Trinity 26 sermon

It’s never good to be on the left. The left is where the goats are. Today, Jesus tells us about the Day of Judgment. When Jesus, the Son of Man, “comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them … as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.” We don’t want to be on the left.

The goats are condemned because, Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.” These words of Jesus appear to confirm what we instinctively think: a person gets into heaven by feeding and clothing the poor, and visiting the sick and incarcerated.

And indeed, being a Christian does involve a life of charity, doing works of mercy. Jesus says, “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.” It is also written, “Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.” The words of Jesus are clear: “Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” The Fifth Commandment says, “You shall not murder,” and the Small Catechism elaborates on it, “We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.”

On the last day, the Son of Man will divide the sheep from the goats. These two groups are called “the righteous” and the “cursed.” So, if we just feed the poor, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned, we’ll be among the righteous, right? We gravitate naturally to the Law, and suppose that Jesus too is giving us a list of ethical qualifications for righteousness. The cursed are just those who didn’t do enough good works to balance out their selfishness. We naturally hear the Law and think that way, and we also like it. We want a list of things to do. “I am a good person!” we tell ourselves, assuming that the donations we gave to charity, and the few bucks we tossed in the offering plate, will cover us. But we could always do more, so it’s nice to get this list of things to do from Jesus: give food to the hungry, take in strangers, visit the sick. Do your part, “give something back,” “pay it forward,” that’s what being a Christian is all about.

Or is it?

There are problems with that way of hearing—or rather, mis-hearing—what Jesus is saying. First, if the Christian religion is just about being a nice person, there’s no real reason to be a Christian. There are plenty of Jews, Muslims, and atheists who help people out and give to charity.

But second, boiling the Christian faith down to doing nice things contradicts the overarching message of the Word of God that you can never do enough nice things, and that the nice things you actually do are, in God’s eyes, as filthy rags. Being a good person isn’t enough in the sight of God. You have to be better, far better than a good person. You must be perfect as God is perfect, the Law demands. Your righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, those supremely scrupulous keepers of the law. Whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, is guilty of all. A man is not justified, declared righteous, by any works of the law, the Scripture says.

So if being that good is the standard – being perfect – then I have to conclude for myself that I cannot qualify. And even if you cannot see it in yourself, I have bad news for you: you don’t qualify either. Not even close. You haven’t done all that the Law requires outwardly, and those times that you did, you grumbled and complained about it inwardly. You have been envious of your neighbor’s goods and situation in life, you have told lies to make yourself look better, you have been greedy, you haven’t been sexually pure, you haven’t trusted God in your vocation as a spouse or a single person, you have dishonored those in authority over you, you haven’t paid full attention and taken to heart the Word of God, you haven’t prayed as you should, and you have feared, loved, and trusted in created things and in yourself ahead of God.

No, if salvation came by feeding the poor or clothing the naked, you would have to throw away the Lord’s Prayer, where we pray, “Forgive us our trespasses,” not, “Remember our good works.” There would be no reason to baptize Carson or Caedmon this morning.

So, what does this Gospel mean? Listen again to the words of Jesus: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Who are Jesus’ “brethren”? Sometimes, “brother” just means a male sibling. In some places in Holy Scripture, “brethren” is used for all Christians. But in Matthew’s Gospel, we see another use of the word “brethren” frequently occur. When Jesus rose from the dead, He told the women at the tomb, “Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.” These “brethren” are the Eleven Apostles, the twelve that Jesus chose minus Judas, who tragically hanged himself. Then, when these Eleven meet Jesus on the mountain in Galilee before His Ascension, Jesus says to His brethren the Apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus’ brethren, then, are those charged to preach the Gospel to all nations. The Apostles are Jesus’ brethren, as are those who follow the Apostles in the Office of the Holy Ministry, who continue to baptize and teach the words of Jesus, making disciples of all nations.

