The Dread Judgment: Reading Matthew 25:31-46

³⁴ Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: ³⁶ naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ³⁷ Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? ³⁸ When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? ³⁹ Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? ⁴⁰ And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 

Today’s Gospel reading should be very uncomfortable for two kinds of people. First, it should bother the clergy. We know what people should and should not do, what they should and should not eat, how much and how often, when they should pray and which prayers they should say and in which order, which Hours precede the Divine Liturgy and which follow. [*] We even know precisely when and how the people must make the sign of the cross–down to exactly how they must fold their fingers–and how low to bow, depending on the ranking of the saint commemorated on a given day. In other words, we, the clergy, are too often the people of the rules, we deal in “mint and anise and cummin” (Matt 23:23), and we wish that the Lord said: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for ye observed the rules and fulfilled the obligations.” But, of course, this is not what the Lord said. In fact, in this passage, He did not say a single word about a single rule. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him” (Matt 25:31), He will not ask, “Have you pray’d to-night, Desdemona?” (Othello a. 5, s. 2) but, Have you given drink to the thirsty? Have you visited the sick? We, the clergy, the learned men of the cloth, can tell you when shrimp is allowed, but can we tell you how to feed the hungry? 

The second kind of person who should be worried about today’s Gospel reading is the person involved in charity work. It is not to say that charity is to be neglected; but just as is the case with rules, the Lord does not appear to mention it as a criterion for inheriting the kingdom of His Father. If a person who runs a soup kitchen were to hear the words of Christ: “I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat,” he would probably say: “Yes, Lord, I know! We provided over a thousand meals each month to the least of these!” But this is not what we see happening in the Gospel. The righteous ones are genuinely surprised: “When saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee?” A man involved in visiting the sick or volunteering with a prison ministry will not be surprised to hear that he visited the sick or the imprisoned. Quite the opposite! He will expect a “Well done!” and a “Good job!” And he will answer: “I read my Bible, Lord, and signed up to visit a nursing home!” So, this Gospel passage is not about such a man. It is about someone else.

This passage is about the man who visits the sick because they are family. If my loved ones are sick, and I visit them, I do not do this because the Bible tells me to, but because they are family. If my brother committed a crime and ended up in prison, and I go there and visit him, I do not do this because I signed up to volunteer with a prison ministry, but because he is my brother, he is family. And I certainly do not expect any reward from God for visiting a sick relative or a brother in prison. It would be truly surprising if the Lord told me that He was in prison and I visited Him–“No, Lord. Sadly, there must be a mistake. I just went to see my troubled brother.”

This Gospel passage is about a man who sees other people as his brothers and sisters and ministers to them, not because it is a Christian thing to do, but because they are family. He responds to the needs of others not because he likes them and they are his means for inheriting the kingdom, but because we feed our children when they are hungry, and we visit our parents when they become ill. This Gospel passage is about the man who sees a son or daughter in every child, a brother or sister, a father or mother in every man or woman and ministers to them. It is a man with such a heart who together with the righteous will go into life eternal (Matt 25:46).

It is not an accident that on this day, just one week before we begin obsessing over lists of ingredients, the rules of the Typikon, or even doing good works during Lent, as Saint John Chrysostom exhorts us to do, the Church in Her wisdom reminds us of what is most important: “My son, give me thine heart” (Prov 23:26).

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[*] – The Typikon requires that “On Sunday, [Divine Liturgy] must begin at the beginning of the third hour…” (ch. 8) Why do we then–at least in the Russian Church–have the custom of reading the Sixth Hour before the beginning of the Liturgy? Should it not be read after?

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See also:

Putting My Mouth Where My Writing Is

“He was afterward an hungered.” (Matt 4:2)

Fasting during the First Week of Great Lent

Great Lent: An Instruction Manual

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