Judgment: A Final Meditation on Matthew 25 for this Last Sunday of the Church Year

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, 

and all the holy angels with him, 

then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: 

and he shall separate them one from another, 

as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, 

but the goats on the left.

At this turning of the Church year, in that often forgotten space between Thanksgiving and the Advent season, the people of God take a moment to ponder the Last Things.  The crescendo of the lectionary readings builds to this day, so that we might not forget that Judgment is coming upon the world, despite our love and our work which we pour into it.  The homes and communities we build, the nations and monuments we erect, the great swelling words of poets, the beautiful strokes of artists, the penetrating thoughts of philosophers, the ponderings of theologians, the conquests of armies, the calculations of scientists and engineers, will all one day come to an end.  Our Lord reminds us in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, that we are a people with one eye and one foot in this temporal world, but also with an eye and a foot in an eternity which quickly moves toward our present moment.

In this final image of the chapter, Jesus reveals that not only will He come again at the end of the world, but that He will come in all His divine glory with all the holy angels to judge the living and the dead.  Everyone, from every corner of creation and from every epoch since God breathed our universe into existence, will be resurrected on that Day to stand, both body and soul, before their Creator and Judge.  Jesus, having defeated death through His own life, death, and resurrection on Calvary for the sins of the whole world, will finally remove death from the creation so that it may no longer torment His people, casting death and hades into the Lake of Fire.  There also will be cast the great tempter of our race, the Devil and all his legions of evil angels, to be imprisoned forever and no longer able to hunt or harm God’s people.  What Jesus promised to Adam and Eve at the dawn of man’s fall into sin, won for the world through His Cross nearly 2000 years ago, and has continually sent out by His Word and Spirit through the preaching of His Gospel through every age down to our present day, He will come again to bring to completion.  With all the enemies of God who have wreaked havoc on the creation and on mankind since the dawn of time finally put into everlasting chains, humanity will stand before their Maker and Judge to give an account of their lives.

It is a terrifying vision, to be sure.  Jesus will separate all peoples, regardless of their age, race, or time, into two great groups:  one will be on His right hand, and the other on His left, metaphorically distinguished as a shepherd separating his sheep from his goats.  To the people at His right hand, the sheep who have abided in the Word of their Shepherd by grace through faith, living out their faith in works of mercy and love for the people around them, He will welcome them into His eternal Kingdom which was prepared for them from before the foundation of the world.  To those on His left hand, the people who have rejected the Word of the Shepherd and thereby rejected the gifts of faith and grace which would have inspired them to lives of divine love and mercy, He commands into the everlasting flames of hell, there to be imprisoned together with the Devil and his wicked hosts.  The blessed people on Christ’s right hand protest that they have done nothing worthy of their own salvation, and Jesus assures them that the works of love which He worked through them for their neighbors as they abided in Him, are the fruits of living faith which show forth their baptismal grace.  The cursed people on Jesus’ left hand protest that their works don’t deserve eternal perdition, and He declares to them that their lives apart from Him were only reflections of the dark motivations of the demonic hordes.  In an instant all their fates are sealed, and both justice and mercy are executed in perfect judgment upon all the people of the world.

And yet, the vision is only terrifying to those who hope to stand before God apart from His saving Word— those who hope to stand upon their own righteousness and works, to demand of God that they receive their just due.  The great warning is that everyone who desires to stand before God and be judged according to their own merits, will be judged according to His holy Law and receive the condemnation they deserve.  No person’s heart is pure for even an instant, let alone for the entirety of their lives; no one sees all the needs of their neighbors and serves them as God would have us to do; no one loves as God loves, abiding constantly in His truth, love, mercy, justice, and perfection.  To the one who wants to be justified according to their own works and merits, who wants to stand before their Creator on equal footing and demand to be recognized for their own greatness, God will give them what they call for:  He will show them their true selves in the perfect mirror of His Holy Law, and by that same Law pass their sentence as wicked and corrupt rebels whose only fate can be the Lake of Fire.  For those who reject God openly and live in public scorn of their Maker, or those who presume to wear the cloaks of piety yet lurk as wicked wolves in sheep’s clothing, the fate is the same before a God who cannot be deceived or mocked:  to those who desire a judgment of Law apart from grace and faith, they will each receive their wish.

But to those who abide in the grace of their Maker, who stand not upon their own sullied works but the perfect works of Christ by faith in Him, that Last Day should hold no terror.  The Law having been satisfied in the Cross of Jesus, those who abide in him by faith and repentance receive His grace and mercy, with His Holy Spirit enlivening them to live forever.  They know their works are insufficient to save them, and fall before God in humility asking not for what they deserve, but for the merciful gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation for Jesus’ sake.  To these is revealed that even their small and paltry works of love and mercy for their neighbors have been hallowed in the Blood of Christ, and Jesus through them has done far more in the world than they might have realized.  In them was preserved the three great and abiding gifts of faith, hope, and love, as Jesus and His Word became incarnate in them, sealed in them by the Holy Spirit.  Their lives of faith were begun in Jesus when they were born from above by Water and Spirit, grafted into Jesus’ Vine as once dead branches but now living and fruit bearing people.  For those who abide in Jesus, there is now no condemnation, in this present day, or the Last Day, or for the endless Day of eternity.  

To you this Word of the Lord comes, even as the world presses closer toward the inescapable end of all things.  We shall all meet our Maker, and face Him as either our Savior according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or our Judge according to His irrevocable Law.  Hear Him call to you this day, that you might have nothing to fear on that Last Day, or any other day in all eternity.  Turn from the selfish, rebellious ways of darkness which can have no end other than perdition, and rather come to the Shepherd who has always longed to save you in His grace.  Hear the Word of the Lord, repent, believe, and live.  Amen.