1

November 27, 2011 Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 Matthew 25:31-46 'Is Caring Enough?
Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

'Every day I walk by halI a dozen people, poor people, asking Ior money. That`s how John
Buchanan, a pastor in Chicago, begins his comments on this passage about dividing the sheep Irom the
goats. He goes on, 'Recently it was a Iamily a mother and three children. Another man said, I just
had surgery and I`m hungry,` and he liIted his T-shirt to reveal an ugly surgical scar. Come in,` I
said, our social service center will help you.` He swore. I don`t need their help; I need money.`
Buchanan continues, 'Matthew 25 makes me very uncomIortable when I think about it much. I
cannot help everyone. I do not have either the money or the time. Besides, who can tell who is really
needy and who simply wants a bottle oI cheap wine? What can I do?
1

Buchanan reads the text the way I usually do. We`re to help every one because everyone is, or could
be, the King. Or we could say, the king is in all oI us to some degree. 'The king will say to those at
his right hand, Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared Ior you Irom
the Ioundation oI the world; Ior I was hungry and you gave me Iood, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I
was sick and you took care oI me, I was in prison and you visited me.` That seems clear, doesn`t it?
Not that this is easy to do, oI course. Matthew didn`t seem to have trouble Iiguring out what it means
to care, but I Iind it diIIicult to know what to do. Yes, we`re to oIIer Iood and water. We`re to
welcome the stranger and clothe the naked. We`re to care Ior the sick and visit those in prison. But
how do we go about doing that? Does this mean we`re to drop money into the hats oI those who
panhandle down by the Mall? Does that count as caring, or is that contributing to their problems,
whatever their problems may be? Do the panhandlers use the money we drop into their hat to buy
Iood Ior their children, or do they use it to buy another bottle, or a packet oI meth? Who can know? I
talked with one oI the workers at the Torres Shelter, I person I greatly respect, and this worker says
that he never gives money to people on the street because that`s not helpIul Ior them.
Another example. A colleague oI mine in North Dakota had a son who was alcoholic. The hardest
thing my Iriend had to do was to say to his son, 'II you get into trouble again because oI your
drinking, you can`t come home. You are on your own. I`ll help you get into treatment, but you can`t
live here and I`ll not give you any more money. I believe that was the most caring thing he could`ve
done Ior his son, but my colleague`s wiIe disagreed and that contributed to the end oI his marriage.
Yes, we`re called to care, but knowing what it means to care Ior another person can be very diIIicult.
As diIIicult as knowing what it may mean to care Ior others, at least we can console ourselves with the
Iact that we`re doing our best to obey Jesus` teaching here. We`re trying to care Ior the least oI
society`s people, so we can Iigure that we`re going to be counted with the sheep rather than the goats.
Or I`d hope this is what Christians are trying to do. Because we`re trying to care, we Iigure the King
will say to us, 'Well done, good and IaithIul servant.

1. Buchanan, John M., 'Pastoral Perspective: Matthew 25:31-46, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the
Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Volume 4, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor,
General editors, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Ky, 2011, p. 332.


2
Yet there are many in society today who help the needy who don`t do so in the King`s name, aren`t
there? What about them? Are they counted with the sheep rather than with the goats even iI they
don`t believe in Jesus, even iI they care Ior those in need out oI a humanistic commitment to care Ior
others? I`ve known many people who`ve done wonderIul things Ior people, given lot`s oI money to
the needy, supported what I consider to be very worthwhile Christian endeavors, but they haven`t done
so in Christ`s name, but rather have done good things because they believe that people are to do good
Ior one another. One doesn`t have to be a Christian to obey the Golden Rule oI doing unto others as
we`d have them do unto us. Does this passage in Matthew only apply to Christians and iI so, does
that mean we have to care Ior society`s least or we`ll 89 end up being goats and cast away even iI we
do believe in Christ as Lord and Savior?
Even more, are those who do good without believing in Christ counted with the sheep? According to
Matthew, it would seem so but only iI the sheep are receiving thanks Irom the King, rather than
ultimate salvation right? The apostle Paul says again and again that we`re saved by grace alone.
We`re saved not by anything we do, but by the love and mercy oI Jesus Christ. No matter how many
hungry we Ieed, no matter how many homeless we shelter, no matter how many naked we clothe, no
matter how many prisoners we visit, our good works aren`t going to earn us a spot in heaven. We`re
saved by the grace oI God, not our own good works.
Yet, Matthew clearly tells us here that what we do 8 important. Our relationship with God is not a
matter oI avng Iaith but oI dong Iaith,
2
and those who don`t do fa9 will be cast out like last weeks
garbage. While we`re saved by the Iaith in Jesus Christ that`s given to us by God`s Holy Spirit, what
we do, and what we don`t do, still counts Ior something according to Matthew.
So we`re back to trying to Iigure out what it means to care, because also according to Matthew, the
King is disguised as one oI the homeless sleeping under the Humboldt road bridge, one oI the hungry
gathering at the Jesus Center, one oI those who sat in our U.S. prison in Abu Ghraib. In the passage,
neither those the King counted as sheep, nor those whom the King counted as goats, neither
recognized the King. Both sheep and goats say, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave
you Iood, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and
welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison
and visited you?`
In a sermon on this text, Barbara Brown Taylor says, 'Sheep and goats alike, they thought that |Jesus|
occupied one space at a time just as they did, and that the way they behaved in his presence was all
that really counted. Meanwhile, that leIt them lots oI Iree time Ior being with the other people in their
lives, including the ones who did not count the little ones, the least ones the waitresses, the door-
to-door magazine salesmen, the nursing home residents, the panhandlers, the inmates, the strangers at
the grocery store.
3

