A Call to Love Mercy Matthew 25:31-41, 45
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning Sojourn Chattanooga. It is an honor to be here with you all this morning. Thank you to pastor Isaiah, the leadership team, and all church members for giving me the opportunity to preach God’s word here today. Just as Paul wrote to the Roman church, my hope is that this morning we can “be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.”
My name is Nestor Gomez, and I serve as one of the Pastors at Bluegrass Community Church in Lexington, KY, a church that was planted 4 1/2 years ago when Pastor Michael and his family were sent out from this church. An interesting fact about my wife and I is that around that time, we had just completed a quiz we found on the internet, this test was supposed to help you find the right place to live based on your lifestyle and preferences, and Chattanooga came as our first option. Even though we never made the move to Chattanooga in the way we thought, it was in God’s plans that one day, this city would be the home of our sending church.
Bluegrass Community Church is a young church located in Lexington’s 11th district, sandwiched right between the UK campus, downtown, the international airport, and Keeneland (horse race track). The 11th district is one of the most culturally diverse communities in central Kentucky, housing people from all over the world. People from Africa, Latin America, and Caribbean Islands, such as Haiti, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, live in our district. Because of its strategic location and accessible public transportation, the 11th district serves as the first stop for many displaced groups. Several refugees and immigrants find a home within this area when they first arrive in the US.
If I could use one word to describe the 11th district, specifically the community of Cardinal Valley, which is the area where God has called us to preach his Word, it would be “Readiness.” Cardinal Valley is a community where people come fully prepared for a new life, a new beginning, willing to do anything to secure a better future.
Just as a muscle becomes tense in readiness for action, our neighborhood can also be a place of tension. This tension can sometimes get out of control, resulting in brokenness, distress, and hopelessness. But not all tension is bad. Under the right circumstances, tension can be good. A good example of this, is a technique that weightlifters and physical therapists use to optimize muscular strength, endurance, and growth, known as Time Under Tension (TUT). Based on Time Under Tension, three things are essential for muscles to grow healthy: time, tension, and the correct posture. If any of these three are out of balance, a muscle won’t grow healthy or could be injured.
In Matthew 25 Jesus is standing on the Mount of Olives, preaching his last sermon before his crucifixion to his disciples. As a master of analogies, Jesus presents his teaching with three parables. All three parables are meant to point the eyes of the disciples to Jesus’ second coming, but unlike any other teacher that used parables to teach, Jesus’ parables had something that made them unique. Jesus’ parables always came with an invitation. In his sermon, Jesus answers a fundamental question, “What does readiness for his return look like for those who will be left waiting for his second coming? We need to be cautious not to read these parables as an answer to “How does someone enter the kingdom of God?” This is not what Jesus is teaching here. Remember, he is preaching to his disciples. They are already in. In the first parable, the parable of the Ten Virgins, Jesus calls us to be hopeful as time passes and we wait for his return. In the parable of The Talents, he calls us to remain faithful as we trust in God through the tensions of life. And in the parable of The Sheep and Goat, he calls us to adopt a posture of mercy. In fact, he commands us to love and do mercy to the poor, to the marginalized, to those who are being overlooked by the world.
Saints, readiness for Jesus’ second coming looks like waiting as hopeful and faithful people and as men and women that love mercy. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 the Apostle Paul says… “Now these three remain faith, hope, and love - but the greatest of these is love.” Why? Because when He returns, faith and hope will no longer be needed, but “love will never end.” Love is the all-embracing virtue attributed to God; out of these three, love is the only one that describes God.
When we take our eyes off the Jesus of the Bible, we create our own versions of Jesus. These limited Christologies, always result in idolatry and produce a limited view of the worth and dignity of all human life. And according to Jesus loving mercy is not just an internal feeling but a posture that can be seen, a way of life in which the interests and concerns of the poorest people in the margins become the central subject of our life and ministry.
This said, today’s big idea is: “The second thing worse than idolatry before God is to overlook people in their distress.”
