Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. Not everyone who calls out to me, “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. [Matthew 7:20-21 NLT]
Having previously warned people that not everyone who claimed to follow Him would enter the Kingdom, Jesus told the Parable of the Sheep and Goats in which He likened the last judgment to a king separating the sheep from the goats at the end of the day. Placing the sheep to His right and the goats to His left, the King invites the sheep into the Kingdom. The reasoning behind His selection is disarmingly simple: “For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” [Matthew 25:35-36] Having failed to do those things, the goats are sent into eternal punishment.
Both the blessed (sheep) and the condemned (goats) are astonished at the King’s explanation and they ask when they did or didn’t do those things. The goats seemed to expect they’d enter the Kingdom. After all, they’d followed all the rules. They may have recited the creed Sundays at church, tithed (after taxes of course), and avoided even a whiff of scandal but their supposed faith never moved from their heads into their hearts. Nevertheless, they’re confident they would have helped Jesus if they’d ever seen Him.
Like the goats, the sheep don’t remember seeing Jesus. But, unlike the goats, their faith produced fruit. They’d grocery shopped for the ailing neighbor, brought casseroles to the grieving family, offered water to the landscaper, read to the blind woman down the street, written letters to prisoners, worked at the food pantry, brought communion to the house-bound, mentored a refugee family, tutored immigrant children, volunteered in the charity resale shop, been foster parents, or taken cancer patients to chemo. Rather than projects, they saw people in need! Like the goats, they don’t recall seeing Jesus’ face; nevertheless, sacrificial love was a way of life for them.
Both sheep and goats ask Jesus, “Lord, when did we ever see you?” He explains that whatever the sheep did for the “least of these” had been done for Him and that, whenever the goats refused to help the “least of these,” they had refused to help Him! If, like the Pharisees, we split hairs and ask who the “least of these” are, Jesus answered that question with the Good Samaritan parable and his command to love one another as He loved us! [John 13:34]
This isn’t a case of faith versus works. We are, indeed, saved by grace through faith alone. Even so, our faith is judged by our works and it is by our fruit that He will know us. If our faith hasn’t transformed our lives, it is dead. Faith is far more than “lip service;” we can’t claim we love Jesus when we fail to love others as He did!
Being a sheep isn’t about heroic, grand, or impressive deeds. The sheep hadn’t cured cancer, solved the housing crisis, or reformed the prison system. They didn’t do great things but they continually did little things with great love! Without realizing it, they saw Jesus in every person they met. Both groups claimed to love the Shepherd but only the sheep loved as the Shepherd loved!
Sacrificial love is the real wool that distinguishes the sheep from the goats. Having real wool does not make you a sheep. But being a sheep causes you to have real wool. [Hayden Hefner]
When considering Solomon’s excess and riches, I recalled comedian George Carlin’s “Stuff” routine. First performed for Comic Relief in 1986, Carlin made fun of our obsession with having stuff. Along with being the King of Israel, Solomon was the King of Stuff. Denying himself nothing, along with his elaborate throne of gold and ivory, he displayed 500 ornamental gold shields on the walls of his palace. Rather than silver, all the king’s goblets and eating utensils were made of pure gold. He had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horseman.
God gifted Solomon with great wisdom and people from every nation journeyed to Solomon’s court to hear his wisdom. Although 1 Kings 3 tells us that Solomon wisely determined the identity of the real mother in a dispute between two women who claimed to have given birth to the same infant [3:16-28], one wise answer hardly seems newsworthy enough to make him famous beyond Israel’s borders. Even the king’s prolific writings and vast knowledge of botany and zoology don’t fully explain his renown. In a world without mass media, what caused his reputation to travel some 1,400 miles to Sheba (modern Yemen)? Sheba’s queen was so interested in meeting the king that she and her entourage made a journey which, including her stay in Judah and the return trip, took two to three years. What about Solomon caused her to travel so far to assess the king’s wisdom and wealth for herself?
Jesus told several parables regarding the day of His return. The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids stresses being ready before that day occurs and the Parable of the Sheep and Goats describes the separation of obedient followers from unbelievers and pretenders in the final judgment. It is between those two that we find the Parable of the Talents about serving our Master until the day of His return.
The patient Cormorant had been diving and resurfacing empty-beaked for several minutes before finally emerging victorious with a large fish crosswise in its beak. The fish thrashed in the cormorant’s beak while the bird tried to re-position its meal so it could be swallowed head first. A Brown Pelican suddenly crashed into the water and, after a great deal of wing flapping and water splashing, it was clear the Cormorant was no match for the larger bird. While the Pelican threw back its head and swallowed the unlucky fish, the unfortunate cormorant swam away still hungry.