She goes on to say, 'Okay, so say that is true. Say that Jesus is present in every single person whose

2. Taylor, Barbara Brown, 'Knowing Glances, The Preaching LiIe, Cowley Publications,
Cambridge, MA, 1993, p 135.
3. Ibid., p. 136.


3
path crosses ours, and particularly in the least ones, the lost ones, the last ones we would ever have
expected. So how do we live, knowing that? How do we Iind the courage to get up in the morning,
knowing that every pair oI eyes that pleads with us that day will be His eyes, asking us Ior something
to eat or drink or wear, asking us Ior recognition, Ior time, Ior attention? That`s the question, but the
Bible isn`t a book with the answers in the back. Brown concludes, 'All I know is that we`re asked to
wrestle with that Iact, let it challenge us and unsettle us and who knows? maybe even to comIort
us. Jesus is so present with us, and we have such unlimited opportunities to meet him and serve him,
that in some way we may never understand, everything we do or don`t do aIIects our eternal
relationship with him.
4

So have I lost you? Have I walked around in the text enough, raised enough questions to make you
ask, 'What in the world is the point? Actually, I`ve done that Ior myselI. When I`ve read this
passage in the past, I`ve always used it as one oI the Ioundations Ior a theology that stresses the
importance oI caring Ior society`s least, as Buchanan used it in the illustration with which I began this
sermon. I`ve used the text to say to our brothers and sisters in Christ that there`s more to the Gospel
than believing in Jesus and going to church. Faith is doing, to paraphrase James` NT letter.
But more is going on in this passage than that. It`s more complex than serving as a prooI text Ior
liberal Christianity. When we read the text with Paul`s letters in mind, it`s important that we also
aIIirm the necessity oI belieI in Christ as King. Just clothing the naked is not enough, because we can
never do enough good works to outweigh our own sin. We Iind salvation by grace alone though
proclaiming that we`re saved without at the same time caring Ior society`s least calls into question
whether or not we truly do beeve in Christ, because as John writes, 'How does God's love abide in
anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet reIuses help? Little
children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
It can all be pretty conIusing, especially when we remember that caring Ior the least means more than
writing out a check list in the morning take a couple oI coats to the United Way, some canned Iood
to the Salvation Army, give a dollar to the panhandler by the Mall then checking oII each item
through the day as a requirement God sets Ior our admission into heaven. Caring Ior the least is more
complex than that, nor are society`s least to be treated as a means Ior us to get into heaven. It`s also
true that believing in Jesus Christ is more complex than saying the words and walking down the aisle
to join a church.
Having said all this, there is very Good News, simple news, in this passage, news Ior which we can
give thanks on this Thanksgiving Sunday. The Good News is that we will be judged by God. Now
this may not sound like good news. None oI us like to be judged because we don`t want anyone to
have that kind oI power over us. Oh, and we don`t want anyone telling us what we`ve done is wrong,
even when we know what we`ve done is wrong. We don`t like people pointing out our Ilaws, our
mistakes, our sin. So we don`t want to be judged. We don`t like being judged. We do everything we
can to avoid being judged.
But the King who judges who goes with the sheep and who goes with the goats isn`t some human
judge, but is the judge who loves us, loves us so much that He sent Jesus Christ to show us how we`re

4. Ibid., p. 137.


4
to care Ior the least, sent Jesus Christ to show us that when we with the best oI intentions, still Iail,
God will Iorgive. I like how Taylor Iinishes her sermon. 'We are one Ilock, tended and Ied by the
Good Shepherd who is also, I suspect, the Good Goatherd. When the time comes to sort us out, those
are the eyes that will meet our eyes, the eyes oI the judge who sees, who knows who knows when we
have looked and when we have looked away, who knows the last, the lost, the least and who lays
down his liIe Ior all oI us.
5


5. Ibid., p. 139.