Matthew 25:40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you,
to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least
of them, you did it to Me.’”
So
there is this wonderful little parable that Jesus tells to His disciples at the
tail end of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 25.
In it He depicts two types of people:
#1 those that feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in a
stranger, cloth the naked, comfort the sick and visit those in prison, #2 those
who don’t. Jesus says, on the day of
judgment, that #1 will get the ticket to ride on the J-Train (permission not
given by Toby Mac to say that but he doesn’t read my blog, YET) and #2 will get
thrown into eternal punishment; presumably the outer darkness where there is
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Not sure
exactly what that means but whatever it is, it is scary and sounds about as
peaceful as being tumble dried with a family of porcupines.
If you
are like me, you have probably excluded yourself from among those at the porcupine
laundromat because we are decent people.
We would certainly not pass over someone who wanted a drink or tell a
sick person they should just go find a hospital and stop bothering you. That being the case, we are good, right? Well… not so fast. I am of the opinion, and I think the theology
bears out, that there is a much deeper layer that Christ is showing us. And like me also, we may have neglected a few
things. You see, if this is all about
physical things we do for people then doesn’t that mean that Christ and His
sacrifice are unnecessary to my salvation?
He says it right in the red letters!! As long as you take care of these
people you will be welcomed into the Kingdom with open arms. Or so it seems. But to believe that would mean we have to
throw out almost the entire New Testament (and Old for that matter) to hold on
to our faulty conclusion; including the most known verse from Tim Tebow 3:16….errr…
John 3:16 “For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” So if Tim Tebow is right, and we
get into the Kingdom by repentance and believing on the sacrifice of Christ to
pay the penalty of our sins, what the heck is Jesus talking about here? And what do hungry people have to do with
anything? That is why I believe there is
another layer.
Go back
and read Matthew 25:34-46 for a minute……
Seriously…… Dude, go read
it!! I will wait…. You didn’t do it did you? Sigh.
Ok, now then, as I mentioned, Jesus points out six different categories of
people we are to help. And He addresses
the physical need of what should be done to help them. But in every parable there is always a
spiritual meaning underneath; something the disciples generally ask about and
Jesus will explain but in this case He did not and we are on our own. That explains why for so many years I thought
I was doing just fine. I get the
physical needs: food and water, place to stay, warm clothes, comfort to the
sick, visitation to the prisoners. But
what are the spiritual needs and am I meeting those needs?
Let’s
just roll through them one by one.
First, the hungry. They need
food. But they need to be fed
spiritually. Jesus is the Bread of Life,
Jesus is the Word, therefore meet their spiritual needs by administering the
Word of God in their lives. See how easy
that is? Well they get harder.
Number
two, those who are thirsty. They need water. Jesus gives living water and in John 4 says
that if you take of His cup you will have a well of water springing up to
eternal life. So what am I supposed to
do Jesus? Dig wells? No. I
mean you can, but they won’t save anyone.
Well, yes but not spiritually.
Ugh. I should have thought this through
before I typed. Digging wells and giving
people water is awesome, do that. But it
will only have eternal value if it is combined with the giving of living water. In John 4:37-39 Jesus clarifies that the
living water is the Holy Spirit. But
that doesn’t really help me a lot because I can’t tell the Holy Spirit where to
go or what to do. John 3:8 says He goes
where He wants to go. So how do I
spiritually give someone something to drink?
How about by offering them eternal life?
Telling others about the sacrifice of Christ, the water of repentance,
the washing of the sins, the bathing of the Holy Spirit and receiving of the “sloppy
wet” kisses of the Father (don’t worry Matt Redmond also not a fan). Dig a well, yes. As deep as the soul and fill the need by
inviting the Holy Spirit to take up residence.
Have you ever done that? A little
more than just handing out water bottles after a hurricane, huh?
Then
there is the stranger. He needs a place
to stay; a home. We may not invite
strangers into our home much anymore but certainly you would be available to
take someone if given the right circumstances and safety assurances. But what about spiritually? What could a stranger need? Well, pretty much the same thing. They need a home, some place to belong; a
family. We can accomplish this by
inviting someone to be a part of the Church eternally. That can start by inviting someone to YOUR
church, to be a part of YOUR family and to belong as a part of a body of
believers where YOU worship. And if that
is too much how about just introducing yourself to someone that seems to have a
spiritual need. It worked well enough
for Forest Gump! Momma said not to be
taking rides from strangers but Forest introduced himself to bus driver Dorothy
Harris and then said, “Well now we ain’t strangers any more.” If it was in the movies, then God surely
approves of this tactic. Rolling
eyes. I think however you do it, the
emphasis is on being spiritually welcoming and eternally minded.
As for
the naked, this could get interesting.
Not so sure I would recommend welcoming a naked stranger into your home
but luckily Jesus separates the two so we don’t get into trouble. First you have to clothe them. And spiritually? Well this is up for interpretation but God
not only clothes us in Christ but He clothed us another time too, remember it’s
parallel in Scripture? It was in the
garden of Eden and He did so because Adam and his wife were naked and
ashamed. Contrary to a sometimes popular
opinion, church is not the place for fancy dressed parishioners. It is the place for those who need to be
clothed in Christ and a place where the shamed should be able to come in naked
and find refuge. Not a place for
judgmental stares but a place for warm blankets of love and compassion for
those in need of spiritual balm. Back to
the answer we have to give the King, you may drop off used clothes at the
Goodwill but do you sit next to the new visitor who wore shorts because he doesn’t
usually go to church and wasn’t aware of your dress code? Do you pray with him? Did you invite him to lunch? Me either.
As for
the sick and those in prison, I want to address them together. Physically they both need comfort and
visitors, but why did Jesus separate them out into two groups? Well, once again it is open for opinion but
as always I have one. These are the
people who can’t leave and we have to go to them. In both cases they are people who we don’t just
come across in daily life but we have to be intentional about going out to them. Maybe this is just your neighbor or maybe
this is foreign missions, but either way they need you to go to them and bring
them comfort and healing. Who is the
Healer? Who is the Comforter? Okay, so you know what they need spiritually but
again, why did Jesus separate them? You
see I think there are two types of people who need us to go to them. There are the sick: those who are ignorant of their sin and
ignorant of the love of Christ. Then there
are those in prison: those who are shackled in sin, desperate for a Deliverer
but set against Him. We are called to
both. It is a little easier to go to
those who are unaware than it is to go to those who are belligerently against
the message of Christ. It sure would be
nice if I could just tell Jesus to send someone else who has the particular
gift go to all the annoying and arrogant but He called all His disciples to go
to them. Even to the difficult
ones. Do you approach them with the
message of salvation or do you turn your eyes to the left and act like you don’t
see them? Me too.
Upon
further review. I don’t have it all
together. Maybe you are feeling the
same. Good. I don’t want to be alone with the
porcupines. No, that isn’t what would
happen. This does not mean, Christian,
that you would lose your salvation for pinching your nose rather than giving a
Bible to a homeless man. But what it
does mean is that if I am not meeting the spiritual needs of those in the world
than I am not yet arrived in my relationship with Christ and need to go
deeper. Don’t rest on your laurels in
your relationship with Christ. Go on
foreign missions, visit the darkest penitentiary, hand out encouraging letters
in the hospital….but don’t forget WHY you are there. To expose them to the Bread of Life, pour out
to them living water, give them a home of belonging, cover their guilt and
shame, disciple their ignorance and undo their shackles in the name of
Christ. Yes the porcupines await some
but the love of God awaits you and that is your inspiration to go. So go!
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