Today is Christ the King Sunday. Today is the last Sunday in the church calendar. This right here, theologically speaking, is the culmination of it all. What does it all come to? The birth, the life, the death, the resurrection, the church’s life and mission. It brings us to the end, the end of all things. Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again, and when He does, as we read in Matthew 25 He will come in glory with all His angels and be seated on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all people of the earth, of every tribe and every nation. And He will separate those people. The sheep from the goats. Those who do right from those who do wrong. As we confess in the Athanasian creed, Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, those who have done good will enter into eternal life and those who do evil into the eternal fire. So I ask you now; are you good? No. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, none are good but God, if you love Jesus you will keep His commandments. But do you? No. Maybe you say okay, no, I didn’t, but look, all Jesus says I have to do is feed the poor and the hungry and then I can get to go to heaven, the only people who go to hell are the ones who aren’t nice to others. Is that it then? All you have to do is give a homeless man a muffin and you get to go to heaven? You send your used clothes to that donation bin so you can spend eternity with Christ? God forbid we lower the distance between righteousness and total depravity to the point of common niceties.
The last day is coming. Christ will sit on His throne and you will stand before Him and be judged by Him on the basis of your works. 2 Cor 5:10 says as much, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” This is the Law of God. There is no escaping this Law. You will be judged by it, you are currently judged by it. The judgment of God is not merely something that awaits you it is a very present reality. God is not sitting around with His eyes closed counting to 10 so that He can open them and see if He finds you good or evil. This judgment is right now. And what of it? What then is your answer on that last day, when the Law takes you to account? What then is your answer now, as the Law currently takes you to account? Guilty or Innocent? How will you answer this question? Will you plead ignorance like the rich man in Christ’s parable with Lazarus? “Oh God if only you had revealed yourself more clearly to me I would have amended my life.” Does this work with children? No. For the child too, when He commits his first sin he is judged at that very moment. Guilty. Guilty by those greedy hands that snuck into the cookie jar, the disobedient heart that yells at and rebels against father and mother. Judged as children. Judged as babes. Isn’t that so. If you don’t believe me look at the age that people are eligible to die at. Go figure, at the very moment of conception our lives hang in the balance between strife and cessation. Sustained only, solely and entirely by the mercy of God, not by right – we are in fact conceived in sin. Of course you entered this world already judged and already condemned. Why do you think you suffer in this life? You weren’t created as a human being to have that. That’s your just desert for the crimes you’ve committed and do commit and will commit. Your life is at best n perpetual uncertainty that hangs upon God’s mercy alone, it is not a right. Will you perhaps join the enormous crowd of moralists on that last day who say to Jesus “but Lord did we not prophesy, cast out demons, do mighty works in your name?” All have sinned and fallen short. The judgment of God’s law is not a sliding scale that tips over when you’ve got more eggs in the “good basket.” James 2:10, whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point is guilty of it all.” You shall fear, love, and trust God above all things as we confess in our small Catechism, and do you? No. If you did, you’d never have sinned in the first place. No, no. You’re guilty just like I am. There is truly only one way to answer this question. It’s found in the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. “have mercy upon me, a sinner.” Brothers and sisters, Christ knows that you’re a sinner! That’s the whole reason He was nailed to a cross! It was for you! It was because you’re a sinner, so as to be sin for you that you might become the righteousness of God. There is no sense in trying to hide the reality of your sin from the one who bore it in His body on the tree! He knows what you are are. He wore it upon his head in a crown of thorns… The mighty king. Seated upon the height of the hill of Zion, upon Golgotha, your mighty king upon a cross – high and lifted up. Are you innocent or guilty? This is where you are judged, at the cross of Christ all of your sin past present and future is weighed and counted, and is placed upon Christ and nailed through His hands and feet and thrust through His side until all your guilt flowed out of His side along with His blood which coated the earth for you and for your salvation. That’s right. You were found guilty, your works found wanting and your heart found black, empty, and wicked. You were condemned to die and there with Christ on the cross you died. You died with Him. And yet you rise with Him daily by repentance and faith. And now I ask you again, innocent or guilty? There is no guilt left in you to be judged. For you died with Christ. And now not you, but Christ now lives in you. Innocent or guilty? You have become the righteousness of God. The Law bears no weight of condemnation on you any longer, for the righteousness that you now bear is the righteousness that the Law imperfectly reflects.
That brings us to the text before us today – Christ is not here saying that you have to give a homeless man a muffin to get to heaven. The reason that people are in danger of hell is that they are condemned before the Law, and what is that Law? Is it “give muffins to poor people?” No. Love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. So why this teaching about minimal charity endeavours? Precisely because almost everyone has done this. The righteousness that we receive from Christ through faith is not the righteousness according to the Law of giving a biscuit to a beggar. In saying, enter into the kingdom – “for when I was hungry you fed me” He is saying whatever it is you did in this life I count it good because of your faith. We see this concept explicitly when He is saying when “I” was hungry – you gave me food to eat. Lord when? “If you have done it to the least of these you have done it for me.” This is the concept of imputed righteousness, counting something as good – even though it may not actually be what we count it as. You may have fed the least of these, maybe the only other people you’ve ever fed were your own children. But if you have done it for the least of these, you have done it for me. Even in the case of that newly baptized child who died one hour into their life, who truly was the least of us – “if you are the least of these, you are for me.” Enter into the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundations of the world, for as long as you are, you are for me. This is the true proposition of Christ the King. He isn’t coming to ask if you’re innocent or guilty, the Law did that for Him. He has come here and come now through these Words of Scripture to say to you, come now, enter in to the kingdom prepared for you, I have spent eternity preparing a place for you in my Father’s house and now I have come to gather you, for you are mine. And we say NO, far be it Lord we have done nothing. “As long as you have done the least for the least, as long as you are the least you are for me.”
You see, the separating of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 is actually a reference to Ezekiel 34. And in Ezekiel 34 the Lord is not saying I have sheep somewhere and goats somewhere and I’m going to judge you based on your charitable deeds to find out which one you are. Jesus knows His sheep not by what they do, He knows them by who they are. He knows you by your name, not the number on the cheque you put in the offering plate. And in Ezekiel 34 the Lord proclaims that He has set out to go and gather His sheep, and to place them with Him on that holy hill of Zion, on that cross of Golgotha and to feed them there. Christ will come to gather His church from all places of the earth to set them up on that cross and to feed them there. His flesh is true food, His blood true drink. We say this is coming and yes it is, and it has and it does, and it is here now. At every corner of the earth the church there is found meeting together, gathered by Christ, to be brought up to Mt. Calvary and to feed on Christ Himself – this is my body, broken for you, my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. The day of judgment has come, it is coming and it is here right now before you. Come, enter into the kingdom prepared for you before the foundations of the world were laid, come and eat, come and drink – for as long as you are, you are for Christ, and Christ for you – behold He comes. Amen.