SERMON OUTLINE:
Loving Mercy: The Intersection Where The Imago Dei and True Religion Meet
Imago Dei: All Humans Are Created as the Image of God (Ge 1:26-27)
True Religion: Loving Widows, Orphans, and the Poor in their Distress (James 1:27, 2:14-26)
LET’S PRAY
1. Mercy: The Intersection Where the Imago Dei and True Religion Meet
1. Mercy: The Intersection Where the Imago Dei and True Religion Meet
In Micah 6:8, the prophet addresses the people of God with the question… “And what does the Lord require of you? He tells them: ‘To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’”
So, how can someone love mercy? Isn’t mercy a feeling? How do we practice mercy? Well… in this regards the old testament has a lot to say about how we are supposed to live merciful lives, and the bible doesn’t just speak about it but it is extremely clear and direct in this matter. According to Jesus’s last sermon before his crucifixion, and the rest of Scriptures, to love mercy is to make the interests and concerns of the poor, the overlooked and the marginalized central in our lives and ministry.
The topic of poverty and God’s concern for the poor is the second-most common topic in the OT, second only to idolatry. In the NT, the topic of the poor and money is found in one of every ten verses in the Gospels. In the gospel of Luke, this ratio is even higher with this topic being mentioned once every seven verses. In the Bible Jesus spoke just as much about his love and concern for the poor and the devastating consequences of greed as he did about the topics of heaven and hell. As we go through this text, we will see that the poor is not just the poor in spirit, but those who find themselves in vulnerable situations, in distress, those who are being overlooked by the world.
Brothers and sisters, if this is news to you, I’m afraid that you don’t just have to deconstruct your view of Jesus and the Christian life, but decolonize it. This book can not be any clearer on what loving mercy is for God. In Matthew 22:34-40 we learn about a time when a Pharisee, an expert of the law, asked Jesus a question just to test him. He said, “Teacher (probably as he was laughing in disrespect), which command in the law is the greatest?” Without hesitation, Jesus said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command.” Jesus could’ve stopped there, but he didn’t. This expert of the law had asked only for the greatest, he had his answer, however Jesus had more for him. Jesus then said, “The second is like it: Love your neighbor as your self. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” But what about the other 611 commandments, he probably thought! Jesus was telling him, if you miss thee two, you have missed the entire point!
These two are like the wings of a plane, the right wing its called “love God” and the other one is called “love your neighbor.” Inside the airplane you find the rest of Scripture. If one of these two wings is damaged, the whole plane crashes.
Just as this Pharisee, today, some have exchanged the 613 jewish laws for the five solas of the reformation which state that Christians are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed by Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. And don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against these five principles as long as they are packed in a plane called “love mercy”, in which one wing is labeled “love God” and the other one “love your neighbor.” Outside this plane, these five solas ain’t flying anywhere.
Brothers and sisters, “when the Son of Man returns with all his power and mighty, and all the angels with him, and all the nations under heaven, including those that have disappeared and the ones that yet not exist are gathered before his throne, he will separate them like a shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. Then Jesus the King will say to those on his right. ‘Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 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 took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’”
There is so much that can be said about these first six verses but the most important things, the ones I want you to keep in mind as we move through the text are that here (1) Jesus is giving the disciples a statement of fact, “when the Son of Man comes.” This is not a suggestion, Jesus is not speaking in a figurative way, He is telling them, what am about to tell you will happen! He is pointing the eyes of the disciples to him, to the Jesus that will come one day as the King (2) This passage speaks about the authority of Jesus, he is the ultimate King, he is not speaking as a king but the King! (3) Matthew 25:32 speaks of individual judgment where personal gifting, responsibility, and accountability will not be overlooked by the King. For the King, to know who is a sheep and who is a goat requires not only a knowledge of human actions, but intimate knowledge of the motives of our heart.
