READING: Matthew 25 : 31 - 36
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that 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 food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'
"There is nothing new under the sun."
That is written by King Solomon among his wisdom sayings.
It meets with Mahatma Gandhi who confessed that " I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. "
It might be a surprise for some but Jesus himself did not teach anything new as he stated it himself in the Sermon of the Mount that " Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law of Moses or the prophesies of the Hebrew Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law of Moses until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. "
He did not project a radically new view challenging the millennia old traditions, he did not declared paradigm change, he did not change the narrative but he put an emphasis on the actions, where the empty talk could not have any merits anymore. James, his brother and the leader of the first Jerusalem congregation after the death of Jesus on the cross, in his biblical letter in the very first chapter declared the same emphasis on action, writing that " Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. "
The mere conviction about the good is not enough. God, the word of God, Moses, Elijah and the Prophets, John the Baptist and Jesus, James and the Apostles and Heaven itself demand genuine good deeds.
It is like what John, the prophet in the desert said that to talk the talk is not enough, you have to walk the walk aka if someone has two shirts, he has to give one of the shirts to the one who has none.
Faith in itself is not enough.
Faith is the motivation, faith is the intention, faith is the drive but faith is not action. Faith must be realized in good deeds. The Reformed Faith says that is impossible that he who has faith, will not have good deeds, however we heard a lot of talks how to do good deeds, but we can see very few actions, and most of the time good deeds come from people who talk less.
The Apostle James is very clear about it, saying that "What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can that faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled;’ and yet you didn't give them the things the body needs, what good is it? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.”
Exactly that happened in the case of the Sulpician monastery which had the governing power over Oka and its surroundings. They not only sent away the Iroquois empty handed always, but by force they also took what they did not own, being supported by the army and the police for centuries.
The same Apostle James, the very brother of Jesus, wrote an astonishing and terrifying decree as well, which is very hard to comprehend that " Show me your faith without your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder." The mere belief in God's existence or even the existence of God's Gospel is not enough, because even the demons have no doubts, they believe in the existence of God, but they shudder.
The true belief and good faith are valid only if you act upon them, if you do not, they are dead.
Thus enforcing people to believe in something is wrong, because faith is a free gift from God, either you have it or you do not, but not acting upon the good faith and having good deeds, is even worse. Because if we do not do good, it means we do evil, and it is a wicked existence, even if we believe.
Thus Jesus in this parable says again astonishing things.
When he was talking about the final judgment, he says that everybody, the gathering of the nations in the world, an entire nation, a community, a clan, a family or a single person, so all will be judged according to their deeds only.
Not according to their beliefs, faith, convictions and doctrines but their deeds, and their deeds only. And as a matter of fact, actions are really louder than empty speeches and not kept promises.
Jesus' conclusion is crystal clear that good deeds will be rewarded, and consequently wrongdoings will be severely punished.
However, it is quite astonishing that what exactly these good deeds are, as they were listed by Jesus, and they are hardly spiritual deeds, like praying or worship or studying the scriptures.
It looks like that the most important segments are the direct charity works, like to feed the hungry, quench the thirsty, cloth the poor, visit the shut-in.
And his list is quite parallel what his brother James wrote in his letter to the audience of 20 centuries that the "Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (...) And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, ..., give them the things the body needs " ...
It looks like, with a little exaggeration, that nothing else matters than the good deeds in the gate of Heaven when you are waiting for admission at the check-point between death and the Afterlife.
It is fortunate, that the Scriptures are very accurate even in details, and mostly not missing anything important. In this case Jesus said, that all the nations will be gathered before him, and they, even as nations, one by one, must give an account how they treated their hungry and poor their orphans and widows, their lonely and abandoned.
Although collective punishment is of course outlawed from the civil discourse and sensible legislation, exactly because we are not God, and we should not act like God, even as nations. However the Bible is rich with the examples, how families, communities and whole nations were made responsible and punished by Heaven for what their members did.
We are interdependent, we all rely on each other and we are all responsible for each other, and we are all responsible one by one for our communal or national affairs. If there is a single homeless person is on the street, the whole nation is guilty of that.
Let us unite by overcoming all divisions and amend the world, and make it sure that the nations, our nation as well, will feed the hungry, clothe the naked, take care of the elderly and the abandoned, in order that all the Earth may praise the Lord, whose kingdom will be descending to us.
Amen.
