Matthew 25:31-46
Vision Problems
James Sledge November 20, 2011 – Christ the King
There are a number of fairy tales and fables where a king, a wizard, or someone of great wealth travels about incognito in order to mingle among the common people. In many of these the clothing of a beggar is the disguise of choice. So dressed, the king asks some subject, “Could you spare a morsel of food for a poor beggar?”
The hero of such fables is invariably a good and kind-hearted peasant who has almost nothing, but who willingly shares what little he has with this person he thinks to be a destitute beggar. Only later does the peasant discover the truth when he is richly rewarded for his kindness.
Such tales sometimes include another person who treats the supposed beggar badly. When the beggar’s true identity is later revealed, it is too late. Any kindness now shown is clearly motivated by the possibility of reward.
There is an old Jewish folk tale where a young rabbi wanted more than anything else to meet Elijah the prophet. (Elijah, unlike other people in the Old Testament, had not died but had been taken up to heaven in a whirlwind.) The father of this young rabbi told him that if he diligently studied the Torah with his whole heart, he would indeed meet Elijah.
The young rabbi studied diligently for a month, but did not meet Elijah. He complained to his father, but the father only scolded his impatience and told him to keep studying. One evening as the rabbi was hard at his studies, a tramp came to his door.
The fellow was disgusting to look at; the young rabbi had never seen an uglier man in all his life. Annoyed at having been interrupted by such an unsavory character, the rabbi shooed the man away and returned to his studying.The next day his father came and asked if he had seem Elijah yet. “No,” replied the son.
“Did no one come here last night,” asked the father.
“Yes,” replied the rabbi. “An old tramp.”
“Did you wish him ‘shalom aleikhem’?” asked the father, referring to the traditional greeting meaning “Peace be upon you.”
“No,” said the rabbi.
“You fool,” cried his father. “Didn’t you know that that was Elijah the Prophet? But now it’s too late.” The tale goes on to say that for the rest of his life, the rabbi always greeted strangers with “Shalom aleikhem,” and treated them with great kindness.[1]
The parable of final judgment that Jesus tells us this morning is a bit like such folk tales, and like such tales, Jesus’ parable has long been used to encourage people to act with kindness and charity to those in need, to “the least of these.” Used this way, the parable is a powerful reminder of how we should live and act, a reminder of Jesus’ call to love our neighbor as ourselves.
But I wonder if there is not more than moral encouragement here, more than a Christian ethic. For starters, those judged in the parable are “the nations,” the ethnos in Greek. Most other places in Matthew’s gospel this word refers to Gentiles, and at the very end of Matthew, Jesus will command his disciples and the Church to make disciples of all these nations or Gentiles. And so one way to read this parable is that it speaks of the judgment of outsiders, non-believers who unwittingly minister to Jesus. If this is so, then it makes sense that these Gentiles would be surprised to be counted among those who inherit the kingdom.
But we Christians should not be caught off guard by this. After all, Jesus lets us in on the secret right here. And indeed as followers of Jesus we are privy to much information that outsiders may not know. After all, we are joined to Christ. We have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have been transformed so that we can see things from a different point of view, a spiritual point of view. When the Spirit dwells in us we become something new. We are made new in Christ as we experience the incarnation within us, as we live in and through Christ.
Last week we kicked off our annual food and toy drive as part of the Deacons’ Community Christmas Packages that will deliver food and gift certificates and presents for children’s to hundreds of needy families in our area. This effort will be supported by many who are not part of this congregation, who see a need and want to help. Perhaps some of them are among those Jesus will say to, “I was hungry, and you gave me food.”
But we need not wait until then to see Jesus face to face, to minister to Jesus and be ministered to by Jesus. That face that you see at the apartment door when you deliver one of the Deacons’ baskets is the face of Jesus. For that matter, the face next to you right now is the face of Jesus, as is the person next to you at work or at school, the person you see on the street or meet at the store.
“Whoa,” someone is no doubt thinking. “Jesus is telling a parable. It’s a metaphor, for goodness sake.” But I don’t think so. At the very core of our faith is God in the flesh. We know God most fully as a human being, as a person who ate and drank and slept and sweated and burped and had body odor. And when we say that we can’t possibly meet God in a single mom on food stamps, it seems to me we have the exact same vision problem that many religious folks in Jesus’ day had. They couldn’t see God in Jesus because of who he was and how he acted. He came from that God forsaken town of Nazareth, for heaven’s sake. He went to parties and drank with riff raff and sinners. No way he was the face of God.
I’m not sure we can actually see God’s face in unless the Holy Spirit gives us eyes that can see such things. And I don’t think we can really see Jesus in the face of others unless the Spirit heals our vision problems.
I suspect that most of us have known someone whose spiritual vision is better than ours. We tend to think that such folk are just kinder than us, more sensitive and caring than us, and I guess there is some truth to that. But I’m pretty sure that the folks like this that I know see better than I do. They see someone hurting or in need, and they really see Jesus. And in the strange ways of God, those people can actually meet Jesus in them.
In just a few minutes, we will ordain and install ruling elders and deacons to help guide us in living as the body of Christ. The nominating committee, in identifying these people, carefully considered the gifts and abilities that God would surely give to those called to such ministry. As these elders and deacons answer Christ’s call today, I hope you will join me in holding them in prayer, asking the Spirit to equip and strengthen them for that calling. But I think that most of all, my prayer will be that the Spirit gives them the eyes they need to see Jesus.
[1] From “The Tramp” in Ellen Frankel, The Classic Tales: 4000 Years of Jewish Lore (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc. 1993) pp. 604-605.
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