The other day I was preparing a sermon on Matthew 25:31-46. This is the passage where Jesus talks of God seperating the righteous and the unrighteous like a shepherd seperates the sheep from the goats. I was reading several commentaries and looking at the passage myself. This passage has always disturbed me because of it seemingly talking of judgement according to works. None of our works will be good enough, so I believe that we who are Christians will be judged according to the righteousness of Christ. Suddenly it hit me. I was missing the whole point of this passage. The parable was not about judgment, instead the parable was about being able to tell Christians from non-christians by thier actions. Let me explain.
Over the past two years I have gotten to know a bit about goats. I have limited expereince with sheep, but I know enough to know that sheep act differently. Now the goats I have been around the most are boar goats and they deffinetly do not look like sheep. However, I have seen some goats that could be mistaken for sheep. I am not sure what kind of sheep and goats where in the Middle East at the time of Christ. There seems to be some argument over what they looked like. Most commentators do agree that sheep were white and goats black. The fact of the matter is even they looked identicle sheep and goats act differently.
Goats are very playful and love to climb. Sheep do not like to climb and are not very playful. Goats are curious and sheep are afraid of everything. Goats are smart and if there is a way out of pen they will find it. Sheep are not very smart and will starve to death if they find themselves in a corner that they cannot turn to the right or left, they will thirst to death or starve to death because they do not have a reverse gear. Goats eat brush and weeds, sheep eat more grass. Sheep will eat themselves to death, goats will eat till full and stop. In essence, in my oppinion goats are smart and have personality, sheep are just dumb (Okay this is oppinion, but this is my blog). The bottom line is that sheep and goats act differently. Just as those of us who are Christians should act differently than the rest of the world.
Christians should be spending time feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, visiting those who are in prison, helping the sick and clothing the naked. None of this will get a person ahead in the world. In addition when you help the helpless, they can do nothing for you in return. Jesus says that the Christian should be hanging out with the outcast and helping those on the edges of society. In other words, people should be able to look at your actions and know that you are a Christian. This is the challenge of the passage. Can others see the difference that Christ has made in your life? My prayer is that by the grace of God others can see the difference.
