LORD, WHEN DID WE SEE YOU...?

“LORD, WHEN DID WE SEE YOU….?”

            The Gospel lessons over the last three weeks have been the three parables from Matthew 25, which are the Waiting Bridesmaids, the Parable of the Talents, and the Parable of the Last Judgment. This Sunday’s lesson was the Parable of the Last Judgment, where the Beloved of Humanity gathers all the peoples of the earth at the end of time for the final judgment.  The story in Matthew 25:31-46 calls him the “Son of Man,” but the word for “man” in Greek is “anthropos,” from which we get our word “anthropology.”  So, it is easy to make “Man” to be “humanity.”  In this time when the toxicity of patriarchy is so clear to us all, I want to change the “Son” part to what it really means:  “the Beloved.”  So, it is the “Beloved of Humanity.” 

            It is important to note that these three parables are the last stories that Jesus tells the women and men disciples before he is betrayed, arrested and executed.  He begins with the parable of the waiting bridesmaids, who have to make a decision when the bridegroom is delayed.  Half of them stay awake and keep their lamps trimmed and burning, and we get the powerful gospel song “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burnin” from this story.   The next parable is the Talents, where the master goes on a long trip and distributes talents to his servants to use in his absence.  Two of the servants use their talents and make more, but the third is filled with fear and hides his talents.  When the master returns, he is delighted that the two have multiplied the talents, but he is greatly irritated that the third has hidden his talent.  This is a strange and quirky story, and it has so often been used as a defense of capitalism and making money. 

            In these final teachings, Jesus seems to know how the meaning of the Parable of the Talents will be twisted, so he uses the third parable to tighten it up and to make it clear what the talents are.  He talks about the Beloved of Humanity gathering everyone for a final judgment, drawing on an image from Daniel 7.  He uses a metaphor of goats and sheep for the peoples - putting the sheep on the right, and the goats go on the left.  One of the unanswered questions here is whether this is “stage right” or “house right” – it obviously will make a huge difference!  He tells the goats on the left to go into eternal punishment because they did not feed him or clothe him or offer him water or visit him or care for him when he was sick.  The great American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr reminds that there is great surprise for everybody in this parable.  Those who are sent away are astonished, and they ask the Beloved: “When did we see you hungry or thirsty or naked and not tend to your needs?  Lord, if we had seen you in this condition, we surely would have served you!”  The Beloved replies that when they did not serve those in need, they were refusing to serve Him. 

            We should also note that those who are blessed in this story are just as surprised as the “unrighteous.”  Niebuhr calls this the “surprise of the righteous.”  They also ask the Beloved:  “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or in prison and serve You?  We don’t ever remember serving You.”  And, the Beloved replies:  “Whenever you served those in need, you were actually serving me.”  Here Jesus is emphasizing that what he wants are compassionate hearts and compassionate acts.  The talents that he is leaving for his servants to use are compassion and love and justice and mercy.    We should recall once again that this is the last teaching of Jesus to his disciples.  It is as if he is saying it one more time, one more time, one last time – these are the talents that I am leaving you, this is how you should live your lives.  If you remember nothing else, remember this last teaching:  just as God has been compassionate with you, so you should be with one another. 

            In these days of confusion and individualism and self-seeking, we would do well to remember the parable of the talents and this parable of the last judgment which tells us what those talents are:  feeding those who are hungry, giving water to those who are thirsty, clothing those who are naked, visiting those in prison, and caring for those who are sick.  This is who we are;  this is how we will experience Jesus.