The Coming Judgement – Serious, Frightening, and Comforting
Matthew 25:31-46 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 “‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe me, sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me.’44 “Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?’
45 “Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
So, there is this coming of the Son of Man in all his glory, with all his angels, at which time all nations will be gathered before him, and he will judge them. Those cursed will go to the place of eternal fire and punishment, and the righteous will enter eternal life.
Most people today do not take this seriously. There are hints about such an event in some popular movies where the universe or some universe is about to be destroyed, but nothing like this judgment that has eternal consequences for each and every single human being.
This skeptical attitude toward the coming judgment is nothing new and was even predicted. The Apostle Peter wrote: “… scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.” (2 Pet. 3:3-7) They make fun of such a catastrophic event. They have forgotten or are ignorant of God’s justice and God’s powerful word.
They do not take the coming judgment seriously.
The judgment is a frightening event, to say the least, where Jesus will say to those on his left, “Depart from me.” The pain and eternity of hell are things nightmares are made of. I do not like to dwell on it. But the Son of Man confronts me with it here, and you as well. And so does St. Paul in our epistle lesson: “… God takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction …” (2 Thess. 1:8-10).
Maybe it’s all fiction? No. The testimony of the Bible, of Christ himself, his apostles, and the Christian church throughout its history is clear. It is a true event still to come, whether one believes it or not, whether one likes it or not.
But strangely enough, the coming judgment of the Son of Man is above all a teaching of comfort for the Christian. When the event occurs, nothing will equal it in terms of relief. It will be your salvation, which, like its counterpart, will be forever.
And the curious thing about the judgment is it will be a judgment based on your works, just like those who depart will be judged by their works: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you … For I was hungry … I was thirsty … I was a stranger … I was naked … I was sick … I was in prison … and you helped me.” Or, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire …! For I was hungry … I was thirsty … I was a stranger … I was naked … sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me.” Jesus is speaking about our works.
To say the least, this works emphasis is curious, especially in view of the biblical teaching “you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God — not from works …” (Eph. 2:8-9).
So how do we understand this? What is the role of works of love on the last day? For obviously, they are very important.
And the answer is quite simple: they serve as the fruit of faith. They also serve, as our epistle lesson indicates this morning, as the evidence of faith. Jesus puts it this way in John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers.” (John 15:5-6). We are attached to Christ by faith, and then the fruits follow. Or going back to that Ephesians passage: “you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God — not from works …,” followed immediately by, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.” (Eph. 2:10).
Good works or fruit follow faith. They are important and necessary not because they save or help earn salvation, but because they are evidence of the existence of the faith you have in Christ which is the faith that saves.
The Apostle Peter makes a similar point when he says, “… make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” (2 Pet. 1:5-7). And then he says, “Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.” (1:10). These fruits, these good works, this love, that follow faith, confirm that you have been called to believe in Christ, they confirm you are one of the elect, and they confirm you will not fall away (see Formula of Concord, XI:73). So, you and I as Christians are boldly encouraged to perform good works because they confirm or are evidence of the salvation you have through faith in Christ.
Without faith in Christ, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). True good works cannot be true good works without faith in Christ. This is the reason Christ will say to those on his left, “Depart from me”: their inability to perform true good works will be evidence true faith in Christ is missing.
This is why we sorrow over those who have fallen away from Christ. Going back to Peter again, he says, “The person who lacks these things [these fruits added to faith] is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.” (2 Pet. 1:9). We pray for them, and we wait and we hope.
Now, a Christian may say – you may say, “I am concerned about this fruit or evidence of faith. I do not see in my life good works as I should or think I should.” Okay, that is not out of the ordinary. If that’s the case, one of several things could be going on.
First, you may not understand as well as you should what good works are. People sometimes associate good works as something above and beyond ordinary human activity. They think, “I have got to become a priest or a pastor. I must tell everyone I can about Jesus. I must be at church several times a week. I must be very active in church committees. I must pray in this manner. I must act religiously. I must shun most everything that is a part of this world. I must not enjoy the things of this life.”
