Hans Memling (c.1430–94) The Last Judgement (detail center panel, triptych).
Matthew 25:31-46
All three synoptic Gospels stress the point that Jesus began His ministry with a proclamation about the Kingdom of God.
“Kingdom talk” has fallen on hard times. Language about the kingdom has become anachronistic & irrelevant, carrying with it ideas that are hierarchal, patriarchal, exclusive, & imperialistic. The image of a “kingdom” has come to us with the baggage of the feudal lords of the middle ages & a conquering triumphalism in the name of Christ and the Church in such things as the crusades & the Inquisition.
We need to remember, however, that as Jesus used the concept of the Kingdom, or more precisely, the reign of God, it expressed God’s eternal desire for a mended creation, for a redeemed world, a time and place where all injustices would be rectified – put right.
But, what kind of king is Jesus? Born in a cow stall, in a less than cosmopolitan center of civilization, to an even more less than regal set of parents; what kind of king to be executed as a common criminal outside the city gates on a garbage dump, buried in a borrowed tomb?
For Matthew, He is the Servant King & Judge. Our passage is a vision of the Last Judgment. And with this teaching Jesus concludes His public instruction, and Matthew wants this to be the lingering lesson in his listener’s ears.
The scene is an enthronement, the Son of Man being installed as King & Judge. What comes as a surprise is the fact that the basis for the final judgment is one’s response to human need. There are no questions about one’s theology or even one’s Church attendance, there is, however, the one question of what we have done for the “least of these”.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and 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”.
“With deeds of love and mercy, the heavenly kingdom comes”. It is that kind of king that we are called to serve. One that does not live inside marbled palaces commanding a militia of forces, but One who lives amidst those on the outside.
