[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Saints of God, we come to the final part of Jesus’ sermon, preparing us for the last
day.
But it seems like Jesus wants us to be less interested about the last day, and more interested
in our neighbor.
This is an amazing thing.
I mean, it’s first amazing that Jesus is here on Holy Tuesday, talking to his disciples
about what’s going to happen 2,000 plus years from then.
You would think that Jesus would be mostly getting them ready for his death and his resurrection,
but they know that he’s going to come back, and Jesus wants them to know how to get ready
for that as well.
And here’s how not to get ready for it.
Jesus doesn’t want the disciples going around mustering armies, finding soldiers, sharpening
swords, building chariots, trying to establish an earthly kingdom.
After all, his kingdom does not belong to this world.
His is a kingdom of word.
It’s a preached kingdom.
It’s a kingdom of grace.
So he does not want them to go around kind of involving themselves in the political maneuverings
of all the nations.
Jesus says that every nation is going to be gathered to me anyways on that last day.
How then are they to get ready for it?
How are they supposed to be ready for the last day?
And what are they to do to get ready for that last trumpet sound of the archangel and heaven
splitting open and the Son of Man sitting on his throne in glory?
What are they supposed to do?
Jesus says this.
It’s pretty simple, but it’s pretty hard.
Jesus says, you will find readiness for the judgment day in the needs of your neighbor.
Think about that.
You will find readiness for the judgment day in the needs of your neighbor.
There’s a lot of ways, and I don’t think our temptation necessarily is to muster up
armies or things like this to welcome Jesus back as a ruling monarch, but we do have
this temptation in the church that we think that we can be ready for that day by focusing
on that day.
We could be ready for the last day by trying to figure out if it’s getting closer or
not, by looking at all the signs of the times, by taking the Bible in one hand and the newspaper
paper in the other, and trying to look for the nearness of the Lord to come back. Every
time there’s an earthquake, someone says, well, pastor, you know, is this the one? Or
anytime there’s a global pandemic, you know, that sort of thing starts to fire up. Or anytime
the lines of the nations in the Middle East are redrawn, then we start to wonder, is this
a little bit closer? And the answer is, well, of course, yes. Every day, like Paul says,
is closer to the last day. And we always think, the church always is to think that we live
in the last days because we know that Jesus can come at any moment, but our readiness
is not found in judging the times or reading the signs or looking up into heaven like the
apostles who were there on the last day or who were there when Jesus ascended and stood
there looking up into heaven and the angel had to say, don’t look, don’t stand there
looking up into heaven, you’ll find a readiness in the need of your neighbor and in the humble
needs of your neighbor.
Scripture. We always want to do these great, magnificent, heroic kind of works, these huge
Christian tasks, sort of⦠we always have this kind of crusade mentality or martyr mentality
that we want to accomplish some sort of heroic feats and get sort of spiritual badges or
saints or something like that, but it turns out that the works that matter on the last
are the ones you can’t even remember doing. The water that you gave to the thirsty person,
or the food that you gave to the hungry one, or the stranger that you welcomed, or the
naked person that you helped clothe, or the sick person, or the one in prison that you went to go
and visit, and you said, well, Lord, when did we even do these things? I saw, I don’t remember what
this was, like a bumper sticker or a poster or something like this, but this is what it said.
It said, everybody wants to save the world, okay, I have to admit that this is preaching
to myself.
Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to take out the trash.
Carrie’s going to remind me of that one later.
Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to do the dishes.
Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to change a diaper.
neighbor. Everyone wants to change the world, but it’s the little, in fact, the little
things that matter. Now, there’s some real profound spiritual truth here. Jesus is forcing
us back to the humble works in our vocation. Not even that. That’s too fancy. Jesus is
forcing us back to look at our neighbor and say, how can I help you? How can I serve you?
How can I bless you?
How can I care for you?
Now, there’s some hard stuff here,
but also some really encouraging stuff.
Because when we look at all the trouble in the world,
it’s overwhelming.
When we look at all the trouble in our nation,
when we look at all the trouble in our society
and in our culture, and we watch the news,
and it seems almost overwhelming.
It’s like the tidal wave is coming,
and you think, what can I do to hold it back?
It’s almost too much, and we almost just want to despair of the whole thing.
But Jesus in this text says, do not despair.
Those little things that you do, the little gestures, the little acts of compassion, those
little businesses of obedience that you seem like they don’t mean anything, that’s in fact
what’s going to matter on the judgment day.
To the sheep He says, look, I was thirsty, you gave me a drink.
I was a stranger, you welcomed me.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you came to me.” They don’t even remember, Lord, when did we do these things?
When did we see you? If we would have traveled over land and sea to deliver a cup of cold water
to you, we would have broken our backs in service to you. And Jesus says, no, and every time you
did it to the least of these, to my brothers and sisters, every time you served a Christian
or a neighbor, I received that as service to myself.
How many of us, you know, if Jesus walked in the back door would just run over the top
of the pews to go and get him whatever he needs, but Jesus says, look, every time you
bless one another, it’s as if you’re serving me, that’s how I receive it, and I perfect
it.
I mean, it’s another thing, too, because we say, look, Pastor, all my works are really
kind of measly, and they’re all confused with my own selfish motivations, and I try, and
I start and I fail, and there’s sin just in every part of it, the beginning, the middle,
the end.
Everything that we do is weak and paltry and kind of embarrassingly small, but Jesus takes
it and He receives it as a pure and holy work, a pure and holy sacrifice.
There’s this wonderful word from St. Augustine, this still should preach right to us, right
to our hearts.
St. Augustine says, all the commandments are kept when what is not kept is forgiven.
All the commandments are kept when what is not kept is forgiven.
And that’s how it is for us, for the Christian, who have the name of Jesus, who have the blood
of the Savior, who know by faith His kindness and His mercy and His love.
All the commandments are kept for you because all the sin is forgiven, and there’s so much
then for you to be, and this is a word we hardly talk about in the church, but to be
rewarded.
The last day for you, dear Christian, is not a day of judgment, but a day of reward.
You say, what have I done?
What have I done to even deserve a place before the Lord’s kingdom, before His face?
What have I done?
Do you care?
but that’s how it is for the Christians. You can’t even remember because the Lord has taken all of
our little fits and starts, forgiven all that we’ve done wrong, filled them up with His mercy,
and accepted them as delightful in His sight. He loves you, not because of your goodness.
He loves you because of His death on the cross, and because He loves you, He loves everything
that you do?” Oh boy, it’s too good to be true unless the Lord had told us in the
sermon. When did we see you a sicker in prison? Truly I say to you, as you did it
to one of the least of these brothers, you did it to me. So this day, this great
last day, that’s so frightful for the unbeliever, can’t come soon enough for
us, because the one who’s coming back is Jesus.
The one who’s judging the quick and the dead is the crucified.
The one who’s sitting on the glorious throne is your Savior, and He can’t even wait until
that last day, so He’s decided to come today, too, and say, this is my body, and this is
my blood for you, for your forgiveness, for my mercy and compassion to be made known,
so that you’ll be ready when I come in glory.”
So let us rejoice today in Jesus, the one who comes to us in compassion and love and
forgives all of our sins, and then let’s not worry about saving the world, let’s just
Just go love our neighbor a little bit and wait with patience, with longing for the trumpet
sound, which will come soon.
May God grant it for Christ’s sake, amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus
Christ our Lord, amen.
