Matthew 25:40b-46
Jesus Incognito
Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall
Matt. 25:40b (part 2) (Holman) " . . .you did for Me."
The sheep's beautiful, unassuming kindnesses should speak volumes to us. They were not measuring what rewards might come their way.
Unlike these attractive sheep, many help others in order to earn merit, receive publicity, or up our self-esteem. These are nothing short of disguised selfishness. If we do kindnesses for reward, we are serving us, not God, and our virtue is no longer virtue. The best and only true giving is grace giving.
Jesus is more among us than we realize. We readily know He is with us through His Word, His Holy Spirit, and His followers. Our text says He is also present among us in an extraordinary way through the marginalized. In every act of practical benevolence we do for the disadvantaged, there is an element of mystery, of something beyond us we are not capable of seeing.
Jesus is still among us, continuing to relate to us intimately. Saul of Tarsus learned this the hard way. He thought he was persecuting only Christ-followers, but when he hit the ground on Damascus Road, he heard Jesus ask, "Why are you persecuting Me" (Acts 9:4b)?
Jesus is often incognito among us. This explains why according to this parable our everlasting existence is affected by the way we interact with the suffering; how we relate to the poor and needy tells us how we are relating to Jesus. Our actions toward them show where we stand in relation to Him.
In fact, by showing practical benevolence to people who are hurting, we receive double evidence of being God's children. By showing sympathy to the sick, hungry, poor, and neglected, we show we have Jesus Himself residing in us because, one, this is what He did while on Earth in the flesh, and two, we help Him, for He was poor, naked, hungry, thirsty, sick, etc.
In our day, we cannot touch Jesus, see Him, or help Him directly, as did Mary and Martha, and the woman who washed His feet, and Simon of Cyrene. Our kindnesses for Him have to be done through others. This is no small detail for a person like me, whose love language is touching.
The needy matter. Do not misjudge others by underrating them. It might be hard to see Jesus in someone who is rude, distant, or living in some sin we artificially deem extra hideous. Who can see Jesus in a beggar, in a prisoner, in people hungry and thirsty, or in someone eaten up with illness?
To look at people as representatives of Jesus lifts their value in our appraisals of them. They become more important to us, and when this happens, they sense our attitude of acceptance toward them. Seeing Jesus in the needy is a concept the Church better embraced in earlier years.
St. Martin's Church, in Basel, Switzerland, has on its front wall a statue of Martin of Tours, who was a Christian Roman soldier. One cold winter day a beggar stopped him, and asked for alms. Having no money, Martin took off his soldier's coat, used his sword to cut it in two, and gave half to the shivering beggar. That night Martin dreamed he saw Jesus in Heaven wearing half a coat. An angel asked, "Master, why are you wearing that tattered old cloak?" Jesus answered, "My servant Martin gave it to me."
A monk once picked up an unknown crippled man to take him to get help. As they approached the monastery, the Abbott saw them and said, "Open the gates; our brother monk is coming; and he is carrying the Lord."
Francis of Assisi was rich but unhappy early in life. One day he saw a leper whose disease had made him repulsively ugly. Francis threw his arms around the sufferer. He later claimed the face of the leper suddenly changed to the face of Jesus. Francis' life was forever changed in that moment.
The worth of a pearl fallen in the dust cannot be accurately weighed until you look past the dirt, focus on the pearl, and weigh it. Even so it is with others. We do not know their worth till we value the Pearl within them.
Matt. 25:41-45 Then He will also say to those on the 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 didn't take Me in; I was naked and you didn't clothe Me, sick and in prison and you didn't take care of Me." Then they too will answer, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick or in prison, and not help You?" Then He will answer them, "I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either."
Hear the woeful tolling--nothing, nothing, didn't, didn't, didn't--"Like the falling of clods on the coffin" (Robertson). They committed no major crimes: no murder, theft, or adultery. Many of them dutifully observed the Ten Commandments, and lived moral, ethical lives. They did not take away food, drink, and clothes from the needy. They did not put people in prison or exile them from their houses. Their downfall resulted from sins of omission.
They did not learn from the sin of Ammon and Moab, who angered God not by attacking Israel, but by not meeting God's people with bread and water (Deut. 23:3-4). The goats neglected their duty, like the foolish virgins who did not bring enough oil, and the sinful slave who did not use his talent.
What was so bad about the goats' sins of omission? In them Jesus was totally left out. By their not being kind, He received no praise and no honor.
No one was ever saved from Hell because of what the goats did. They did absolutely nothing that could have been done to point others to Jesus.
Their non-actions proved they had devalued and rejected Jesus. In whatever giving they did do, there was no thought of concern about Him.
They for sure never supposed Jesus was in the needy or poor. They completely separated Him from daily life, and relegated Him to oblivion. On the final day, Jesus will tell them, "Somewhere in all this, you missed Me."
Matt. 25:46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life.
The doctrine of everlasting condemnation causes many to not believe the Christian message. We dread discussing this, but if Jesus spoke of it, we must too. Also, we must realize our loved ones will lose if we neglect it.
Many of our doctrines are controversial, including the virgin birth, the blood atonement, the resurrection, the deity and exclusivity of Christ. Paul did not stop preaching the cross because it was a stumbling block to many.
Heaven and Hell are both mysteries. Everlasting bliss does not make sense. Infinite gifts beyond our understanding await believers, but we know we can never be good enough to earn this much reward. We humans are the ones who destroyed Eden's perfection. We sent the world into chaos, and marred the ideal of God's Kingdom in the world, yet we can go to Heaven.
We also struggle with everlasting retribution. How do we reconcile such a terrible punishment with a God of love? For one thing, we have to define love precisely. Much of what we call love is sentimentality. Another pitfall is; we often do not grasp how bad sin is.
John A. Broadus (1827-1895), one of our greatest Southern Baptist patriarchs, felt it would help if we constantly remembered punishment is not the same for all: "The great fact that there will be degrees in future punishment--as well as in future rewards--ought to be more prominent in religious instruction." I also like another of Broadus' statements, "God is certainly a better judge than we are, as to what is consistent with his goodness." In the final analysis, we stand beside Abraham, the father of faith, and say, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25).
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