In his last parable before being crucified, Jesus is extending the same invitation that he extended to the expert of the law on Matthew 22 to his disciples. An invitation to fix their eyes with all their heart, their soul and mind on the King in heaven, but also… to the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the immigrant, the naked, the sick, the oppressed, the overlook. As we wait on the King, we don’t walk as Christians that are just “looking up” all the time, if that was the case we would be tripping all the time or even worse we would get rode over by a car!
We start to love mercy when by God’s grace and favor we gain a true understanding of the dignity and worth of human life and practice our faith in a way that reflects love towards the most vulnerable and marginalized around us. Mercy stands alone in the busy intersection where the imago dei and true religion cross paths. Let me explain what I mean by this…
2. Imago Dei: All Humans Are Created as the image of God (Ge 1:26-27)
2. Imago Dei: All Humans Are Created as the image of God (Ge 1:26-27)
Please open your bibles with me in Ge 1:26-27 (read text). In the OT, Imago Dei is a phrase that is found several times in the book of Genesis, we see it in Genesis 1:7-27; 5:1-3; 9:6 etc… Imago Dei refers to the biblical fact that men and women are created “in” (as) the image or likeness of God. To understand what this means is just as important as understanding who God is. A deficient understanding of the importance of the Imago Dei concept can lead to insufficient views of human life, its worth and dignity. When it comes to this biblical concept there are a few things I want you to know:
Only humans were created as the image of God. This is a phrase that is applied only to humans in Scripture. Therefore humanity is to be distinguished from any other living creature.
Genesis tells us that humanity is, in some way, like God. Men and women were created not just in the likeness of God but as the image of God. The beautiful mystery here is that in some way we are a copy of the original.
Men and women don’t “grow” or “develop” into the image of God. There is no “potential” image of God. Whatever the image of God means, is transferred to us from the moment life starts in the womb. Every human, regardless of the stage of development, is an imager of God.
Nowhere in Scripture we find that the image of God is gained incrementally or partially. There are no “partial” images of God.
As the image of God on earth, men and women were created to steward the rest of creation, not the opposite.
Some people believe that only Adam and Eve were created as the image of God and then that image was lost through generation, but this is not the case as Gen 9:6 recognizes later humans as being in God’s image.
To know, believe and accept that all men and women have been created as God’s imagers should result in us seeing all men and women people that function in the capacity of God’s representatives on earth.
But as the Bible tells us, when sin enter the world in human history everything changed, at this moment the copy of men and women as God’s image was damaged, though not totally destroyed. Paul expresses this very well on Romans 3:23. At that point in history, this fallen humanity entered into contention with all of creation.
But God had a plan to restore men and women, the copy of God in earth would be restored to what it used to be before the fall. This would be accomplished through his Son, Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ was the exact, representation of God (Heb 1:3). He was fully God and fully human at the same time. He revealed God to us (Jn 1:18), and he was the perfect human being. The NT teaches us that the only way men and women can be restored to what we were before the fall is by being united with him by faith in him (Ro 8:28). Any person who places his trust in this Jesus and repents from their sin have entered into this process of restoration, however it is not a process that will be completed on this side of eternity. This is what we refer to the already not yet! This is what the Christian life is all about, about this process of transformation where we patiently and expectantly await until the day that Jesus returns and all of creation is restored (2 Co 3:18).
This said, “any type of threat to human dignity at any stage of life is a scandal to God.” Our God is a God who loves life. Life is God’s will for all men and women. He is the source of life! In 2 Tim 2:4 Paul tells Timothy that “ God wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
In Luke 14 we read the story of when Jesus went to eat at the house of one of the leading Pharisees in Jerusalem. When he gets to this place he gives three speeches. First he addresses the other guests and gives an advice to those who had been invited, he tells them that when they are invited to a party they shouldn’t try to get the best seat at the table but instead they should go and recline in the lowest place, the lowest place was also the place where those who were of a lower socioeconomic status would seat. Then he gives an advice to the host and tells him that next time he has a banquet, he should not invite his friends , brothers or sisters, relatives or his rich neighbors. But instead he should invite those who are poor, lame, or blind! By doing this, he tells him, you will be blessed and should expect a reward at the resurrection of the righteous.
