Ordinary 34

Matthew 25:31-46

Philip Yancey likes to ask the question, “Where is Jesus NOW?”

Since the resurrection has set Jesus free from all earthly limitations, no longer bound by either time or space, where IS Jesus these days?

Spiritually, of course, we might answer that question by saying that Jesus lives in the hearts of those who receive him. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Where is Jesus? Why, he’s in the hearts of his people.

Theologians might offer another insight. Where is Jesus now? Why, according to the Apostles’ Creed, Jesus is seated on the right hand of God the Father Almighty from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Jesus is in heaven.

Where is Jesus now?

Some of the newer contemporary churches with the great big multi-media worship extravaganzas might quote the Psalmist in saying that God inhabits the praise of his people. And so Jesus is in the midst of uplifted hands, and praise choruses, and church orchestras. And not only there, for all Christians believe that where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them. So Jesus is right here in our assembly this morning.

But Philip Yancey points out that Christians often overlook an even more important place where Jesus can be found. In fact, Scripturally, its the most important place of all.

Jesus is among the least.

In the very last parable reported in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes a surprising claim! It is Judgment Day and all the nations are gathered together. And he separates all the people, one from the other, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And the sheep are invited to come into God’s new world! And then comes that surprise I just mentioned!

What separates the faithful from the faithless is not what church they belong to, not what theology they adhere to, not their brand of worship, not the personal ethics they practice, or the good things they’ve done. Rather, Christ bases his judgment on how people have engaged and responded to HIM in the midst of everyday life.

“I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you tended to me, doing time behind bars and you visited me.”

And the puzzled people ask, “Lord when did we ever see YOU hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, sick or imprisoned?”

And then Jesus sweeps his hand out over all humanity and answers, “Whenever you did it to the least of one of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”

Where is Jesus now? Why, he’s alive and well and living among the least!

Have you seen Jesus lately? Have you seen him in the face of a young single mother struggling to raise her children on a subsistence income? How are you responding to Jesus in her? Have you seen him in the furrowed brow of the elderly man who spends almost all of his Social Security check buying needed prescription medicine? How are you caring for Jesus in him? Have you seen him there on death row, or in the line of drug addicts waiting for a hot meal at the rescue mission? Have you seen Jesus there in that group of people so odd and different that they live outside the margins of society? Have you seen Jesus in the family member who’s made a terrible mistake, or in the friend who hurt you so badly? Have you seen Jesus lately?

Now, mind you, we’re not talking about Mother Theresa here, or Billy Graham, or Pope John Paul the 2nd. Why, its easy to see Christ in the greatest of these – his sisters and brothers. But we’re not talking about the greatest, but about the least. Not the winners, but the losers. Not the successful, but those who’ve failed. Not the righteous, but sinners – for, as Jesus said, those who are well have no need of a physician.

Have you seen Jesus among the least of us?

There is a scandal afoot in the Church today. We have so twisted our faith and over-internalized and over-personalized it that Christianity no longer has much meaning for the least. Why, many Christians today can bear witness to what Christ has done for them as individuals, and many churches can and do articulate their various doctrinal positions.

But more often than not, not much is said or done about the least.

My own fear is that we have become like Israel in the days of the prophet Isaiah. The nation was religiously and theologically pure, and yet under the judgment of God. How can that be? Well, listen to the words of God spoken through Isaiah, saying in effect, “I don’t care about your fancy worship services, or your rich prayer life, or your spiritual disciplines. I’m hiding my eyes from you! I’m letting your prayers go in one ear and out the other. I don’t WANT all your theological and spiritual trimming. What I want is for you to rescue the oppressed, and to defend kids growing up without fathers, and to plead for widows who live on pensions so small they end up eating cat food during the winter.”

Oh, there’s a scandal in the church today. We passionately love the Jesus who lives in our own hearts, who advocates for us in heaven, who inhabits our praise, and is present when two or more of us are gathered together. But we all too often overlook the Jesus who lives among the least.

And yet, the Biblical record is that God has always taken up residence among the least of us. And the maturity of faith is measured not by what we say we believe about this God. What this parable teaches is that what we truly believe about God is ultimately revealed in our response to him in the midst of the hungry, the thirsty, the outcast, the lost – the least.

