Now, for a lot of people who believe that Jesus is just a nice guy, just a swell fella, and all that fire and brimstone stuff came into it later, thus corrupting the simple message of peace and love that Jesus had for his people, well, buckle up. There are lots of things like that, where we think that the way things were originally is much more of how we want it to be today, and are surprised when it is the opposite. Take, for instance Robin from the Batman comics. People my age tend to like to say that Batman was a loner originally, and that Robin was added much later to get the kiddies reading the comics. That's a nice idea, and it works for those of us who want to picture Batman as all dark and edgy, but it's not really all that accurate. Batman was a dark edgy loner between his first appearance in May 1939 until Robin showed up in April of 1940. Yes, that supposed dark edgy period that was the way Batman was always supposed to be, it lasted for 11 months. It turns out that Robin is a bit more integral, a bit more foundational than we had wanted or expected him to be.
It's the same thing with hell. If you think that this is a much later addition, I hate to tell you that Hell, from Jesus' words, shows up in Matthew chapter 7, as part of the sermon on the mount, which is the first public address that Jesus gives as part of his anointed, baptized ministry. That's early. That's really early. And it doesn't stop. Jesus mentions Hell quite a few times, and if Jesus talks about anything at all, it's worth us thinking about, especially if he mentions it often, which he does.
And Hell is one of those topics that, even if we discuss it, we discuss it in terms of good people going to Heaven, and bad people going to Hell. When we talk about this, we almost always do the thing that we do, which is to look at ourselves, and say that we are good people, the people who are mean to us are bad people, and everyone else applies that exact same metric as well. Everyone uses themselves as the barometer for good people, and that's as simple as that. But the way we weigh out good deeds and our bad deeds tends to be only in terms of what we have done. This way, we can all convince ourselves that we have done enough, because we can call to mind all sorts of good deeds that we have accomplished, all the good things we have worked on, and all the wonderful things we have done for friends and neighbors. Sins? Those are bad things that we have done, and those are fewer than the good things we have done, so it should balance out, right?
Well, in the Gospel reading, Jesus doesn't let you do that at all. You think you can, because you think your righteousness is going to be measured in terms of positive actions, right? Who does good things, and who does bad things? But the last judgement seems to not be weighed out like that. Instead, when Jesus talks to the sheep on his right, he does so by talking to them about how they had served him by doing things for one another, for the least of these. The sheep are surprised by this, of course, and don't have any understanding that they were doing this for their Lord. They were just doing what needed to be done. But the goats on his left, they are in a bit of consternation, because they aren't those that we would think of as bad people, even in the context of the church. We'd expect them to be adulterers, fornicators, sorcerers, the lewd and lascivious, idolaters, murderers, and all that. We would expect them to be the Hitlers, Pol Pots, James Fields of the world, but that's not who they are in this account. The truth that Jesus presents us with is far more shocking, and far more difficult for us to get our heads around, you know. When Jesus approaches these people, he says to depart from him, because they didn't do all the things that they should have done, either for him, or for one another, which ends up being the same thing. It's not about what they did that was so bad, but it was all the chances that they didn't take, all the good that they didn't do, all the chances for service that they didn't take, and that is what is damning them.
People these days think that they are good because of all the nice things they've done (or more likely because of all the right opinions and views they have), and all the bad things they didn't do. But the way Jesus describes it, is that we will be held to account not just for all the bad things we did, all the sins we committed, but also all the good things, all the opportunities for service to God and our fellowman, that we did not take. Do you know what this means? This means that there is a zero percent chance that you are ever going to counterbalance this problem? There is no shot that you have of ever doing enough to counter all the opportunities you didn't take, and that you won't take in the future, because you don't see yourself in the way that God has told you that you are. He told you that you are his workmanship, created to do good works, which he has prepared in advance for you to do. If you understand this about yourself, and you probably should, then you'll realize that you are here to do those works that he has set up for you to do, and every time you turn away from doing anything for any of the least of these, you turn away from Christ your savior.
Nobody comes out looking good from this. I have yet to meet anyone who can with any kind of sincerity say that they are always looking to serve constantly, to give without seeking any reward or restitution. Nobody is able to say that they give constantly until there's nothing left. Rather, they do what they can, and avoid doing too many bad things. But when Jesus talks about the last judgement, it's a matter of understanding that if you're not doing the works that God has prepared in advance for you to do, you are failing at the purpose for your existence, and all your right opinions won't count for much, given your dereliction of duty.
Understanding this really helps you to work out your need for a savior. People don't think they need a savior because they feel as though they are good people based on the good they do, and the bad they avoid. Understanding, though, that your missed goodness is counting against you means that the stack is so heavily weighted against you, the debt you have accrued is so great that you're never going to dig out of that hole. And thus Christ.
Think on him and what he does, how he gives consistently and tirelessly, how he provides daily and richly for us, how he supplies us all and doesn't refuse anyone of us. Think about how he loves and cares, how he is always present and prepared to hear from his creation, and how no matter how many times he wants to withdraw by himself, there are people who come to seek him out, and he hears them. Think about how he gives his time, his work, his food, his clothes, and eventually his life, to a lost and fallen creation. That's the person you need on your side, someone who never turns his back, and who understands that he did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Understanding who you are in this sort of big picture means that you can't turn your back on anyone, that every single person around you is important, that they are all forever, that they all matter in a vitally important, cosmic way. And so do you. The work of the cross, the work of making all things new is the work of ensuring that every single person matters, they all count, and you serve Christ by serving them, and likewise they serve Christ by serving you. You don't serve Christ in an abstract sense, by having the right opinion, by thinking the right thoughts about the poor, that's what the Priest and the Levite did in the parable of the Good Samaritan. No, Christ tells us that we serve him by serving one another. And this is so fundamentally key to understanding Christian morality - you can never do enough, you're never a good enough person because there are hundreds and thousands of moments and chances that you see Christ in the faces of friends and strangers, and refuse to help. And the way it works is that in repentance of all those missed opportunities, in understanding that these are things you need to be forgiven of, it takes these issues away from being just things that you're avoiding, and into a world in which these are things that absolutely are commanded by the Lord your God.
Working that out helps you to see what sin and forgiveness actually are. You serve Christ by serving your neighbor, and you need Christ because of how often you don't.
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