The Sheep & the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46)

The Christian Scriptures certainly call followers of Jesus toward generosity and hospitality. As Jesus Himself taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew:

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, do not show opposition against an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other toward him also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also. 41 Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘you Shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:38-48, NASB

Generosity toward those in need, hospitality toward strangers, and care for the vulnerable or disenfranchised are behaviors expected of the people of God. These are, indeed, ethics of the Kingdom of the Heavens. As God explained to Israel through Moses:

14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set His affection on your fathers, to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, you over all the other peoples, as it is this day. 16 So circumcise your heart, and do not stiffen your neck any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe. 18 He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing. 19 So show your love for the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.

Deuteronomy 10:14-20, NASB

Throughout the First and New Testaments, these behaviors are commended to the people of God. Those who live in these ways are praised. Those who do not are warned, called to repent, and, if continuing in their rebelliousness, disciplined.

But, contrary to much contemporary preaching and teaching, this is not what Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats was about. Before we look at the parable, we must first contextualize the language that Jesus uses therein.

One of the terms that proves essential to understanding Jesus’ intent as it has been preserved by the Gospel of Matthew is the term brother. The Greek word is adelphōn, and since it can be used to refer generically to one’s relatives, it is often translated today as brothers and sisters. This is not a word Jesus used casually in Matthew’s recollection of His ministry. Perhaps the most illustrative context is Matthew 12:46-50:

46 While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47 [Someone said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You.”] 48 But Jesus replied to the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?” 49 And extending His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold: My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother.”

Matthew 12:46-50, NASB

The Christian Scriptures do not teach the universal brotherhood or sisterhood of humanity. It is true that all humans are descendants of Adam and Eve by way of Noah and his wife. However, this reality does not lead the writers of Scripture to describe humans universally as brothers and sisters. Quite to the contrary, the New Testament authors have insisted that to become part of God’s family, we must be adopted by faith in Jesus. As Paul has explained in Galatians 4:1-7:

1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So we too, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Galatians 4:1-7, NASB

In addition to Galatians, Paul used the terminology of adoption in Romans 9:4 and Ephesians 1:5, as well. This is the way Jesus was speaking of family in Matthew 12, when He said, “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother.” When Jesus used the word brother, He was not referring to humanity generally, but to those who do the will of His Father particularly.

Now, let’s listen to the parable of the sheep and the goats with contextualized ears.

31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For 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; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to 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? 38 And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’

41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:31-46, NASB

We have to go back a long way to discover the context of this teaching of Jesus. It can be found in Matthew 24:3:

3 And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

Matthew 24:3, NASB

This parable of Jesus is the last of a long series of teachings that Jesus did in private with His disciples during the last week of His pre-resurrected life. According to Matthew, only the disciples heard it. What was Jesus trying to tell them?

These teachings were prompted by Jesus’ declaration that the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed. His disciples were understandably vexed by this prediction, and they asked Jesus both when the destruction would occur and when He would reveal Himself to be the Messiah. Jesus’ responses to both questions were not encouraging to the disciples. Jesus spoke of seasons of great difficulty and tribulation ahead for them. Most dire was his prediction of their future suffering:

9 “Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. 10 And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. 12 And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. 14 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24:9-14, NASB

It is to this mistreatment of the disciples that Jesus was speaking when He told them the parable of the sheep and the goats. Who are these brothers of mine? Jesus meant to single out those of His disciples who had suffered in the way described in the parable for bearing His message. It was those who bore His message faithfully who would be hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and imprisoned. What Jesus was revealing to His disciples (and to us through them) was that the judgment of the nations at the end of time would take into account their treatment of the disciples of Jesus. Though they would be persecuted and oppressed and even killed for the message of Jesus, at the final judgment, the nations will answer for their treatment of Jesus’ brothers—i.e., their treatment of those who were doing the will of the Father.