Jesus had said earlier, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Now, today, we hear that all nations are brought before the Son of Man in judgment. Today’s Gospel reading takes place at “the end,” the last day. “All the nations will be gathered before [Jesus],” and they will be judged according to how they received Jesus’ brethren. Did they receive the Apostles of Jesus when they came preaching His Word? Did they receive the ministers, the pastors who came preaching the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection? Or did they ignore them and pay them no heed? Did they repent? Did they become disciples through Baptism and teaching? Or did they ignore the Word preached to them by Jesus’ brethren?

To receive the minister, you see, is to receive Christ. Not that the minister is anything special in his person. The branch is nothing apart from the vine; the minister is nothing in himself. But coming, as he does, by virtue of the office that Christ has placed him in, when he speaks the Lord’s Words, he speaks them in the stead of Jesus and by the command of Jesus. The ministers are Jesus’ brethren, and Jesus says that receiving them is to receive Him, for He has authorized them to act on His behalf, to speak His Word, to forgive and retain sins, to give to the disciples His body and His blood. Jesus says to His brethren the Apostles, “He who hears you, hears Me, and he who rejects you, rejects Me.”

Elsewhere the Lord says to the Apostles, “Whoever receives you receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” Here, Jesus says that receiving His Apostle will be regarded as receiving Jesus Himself; but He goes on to add that those who give to these Apostles, these “little ones,” the “least of these My brethren” – whoever gives to them even a cup of cold water will receive a reward. The cup of cold water is not a good work to gain entrance into heaven; it is a sign that the hearer believes the good news of Jesus preached by His brothers, the Apostles, and so does what the Word says: shares all good things with his teacher.

Jesus has sent out His ministers, His brethren, to proclaim the good news of forgiveness to you. He has even given to them this promise: “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” And so the Small Catechism testifies that, “when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.” By the pastor excommunicating, or forgiving, the Catechism says that Christ our dear Lord Himself is working and acting.

This means that, while my name is on the baptism certificate, I didn’t baptize Carson or Caedmon today. Jesus did. All that the mortal eye beholds is my hand pouring water, my mouth speaking, but the eye of faith sees the hand of Jesus blessing and pouring the water, and God Himself speaking and receiving the children to Himself.

So the minister’s job is to get out of the way and let Jesus speak and work. A pastor who tries to make himself “relevant” is making a mockery of God and blaspheming Him. It is God’s service, not mine. The Lord’s Service has nothing to do with what kind of music you like or what makes you feel good. It’s not about my personality, and it’s not about your felt needs – we are all here to receive the means of grace, hear what God’s Word has to say, receive what God wishes to give to us.

Today God gave to Carson and Caedmon new birth by water and the Holy Spirit. Today, Jesus gives to the communicants at this altar His true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. When I pour the water and speak the Words, when I dish out the bread, I am nothing, a littlest of “little ones.” But Jesus says that when you receive what I am giving you, and you receive me, you aren’t receiving me but Him. It’s Jesus who baptizes you, Jesus who forgives you, Jesus who communes you, Jesus who saves you – and it will be Jesus who raises your dead body from the earth and speaks soothing and forgiving words to you at the judgment. I am the least of Jesus’ brethren – but in the office of the holy ministry, Christ has placed His promise. So don’t look at me, or whichever man is wearing the stole and chasuble, but look at the office and rejoice at what Jesus is doing to you and for you there.

So to sum up, we don’t have a lesson about doing works of mercy in today’s gospel, although we should do good to our neighbors, feed the poor and clothe those who are cold and unsheltered. A Christian is merciful and should love his neighbor as himself. But today we hear about what will be required on the last day, the day of judgment. And what is required is faith in jesus, who gives you His gifts through His lowly brethren, little ones, ministers who come giving you Jesus’ words and Sacraments. It’s all about Jesus, who gives you His forgiveness through them. So receive it with repentant joy, and wait for those happy words which will be spoken to you at the last day: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

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