Life Verses Matthew 25:40
Reinbeck UMC 6/18/2017
Cliff tells of traveling across the southern shore of Lake Superior about 15 years ago. Maybe they were looking for scenery like this. You know the highways are never the best way to see the scenery, though, so they were on some mud and dirt road about 1000 miles from nowhere that probably looked more like this… . Or knowing Cliff’s adventuresome side, it might have looked more like this .
Whatever the road looked like, they saw a car pulled over and a set of legs sticking out from underneath. Cliff sent the family on a hike and went back to help. It turns out that the last pothole had knocked the man’s fuel tank loose from its hangers. Most of us would be helpless, but you know Cliff doesn’t go anywhere without bailing wire. He said, “Let me go get my bailing wire and we’ll get this fixed up for you.” The man was grateful. As they worked, Cliff discovered the man was a preacher. He would have helped him no matter what, but that was just frosting on the cake.
After re-hanging the tank, cliff offered the man enough fuel to get to the next town but the man’s vehicle was a Diesel so he would have to head out on a wing and a prayer.
Before they parted, the preacher blessed cliff saying, “Matthew 25:40.” Cliff smiled politely and wished him good luck.
Sometime later Cliff decided to figure out what Matthew 25 said, he read, ‘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.” He had heard it all his life, but it suddenly became real.
Matthew 25 is a series of teachings about the coming kingdom and the judgment. It starts with the PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS, 5 were ready, 5 were not, and Jesus says, “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
That is followed by the PARABLE OF THE TALENTS. One servant gets five talents, another- two and the last- one. When the master returned and found that the servant with only one talent buried it, and did nothing good with it…Took no risk… Made no effort...and acted selfishly… the master replies, “As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Immediately after that, Jesus begins this parable we heard today. The separating of the sheep and the goats and the faithful saying, “When did we do these things to you?” and Jesus’ reply, ‘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.” And of course the flip side of the coin. ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did not do it to me.”
That seems pretty clear:
• Helping someone, is helping Jesus
• Not helping someone, is not helping Jesus.
• Loving someone, is loving Jesus
• Not loving someone, is not loving Jesus.
When I started studying, I should not have been surprised, but I was just a little, to find scholars arguing about whom Jesus was talking about when he referred to “the least of these members of my family.” There are some who say he was talking only about the Jews. There argument makes no sense to me. There is another group who says he was talking only about Christians. I can understand that argument a little better because Jesus uses the term, “my family,” or “my brothers.” They argue that in other passages where Jesus refers to his family or brothers, he means fellow believers.
They may be correct about what Jesus was saying in the other passages. I just can’t draw that line in Matthew 25 saying these people are brothers and these are not. These people are in and these are out. I look at Jesus whole ministry, which was to the Jews, and it was to the disciples, but it was also to the Greeks, and the Romans, and the Samaritans and the unclean, adulteresses, and prostitutes, and sinners of every kind. Jesus refused to follow the commonly understood lines of his day and ministered to every person he met regardless of which side of any imaginary boundary they might belong. Jesus respected no boundaries in his ministry.
When we ask, who was his family, or his brothers, it sends me back to another parable… the PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN. The question was “Who is my neighbor?” It could very well have been “Who is my brother?” Jesus’ answer to the question featured a no good, dirty, sub-human, Samaritan. In the disciples eyes he was certainly among the least of these… maybe even less than the least of these. YET HE is the one who showed love to the man along the road. Who is my neighbor? Who is my brother?
I challenge you NOT to be one of those people who draw lines around “the least of these” and “not the least of these.” We are all Jesus’ Family. In some way, we are all THE LEAST OF THESE. And in some way we can all make a difference to others who are also THE LEAST OF THESE.
It is a matter of one beggar telling another beggar where to find food.
• Maybe you have money but you are among the least of these because you are lonely.
• Maybe you have a home, but you are among the least of these because you suffer from a mental illness.
• Maybe you are healthy, but you are among the least of these because you are mourning the loss of a loved one.
We have to get over the US/THEM kind of thinking that draws line between people. The least of these are out there, but they are also in here. We are each among the least of these in some way.