As I said at the onset, hospitality and generosity are part of the ethics of the kingdom. Those who truly follow Jesus will live in these ways. But, the parable of the sheep and the goats does not teach that at the final judgment people will be judged solely based on how they have treated the poor or the criminal. Jesus told the parable of the sheep and the goats to encourage His disciples and to warn the world that the nations and people of the earth will answer at the final judgment for how they received those who have followed Jesus by doing the will of the Father.

There are several ways that we might apply this revelation of Jesus today. But, there is one that the Lord seems to have asked me to highlight today. The Lord has an accusation to make against those professors, scholars, pastors, and laypeople who have persecuted His Prophets and Apostles by disregarding or disrespecting the messages from God entrusted to them and preserved in the Christian Bible. Hear the Word of the Lord:

Throughout the ages many humans have presumed to speak in the Name of a god. Most have spoken presumptuously words from their own imaginations. But, I chose the prophets of Israel and my own Apostles as a people apart from the world. I put my Word in their mouths and I entrusted them with a message for the nations. While they lived, they were persecuted, marginalized, and restrained. After their deaths, many conspired to silence them, to twist the words I had entrusted to them, and to refashion what I said through them into words more amenable to fleshly desires and appetites. Though I had warned such people not to add or to take away from the Word I had sent, they did not heed my warning.

When the day of judgment comes, I will separate the nations as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. To those who have honored, cared for, received, and embraced my prophets and Apostles, I will welcome them into my kingdom. To those who have dishonored, disrespected, rejected, and twisted the words of my prophets and Apostles, I will cast you into darkness.

Whatever you have done to the least of these brothers of mine, you have done to me. Repent, nations and people of the earth. For I desire the destruction of no one. You must heed the words of those I have sent to you.

33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and he leased it to vine-growers and went on a journey. 34 And when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his fruit. 35 And the vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they did the same things to them. 37 But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let’s kill him and take possession of his inheritance!’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” 41 They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the fruit in the proper seasons.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,

‘A stone which the builders rejected,

This has become the chief cornerstone;

This came about from the Lord,

And it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and on whomever it falls, it will crush him.”

Matthew 21:33-44, NASB

Many have seized my vineyard, and put my servants, the prophets and the apostles, to death. Their teachings are no longer revered and their words have been twisted to suit worldly gain. I am coming to reclaim my vineyard. Repent, before I come.

Walking on Water (Matthew 14:22-23)

In the Gospel according to Matthew, after Jesus fed five-thousand men along with an unspecified number of women and children with a mere five loaves of bread and two small fish, we find the following recollection:

22 Immediately he [Jesus] made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

28 Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Matthew 14:22-33, NRSV

Let’s begin by reflecting on the image of Jesus walking on the sea.  Two historical narratives are bound up with this picture.  They are creation and Israel’s exodus from Egypt. 

We notice first in verse 25 that the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea.  The word translated sea is the Greek word thalassa.  That’s an unusual word to use for a body of water like Galilee.  In the first century A.D. thalassa was more commonly used to describe larger, ocean-like bodies like the Mediterranean.  The Gospel of Luke reflects the more common Greek term for smaller bodies of water like Galilee—limnē (lake).  So, why do Matthew and Mark choose to call Galilee a thalassa (a sea)?  Because of creation and the Exodus.

In the beginning, when God created, everything was covered by the waters.  On the second day of creation, God separated the waters above from the waters below and created an expanse between them which He called the heavens.  Then, on the third day, God gathered the waters below the heavens and separated them from the land.  These gathered waters He called yamiym, in Hebrew—seas.  When the Hebrew was translated into Greek, the translators used the word thalassas to translate yamiym.

So, calling gathered waters seas, irrespective of their size, is reflective of the terminology of creation.  And this is why during the Exodus, the body of water that God parted before the Israelites was called a yam, a sea—more specifically, the yam-sūph, the Sea of Reeds or, in the Greek translation, the Red Sea.

When the psalmist, Asaph, recalled the crossing of the Israelites through the yam-sūph, he told the story this way:

16When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; the very deep trembled.

