Last Sunday of the Church Year
November 26th,
Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s
Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Anticipating the Arrival of Our King
Matthew 25:31-46
Imagine for moment that you a Brit, and a
fervent supporter of the British monarchy.
Life circumstances cause you to live in America, but you are all in for
the House of Windsor, including it’s relatively new head, King Charles the III,
sovereign of the United Kingdom. You
have his picture hanging in your living room, follow all the news of the royal
family, and generally think they are the bomb.
Then, to your great excitement, you find out
King Charles is coming to visit America.
He’s even coming to your town, to see you, specifically! You haven’t been told when, exactly. But soon, you are promised, by people in the
know.
How would you behave? What would you do to prepare for the king’s
visit? What would say to your American
friends and neighbors about his imminent arrival? I think you might get your things in order
and organize your life so that you would be ready and available at a moment’s
notice to attend to your king. You’d
probably tell your American neighbors about it, and with pleasure. Now, you’d likely have to do some explaining
to them, as to why you are so excited.
Because, while some Americans will tune in to watch a coronation or a
royal wedding, most of us don’t tend to be all that interested in British
royalty, or any royalty, for that matter.
Which is too bad. Not because I care much about King
Charles. But we American Christians,
along with Christians from every nation, are waiting for our King. We could learn a thing or two from how we
expect our hypothetical British friend to behave when he finds out that King
Charles is coming to visit him. Indeed,
one of the most difficult challenges of Christian life is Christ’s call for
believers to live watchfully, eagerly expecting His Final Return, and to have
this reality shape our lives every day.
A difficult challenge, because it has been a very long time, and Christ
has not yet returned on the clouds, as He promised.
Three Sundays in a row, our readings have
focused our attention on the Final Return of Jesus, with the Parable of the
Wise and Foolish Virgins, the Parable of the Talents, and now today, with
Jesus’ vivid description of the Final Judgement, when He will separate the
righteous and the wicked, the sheep and the goats. These three Gospel readings come one after
the other in Matthew, chapter 25.
Chapter 24 was all about the End as well.
Directly
following today’s Gospel, the betrayal of Jesus unfolds, our Lord transforms the
Passover into the Eucharist, the Holy Supper, and the drama of salvation
reaches it’s climax. The last topic
Jesus chose to teach the 12, before entering suffering and death, was all about
the End, His Final Return, and how He expected His servants, His disciples, His
Church, to behave while they waited.
From the Wise Virgins, we learned of
Christ’s call for us to watch diligently, by keeping our lamps and flasks full
of the oil of God’s Word, so that when the cry goes out and our Bridegroom
returns, the flame of our faith will be burning, and we will be welcomed into
the wedding feast. We are to watch for
our King’s return, not by staring into the heavens day and night, but rather by
being continually filled up with His Word, by which the Holy Spirit creates and
maintains our faith. Let the Word of Christ
dwell in you richly! (Colossain 3:16) Do not give up gathering together,
as is the habit of many, but encourage one another, especially as you see the
Day drawing near! (Hebrews 10:25)
Oil turns to silver in the Parable of the
Talents, as Jesus instructs us to invest the treasure He left His Church,
before His Ascension to God’s right hand.
That treasure is, first and foremost, the Gospel, the teaching of the
faith, the Bad News of our just condemnation by God’s Law, because of our sin,
and the life-giving Good News of free forgiveness, won by Christ for every
sinner, when He shed His blood on Golgotha.
We, the Church, are not to bury our talent, keep our treasure to
ourselves. Rather we are to invest it in
the world, so that God may receive a return.
God’s desired return is more and more forgiven and restored people,
recreated as His children, to live with Him forever. Indeed, the many material blessings and time
and energy that the Lord gives each one of us are to be stewarded for the good
of our greater stewardship, the stewardship of the Gospel, a project in which
the Lord has graciously included us.
The Virgins teach us that waiting for our
King is to include constantly receiving the faith, the teaching of Christ, for
the sake of keeping our own faith alive.
The Parable of the Talents teaches us that
in these End Times, our Coming King wants us to invest the treasure He has left
us, that the Lord’s desire for His Church is that we share the faith, not bury
it in a hole. One natural and expected
consequence of saving faith in the Gospel is the desire to share it, to support
and even participate in the proclamation of that same Good News to others.
