Didn’t You See I Was Busy?

Matthew 25:31-46

Christ the King Sunday

Matthew 25:31-46

[Jesus said,] ³¹“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. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴Then 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; ³⁵for 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, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’

⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

⁴¹ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ ⁴⁵Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The Sermon

We looked at his face, his eyes, his hair; the wrinkles on his forehead, the calluses on his feet, the weathered hands. He wasn’t very old. But he had been teaching and preaching and working for a long time. And for three years, we had been with him almost every step of the way.

And some of us wondered: Where did the time go?

After he was baptized by his cousin, John, he had disappeared into the wilderness for forty days; and when he came out, he was ready to begin his ministry.

He called his first disciples, and he began ministering to crowds of people at a time. He taught the beatitudes—blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied…

He healed a leper; he healed a centurion’s servant who had been paralyzed; he touched Peter’s mother-in-law’s hand and she was cured of a fever; so we brought a great many more sick people to her house, and he healed them all.

We were out in a boat one night, and a storm came up, and we were afraid, so we woke him up. First he rebuked us, for being so afraid; and then he rebuked the wind, which immediately ceased, and there was a dead calm. And we said, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

We continued on the move, and everywhere we went with him, he left people’s lives better—much better, tangibly better than they had been.

He began to teach us in parables, and we heard many things—about faith the size of a mustard seed; about a treasure buried in a field.

He fed people who were hungry: five thousand families with five loaves and two fish; four thousand with seven loaves and a few small fish.

And we kept moving, and he kept teaching, and he kept healing, always moving toward Jerusalem.

And when after three years of these travels, we finally got there, a large crowd was there to greet him, and they spread their cloaks on the ground, and some cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road, and he entered the city like a king.

And still he taught us: a parable about a wedding banquet, where the people who were invited blew off the invitation so other people were welcomed, and the invitees were left out; the wise and foolish bridesmaids, some of whom weren’t ready when the bridegroom arrived; the master who entrusted his servants with talents while the master was away for a while.

And then, he gave us one last discourse.

He said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate people one from another, like sheep and goats; and he’ll say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, 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, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

And the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?

And the king will answer them, ‘Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

^“ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

And those will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

When finished saying that, he looked at us all, and said, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

We looked at his face, his eyes, his hair; the wrinkles on his forehead, the calluses on his feet, the weathered hands. And we wondered: Where did the time go?

It takes so much effort just to look after the mundane things—be where you’re supposed to be, on time or close to it. Meet your basic work, family and home obligations, and factor in church involvement, civic involvement, and maybe looking after aging parents, or growing children, or wayward siblings.

And when the preacher says, “take time to be holy,” sometimes you just want to say, “It ain’t that simple.”

And when Jesus asks me about the people in the world who starved to death on my watch—the victims of genocide while I said nothing; the forgotten people in every community; the ones I never bothered to try to love as he loved us—I’ll want to say,

Didn’t you see how busy I was? Didn’t you know the hours I worked? Didn’t you know the tears I cried, the frustrations I felt? Didn’t you know how hopeless it all seemed, how enormous the problems were, how little and pathetic I felt most of the time—how insignificant, and small?

But all the time I’m laying out this defense for myself, I will be thinking, Where did the time go?

Today, we give him his crown. Today is the last day of the church calendar year. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, and we start all over again; but for today, on this conclusion of twelve months of watching him, listening to him, following him, we celebrate Christ the King.

And we pray that, with God’s strength, with Christ’s love, with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we might each find our own ways to be ever more faithful subjects next year than we were the year before.

In the fourteenth century, Lady Julian of Norwich wrote, as a result of the revelations that came to her as she lay on what should have been her deathbed: “I saw that God is our true peace. He watches over us when we can find no rest, and he works continually to bring us to peace that shall never end.

“We are his crown, and this crown is the joy of the Father, the glory of the Son, and the happiness of the Holy Spirit, and the endless wondering delight of those who are in heaven.”

May it be so for us and for our Lord, our savior, our master and our friend, our maker and redeemer, our king. Amen.

Keith Grogg

Carolina Beach Presbyterian Church

Carolina Beach , NC

November 23, 2008