17The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; your arrows flashed on every side.

18The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook.

19Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen.

20You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalm 77:16-20, NRSV

Of course, the path the Israelites walked through the sea, led by God’s unseen feet, was on dry ground.  Jesus did not part the waters of the sea in this instance in Matthew.  He walked upon them.  But, in the case that this might cause us to miss the Passover/Exodus significance of what Jesus was doing, the Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus intended to pass by them.  Mark used the Greek verb par-erchomai to explain Jesus’ intent.  Par-erchomai is the Greek verb used to translate the Hebrew pasach, to pass over.

When the disciples witness this event, they are terrified because they think they are seeing a phantasma, in Greek.  The NRSV translates the word as ghost, and it can mean that.  But, the translation ghost misses something.  The word phantasma relates to an apparition or a supernatural appearance of something.  The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12, verse 21 of his epistle used the verb form of the word to describe the appearance of God to the Israelites at Mount Sinai.  He also described Moses as terrified in that moment.  Matthew’s language is meant to indicate that Jesus was revealing Himself to the disciples in ways similar to those by which God revealed Himself to Israel in the events of the Exodus and at Sinai.

And these connotations are highlighted even further by Jesus’ response to the disciples’ fear.  Jesus said, “Tharseite, egō eimi; mē phobeisthe.”  Literally it translates, “Take courage, I am; do not be afraid.”  The same command against fear is spoken by God when He appeared to Abraham in Genesis 15:1, to Hagar in Genesis 21:17, to Isaac in Genesis 26:24, and to Jacob at Bethel in Genesis 28:13.  And in this instance Jesus designates Himself as egō eimi, I am.  It could be translated as “It is I.”  But, given the creation-Passover-Exodus context of this event, it more likely reflects the divine name of God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14:

14 God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’ ”

Exodus 3:14, NRSV

And then Peter interrogates the moment.

“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

The Greek word for water is plural, reflecting again the Hebrew mayim, waters, of original creation.  And Peter uses the Greek word Kyrios to address Jesus.  This is not surprising.  Kyrios simply means lord or master and means generally what Adonai means in Hebrew.  However, Kyrios is also the word that the writers of the New Testament and the Greek translators of the First Testament used to translate the divine name, Yahweh.  Was Peter saying, “If it is you, Jesus, command me to come to you on the water”?  Or was Peter suggesting, “If you are the Lord, Jesus, command me to come to you on the water”?  I suspect Peter was wrestling with a bit of both of these questions.

Perhaps surprisingly, Jesus invites Peter to step onto the waters with Him, and perhaps more surprisingly still, Peter gets out of the boat and actually takes a few steps upon the waters.  But, then something happens…

30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Matthew says it was the wind that scared Peter at that moment—not the walking on water, not the realization that it was Jesus who had summoned him out of the boat and into this miracle.  It was the mighty wind that took his attention off of Jesus, and for good reason, I’m sure.  Peter was a fisherman on this very lake, and certainly he knew the difference between a survivable storm and a perilous one.  Despite the miracle, despite the revelation of Jesus, despite even the presence of Jesus, Peter knew where he was, and he knew its peril.  As the Egyptians before him, he began to sink into the waters.

But, then Peter remembered Jesus, and he called to Him for help, using the same address—Kyrios, Lord!  And, as God had delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt by His outstretched arm, Jesus delivered Peter from the waters and into the boat.  And then Jesus asked Peter the hardest of questions:

“You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

The word translated little faith is rare in Greek.  It does not occur in the First Testament Greek translations, and it occurs only five times in the New Testament—four times in Matthew and once in Luke.  And, in each case Jesus uttered it, He was reprimanding folks who were allowing earthly concerns to diminish their trust in God.  In Matthew 6:30 Jesus called those who worry about clothing “you of little faith.”  In Matthew 8:26, Jesus used the phrase of His disciples when they were afraid of another storm on the Sea of Galilee.  In Matthew 16:8, Jesus again used the phrase to accuse His disciples when they were worried about not having enough to eat.  And, here, in Matthew 14:31, Jesus uses it to describe Peter.

