Remembering Jesus as Judge: A Meditation on Matthew 25

In many ways‎, our modern western churches seem to forget this image of Jesus. It is, however, Jesus who gives this image of Himself to His disciples. After spending chapter 24 and the first half of 25 teaching about the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the world, and the final coming of His Kingdom, Jesus now prepares His disciples for the Final Judgment. 

It is easy to understand why people are uncomfortable with all this. Judgment and destruction are direct challenges to what we image is our own personal sovereignty. If I want to live according to my own rules, my own passions, my own ideas, and seek my own "fulfillment" or "self actualization," the idea that anyone would enter into my life and judge me is galling. Our whole society has been propped up on the idea that each person is sovereign, accountable only to themselves, with some exceptions for directly impinging other people‎'s sovereignty. This is not how our Republic was established, but it is the depth to which we have largely descended. 

It should be no surprise then, that our churches are full of people who think and act as if they are little kings and queens, themselves sitting in judgment over everything in creation. We demand our own programs, our own music, our own forms, our own liturgies, and our own space.   We want services that pander to our age and our interests, that make us feel good and point us to other pleasures. Is it any wonder why so many of our churches look like rock/pop/folk concerts? Is it any wonder why we have people on "worship committies" and "boards" and "councils" all trying to make the services of the church reflect their own interests and conforts? Is it any surprise, when "sermon series" point people to their own prosperity and proclivities? Such churches reflect the image of the people and pastors within them.

But the problem is deeper. These little insurrections against form and content point to a deeper rebellion against Jesus and His Word. For our Lord established His Church with Himself alone as both its Head and Cornerstone, with its purpose to deliver His grace to His people through His Word and Sacraments. In His Church, He alone is sovereign, and His Word alone rules all. Only Jesus is the eternally begotten Son of God, and only He has suffered, died, and risen from the dead for the sins of the whole world. Only Jesus rules His Church through His Word, speaking to every person of every age His Law and His Gospel. Only Jesus is King, and only Jesus saves.  We who have been blessed to enter into the fellowship of His Church, are merely stewards of His Word. 

And Jesus reminds us that only He is the Judge of the world -- of the living and the dead. By His Word the sheep will be separated from the goats, and by His Word the evil will enter the fires of hell ‎while the righteous enter eternal bliss. By His Word alone was the world made, and by His Word alone will the world be brought to an end. Our opinions, our pursuits, our lusts, our desires-- all will be judged by His Word. 

So we are reminded that we live not by our own words or our own ways, but by His Word alone. The vanities of our short lives are ridiculous and vapid in light of eternity, just as our pretense to think ourselves sovereign is preposterous before the face of the King of the Universe. But our King has come to seek and to save us all, lost in our own delusions of grandeur and wallowing in our own self centered crapulance. He has entered our world which He created good and we corrupted, so that He might bring His saving Word to us.

And what is that Word? Faith to cling to His promise of salvation through Jesus crucified and risen for you; Repentance that turns from every false word of the world, the devil, and your own sinful flesh, to embrace His Law and Gospel. For at the end, when this brief life is over, you shall stand before the great and only Judge. There, before His eternal throne, with all delusions and pretenses torn away and all fleeing or escape now impossible, you shall be judged by His Eternal Word.   There, you shall either be saved by His grace through a living, loving, repentant faith in Him and His Holy Gospel, ‎or you shall be condemned by your selfish, unrepentant and unfaithful heart before His Holy Law.  

This judgment that comes, both at the end of the world and the end of our lives is coming surely. For the Word of the Lord that has called all things into existence, has declared that coming Day of the Lord. Behold, He is coming quickly.  Hear His Word. Repent, believe, and live. Amen.