In one of the parables Jesus tells in our reading for today—the final parable in Matthew's gospel—the righteous answer-- "'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? When was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these the members of my family, you did it to me'" (Matthew 25:37-40).
This parable contains elements of apocalyptic literature—in other words, it looks beyond the present age to describe "the end," the goal of history. Apocalyptic seeks to answer the question---What does all this we are going through now mean? It contains not only menace, but also comfort. And the comfort apocalyptic literature offers to persecuted minorities—and that is how the church of Matthew saw itself--is that their suffering has an ultimate, transcendent meaning. For those who have no hope in the present, there has to be the promise of a glorious vindication to come. For those who experience injustice now, it promises that faithfulness will be rewarded and unfaithfulness punished. The present situation will not last forever. There will be an end.
Apocalyptic literature seeks a sense of history that would otherwise be absurd. This parable makes sense of history by placing Jesus in its center. It says—very explicitly--that the decisions made by men and women now in relation to Jesus will determine their destiny in the age to come. There is an element of threat here, and danger. Judgment is real, but it is not arbitrary or unfair. It is universal, but also very individual. Men and women pass judgment upon themselves by the way they relate to Jesus. (This theme appears again and again in the Gospels--see John 3:16-21.) At the moment of our encounter with Jesus Christ we judge ourselves by our response to him, and that judgment is ratified on Judgment Day.
In the Old Testament God turns over the judgment of the world to the Messiah, the prince of the house of David, who is destined to establish an earthly kingdom of peace and justice. By New Testament times this idea had developed into the belief that the Son of Man, the eschatological super-man, will judge all men. The Church explicitly identified the Son of Man with Jesus the Messiah. So in the Nicene Creed we say that we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ who "will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end." In Matthew's Gospel Jesus, the Living Teacher of the Church, tells this parable about Jesus, the Judge of the World, who is himself the criterion of judgment.
Human beings are separated into the sheep and goats, into those who belong to the flock and those who may graze with the flock, but do not belong to it. Sheep are placed on the Lord's right—the lucky side in the New Testament (see John 21:6 and Luke 23:33)—and goats on the left. The decisive factor is whether or not they performed acts of mercy. (Remember the beatitude found in Matthew 5:7--"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.") And the acts of mercy mentioned are very concrete; they are not simply good wishes or charitable feelings. They do not consist in being a "nice" person, let alone a respectable one. And those saving acts of mercy are directed not to one's own kin or nation or to "the least of my family." In the mouth of the historical Jesus "the least of my family" or "my brethren" may have meant the disciples, the seed of the Church, those who followed him. But in the mouth of the risen Lord "my family" certainly refers of all humankind. Those who have acted mercifully toward "my family," the Judge proclaims, have done the same "to me."
Now everyone is puzzled. Those who are being welcomed into the kingdom have no recollection of having performed acts of mercy to Jesus. They simply proceeded upon their instinct for kindness and sympathy. Informed by grace and not self-interest, they responded to their fellow creatures in need. They did what they did not out of any hope for reward or fear of punishment, but simply because was good. Good is instinctual--but so is selfishness. Those who are condemned are equally clueless. They acted out of self-interest without thinking that what they were doing was particularly bad. But in the end they find themselves isolated from the mercy of God, because they failed to show mercy. When did we see you in need? They ask. They didn't—that's just it. They didn't see him. When we encounter those in need and actually see them, we see the Lord, and upon our response everything----everything that matters—depends.
No comments:
Post a Comment