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Los Angeles, CA 90053   

SHOWING MERCY TO THE MISSIONARY

If your nephew is raising money to go to Guatemala on a mission trip, do you contribute money? If a Christian bookseller comes to your door, are you open to his invitation? This “sheep and goats” parable by Jesus especially refers to how we treat God’s ambassadors.

If any of you listening today grew up in the same Christian subculture that I did, two great storytelling names are forever fixed in your mind: the incomparable Arthur S. Maxwell — “Uncle Arthur” — and the late, great Eric B. Hare. Both these men were classic creators of value-based stories for kids, and you can still buy Uncle Arthur storybooks all around the world.

The one we want to remember today is of the little girl who had a dual personality: nice and sweet and winsome at school, and then mean and growly and pouty at home. She idolized her teacher — the sweet and beautiful Miss Jones, or whatever — but grumbled and complained to her own mom. And the cure came one day when Mother asked her to set the table for dinner. “Don’t want to!” she snapped. And back and forth they went, until this bratty kid angrily threw two plates and two cups and two sets of silverware on the table, scattering things every which way and muttering to herself how she was surely the most abused child in the land.

And then right at the end — some of you remember, I’m sure — Mother asked her to set a third place setting because there was company for dinner. “Oh, but Mother, the table’s not set nice enough for company! Let me do it over again.” But there’s no time, because Teacher has been in the next room all along, hearing every crabby complaint and taking note of the distinction between the School Susie and the Home Susie. Of course, when the girl is confronted with her dear, precious teacher, she bursts into tears and repents. While Eric B. Hare intones at the end of the little 45 rpm record: “And she NEVER was naughty again!”

Well, I bring it up today to remind us of what all the wicked people in Jesus’ Matthew 25 parable say when they’re assigned to the goat pen on His left: “Lord, we didn’t know it was You! We didn’t realize that You were in the next room listening! We weren’t aware that the orphan child we didn’t help was You, that it was You who was so hungry, that it was You languishing in a prison with no one coming to visit.”

Yesterday we struggled mightily with the danger of thinking that this story teaches a salvation by good deeds: getting into heaven by feeding the hungry and joining a prison sunshine band. The Adventist Bible Commentary puts all the chips on the table when it observes:

“This, the last of Jesus’ parables, appropriately presents the great final assize [or judicial inquiry] and reduces to the most simple and practical terms the BASIS on which judgment is to be meted out.”

Dr. R. T. France comments that this story is:
“. . . a guide to practical discipleship. It is by such acts that one prepares for the judgment.”

Well, friend, we tried to find our way clear of the trap of legalism and do-gooder salvation by suggesting that, no, salvation still is and always will be a Calvary gift, that we’re saved by grace. But that those who truly are living in relationship with Jesus will gladly — and inevitably — be living by His example. Healing. Loving. Caring. Feeding. The cups of cold water will be a courtroom Exhibit B, to show that we have been drinking ourselves from the Living Water, which is the trust relationship with Jesus our Savior. That’s Exhibit A. Always Exhibit A.

There’s solid Bible ground for taking this view, and scholars for the New International Version of the Bible point us to the fact that people in this story who are the “sheep,” who are invited to stand at the King’s right hand and share in His glorious kingdom, are surprised and happily sputtering at the invitation. “Who, us?” they ask in astonishment. “Jesus, we fed You? We visited You? We gave You clothes when You were destitute? We weren’t aware!” And the scholars write:

“Rewards in the kingdom of heaven are given to those who serve WITHOUT THOUGHT OF REWARD. There is no hint of merit here, for God gives out of grace, not debt.”

So friend, there’s no trace in the story of “I must do good deeds to earn a heavenly mansion.” Those who stand on Jesus’ right don’t have that mentality; they aren’t legalists in any sense of the word whatever. But they’re in such a relationship with this wonderful Savior that generous deeds of kindness are instinctive to them. Second nature. And when they hear that they were actually serving Jesus in their random acts of goodness, they’re flabbergasted but joyful. Their happiness is even greater now!