And Jesus proceeded to ask Peter, “Why did you doubt?”  The Greek word here is distazō.  It means to hesitate or to be uncertain.  Jesus might as well have asked Peter, “Why were you uncertain which to trust—Me or the wind?”  It’s a penetrating question.  Which do we trust more?  Food or Jesus?  Clothing or Jesus?  Housing or Jesus?  Nature or Jesus?

Why do you suppose Peter was uncertain?  Could it be because he knew from personal experience, as we do, that God does not always deliver us from earthly perils?  Could it be that even with the miracle of walking on water and the presence of Jesus with him, Peter wasn’t sure that the wind could be safely ignored?  That is familiar space for me—certain that God can deliver me, but not certain that God will deliver me.  Why would Jesus reprimand such a dilemma?  After all, Jesus Himself was soon to be crucified—the waters of death soon to rise above His head.  And that, too, was God’s will.  How can one trust such a God?  Wasn’t Peter justified in being uncertain about the danger the wind posed to him?

But, of course, as the life and teachings of Jesus demonstrate abundantly, Jesus’ criticism was not meant to indicate that there are no dangers in the world when one walks with God.  Jesus Himself would subject Himself to those dangers and perish in the flesh at their hands.  So, the point of this reprimand from Jesus could not have been that those with sufficient faith will not fall prey to earthly perils.  Peter himself would one day be executed for his faith in Christ.  The wind was certainly dangerous to him. 

So, what was Jesus looking for that day?  I think Jesus was saying to Peter,

“Don’t let the wind distract you, not because it is not dangerous, nor because it cannot kill you.  Don’t fear the wind, Peter, because God can order the chaos.  God walks upon the waters.  God created out of nothing and ordered what was lifeless.  God can raise the dead.  The threat of death is real, but the fear of death is slavery.  Are you afraid to die, Peter?  Are you afraid to suffer?  Then the wind has you, and the world is your master.  Keep your eyes fixed on me, and then, even if the winds kill you, I will deliver you from the waters.”

And still today, where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also.  So long as we fear sickness, so long as we fear suffering, so long as we fear loss, starvation, exposure, and death, the world will have us—we will remain slaves to sin and death and the world and the worldly will remain our masters.  To follow Jesus out of the boat and into the chaos no matter the road no matter the cost, is life everlasting.  This is what it means to become a Christian, and it is the road carved out by Jesus for all who would be His disciples.

“You of little faith, why do you doubt?”

Will you follow Him?

The Narrow Way (Matthew 7:13-14)

Near the conclusion of His Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus exhorted His disciples with the following words:

13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. 14 For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Mt 7:13–14.

It is not surprising that Jesus encouraged His disciples in this way in this context.  Matthew chapters 5-7 include some of the most challenging teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.  The way of discipleship for Jesus certainly is narrow, but what precisely did Jesus mean to convey with this language?

Does Jesus mean to say that folks can only pass through this gate single file?  Must one wait in line?  Is Jesus saying something akin to Yoda when Luke asked him if the dark side of the force was stronger? “No! No…quicker, easier, more seductive.”  Was George Lucas borrowing from Jesus?  Possibly…but not quite.

The New Testament word translated narrow is the Greek word stenós.  Stenós is an adjective in Greek, and narrow is a pretty good translation.  However, in my view it would be a mistake to assume Jesus’ intention begins and ends with the Greek language.  The Gospels have translated Jesus’ teachings into Greek, but beneath that translation lie the Semitic languages of Aramaic and Hebrew.  When the word stenós is used to translate the Hebrew of the First Testament, the Hebrew word it translates is tsar.  Tsar is usually used in the First Testament to indicate distress—e.g., 2 Samuel 24:14:

14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into human hands.”

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), 2 Sa 24:14.

