Have you ever thought about what the final judgment will be like? Have you ever pondered the questions God will ask you as you stand before Him on the last day?
Is He going to ask you about the kind of house you lived in, or the salary you made, or the car you drove? Is He going to ask you about your investments, and who you left them to? Is He going to ask you about the commandments and how many you kept? Is He going to ask you to recite the Apostles Creed or the Lord’s Prayer? Do you need to know all of the Levitical Law and have upheld all of them with no falter?
Judgment to us is not something to be feared as the above picture makes us want to tremble. There is a picture of the last judgment in Matthew that makes fear go through most people, but I really think that is because we do not understand what Jesus is telling us. The passage is Matthew 25:31-46:
25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 25:32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 25:33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 25:34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 25:35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 25:36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 25:37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 25:38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 25:39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 25:40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 25:41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 25:42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 25:43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 25:44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 25:45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
In this final judgment scene, Jesus separates the people, some to go into the kingdom, and some to go into eternal punishment. But what is the separation point? Is it law? Is it bank accounts? Is it knowledge of the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, or the commandments? The separation point here is compassion. The separation point is love. It is doing unto others as you would have done unto you. Loving your neighbor, loving the last, little, the lost, the least. It is truly when you can look into the eyes of the least of these and see your brother that you are seeing with eyes that are not yours, that you are seeing with the sight that Jesus gave you. the final judgment is not about what you did right or wrong, it is about whether you loved as God loved you. Did you welcome the least as God welcomed you? Look into the eyes of the stranger and see your mother or father, your sister your brother. But they are smelly and dirty, and I’m afraid I’ll catch something from them. If we can see them through God’s eyes, and love them as we are loved, then we got the idea. Jesus calls us to see him in everyone we meet. To love them as we ought to love him. To devote our lives to service of other and to not worry about doing the right thing, but loving others. It is not about sinner or saint, because we are both, it is about love.
It is not about right or wrong, it is about love.
Love as you have been loved, and welcome as you are welcomed.
aSacredRebel 