Luke 14 is so important because it teaches us the way we often operate as damaged copies of God when we categorize people into assets and liabilities. That’s what this Pharisee was doing. Often we see those who will draw money, time and energy from us as liabilities. On the other hand, without even knowing it sometimes we see as assets all of those from whom we would get something in exchange, and it doesn’t have to be a financial reward, it could be just having a good time or someone with whom we know we can exchange pleasantries with. But Jesus doesn’t categorize people into liabilities or assets and neither should we.
Why? Because all people, regardless of their current state function as God’s copies on earth. If we love Jesus, then we will love the poor! A faithful Christian would never be at ease when the representatives of God in creation are being mistreated, in distressed or oppressed. To love the poor is to love Jesus. African theologian Augustine used to say that “Christ is continually present with us on earth in the poor, and Christ is needy when a poor person is in need” and “is hungry when the poor is hungry.” To come to the aid of poor people, members of Christ, is to come to the aid of Christ the head who is present and in need within poor people.
“God loves all equally, but reserves a unique place of concern for all who are poor and ignored at the margins of society.” The entire Bible, beginning with the story of cain and Abel, mirrors God’s predilection for the vulnerable and abused in human history. This preference brings out the righteous or unmerited character of God’s love. The same revelation is given in the Beatitudes. God addresses a message of life to every human being without exception, while at the same time, He shows preference for the poor and the oppressed. More than two thousand verses in the Bible speak of God’s heart for the poor, immigrants, and all who are marginalized. In this way, the Bible is the maximum expression of faith and hope for the poor, because it reveals to us a God who has a preferential love for those whom the world passes over. This is why, churches should be planted in the most neglected areas of our cities.
It is because of this that second to idolatry, ignoring those in need is the second worse thing a person could do according to the God of the Bible.
3. True Religion: Loving widows, orphans, and the poor in their distress (James 1:27, 2:14-26)
3. True Religion: Loving widows, orphans, and the poor in their distress (James 1:27, 2:14-26)
In James 1:27 we read that Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Then again in James 2:14-26 the disciple expands more on it by saying that true faith reveals itself in works. Faith alone saves, but faith that saves is never alone but accompanied by living deeds, and these are acts of mercy toward the most vulnerable! Because who can see a brother or sister without clothes or lacking food and tell them: “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed without giving them what their bodies need, what good is that? In the same way, faith that doesn’t have works is death by itself.”
James concern here is not wit the means of justification, but with the visible evidence of it. In Galatians, Paul teaches us that we are saved by faith alone, but in his letter, James shows us that saving faith never remains alone! In Matthew 25, Jesus is doing the same, as a matter of fact, the disciples learn from Jesus on this.
Matthew 25:37-41 say “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you? And the King (THE KING) will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me.’ Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!’
Here, Jesus is addressing his followers, the sheep and the goat represent those who followed Jesus during their time on earth. Jesus is teaching his disciples what true religion looks like! Their religion will be the way they will live as they await for his return. Their religion should resemble a posture of mercy. Anyone who has decided to follow Jesus must live as someone who loves mercy. I believe that the least of these of whom Jesus is speaking of are certainly other Christians, however, this doesn’t mean that we will limit our acts of mercy to only those within the body, but we should certainly start with them! As a family and in our church, some have truly come to the Lord even before we could show them the love of Christ through acts of mercy, but the great majority have come to know that we are Christians, and more importantly, have come to know the Lord because of the love we have shown them through acts of mercy. Loving mercy should be the thing others should know us for! This is our posture, this is the way we stand as we await for the return of our beautifuyl Savior.