The way of discipleship, according to Jesus, is narrow in the sense that it is pressing or squeezing.  In other words, Jesus is not describing a one-lane highway, or a footpath in a field, or even a neglected road in a forest.  He is describing a tight squeeze that is challenging to pass through.  And this is more evident still by Jesus’ further description of the road that leads to life as hard.  Hard is the Greek word thlibō.  Thlibō means pressed, squeezed, or pinched, and it can be used metaphorically to refer to oppression, affliction, or distress.

To use the Hebrew word, the gate and the road that lead to life are tsar—roads of distress, of pressure.  It’s no wonder that few find such a way.  Who’s looking for a tight squeeze?  Is anybody really searching for a pressure-filled road?  Of course not.  That’s why Jesus indicates that few find it.  It’s not that it’s hidden or that it requires a special map to find.  The way of life is plain enough in the teachings of Scripture.  But, it hides in plain sight from those who wish to find a way that is free of suffering and distress.

Jesus describes the road to destruction, on the other hand, as quite easy on the suspension.  The word translated wide (platús) indicates broadness or flatness, and the word translated easy (eurú-chōros) also means roomy or wide.  In other words, the road to destruction presents itself as an easier, more relaxed way, and Jesus insists that many choose to enter it.

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7 delineates what the twentieth-century theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, described as the cost of discipleship.  Even a cursory read of Jesus’ description of the way to the Kingdom of Heaven can leave a leisurely traveler full of despair.  On another occasion described for us in Matthew 19:16-30, Jesus instructed a wealthy man to sell all his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor, and only afterwards to follow Him.  After the man walked away sad, Jesus said that it was near impossible for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, to which His disciples exclaimed:

“Then who can be saved?”

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Matt. 19:25.

Jesus’ only encouragement to them was that with God all things are possible.

This exchange dovetails well with Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount because, to extend the metaphor, the narrow way may require the shedding of gear to pass through.  If we truly wish to follow Jesus, we will need to pass through some squeezes so tight that we will have to shed weight and provisions in order to continue the journey.

Of course, Jesus’ encouragement is that His disciples do not make this journey on their own.  Jesus is with them, and God will make the journey possible.  But still, it will be no relaxed trip.  The way of life presses on those who take it, squeezes those who wish to pass through it.  It is a way of pressure and distress.  Judged by mere appearances, only a fool would take it.  But, we who claim faith in Jesus follow Him, and Jesus denied Himself, took up His cross, and squeezed through the narrow gate.

The history of Christianity is filled with people, both clergy and laity alike, who have sought to widen the passes of the narrow way so that it might appear more appealing to a greater variety of people.  Others have sought to place greater emphasis on the destination and leave the road itself undescribed as a way of enticing folks to begin the journey without full awareness of their commitment.  And, then, of course, there are plenty who have switched the signs, identifying the wide road as leading to life and the narrow road as leading to destruction.

Do not be deceived by these tactics.  The road to life is a pressing road, and those who find it are seeking the way of Jesus, however difficult a squeeze it may be.

If we are to seek the pressing, squeezing road and follow Jesus, we must divest ourselves of the desire for safety, security, ease, and pleasure.  These experiences are to be received with thanksgiving when they are given by God in proper season, but they cannot be sought.  If we are to find the pressing, squeezing road that Jesus trailblazed before us, we must be looking for precisely that.  Jesus goes on in the next verses in Matthew 7 to warn His disciples not to fall prey to false teachers and false prophets.  That is a fitting warning because such folks always diminish the pressing, squeezing, distressing facets of the road of discipleship.

False prophets and false teachers offer shorter ways, short cuts, easy principles, and can’t-miss formulas.  Jesus never pretended that the road to life was anything but impossible by human effort alone.  The way of life is traversable only by those who have gone all-in with Jesus and who are enabled by God Himself.  For those looking for a road possible to traverse without God, you will find only the road to destruction.  The pressing, squeezing, distressed way that leads to life cannot be traversed without God, and this is precisely why so few find it. 