With His description of the Sheep and Goats
Judgment, given just before finishing His salvation course, Christ Jesus
completes an End Times trilogy. Jesus
moves naturally from one aspect of End Times living to the next.
After first teaching us to always be
receiving the faith, then to always be sharing the faith, finally He describes
the kinds of good works which will flow from Christian faith. Faith alone saves, but faith is never alone;
it always produces fruit, good works of love in the lives of Christians. The loving work of Christ in us sinners
always produces works of love towards other people in our lives, including the
least of these brothers and sisters of the King.
The righteous sheep do not think they are
earning Christ’s favor when they serve their neighbors. Nor does Jesus say that the sheep are saved because they feed the hungry,
welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, or visit the sick and the
imprisoned. But our King is immensely
pleased with these good works, because, as He explains: the Lord of heaven and
earth receives these good works, done for the least of His brothers, as good
works done for Him, personally. Just as
Jesus informed the persecuting Pharisee Saul that his attacks on Christians were
really an attack on Christ, so also, a good deed done for a Christian is truly
to bless and serve God’s Son, our Coming King!
And should the good works of Christians spill
over and benefit unbelievers, Christ also rejoices, because He died for all,
and is reaching out to all, through His Church.
Receiving the Word of Christ and sharing the Word of Christ fill
Christians with the Love of Christ, which spills over into good works for people
in need. Often, the Holy Spirit uses
these good works as a bridge for the Gospel, moving from some good gift to the
best gift, from a material blessing to the blessing of the Gospel. And thus God draws more sinners to Himself,
through His Church. This is the shape of
the life Christ the King teaches His disciples to live, as they await His
return.
From the virgins we also learned that a
failure to keep our lamps and flasks full of the Word of Christ is a sign of
unbelief. Believers in Christ need His
Word, love His Word, and seek His Word.
But the unbeliever, the sinner, who sadly remains in every Christian throughout
this life, can gain the upper hand. Our
sinful nature tempts us to drift from, or even to despise God’s Word. Then our personal faith is endangered, and
eventually, our flame can be snuffed out.
From the Talents, we learned that a failure
to invest the treasure of the Gospel in the lives of others also flows from
unbelief, from false faith, like believing the lie that our Lord is a hard
master, someone to fear.
So also, from the goats we learn that a
failure to serve the least of these is a sign of unbelief. A disciple who is loveless is obviously not
filled with the love of Christ, which comes to us by faith. For it is the love of Christ which both creates
our trust in His forgiveness, and moves us to love our neighbors.
The Sheep and Goats Judgment that our Lord
describes has always been troubling for Christians, for the Church, in every
age. As it should be. It is good and right that you should be
worried about whether you will be counted a sheep or a goat. Because all of us behave like goats, far more
than we care to admit. The world and the
sinner within tell us to take care of ourselves, and to not get involved with
needy people. Because that will cost you. And who knows how much?
And, this is true. Helping others is an imposition; it can be
unpleasant at times; it can be hard, a real sacrifice. But it is also the best way to live, the way
to truly find joy. How do we know
this? Because our King Jesus did
it.
God’s Son had it all: glory, power, the
adoration of the heavenly hosts. But He
set all that aside, to come and serve. To
help broken, dying people. To save you,
and to save me. This was Jesus’ will,
His desire, because it was His Father’s will and desire. So for the joy set before Him, Jesus came and
humbled Himself and served the lowest of people, even though it cost Him His
own life. Before any of us were born,
Jesus came and served us, taking our sin and brokenness and death, so He could
give us His righteousness and eternal life in return.
This is your King, who comes to you through
His Word and Sacrament every day. This
is your King, who is coming, visibly, someday soon, riding on the clouds. He will return to welcome all His faithful people into the
inheritance that the Father has prepared for you from the foundation of the
world.
Trust in in your King. Look forward to His return, and ask Him to
help you learn to serve, even to find joy in serving the needy people He brings
into your life. You don’t have to travel
far to find people to serve. Start close
to home. Start in your home, in your
family, in your neighborhood, in your
congregation. Seek to serve others, as
you have been served by Jesus. Pray that
your King will help you serve.
He who
has fulfilled your every need will do it, and heaven will rejoice, in the Name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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