When we are judged by God, He will judge us not just by what we do, but how we see. Do we see God in the faces of others? Do we see God in the least of society? That is the challenge of Matthew 25.31-46. It isn’t just about serving others. It is about seeing God in them.
Transcript
My brothers and sisters, today is called Judgment Sunday in the church. It is the day where the church reminds us of the final judgment of Christ. And I will acknowledge to you that it is often misunderstood by so many Christians in the world. The gospel lesson is almost a part of our society. Christ says, “I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me a drink. I was lonely, and you visited me,” et cetera, et cetera. And the people who are saved say, “When did we see you like this and do all these things for you? We don’t even remember doing these things for you.” And the ones who are not saved say to Christ, “We don’t remember not helping you. When were you sick and we didn’t help you? We would’ve helped you if we knew you were sick.”
And so many of us, I acknowledge, think that this gospel is about the acts that we do for other people. We often hear this gospel, we say, “We have to feed the hungry. We have to give the drink to the thirsty. We have to visit those in prison.” And those things are good to do. But just because we do those things does not mean that we’re going to find ourselves in the loving embrace of God. This is what the gospel is teaching us, because those who are on the left, those who were not saved, would have helped God if they had seen Him. And what does He say? “If you did not do it to the least” … in other words, my brothers and sisters, God expects us to see Him in each other.
He expects us to go through life looking at other people and seeing the image of God, not just with our favorite people, not just with those who we love, our family, but the strangers, the poor people walking in the streets, those who are estranged from society. These are the ones that God also wants us to see God in them, you see, because that’s what it means to love God. And the only way we are going to be saved, my brothers and sisters, is if we love God enough to see Him, using Christ’s only words, in the least of society. I’m going to say that again. The only way that we can be saved is if we love God enough to see Him in the least of our society.
And unfortunately, we tend to walk away. We tend to ignore. Maybe we’re busy, maybe we’ve had a bad day. But again, it’s not what we do, it’s why we do it that matters. Because as I say oftentimes, even atheists can feed poor people. Even atheists can go to the prisons and visit prisoners, but it doesn’t save them, because they’re not loving God as the root of their service. So it’s not about just serving, it’s about seeing. And it’s about seeing God and seeing, as we say, the image of God in each and every human being that we meet. When our hearts are capable of that kind of love, then God is going to say to us, “Come, enter into the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the beginning of the creation,” because we love like God loves.
And so as we are approaching the final week before the great fast, today, Meat Fare, the last day for us to have meat, the church is reminding us, we may not want to hear it, but judgment is coming. And judgment, my brothers and sisters, is not just the actions but our motivation. It is not always what we do. It is who we see. And so my challenge for us this week, maybe the single most difficult challenge I have ever offered from the pulpit, do the best you can this week to see God in every person you interact with this week. It’s going to be a struggle. Ask God to help you, but strive your best to see Him in others. And then you will feel and understand the love of God, because there’s no one that God doesn’t love. He loves the best and the worst altogether, the same he asks from us. Good strength, good love, glory to God for all things.
