how can we ever feel the freedom
or the flame lit by a spark
Here at the end of his teaching, Jesus turns to a topic we’re all interested in; The End; the Final Judgement…
Our fascination with The End shows up everywhere.
From the popularity of doomsday bunkers, to survival shows, zombie movies, and even the mega-popular marvel films, where the fate of the world hangs in the balance; we’re always reckoning with The End. Aren’t we?
The wild thing, though, is that although we’re always working out our fascination with The End; we always seem to come to the same conclusion! Whether it is through strength, like in the super-hero films. Tenacity, in zombie movies. Resourcefulness, in survival shows. Or hoarding, in doomsday-bunkers; the conclusion we come to over and over about The End is that you must BE prepared for it!
It’s no great surprise this message gets such mileage. After all, being prepared is how we survive the day-to-day. Isn’t it?
And most of the time, that’ll serve you well.
…Most of the time. But, not all the time.
Because, and here’s the rub, it’s not ‘most of the time’ we’re not dealing with here. Is it?
We’re dealing with The End.
And, as it turns out, The End works in a fundamentally different way then ‘most of the time.’
In fact, the message Jesus gives in this parable about The End is, you can’t prepare for it…
Or did you miss the part in the parable where absolutely everyone in Jesus’ parable is surprised by how The End works?
Everyone in this parable asks, in shock, “When!”
“WHEN was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?” ask the sheep.
And likewise the goats ask, “WHEN was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you.”
In The End they were all surprised! None of them were prepared!
In The End it’s revealed that when the fateful moment was upon them, none of them knew it! None of them were prepared for it! It surprised them all!
Everyone, from the sheep to the goats, turned out to be totally UN-prepared!
That’s a foreign message for inveterate planners like us, though. Isn’t it? The temptation is to hear this parable as merely a guide for how to prepare ourselves for the final judgement. Isn’t it?
But, if Jesus is just giving this parable as a clue about how to be prepared, how come is everyone else in the parable totally surprised?!?!
If Jesus is just preparing us in this parable, then he is making us utterly unlike everyone in the parable!
So let me throw a surprise your way: This parable isn’t saying what you need to do to be prepared for The End. This parable is telling you something surprising about The End!
The important thing in this parable isn’t that the sheep spent time with Jesus and the goats didn’t; that’s just fact!
The important thing in this parable is that none of them knew they were doing it, or not doing it!
The Final Judgement came as a surprise to them all! And it has nothing to do with their performance!
In The End it turns out the reason preparing for The End is different from preparing for the ‘rest of life,’ is because The One who brings The End, is the one who works totally differently than the rest of life!
Listen to Jesus speak! The ones he tells us he brings his Kingdom to are the ones are not the prepared, the not-prepared themselves!
The hungry, those who couldn’t secure their next meal. The strangers, those without the skills to make friends and influence others. The imprisoned, those who couldn’t stay on the straight and narrow!
Jesus gives his kingdom those who are totally UN-prepared to enter it!
Not only is this parable not information about how to get into the kingdom. It insists the only folks who get in, are the ones who aren’t prepared to! The ones who couldn’t make their own way in!
This parable isn’t preparing you for The End, it’s putting The End where where it belongs, out of our hands! Out of our hands, and into Jesus’!
Jesus didn’t come to make us ready for the The End, he came to take it upon himself!
If this parable is just one more list of what you need to do to be prepared for The End, it wouldn’t be a parable. And more importantly, it wouldn’t be true to everything else Jesus has done for you!
This parable is about the surprising promise that at The End, Jesus will keep doing what he’s been doing all along; take our judgement upon himself!
This parable is about what happens after the Final Judgement! Because at the cross, Jesus took the Final Judgement upon himself!
And there, Jesus wasn’t just imprisoned, he was condemned. There, Jesus wasn’t just naked, he was stripped of clothes, dignity and everything else. There, Jesus didn’t just go thirsty, he died.
What happened at the cross was that Jesus suffered the sentence we all deserve; guilty.
And in doing so, Jesus gave you, gave us the sentence he deserved; innocent!
In your baptism you have been sealed with that judgement! In your baptism you have been set you free, clothed with Jesus, and filled with his righteousness!
Which makes you just like the sheep!
In The End when your wrap-sheet is read, it won’t be yours, but another’s! When your deeds and misdeeds are read, there won’t be any misdeeds! And instead all that will be read will be a spotless account!
And when that happens you like the sheep will blurt out, “when! When did I do all that.”
The great surprise of The End is that is has nothing to do with us! It comes by way of Jesus, and all he’s done for us!
And most surprising of all, you can never prepare for that!
The way to become a sheep, is not by serving the down and out, but by becoming down and out! By being helpless. By being like The Sheep, Jesus Christ the lamb who was slain!
Therein lies shock of the Gospel! The promise of this parable!
That it’s not more information to help you get prepared. It’s the promise that will usher you into the kingdom, ready or not! Especially, not! That when you’re most UN-prepared, Jesus Christ the lamb who was slain will come to you in that death and take you to where he is; the right hand of the Father!
You can only receive this promise!
It comes as an inheritance. Something given on account of another’s death; Jesus’!
Which is what you’ve been promised all along! You can’t prepare for this, you can only receive it!
So receive it!
The Kingdom has ALREADY been prepared for you from the foundation of the World! What’s more, it is the good pleasure of of the heavenly Father to give it to you, not based on how prepared you are, but on account of The One in whose life, death and resurrection you have been baptized into!
At the final judgement, when your deeds and misdeeds are read; they won’t be yours, but Jesus’! And even though I’ve told you, it will still come as a shock. As a surprise!
It’s such a sweet promise that on this side of the last judgement, we can only hear how sweet it is and be swept off our feet by its sweetness.
But, when it actually happens, it’ll surprise you one last time!
…Until you’re ushered into the kingdom that’ll surprise you for the rest of eternity!
In The End we will all be surprised by grace. Which, as it turns out, is the most any of us can do to be prepared for it!
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