A few years ago, the initials WWJD were popular. Do you remember what they meant? (What would Jesus do?) I want us to replace that with WWIDITPWJ. I know it doesn’t roll off the tongue. It doesn’t fit neatly on a bracelet. However, the fundamental question posed by this parable in Matthew 25 is WWIDITPWJ. “What would I do if this person was Jesus?” That is the key question. Everything we do, either builds up Jesus body, or tears down Jesus’ body.
Matthew 25:40 begs us to ask, every time we meet someone… because we are all the least of these… “What would I do if this person was Jesus?”
In addition to erasing the lines of who are the
• “doers unto” and who are the
• “least of these” Cliff and I want you to notice that Jesus is not asking you to give your heart to someone for a transplant, or buy a homeless family a house (If you can, that is great! But most of us can’t. And that’s OK too. )
It is great when we can do something big, but it is the little things every day that make a difference in the world person by person, day by day. You can make a difference doing little things.
Jesus doesn’t ask us to end world hunger, but to give a hungry person some food.
Jesus is not asking us to end drought, but to give someone a drink of water.
Jesus is not asking us to do the impossible, but just to be accepting of those who are different.
Jesus is not asking us to end poverty, but to donate some clothes, or mittens, or socks.
He is not asking us to cure cancer, but to care for the sick.
He is not asking us to free the prisoner, but to visit them.
He is not asking us to change the world in one grand campaign, but to make
a difference every day of our lives.
I will be going on my 28th week of youth mission trips next month. Have I changed the world? Obviously not, but I have tried to make a difference.
Cliff and Kim spent several summers working with your habitat for humanity project. Are there still people who need better housing? You bet. But there are also several families for whom you all made a difference because they do have a house.
Cliff, Kim, I, and several others, went to Haiti to build SAFE-T-HOMES. Is Haiti still the poorest country in the western hemisphere? Well yes, but to those families who are now living in the homes we built, and to those orphans we took to the beach, we made a difference.
Cliff and Kim went to New Orleans after the hurricane. Did he end the suffering? No, could still see it when we were there in November. But did he make a difference? I bet he did. And I hope I made a difference as we packed flood buckets and health kits at UMCOR.
Cliff has helped us with various local projects to help people right here including building the ramp at Beverly Christiansen’s house. Did we keep her in her house as long we hoped? No, but we made a difference not just because she was able to come home for a short time, but also FOR HER it was a tangible sign of our love and God’s love.
Jesus is not asking you to change the world today, but to make a difference right now.
Be difference makers in our world. You might not think anyone cares, but it matters to Jesus.
Be difference makers in our nation. You might not think anyone cares, but it matters to Jesus.
Be difference makers in our state. You might not think anyone cares, but it matters to Jesus
Be difference makers in Reinbeck. You might not think anyone cares, but it matters to Jesus
Be difference makers in our church. You might not think anyone cares, but it matters to Jesus.
Be difference makers for anyone you meet. You might not think anyone cares, but it matters to Jesus
You might not think anyone notices, but it matters to Jesus.
You might think the little bit you can do won’t matter much, but whatever you do matters to Jesus.
When we make a difference in someone’s life… we make a difference for Jesus.
Look for places to make a difference this week. Think outside of the box and outside of the lines you normally draw. Take a chance to do something you don’t normally do to make a difference to someone you don’t normally help. Reach out in a way you normally would not.
Because, trust me, you can make a difference.
Maybe you can’t do much by yourself, but letting the Christ in you out of the box… letting the Christ in you work outside the lines you normally draw… letting the Christ in you loose on those around you, will make a difference… I guarantee.
You have heard it before… but it is too good a story not to use as a conclusion.
The little boy was standing among all of the star fish washed up on the beach and throwing them back in the ocean one at a time. After watching for a while, the elderly man walked up to him laughing and said, look at all these starfish. You aren’t even making a dent in them. You can’t make any difference here. The little boy stopped and looked at him. Bent down to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. And said, “For that one I made a difference”
You can make a difference, even if it is only for one person. You can make a difference in the difference-making name of Jesus.
AMEN
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