Getting Ready, Part 3

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Good Morning!


Yesterday, we finished our mini-series in Matthew 25 by looking at the famous (and controversial) section often entitled The Sheep and the Goats. (You can find it here for easy reference).


One way of looking at it is that the passage works on at least three levels.


The first level is as a general encouragement / warning to help those who need it. The writer to the Hebrews says that in welcoming strangers, some people have entertained angels unaware.


The second level is by noticing that the specific people Jesus talks about the importance of welcoming are "these brothers and sisters of mine, even the least of them". The only people in Matthew who Jesus ever calls his brothers and sisters are those who follow him (Matt 12:47-50 is a good example). Ditto with those Jesus calls "little" or "least" - it's always those who follow him. Jesus is talking specifically here about the importance of helping other believers.


He even says that's how he can tell who really loves him – it's the people who love his family. That's not saying that we need to stoke up our love for other Christians; it's saying that love for other Christians naturally flows out of loving Jesus. If we don't love other Christians, we need to focus on our relationship with Jesus and on making sure we really love him. (Of course, that doesn't mean we have to like other Christians all the time, but we keep on loving them as family...)


I'm not saying for one moment we shouldn't and help love non-Christians too, or that we need to feel responsible for the fact that we can't help everyone all the time. Galatians 6:10 is a really helpful verse for keeping perspective.


Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.


One of the most encouraging things about my job comes from seeing Christians doing good to each other, often behind the scenes, not for praise or admiration, but out of love for God.


But the third level of reading the passage comes from seeing that Jesus is speaking to his disciples here, and asking where they fit into the story he tells. They aren't the big crowd of all the nations/Gentiles, but they aren't bystanders either. They are the key exhibit in the trial. Jesus points to them and says "these brothers and sisters of mine".


Jesus sends us out into the world not as people who have it all sorted, but as people who get hungry and sick, who need feeding and clothing. And he goes with us, so that when people persecute us, they persecute him (e.g. Acts 9:4), when they welcome us they welcome him, when they make fun of us, they make fun of him. People's response to us is their response to Jesus. No-one can truthfully say "I love Jesus, but not Christians".


And as people welcome us, so we share more and more of Jesus with them, and so they come to welcome him into their lives in name as well as in deed.

May we know God going with us this week, equipping us for his service!


God bless,


John

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