 They might have held any number of stupid philosophical opinions that were in error.\u00a0 Jesus doesn\u2019t care.\u00a0 They had it where it counted: they loved their neighbor and, in their neighbor, they loved God.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the upside of this parable of Judgment.\u00a0 The downside is the terrible warning we are given through story of the fate of the goats (for, of course, the parable is meant for us, not for the fictitious goats in the parable).<\/p>\n
I was thinking of that warning the other in connection to Jesus prayer for his murderers from the cross, \u201cForgive them, Father.\u00a0 They know not what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
We tend to hear that prayer as exculpating the guilty since we tend to assume that \u201cThey know not what they do\u201d means that the guilty are acting in some sort of exonerating ignorance, much as we say of the child that \u201che doesn\u2019t know any better\u201d.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n
Think about it. How does the plea, \u201cWe didn\u2019t realize it was You, Lord God of the universe.\u00a0 We just thought it was some powerless nobody we were torturing to death\u201d sound to you?\u00a0 \u201cWe just thought it was somebody we could traumatize and butcher with impunity.\u00a0 Not the all powerful Judge of the universe.\u00a0 We would never have beaten somebody into shock and then spiked them on a cross and laughed while they died if we thought we would not get away with it\u201d does not sound very exonerating to me.\u00a0 It sound more damning to me, not less.<\/p>\n
And, of course, the whole point of the parable is that every powerless nobody is, in fact, Christ in disguise.\u00a0 How we treat them is exactly the same way we treat Christ crucified. And his response is the same: forgive them, Father.<\/p>\n
What then of the end of the parable?\u00a0 Is God schizophenic?<\/p>\n
No. The end of the parable is the end of the story of the cross. We separate ourselves from God.\u00a0 The goats depart from the king into everlasting fire because they reject him.\u00a0 Nobody in hell wants to be in heaven.\u00a0 All in hell have what they insist on: their own way. Hell is not extrinsic to sin.\u00a0 It is sin in fruition.\u00a0 We are punished by, not for, our sins.\u00a0 God\u2019s will is always for our forgiveness.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats is about the judgment of \u201cthe nations\u201d (or \u201cgoyim\u201d to use the Hebraism that lies behind that translation.\u00a0 It is a term that refers to those \u201coutside the covenant people\u201d.\u00a0 For Jews, it meant Gentiles.\u00a0 For Christians, its meanng shifts to \u201cthose outside the household of faith\u201d. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[206],"class_list":["post-112677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-meditations"],"yoast_head":"\n