The Heart of the Sheep

Matthew 25:31-45

Georgetown Presbyterian Church

Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins

November 20, 2006

If you’ve spent any time at all in the gospels, you’ll agree that Jesus said a lot of tough things. The parable of the sheep and the goats is one that most of us would put in the classification of difficult teachings. Some of the things that Jesus said cause us difficulty because we can’t understand them. But not this passage. This passage is difficult, not because it is unclear or because it is hard to understand; rather, the difficulty of this teaching comes from its undeniable clarity. There’s much opportunity to misunderstand what Jesus says as he addresses the sheep and the goats.

This passage has long been one of the more meaningful scripture lessons in my life. I remember like it was yesterday the first time this parable made the light come on for me. It was my first year as a counselor at a camp in Tennessee, and we were preparing for a vesper service on the Sunday evening before the campers arrived. Earlier in the day, Malcolm Williams, the camp director, had told us that each of us would have an attitude toward our job for the summer. And so I started looking through my Bible, and I came across this parable, and I was struck with the words of Jesus when he said, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." Never since have I been able to shed the notion that our Lord calls us to care for the "least of these".

Nor would I ever want to shed that notion.

It seems strange that the lectionary would assign this passage for the day in the church year we call Christ the King Sunday. "The historic theme for this, the last Sunday in the Christian liturgical year is simple: at the end of history, God’s purpose will be victorious, creation will be complete, and Christ will reign. Joy and faith are found in the certainty of Christ’s final and ultimate victory."¹ And so on the day in the church year when we ought to be exalting Christ as King, this parable seems a bit peculiar, for there is nothing of pomp and circumstance, nothing of grand processions, nothing of ornate thrones or enormous palaces. Instead, what we find is a king who professes to be found in the person of the sick, the stranger, the prisoner, the hungry, the naked.

And then again, it’s not so strange, is it? It’s not so strange, because Jesus tells us that his kingdom is not of this world. It’s not so strange when you realize that the very sacrament we will celebrate in a few moments reminds us that Jesus ascended to the throne by way of the cross. If you know Jesus, then the parable’s ignored by the world. If you know Jesus, then you know that honoring him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords means more than coming into a beautiful building on Sunday morning. If you know Jesus, then you know that this world is his kingdom, and wherever we find human need, there Jesus will be.

It’s easy to forget the "least of these". And yet Jesus reminds us that "the least of these" are precisely the ones in the kingdom to whom we must give our attention. Dick Ryan was an associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio when I was in junior high school. At that church, Dick is remembered for his kindness and care, and he will always be remembered for preaching a sermon titled "Everyone Likes to Feed the Redbirds, but Who Will Feed the Sparrows?" Isn’t that a great way of summarizing the truth of this parable – who will feed the sparrows? In our world, it’s easy to overlook "the least of these," yet they’re precisely the ones to whom Jesus calls our attention. He calls our attention to "the least of these," because that’s where Jesus is found.

Many of you have probably heard the familiar story told by the poet Edwin Markham. It is the story of a cobbler, a humble shoemaker named Conrad. One night Conrad dreamt that the next day Jesus Christ was coming to his little shop, and so Conrad waited all day for the Lord to come. He cleaned and he scrubbed, and he set out a table of milk and honey and a fresh loaf of bread. But that day only three people came into his shop. A beggar came to the shop, and Conrad gave the beggar a pair of shoes. An elderly woman came by, and he gave her the loaf of bread he had set aside for the Lord. A lost child came by, and Conrad gave him the milk and honey that had sat on the table at the place set for Jesus.

At the end of the day a downcast Conrad sighed deeply and cried out, "Why is it, Lord, that your feet delay? Did you forget that this was the day?"

Then soft in the silence a voice he heard: ‘Lift up your heart, for I have kept my word. Three times I came to your friendly door; three times my shadow was on your floor. I was the beggar with the bruised feet; I was the woman you gave the loaf of bread to eat; I was the child on the homeless street."²

How many times every day does the Lord come to your door? How many times does his shadow darken your floor?