Have you seen Jesus lately? If you want to meet him in a deeper way than ever before, if you want to come to know him like you’ve never known Jesus before, if you want to discover the Christian walk in the way its intended, then come and draw near to the least!

And there are some practical steps we can take. First, let the basic commitment of our church and your life be to care for Jesus among the poor, the outcast, the trampled on, the vulnerable. You know, people often ask, “What do you believe in over there at the Community Church?” And I like to answer in a paraphrase of Mother Theresa’s words, “We believe that Jesus is Lord, and then we go out every day to try to find him and care for him!”

You see, there are more than enough churches to uphold, preserve and defend the lofty doctrines of the Christian Faith. But I don’t believe for a minute that statements of belief have any meaning to God or to humankind unless they translate out into the reality of bringing a cup of cold water to a thirsty child in Jesus’ name. And there aren’t nearly enough churches who take that as their first commitment. And similarly, there are more than enough Christian people around who will advocate in society for the interests of the majority. But what we need are more people who will fight for the interests of the minority. A number of years ago, I met a man who told me that he formed his opinions on political, social and economic issues by simply asking the question, “How will it affect the poor?” When I ask myself that question, I find myself moving away from popular opinion and drifting toward the pronouncements of the prophets.

May we commit our church and our lives to being different! May we take as our essential faith an unswerving belief in Jesus Christ, and a daring commitment to caring for him among the least!

Second, we can increase in generosity. How thrilling it is to see you at work, providing money for Thanksgiving food baskets, and now non-perishable foods for those who will be hungry during these winter months. And how fantastic to count more and more people leaving our church on Sunday morning and going out to serve in the larger community! And there’s only one thing that excites me more than what I see us already doing!

The fact that we can do more! We are about to hit 800 members. We need to have 800 volunteers who go out into the community every week to find Jesus among the least. Every child who enters our Sunday School, and every adult who participates in Christian Education needs to be nurtured into the life of caring for the poor and the marginalized.

And third, we can ask God to reveal to us what it is that he sees in the least. You see, there is a beauty and dignity among the disenfranchised that we more affluent people often overlook. Listen to this story one of our members sent me about a certain poor family:

“I’ll never forget Easter, 1946. I was 14, and my sisters were 12 and 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving mom to raise seven kids with no money. By 1946, the older kids had either married or moved from home, leaving just the three of us and mom.

A month before Easter, the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and to give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would let us save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that, if we kept our electric lights out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money there. My older sister got as many house and yard-cleaning jobs as she could, and both of us babysat for everyone we could find. For 15 cents, we bought enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for a dollar each. We made $20 on those.

That month was one of the best months of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we’d saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them.

The day before Easter, my sister and I walked to the grocery store and turned in all our change for 3 crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill. We ran all the way home. We never had so much money before! That night, we were so excited, we hardly slept, but finally morning came. We walked to church in the pouring rain, and didn’t mind that we didn’t have new clothes, or that Darlene had cardboard in her shoes that got wet and came apart.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20. Afterwards, as we walked home, we sang all the way. At lunch, mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes!

Later that afternoon, a car pulled up out front. It was the minister. Mom went to the door and they talked for a minute. Then mom came back with an envelope in her hand. She openedd it, and out fell three crisp $20 bills, one $10, and seventeen $1 dollar bills. Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk. Just sat there staring at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark and we went to bed. All that week, we hardly said anything. Finally, mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor.

The next Sunday, we didn’t want to go to church, but mom made us. Mom tried to get us singing as we walked along, but no one was in the mood. In the service, we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but needed money to help buy roofing material. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, ‘Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?’

The three of us looked over at mom. She was already looking at us, and had a little smile on her lips. She reached into her purse and out came the envelope. She passed it to Darlene who passed it to me, and I passed it to our little sister who put it in the offering. When the money was counted, the minister announced it was a little over $100! The missionary had tears in his eyes. He never expected such a large offering from such a small church. He said, ‘You must have some really rich people in this church!’

Then it struck us. We had given $87 of that ‘little over $100’. We were the rich family in our church! Hadn’t the missionary said so? And from that day, I’ve never been poor again. I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus.”

Where is Jesus now? Why, he’s hanging out with some of the most beautiful people you’ll ever meet.

And he invites you to come and find him – in all his wondrous glory!