Seek the narrow way.  If it is described in the teachings of Scripture and looks to be impossible, you’ve found the gate.  You will only enter by placing faith in Jesus to make the impossible possible.  This is the road to life.  Embrace the call to find it.

~ J. Thomas ~

Return (Isaiah 1:1-20)

2Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. 3The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.

4Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the Lord, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged! 5Why do you seek further beatings? Why do you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds; they have not been drained, or bound up, or softened with oil.

7Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence aliens devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. 8And daughter Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a shelter in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. 9If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we would have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.

10Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; 13bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.

14Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. 15When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

18Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. 19If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Is 1:2–20.

It is difficult to read words like this, especially when they are presented as proceeding from the mouth of God.  Some Christians find it hard to believe God would ever speak in such a way.  The caricature of Jesus that is drawn in many modern descriptions of Jesus is so tender and gentle that a few contemporary theologians seem to suggest that Israel only imagined these words into the mouth of God in hindsight after the devastation the Babylonians brought to Israel in the 500s B.C.

And yet, these words should not be surprising to us.  The covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai promised such curses if Israel broke the covenant, which the people did, over and over again.  God sent prophet after prophet, curse after curse, judgment after judgment for over 800 years before these words of Isaiah were finally fulfilled.  And yet, God’s children did not return to the covenant God had made with them.  They continued to follow their own hearts and to go their own way.

Though, the question still remains: Do such words still apply in the New Covenant of Jesus?  After all, those of us who have been reconciled to God by faith in the faithfulness and trustworthiness of Jesus did not enter into a written covenant with God.  We simply let our yes be yes and our no be no.  We agreed to be the people of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Who became flesh in the Person of Jesus by following Jesus and honoring Him as Lord.  There was no written Law.  We are being saved by faith.  So, without Law, there can be no just consequence, can there?  Perhaps this covenant, this agreement, allows for no tangible correction.

And yet, the same God who authored the covenant of Sinai, is the God Who became flesh in the Person of Jesus.  What does it mean to have faith in Him?  What would be the consequence of faithlessness?  Perhaps part of our response must begin with a different question.  Were the curses of the covenant of Sinai more like punishments or more like consequences?  This could be a distinction without a difference, but I do not believe such to be the case.

My sense of the curses of the Covenant of Sinai is that they were specified consequences of God’s turning away from Israel.  In the beginning, when God created, the earth was formless and void and darkness covered the deep, while the Spirit of God was brooding over the waters.  This primal chaos was created by God in the beginning, but God did not leave the chaos as it was.  He proceeded to shape the chaos through separation and organization.  He separated light from darkness and then water from water and then land from sea.  And then, He organized the light and darkness with the creation of sun, moon, and stars, the waters and sky with sea creatures and birds, and the land with land creatures.

God created space for life by separating the chaotic waters.  Life depends on God.  But, what was happening in Israel in the days of Isaiah was akin to what happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The people wished for autonomy—they wished to chart their own course.  When we rebel against God, seeking autonomy and self-direction, we ask God to depart; we fail to appreciate our and creation’s utter dependence on God for its existence.  The covenant of Sinai anticipated this eventuality, and prepared the people for it by describing a world without God.  In the curses of Sinai, God identified specific aspects of the waters—the chaos—that He would allow to flow into Israel if they were intent on making their way without Him.  These were punishments, certainly, but they were punishments precisely because they were inevitable consequences.

Essentially, these curses were meant to convey a truth to Israel:  If you get what you want, and God vacates creation, chaos and lifelessness will ensue.  There is no world in which creatures exist without their Creator.  There is no life without God and His creativity.  And the guidelines God gives are essential to the maintaining of the world He has created.  Without God’s Laws, there is no life, no universe.  Nothing created is simply free to do as it sees fit.  Creation depends fundamentally on the architecture of God.

