Sheep and Goats - Matt 25:31-46

The third parable isn’t introduced as such, but an analogy is made between the righteous and the unrighteous, as Jesus tells the people that when He comes again, “before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth us sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” The IM says that anciently, sheep and goats would graze together but be separated for the night and that the “right hand” indicated favor while the “left hand” indicated disfavor. The sheep on the right hand will be welcomed hearing, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Then Jesus gives several reasons why they will be welcomed into the kingdom and later on gives the reasons why the goats on the left hand will not be welcomed into the kingdom but “these shall go away into everlasting punishment.” For ease of understanding I’m going to put the condition then the reaction of the righteous “sheep” and the reaction of the wicked “goats” for comparison:

1. I was an hungered       -       ye gave me meat    -    ye gave me no meat
2. I was thirsty                -       ye gave me drink    -    ye gave me no drink
3. I was a stranger           -       ye took me in          -    ye took me not in
4. Naked                         -       ye clothed me         -    ye clothed me not
5. Sick                             -       ye visited me           -    ye visited me not
6. In prison                      -       ye came unto me     -    ye visited me not
The righteous are confused asking when they had done these things for Him, and he answers saying, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” The wicked are also confused, when had they ignored Christ and his needs. Jesus answers, “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” This is similar to King Benjamin’s teaching that “when you are in the service of your fellow being, you are only in the service of your God.” The wicked probably wonder how they could have not addressed Jesus’ needs because he was an important man worthy of their attention. But what He’s trying to teach them is that all people are important and worthy of their attention.
This can be a tough concept because life can be overwhelming. All people need a lot of help most of the time, there is not only person around you that could not benefit from your service. This makes service opportunities abundant and usually simple and easy to do, but on the flip side, this also puts the proverbial hand of every person out looking for assistance. Either way, service can become overwhelming, especially when you have people around you that are constantly needy because of issues that they have. It would be one thing if you could help someone one time and it truly made a difference, but so often it just feels like service ends up just enabling. I might be having a rough time with this concept right now.  I guess the point isn’t to judge the situation that someone is in, but to do what we can to make their lives easier, but it can get complicated sometimes.
When rewarding the righteous sheep on the right hand, the Master says, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” This is an interesting phrase because it hasn’t been used before in the other parables as far as I can remember. To me it was an indication that the reward that the sheep were receiving was not a consolation price, it wasn’t something made up at the last minute to give to the ones who were good. It indicates to me that the plan was always for them to receive the kingdom. The goats on the other hand, are told, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” I think that it’s important to mention here that the goats won’t go into the this fire and brimstone place unwillingly, and that begs the question, who in their right mind would want to go into that place? Anyone who sees fire and brimstone as preferable to being in the presence of God.
Interestingly, an article about this parable from gotquestions.org says, “A casual reading seems to suggest that salvation is the result of good works. The ‘sheep’ acted charitably, giving food, drink, and clothing to the needy. The ‘goats’ showed no charity. This seems to result in salvation for the sheep and damnation for the goats.” We know that we are only saved through faith, but to be worthy to be with God again we must follow the commandments. We can’t earn our way into heaven, we must have the Savior’s atonement for our salvation. But we won’t be ready to enter the Kingdom if we have not become Christ-like. The article continues, “Jesus Himself makes it clear in the parable that the salvation of the ‘sheep’ is not based on their works- their inheritance was theirs ‘since the creation of the world’, long before they could ever do any good works!
The good works mentioned in the parable are not the cause of salvation but the effect of salvation. As Christians we become like Christ. Galatians 5:22 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Good works in a Christian’s life are the direct overflow of these traits, and are only acceptable to God because of the relationship that exists between servant and Master, the saved and their Savior, the sheep and their Shepherd.” Ultimately, yes, we will do kind things for other people because that’s just who we are, but for me personally, the change in who I am came through doing the Christ like service. Nobody wants to help any one else, most people are 100% self-absorbed, I know that I am. I had to speak in kindness when I didn’t want to, hold my tongue when I wanted to flip out, serve then I wanted to go home. Honestly, I did a lot of it out of guilt, I felt bad because I was “supposed” to do these things and act that way. But eventually, as I tried to do and say what Jesus would do and say, I was gifted with added measures of the Spirit, along with scripture study, I eventually became a different person. Not a perfect person by any means, but a better one, and hopefully one that’s slowly improving over time.