There is some truth to these. But one of the points of Jesus in our text is that good works, acts of love, can be very simple things that are done within the usual day-to-day life. Mothers, have you ever fed or given a drink to a hungry or thirsty child? Have you ever clothed or changed the diaper of a baby? Have you ever helped someone who was sick? Granted, some of the things mentioned by Jesus involve something a little out of the ordinary – like visiting someone in prison. But for the most part they are simple and even mundane things in life that need to be or could be done for the benefit of others.
When you look at the gospels, we see Jesus approving of the simple work done by fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, children, homemakers; he approves of work done by soldiers, tax collectors, fishermen, teachers, governing officials, farmers. Whatever you do honorably, honestly, diligently, respectfully, kindly because you are a Christian and that somehow benefits another, falls within the category of good works, to which Jesus says, “Well done.” Even sitting next to your fellow believer right now is a good work and benefits that person. Our brother who has been in the hospital or other health facility for 13 months is performing good deeds every day, simply by displaying patience, by showing respect for those who care for him, by praying and thanking God.
And yes, sometimes love requires great effort and even sacrifice, things you may be called upon to do and should not avoid. But those difficult or challenging good works are no more God-pleasing than these others. The Christian who flips hamburgers at McDonalds so hungry people can eat is pleasing God as much as the one who has to give up his life as a martyr.
So don’t sell yourself or others short. Serve where you are and in ways that you can.
You may still, though, be disturbed by the lack of fruit or evidence in your life. You may say, “I don’t see it, as least as much as I would like to.” So here’s another thought for you. Beware of thinking that you can have perfect fruit or evidence in this life, or even close to perfect fruit here and now. If you would have perfect fruit, you wouldn’t be here. You would be in heaven.
But the very fact that you fail, that you have imperfections, great imperfections, where sin taints perhaps everything you do is part and parcel to the Old Adam that clings to you even as you are a new creation in Christ. This is why the Small Catechism when it talks about confessing your sins, tells you to “consider your own situation according to the Ten Commandments, whether you are a father, mother, son, daughter, employer, employee, whether you have been disobedient, dishonest, lazy; whether you have injured anyone by word or deed; whether you have stolen, neglected, wasted anything, or done any harm.” In other words, by comparing your various vocations to the Ten Commandments, you discover sin, that leads you to repentance.
To put it another way, your lack of fruit, your lack of evidence, directs you to confess your sins, to turn to Christ, and to hear, “Be of good cheer! Your sins are forgiven.” Your sins, even right now, are forgiven.
And that brings us to that day of judgment. On that day when Jesus in all his glory and with all his angels sits on his glorious and awesome throne, and puts you – who he calls inheritors of the kingdom, who he calls righteous – puts you on his right, what will he see?
He will only see your good works, your love for him; love done for him as you love that person and that person and that person. That’s all he will see.
But maybe you will say to him, “But Lord, I know when I did this good work, there was also sin attached to it. I know my motives and thoughts were not pure. In fact, they were sinful. Don’t you see those?” And he won’t. And you won’t. You and he can look for them as hard as you want, but you and he will not find them.
And that is because 2,000 years ago his blood washed them all away; forgiveness bought. And that is because today and tomorrow you will be given that blood-bought forgiveness in word and sacrament received by faith. So in heaven, there is no sin to be seen and no sin to be judged because it is all gone. It is all removed. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Ps. 103:12).
We can also, though, imagine asking this question: “Holy and righteous Jesus, when you look at me, are you looking at the right person? When you describe me, it sounds like you are talking about someone else, as if I am wearing a perfection, a righteousness, that only you yourself fulfilled!” And that is so true. Here is how St. Paul put it: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.” (Phil. 3:8-9). So it is not yours. It is his. But his has become yours by faith, which is his great desire and joy.
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.Bold shall I stand in that great day;
(ELH #432:1-2)
For who ought to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.
Amen.
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