Understood in this way, the Covenant of Sinai is as much a caution as it is an agreement.  Part of what this implies for me is that even in the New Covenant of Jesus, the rules of creation have not changed.  The consequence for endeavoring to build a world without need of God is always the same—chaos and lifelessness.  And over and over through history, God has endeavored to demonstrate the truthfulness of this testimony.  Of course, we are still here, but Scripture teaches that such is the case because God made a promise to Noah that remains in effect and is signified by the rainbow.  God has promised to keep creation from total devastation until the coming of the end.

So, Isaiah still speaks to the church, even if it speaks to us out of a different context.  These warnings to Israel were rooted in covenant.  These warnings to the Church are rooted in creation.  The world has been asking God to depart for a very long time, whether consciously or unconsciously.  The Lord has been insisting to me in my spirit that the upheaval of our day—personally, societally, and environmentally—are consequences, God’s preview of what it would look like to live in this world as the atheists and agnostics imagine it.

These events are muted, of course.  If God truly withdrew, nothing would survive.  He promised that He would not do that again until the end.  But, over and over, God continues to call to His children, asking them to depart from their pursuit of independence and return to Him.  So, perhaps we should read Isaiah’s prophecy again as not only covenantal, but also as cosmic.

The sins from which God warned Israel to turn still persist in the nations of the world.  And it is not surprising that the pursuit of secular humanism has resulted in chaos, war, tyranny, and ever increasing moral depravity.  The road of independence from God always results in these things.  They are inevitable.  Without God, there is no life.  Chaos is the natural state of things.  The more freedom from God we possess, the further from life we progress.

In these days, the Lord is once again turning His face from the nations of the earth; once again He is providing us a foretaste of the world without Him.  But, God is doing this to warn us.  For it is not only unbelievers who pursue independence and freedom.  Those who call themselves Christians value these things, too.  The body has lost connection with the Head.  The church, in many places, has become indistinguishable from the world.  We have allowed the Gospel of Jesus to become a license to live free of God and the boundaries He has set.

The world can hear the warnings and experience the foretaste, but the worldly mind cannot comprehend the meaning of these things.  They see only godless nature and natural consequence.  They cannot hear the voice of God calling to the people of the earth to forsake the path of independence and return to Him that they might live.  But, the children of God must see and hear differently.  We must recognize the warning God is giving us, and the opportunity.

All that we’ve experienced so far is consequence…a small foretaste of what the withdrawal of God means for life on earth.  If we are to heed these warnings, we must return to the teachings of God, as they have been preserved by His prophets and apostles in the Christian Scriptures.  We must place faith again in Jesus by living as God has taught us to live, within the bounds of His creativity.

However, so that God’s children might hear His voice, what comes next has been declared in advance.  What comes next is not random consequence.  God has chosen it.  These are His locusts.  What is coming on the east coast of the United States is for our reclamation.

Repent, children of God.  Depart from your rebellion.  Relinquish your buildings and your institutions.  Release your desire for significance and influence.  Follow God again into the wilderness.  Pursue godliness.  Depart from greatness.  Call God’s people to repentance.  Worship God not in song or celebration.  The pagans pursue these things, and God is not hungry for them.  Worship God in holiness of heart and life, by denying yourself daily, by embracing the cost of discipleship, and by walking in the way of Jesus.

The world and its ways are passing away.  Do not tether yourself to the nations of the earth.  What follows is for our reclamation.  Repent, for the kingdom of God draws ever nearer.

~ J. Thomas ~

Eternal Life (1 Corinthians 13)

Recently, I watched an episode of Star Trek Voyager that aired in the mid-1990s.  It was called “Death Wish,” and it recounted the tale of an immortal, omnipotent being who wanted to die but was condemned to go on living forever.  He explained his dilemma to Voyager’s Captain Janeway as follows:

Because it has all been said.  Everyone has heard everything, seen everything. They haven’t had to speak to each other in ten millennia. There’s nothing left to say.  Captain, you’re an explorer.  What if you had nothing left to explore?  Would you want to live forever under those circumstances?  You want me to prove to you that I suffer in terms that you can equate with pain or disease. Look at us.  When life has become futile, meaningless, unendurable, it must be allowed to end.  Can’t you see, Captain? For us the disease is immortality.