One of the things that strikes me in the parable, and it happens again in the story of the cobbler, is that nobody is aware that they are encountering Christ. The sheep are taken by surprise when they are told that they have blessed the king. The goats are taken by surprise when they are told that they have ignored the king. Conrad the shoemaker never once realized that Jesus had come into his home three times.

Recognizing the image of Jesus in the face of the hungry and the outcast and the sick is important, for it reminds us that all people, regardless of condition or class, are worthy of being treated with dignity and care. But I’m not sure that Jesus tells us this parable just so that we will recognize him in the face of the downtrodden, as much as he tells it to remind us that what we do is evidence of the faith that resides in our hearts. The sheep are not blessed because they recognized Jesus in the faces of those they helped; they are blessed because their acts of compassion and mercy were expressions of a heart inhabited by Jesus. The goats are not cursed because they failed to see Jesus in the faces of those they passed by, but because their failure to act betrayed the reality that Jesus did not in fact reside in their hearts though they claimed he did.

Friends, the parable is a reminder that the way you live your life is the true test of the faith that resides in your heart. Neither the sheep nor the goats saw Jesus in the faces of the downtrodden. But the acts of mercy given by the sheep demonstrated the content of their hearts, as did the inaction of the goats. The parable is a call to cultivate in your own life the heart of the sheep, for Jesus dwells in the heart of the sheep.

Is what you do an expression of your love for Jesus? When you encounter Jesus in the hungry and the poor and the imprisoned and the sick, does your response indicate a love for Jesus, or an indifference toward him, or a fear of him? Do your actions declare that you have the heart of the sheep?

In the past couple of weeks I’ve come across several people who quietly demonstrate their love for Jesus by their simple acts of compassion. They don’t do what they do because they think they’re earning brownie points with Jesus. What they do, they do naturally, for Christ is in their hearts. They are people who have the heart of the sheep.

I know of a couple of people who regularly visit someone who is in jail. It’s someone they never met before, yet they felt compelled to visit this person. If you were to ask them why they do it, you won’t find that they are carefully calculating the spiritual benefit they will reap for their encounters with Jesus; they simply do it because something in their hearts has moved them to go and visit this stranger in jail; their action is an expression of the faith that resides in their hearts. They have the heart of the sheep.

There are several people in this congregation who can build things with their hands. If you give them a hammer, some nails and boards, and a saw, they can build just about anything. On many occasions, they have used their skills to help people who needed improvements on their homes. Often you’ll find them at a Habitat work site. If you ask them why they choose to use their skills to help people, they probably won’t say, "Because when I look into the faces of those people, I see the face of Jesus." The response you’re more likely to get is a shrug of the shoulders and they’ll say something like "I just do it because it is the right thing to do." Something in their hearts compels them to serve others; their action is an expression of the faith that resides in their hearts. They have the heart of the sheep.

There were 40 or so people at the pastoral visitation luncheon a couple of weeks ago. As you know, the purpose of the luncheon is to give folks who don’t often leave their homes an opportunity to get out and have food and fellowship among their church family. Afterwards, meals are delivered to people who are unable to get out. If you ask the people who help with those meals, they probably won’t tell you that they do it because they’re afraid that if they ignore the shut-ins, they’ll be guilty of ignoring Jesus. No, they’ll probably tell you that they help with the meal because it’s important to remember the folks that others have forgotten. Something in their hearts compels them to serve others; their actions are an expression of the faith that resides in their hearts. They have the heart of the sheep.

I could go on and on. In just over three months here, I have already observed way more than I can fit into a sermon. The flock at Georgetown Presbyterian is full of people with the heart of the sheep.

The parable of the sheep and the goats is a tough one. The difficulty is not in understanding; the difficulty is in its stark, poignant clarity. On this Christ the King Sunday, we are not called so much to declare with our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord; rather we are called to demonstrate his reign by the way we live our lives, for the truth is the way we live our lives arises out of the faith that resides in our hearts.

Take stock of your life. Does the life you live demonstrate that Jesus resides in your heart? Would Jesus say that you have the heart of the sheep?

_____________________________