Year A

Matthew 25:31-46

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Kingdom of the Just

We have come to the final Sunday of the Church year known as Christ the King Sunday. Next Sunday begins the season of Advent when we leave the year of Matthew gospel and find our gospel readings in liturgical year B are mostly from the gospel of Mark. Today, we celebrate the power of the One whose life and ministry we, his faithful followers and sheep have been following since last year’s season of Christmas. The faith of the church affirms that the final outcome of all history and its existence is the Reign of Christ as King. This imagery seems rather quaint in a world where the whole idea of kingship is slowly dying and in a nation that does not have kings. Therefore, Christ’s kingship or kingdom seems like a concept with very little relevance for most in our world today.

This seems especially true this weekend that has had to compete with one of the secular culture’s high holidays—the busiest shopping weekend of the year, with Black Friday deals enticing consumers into retail outlets and massive shopping on line. Yet, the deal Jesus offers us today to be sheep rather than a goat for us is a far more important offer to take advantage of than the fleeting Black Friday bargains. This offer or invitation to Jesus’ kingdom, to his reign as our King and Shepherd which is not massively advertised, we accept though small actions in our everyday lives. All our readings today point us to how as a true and just shepherd King, God cares for us because we are God’s own which leads us to care for one another.

Ezekiel’s prophecy today uses the language of the shepherd to describe ancient Israel’s situation. He speaks harshly about the false shepherds, the religious and political leaders of God’s people. They don’t feed the sheep, care for the weak ones, or heal the sick ones. They don’t look for the lost ones or protect the sheep against predators. They take advantage of the sheep. The good shepherd makes sure that every sheep in the flock is accounted for and taken care of. Yet, these kings have let the flock wander away and do not care to leave their comfy thrones to bring the lost back into the fold. Into this situation, Ezekiel prophesies that God will intervene as the true Shepherd, thus setting in place a different reality for the flock.

God will search, seek out, rescue, bring out, gather, feed, bind up, and strengthen. These actions demonstrate a compassionate caring for the leaderless sheep as well as an insistence on justice.  What we see in Ezekiel’s prophecy is God committing to a promise, the promise of salvation: “I will rescue my flock.”  This does not mean that God steps in to rescue us from all hardship. The people of Israel first heard these words during the most painful and tough experiences of their lives. Ezekiel’s message is a word of hope amid the experiences of exile. These are words of a God who takes our plight and condition seriously. For Christians, these words point to the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, even as they point to the work to be accomplished in his ministry of salvation. We are no longer subject to false kings and lords.

It is just this message that that the psalmist picks up on today and celebrates in praise as a song to the God of Israel who reigns as king. Paul also grasped this today, for the hymn of praise that opens his letter to the Ephesians is an extended celebration of the gloriousness of God’s grace. What Ezekiel’s prophecy yearns for, a new social reality brought about around God as Shepherd, and what the psalmist praises God for, is precisely, Paul contends, what is realized in Jesus Christ. In Christ, a different kind of leadership has begun and therefore a different way of being human in relationship to God and in relationship to each other has been put into place. The love followers of Christ have toward each other is a demonstration of their faith in Jesus Christ.

They interact with each other as belonging to God, and not according to the false lords of society-what Paul calls the principalities, the powers, the dominions or the social and political structures of his day-the Black Friday frenzy. Paul gives thanks for the believers in Ephesus and commends them for their love for all the saints. He prays for their wisdom, for their inheritance, and for God’s power to work in them as it did in Christ when he was resurrected. In this prayer, Christ is lifted up, and the church, as Christ’s body is exalted with him, privileged to participate in God’s transformation of the world. This is the great inheritance of which Paul reminds the saints in Ephesus, that “the hope to which he has called you” becomes the gift of participation in God’s saving work.

The whole letter to the Ephesians is written to encourage and strengthen the believers to continue the work of Him who is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named…the head over all things for the church, which is His body.” And now the body, the church faces the ethics of God in Jesus Christ. God wills to be known through Christ and in all human life. This means that all life is sacred and marked by human dignity. This care for all human life is reflected in Jesus’ message today in Matthew. Again the image of the shepherd is held up as the best representation of a just king who cares for his flock. In Matthew, Jesus, as king on his throne will judge the flock based on their actions.

This vision of the judgment of humankind where Jesus reigns, both the sheep and the goats have the same opportunities to show kindness in small ways, and they choose differently. Following Jesus means attending to the needs of the sick, the homeless, the imprisoned and the social outcasts. For their humanity is the humanity of God in Jesus Christ. All who attend to the least and vulnerable in any way are blessed by God and have in fact done what they have done to Jesus, who identifies himself as every vulnerable person to whom help is offered. The good news is that we may now treat all people as if we were serving Jesus. It is more than “what would Jesus do,” but rather “who will we be because of what God has done for us.”

Jesus teaches us today that God’s reign- the full revelation of which we wait-is characterized in the present, not by powerful works and miracles, but by deeds of love, mercy, and compassion, especially toward the most in need. Jesus’ kingly ministry is to be reflected in our exercise of shepherding care. We are God’s people, the sheep of God’s pasture under the care and love of God as God’s sheep. People need to experience the kind of care described by the prophet Ezekiel in putting forth God’s justice and as Matthew calls out those who do not do justice. And we in whom the resurrection power of Christ resides, Paul, tells us we need to feel a part of God’s work in the world. Therefore, may God grant that, in a world which yearns for the kingdom of the just, we might become that very mercy.