As a loving Father, God can not stand idly by when one of his children is mistreated or oppressed. Specially when they are being taken advantage of by another sibiling. He must intervine on their behalf in the face of their suffering. To remain neutral would be to condone their abuse and the structures and circumstance that give rise to their suffering. Today, we the church are the feet and hands of Christ, brothers and sisters nobody who has truly fell in love with the person of Christ can stand to see someone who was made as his image on earth be in distressed, hurt, misstreated, oppressed, or marginalized.
Tragedy has never ruined a person or a community, hopelessness has and will continue to do if we don’t engage in an effective proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. My favorite theologian Señor Rene Padilla, says the following about what effective evangelism is: “The proclamation of the gospel (kerygma) and the demonstration of the gospel that gives itself in service (diakonia) form an indissoluble (indisoluble) whole. One without the other is an incomplete, mutilated (mutilado) gospel and, consequently, contrary to the will of God. From this perspective, it is foolish to ask about the relative importance of evangelism and social responsibility. This would be equivalent to asking about the relative importance of the right and the left wing of a plane.”
This question always hunts me, “Is the theological approach and ministry practice of our church (or churches in NA) sufficient for the contextual needs of our most neglected and distressed neighborhoods? Loving mercy includes both, the proclamation and demonstration of the good news of the Reign of God through Christian teaching, presence, and social engagement for transformation among the poor.
Faith as an abstract concept is not enough. Jesus had a term for “theoretical faith,” that was hypocrisy. The goat in this parable are those who only had an abstract view of faith! There are streets, neighborhoods, districts or pockets in our cities where the needs and problems people face are so visible and tangible, so overwhelming, and the solutions so underwhelming. In these areas, the church is not just important, but indispensable. (human organ analogy). Churches with a sound orthopraxy are needed because they are the only tangible example of a good God in a broken world.
A good orthopraxy calls for faith, embodied in works of love, mercy and justice. Our orthopraxy must emphasize the embodiment of justice and the creation of a just social order, over abstract theory and belief.
The church must be the evangelizer of the poor and one with them, a witness to the value of the riches of the kingdom, and the humble servant of the one in distress. It’s pastors and the other members of the People of God have to correlate their life and words, their attitudes and actions to the demands of the Gospel and the necessities of the overlooked, underserved and neglected [people] from the four corners of our block to the four corners of the world, like pastor Thabiti Anyabwile says.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we conclude, let’s read Matthew 25:45, it says “then he will answer them, “truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you didn’t do it for me.” Jesus’ very last sermon on earth teaches us that our compassion towards the most vulnerable is society will serve as a barometer for the sincerity of our relationship with him. Jesus not only identifies himself with the marginalized, he makes himself one with them. In this text Jesus made himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the unwanted one.
That day when Jesus was in Jerusalem at this banquet with the Pharisees in Luke 14, I told you he had given three speeches, one to the guests, one to the host, but the most important one is the one that he gave to that person who was trying to exchange pleasentries with him, one that told him that he agreed with what he had said, but Jesus is not one you can fool, he knows everyone’s heart. In his third speech, he addressed this man. He told him: “A man was giving a large banquet and invited many. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who were invited, “Come, because everything is ready.” But without excuse they all began to make excuses.” The first one had just invested in real state, he had bought a field and had to go see it. The second one had invested in his business by buying five yoke of oxen and was heading out to try them out. The third one had gotten married. All these three guys were doing great in life! They were investing in their future, a good future seems like. But when the servant came back and reported these things to his master. The master became angry and told his servant: “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in here the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame” but the servant said, master, what you ordered has already been done and they weren’t found. Gentrification had probably happened pushing out the unwanted to the margins of the city, but the master knew, and he wanted the unwanted by society in his feast!
So he told his servant, go out once again. Go into the highways and hedges, go into the margins of the city, go under the bridges, go to the most neglected neighborhoods, go to those places where nobody wants to live, go to the margins of society and M A K E T H E M C OM E I N, so that my house may be filled. This servant packed up again and headed out until he found himself.
Today, many of these servants stand as those who love mercy right in the middle of the busy intersection where the Imago Dei and True religion meet.