I mentioned President Jimmy Carter’s book, Living Faith — and really, that book title says a lot, doesn’t it? He tells about a great old Cuban-American preacher named Eloy Cruz, who knew no other life but to witness and share Jesus and give away blankets and cups of water and stay at the local YMCA while you did all the above. And this quiet giant for the Lord summed up the Christian gospel succinctly in this way:

“You only have to have two loves in your life — for God, and for the person in front of you at any particular time.”

And really, Love #1 is proved or validated by Love #2. Which is why, on the great Judgment Day, Jesus can say to a watching universe: “These people, who demonstrated Love #2 — with the cups of cold water and the care packages for the prisoners — had Love #1 for sure. They were in relationship with Me all along, and their lifestyle of unselfish service, of UNAWARE unselfish service, proves it!”

In his Tyndale New Testament Commentary for Matthew, Dr. Richard T. France shares an interesting twist on this story, which I’ll endeavor to pass along carefully. He contends that this “sheep and goats” story isn’t really addressing charity to all and every needy person, a “humanitarian ethic, with no specifically Christian content,” as he puts it. Which, of course, is why we tend to fear that this story is teaching a low-end “social gospel” — you know, getting into heaven just by running soup kitchens. He suggests, and cites other Bible scholars as also suggesting, that Jesus is especially talking here in Matthew 25 about how people respond to DISCIPLES in need. When Christian ambassadors come to your town, when door-to-door lay workers for the Lord knock on your front gate, are you hospitable to them? Do you give them a bed for the night and a bowl of Cheerios in the morning? To strengthen this view, we notice that Jesus clearly says:

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these BROTHERS OF MINE . . .”

And we notice with interest that back in Matthew chapter 10, there’s a similar passage of Scripture where Jesus plainly describes how people treat His emissaries:

“He who receives you receives Me,” He says. “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet receives a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.” And now notice this, along the same vein: “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple” — that sounds like Jesus is talking about His witnesses, His missionaries, perhaps — “I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

Well, friend, I certainly wouldn’t want to leave Dr. France’s Bible study class and decide that I don’t need to unselfishly serve all needy people around me, but just the missionaries who come to my neighborhood. But this point of view obviously strengthens the Bible argument that this kind of service, and the salvation that comes when we obey Jesus by being generous and kind . . . is rooted, first and foremost and forever, in that saving relationship with Him. That’s so important to keep in our minds at all times. If we’re born-again Christians, if we’re abiding in the shadow of the Cross, then we will treat people as Jesus did. Especially His workers! Especially His emissaries! And He says to us: “You treat them well, you’re treating Me well. If you enable someone, with your hospitality and your generous funds, to travel to distant lands and share the gospel, share My story, friend, you’re doing Me the hugest favor you can imagine! You’re doing it for Me! You’re living out your relationship with Me!”

Well, friend, let’s close with this final thought. One theologian pointed out that this “sheep and goats” story is “the parable of unknown goodness and unconscious badness.” Have you thought about that? The kind people look up, wild-eyed, at Jesus and say: “That was You? We didn’t know!” The bad people say the exact same thing. But you have, on Jesus’ right, people whose relationship with Christ is so real, so instinctive, so alive on a 24/7 basis, that their very life patterns are a natural outworking of His Spirit. They don’t constantly think: “Good deeds good deeds good deeds . . . that’s Jesus standing in that bread line . . . good deeds good deeds.” They just DO — because Christ is their natural example.

Unfortunately, the thoughtless rebels standing on the left are following natural impulses too. But they don’t see Jesus standing in the bread line because they wouldn’t know Jesus if they saw Him anywhere. The only “good deeds” they do, ever, are for self-serving reasons, not because the Savior is standing nearby as the least of these their brethren.

So following impulses is great — but only if Jesus is daily embedded in them.