Are we all going to hell?
I’ve been reflecting on Mathew 25 and the Sheep and The Goats.
31″When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34″Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40″The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41″Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44″They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45″He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46″Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
I am trying to work out whether I am a goat or a sheep by this catagory. I’ve heard it said that this passage referers only to Christian’s. To give myself a sporting chance of not going to hell I’ve decided to accept this narrowing of scope.
To be a goat I need to of done the following to a Christian, “For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’”.
I know I must of failed to give someone food and drink. One example of this failure is that I’ve failed to do all I can to feed the hungry Christians in Africa and provide them with clean water.
I have passed homeless people and failed to invite them in.
I have passed beggars in India who had need of clothes and failed to clothe them.
I have not visited many people in hospital.
I have not visited anyone in prision.
So far I have 5 out of 5 for being a goat.
Now lets see if I am goat.
37″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
1) I have given food and drink to hungry people on a number of occasions.
2) I have been inviting to strangers but not into my own home :-(. (I’ll give myself .75).
3) Clothes.. Hmmm.. I sometimes put my old clothes in those big bins.
4) I have visited some people when they have been sick.
5) I have not visited anyone in prision. I did go to Villawood once but never ended up going again. I think that counts for (.25)
So I have 4/5 for being a sheep and 5/5 for being a goat.
I still have some time left. I wonder how God does his maths.
Do you think he rounds up in our favour??
Does he give conceded passes?
The interesting thing is the areas of gray when at comes to salvation. By this passage I believe that most of us could either be sent to hell or heaven.
Is judgement based on a simple adding up of the good and the bad? Where then is grace?
Are we simple judged on attitude? This seems a bit more in accordance with grace.
Is it just a cautionary tale reminding us to take social justice seriously?
I don’t know. What I do know is that if we took this teaching seriously life on Earth would be far better for many people.
April 11th, 2006 at 9:41 am
Consider it this way. There are those that are like the pharasies. They know God and they know the law. But they don’t follow the spirit. They don’t really listen to/believe it. Then you have the group that lives their faith. Also, it’s not a grading of what you’ve done at the end, saved by faith not by works. Just have to keep in mind that faith without works is dead.
April 11th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
We did that passage in Biblestudy on Friday so were thinking about it too. Oh I wish I had something insightful to say about it. At the time I was thinking that it would be so much harder to read this passage in a developing country where everyone was hungry and thirsty and needed clothes, so it is funny that it is you who has been pondering on it over there in India.
April 11th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
here’s to hoping God rounds up…
April 12th, 2006 at 6:13 am
Why does it only apply to Christians? I do not see anything in that passage that implies that. In fact I imagine when the story was told it would have been to a bunch of Jews.
April 12th, 2006 at 9:59 am
It’s related to Jesus’ brothers. The idea being that the brothers of Jesus are Christian’s.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:56 am
I like goats. Especially baby goats. But not to eat.
April 14th, 2006 at 1:54 am
An interesting bit of teaching that. One thing to point out it that in a middle eastern culture sheep are scrawnier things and much more difficult to tell apart from goats just by having a quick look than you’d first think, which is the point, I reckon.
One thing that certainly comes across very strongly is that there are gonna be some surprises on that day - people who were sure they were gonna be in are out, and vice versa. And it’s all very well demonising the pharisees, but for an interesting slant on it, swap the word “Pharisee” for “evangelical” when you read the gospels! Cf. http://www.royclements.co.uk/sert23.htm for a thought provoking essay. I digress.
In short I don’t know the answer David - it throws up a lot of questions. I’m not sure that “brothers” does necessesarily mean only christians though, as Jesus’ favourite name for himself was the “son of man” = the fullness of humanity. Maybe this could extend the brothers thing to humanity also? Maybe.
Either way it’s clear that social justice is not extra to the gospel, it’s an intrinsic part of it. Cf Luke 4. It also seems sensible to reject a dogmatic “who’s in, who’s out” attitude, but rather leave that up to the shepherd and get on with following him with an attitude of gratitude and humilty.
April 14th, 2006 at 10:11 am
I don’t think God can judge us on not feeding, clothing and visiting everyone when he is not exactly feeding, clothing, housing everyone right now either. I think God is just reminding us to see his face in the poor, hungary and lonely. It is a good way of making sure we don’t get too comfortable in our lives with our well dressed, well fed friends.
April 14th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
I think you all have interesting points. I do actually think it’s more an attitude thing. It’s interesting to try and take some of these things at face value without much context though :-).
April 15th, 2006 at 6:06 am
I do think though Gem that we actually, as God’s people on earth, are how he clothes and feeds and welcomes, thus it is our resposibility to do these things as much as we can.
But yes, I agree too that it about our attitude and response in particular situations.
Ryan, I’m glad you like goats but I must admit I am rather traumatised about the whole goat thing at the moment…..