Star Trek Voyager, season 2, episode 18: Death Wish (February 19, 1996).

As I reflected on this exchange, I began thinking about the purpose of life.  The question is not so simple as it may first appear.  In this episode of Star Trek, the chief end of all creatures is to learn, to grow, to acquire knowledge and experiences.  That road, of course, has an ending.  Once all knowledge has been acquired and all experience has been tasted and all places have been known, what then?  In the words of Wallace Stevens:

We live in an old chaos of the sun,

Or old dependency of day and night,

Or island solitude, unsponsored, free,

Of that wide water, inescapable.

Wallace Stevens, “Sunday Morning (1923),” Cleanth Brooks, R. W. B. Lewis, Robert  Penn Warren, eds., American Literature: The Makers and the Making, Vol. II (New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1973), 2154-2155.

In Christian teaching, the acquisition of knowledge and experience is not the chief end of existence.  In fact, the Christian Bible begins with the cautionary tale of the deception of the first humans by a spiritual being called, in Hebrew, the nachash, translated usually as “the serpent.” It was humanity’s thirst for knowledge that the nachash exploited in Genesis, chapter 3 as he enticed them to eat from the Tree of Knowledge—a tree God forbade them from eating from.

But, if not exploration, knowledge, experience, what then is the purpose of life?  Christians have long pondered this question.  Perhaps one of the more oft-cited responses in recent centuries has come from The Westminster Shorter Catechism, which was published in A. D. 1647.

The first question addressed therein was:

“What is the chief and highest end of man [sic]?”

And the response was:

“Man’s [sic] chief and highest end is, to glorifie [sic] God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”

“The Westminster Shorter Catechism, A. D. 1647,” Philip Schaff, ed., The Creeds of Christendom with a History and Critical Notes (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1983), 676.

Whenever I’ve heard this response, I’ve assumed that the enjoyment of God implied here is a road of perpetual discovery.  I’ve imagined serving God, worshipping Him, and exploring creation in proper relationship to God and to all He has made.  And until recently, I’ve been content with those assumptions.  After all, if God is infinite, then the journey to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever would be eternal, as well.

However, in reflecting again on the purpose of life this week, I was reminded of Paul’s discussion of hesed—of love (translated from Hebrew into Greek as agape)—in 1 Corinthians 13.

1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13, NRSV.

In these verses, Paul seems to agree with the character of the immortal being in Star Trek Voyager.  Prophecies will end, speaking will cease, and knowledge, too, will find its conclusion.  All these roads are finite.  But, then Paul speaks of three aspects of reality which will abide, which are eternal, which define a road without end: faith, hope, and hesed (love)—the greatest of which is hesed. 

Now, as Paul’s description of hesed in these verses makes clear, this is not love as an experience, or as infatuation, or as unconditional acceptance, or some other contemporary conceptualization of love.  This is not an experience reserved for lovers or for family relationships or even for close friendships.  Hesed, as Paul has explained it, is the incarnation of patience, kindness, contentment, humility, unselfishness, and purity.  Hesed is loyalty, longsuffering, steadfast endurance, which is why Paul explains it as bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things.

In other words, hesed—love—is not a road, but something more akin to character—a way a person is irrespective of circumstance.  The part of life that endures is the engagement of life itself.  The purpose of life and the permanence of life is one and the same—hesed (love).  The following exchange from the life of Jesus may help to strengthen this reflection:

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 22:34-40, NRSV.

“What is the chief and highest end of humanity?”  When the question is put to us, how might we, as Christians, respond?

Perhaps, it is as simple as it is profound…  The chief and highest end of humanity is to embody hesed first to God and secondarily to other creatures in all circumstances, thereby embracing our creation as beings made in the image of God—a God Who is hesed (1 John 4:6).

~ J. Thomas ~