“The Sheep and the Goats—Which One Are You?”
Matthew 25:31-46

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Christ the King Sunday–Last Sunday in the Church Year—November 23, 2014

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

We consider today’s Gospel Reading under the theme: “The Sheep and the Goats—Which One Are You?”

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’” 

The purpose of those words is to convince us that it is impossible for us to save ourselves by our good works.  For, in order to save yourself, you would have to live a life of perfect sacrifice; you would have to never once say “no” to anyone in need.  And, if just once you have ever failed to help anyone, then you haven’t done enough, you aren’t worthy to enter the kingdom.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  By nature we are all, every one of us, part of the goats, we all deserve the judgment of eternal damnation: “Depart from me into eternal fire!”

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you.”  The sheep who enter the kingdom are called “the righteous.”  How can you be one of the sheep, how can you be one of righteous?

The Greek word used here for “righteous” does not mean righteous in and of yourself, not inherently righteous or self-righteous, but declared righteous, pronounced righteous by someone else.  “Come, you who are blessed by my Father.”  “This is how God showed his love for us: He sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through him. . .  he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Jesus fulfilled God’s Law, perfectly, for you; Jesus died as a sacrifice to pay for your sins; Jesus rose from the dead for your justification, to make you right with God.  That is how you become one of the sheep, that is how you become one of the righteous.  You are declared righteous, pronounced righteous by God, not because of your own good works, but through faith in Jesus.  You are saved by Christ’s good works on your behalf.  Paul puts it this way: “Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. . . This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. . .  he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

But, if we are not saved because of our good works, what does Jesus mean when he says: “Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me’”?  You could get the idea from those words that we will be saved on account of our good works.  But, actually, the exact opposite is true: It’s not that we are saved because we do good works; rather, we do good works because we are saved.  Good works aren’t the cause of our salvation, but evidence of our salvation.

It’s like saying, “It’s raining outside because the sidewalk’s wet.”  Is the wet sidewalk the cause of the rain or evidence of the rain?  Or, “It’s getting cold because the thermometer’s dropping.”  Is the thermometer the cause the cold or evidence of the cold?  In the same way, when Jesus cites the good works of the righteous, he does not mean our good works are the cause of our salvation but evidence of our salvation.

We can see this is in the surprised attitude of the righteous.  If they were expecting to earn their own salvation, when the Judge says, “Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you,” they would answer, “Yes, Lord, we’re gettin’ what we deserve!”  But, instead, “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’”  You can see from the surprised reaction of the righteous that we are not to look upon our good works as racking up points to earn our way into heaven.

God does expect us to do works of Christian love, not to earn salvation, but out of gratitude to him, in response to his love for us.  John says, “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. . .  Let us love not only with words, but also with actions.”  Our works of Christian love are a confession of our faith, as Jesus says, “I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit. . .  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  This morning we confess our Christian faith with WORDS, by what we say, in the Apostles’ Creed.  Every day we confess our faith with WORKS, by what we do, our works of Christian love. 

It is only because you have this motive behind your works that Jesus says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”  Because you do it FOR him it’s just as if you do it TO him.  Because you did it as a confession of your faith, out of love for him, in response to his love for you.  Without that motivation, without faith in Jesus, the exact same action would not be a good work in God’s eyes, but actually unacceptable to him.

Computer software often has what’s called a translation filter.  A translation filter takes incompatible data from one kind of software and translates it for use with a different kind of software.  Isaiah says, “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”  The bad news is, we cannot fulfill God’s Law perfectly; we are not worthy to enter his kingdom, and even what seem to be our good works are incompatible with his perfect holiness.   But, the Good News is, God forgives your sins, he declares you righteous.  And for Jesus’ sake he also accepts your works, as thank-offerings to him in response to his love.  He accepts your works, not because your works have any merit in and of themselves, but he takes your works and puts them through the “translation filter” of Jesus’ blood and righteousness, so that your works become acceptable in his sight.  That is why at the Final Judgment, Jesus will commend you saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  Come, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you.”