A life of compassion

It has been said that there are few passages in the entire Bible that have had a greater impact and transformed more lives than this story from Matthew 25. Many progressive biblical scholars agree that the story may not even be from Jesus, but is from the followers of Jesus in Matthew’s community of faith. But that doesn’t take away the power of the story. Instead, it causes us to read the story even more closely in the context of Matthew’s audience, to whom this letter was written, in the 9th decade of the first century.

As I’ve said often, we value diversity here, and let me tell you, our congregation is anything but homogeneous when it comes to many things: I hate to break the news to you, but everybody else is not like you; does not think like you; or hold the same viewpoints and perspectives as you!

For Matthew and his faith community, it was a similar thing. There was diversity within the community – even conflict. Everybody was not alike. They didn’t all think alike, live the same, worship the same, or express their faith the same. In Matthew’s congregation there was diversity in the way that people expressed their faith and spiritual practices.

A closer reading of Matthew’s gospel gives us a glimpse into the nature of Matthew’s faith community. For example, there were two distinct groups that had an impact on the way Matthew shaped his gospel and told the story of Jesus.

On one side, there were those whose religious lives were rigidly legalistic. For them, it was all about rules and regulations, to the point of emphasizing the letter and minutia of the law.

A pastor told of a story that happened to her. She was having friendly conversation with a group of folks after worship in the social hall, and in the conversation someone asked her what she was going to do the rest of her Sunday afternoon. She made the statement that she thought she would work in her garden.

Another woman standing a few feet away, not a part of the conversation, overheard her comment, interrupted and gave her a “tongue-lashing of admonishment” like she had never had before, pointing out to her in rather strong terms, that work was forbidden on the Sabbath Day, and that she, as a pastor, was setting a terrible example for the congregation and community. Obviously, this person was living by a very strict and unbending code that apparently had little to do with grace, when it came to religious piety and practice.

On the other end of the spectrum, Matthew’s community also had an element of what is called “antinomianism.” Antinomianism is the opposite of legalism. Antinomianism is the idea that a person is under no obligation to obey certain laws of ethics as prescribed by a religious authority. Christian antinomians of Matthew’s time said that grace exempted them from following Torah law and ethical mandates. For some in this camp, grace meant “do whatever you wanted to do because, after all, grace exempted anyone from the ethical imperatives of the Torah.” Wow! A free for all …

My point is there was diversity of viewpoint and lifestyle in Matthew’s community that created conflict and tension.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to live a different way than conventional ways – because Jesus was anything but conventional. And, what I think Matthew is doing here is walking a different way, charting a different course, from those in his community of faith who were either legalistic or antinomian. He’s finding a balance in the middle.

Theologian J. Holub says that “Matthew had a different ethic; an alternative way to live his life that, for Matthew, was faithful to his experience of the risen, living Lord Jesus. It was a different way that was not legalistic and not antinomian. The result was one of the most engaging ideas ever put forth by Christianity – an idea that has the power to transform a human life, transform human relationships and transform community.”

Matthew frames the story as a picture of the Last Judgment which, for his first century Jewish community, was a popular and powerful picture. It was one that got their attention. What’s interesting about this story is that all the people gathered in front of the throne really believed they were among those who were part of the in-group including both the legalistic and antinomian crowd. Everyone was there, and everyone thought they were in.

So there they are, then a judgment, or a sorting out, is made, and the people are separated not according to belief in right doctrine; not according to worshiping a certain way; not according to sexual orientation, or church leadership, or success in ministry or by anything else. They were sorted out based on their attitude toward and how they treated the most vulnerable people in society; the ones Jesus calls the “least of these.”

Progressive theologian Holub, states three ways how this story can speak to us.

First, Matthew’s experience of Jesus had created a new, transformed way to live his life. You might call it a new ethic. It wasn’t an ethic based on legalism, nor was it an ethic based on a “do whatever you want because grace exempts you” attitude.

It was an ethic and a way of life based on the very life and way of Jesus – it was an ethic of compassion – a life of compassion.

This story, in the Gospel of Matthew, could very well be a reflection of what Matthew experienced in the living Jesus, and what he experienced Jesus saying to him, “Matthew, I will know how much you love me by how you treat the weak, the poor, the stranger, the different than yourself, and the vulnerable.”

Jesus put Matthew’s life on a different road and this story is Matthew’s testimony to a road of compassion.

Second, this story can be seen as a call into an ongoing, assessing and evaluation of our lives. This story uses a popular Jewish topic of conversation at the time – a final judgment. But I don’t think he tells it in a way to perpetuate fear the way I’ve heard some preach this story, or I don’t think he’s foretelling actual future events. This story can be taken metaphorically to get people to think and reflect about the way they are living their lives as followers of Jesus right here and now, in the moment. Maybe Matthew was trying to show the legalists and antinomians a different way than the way they were on.

According to theologian Holub, the primary characteristics of the life of Jesus were grace and compassion. As an intentional follower of Jesus, the judgment described in this story is an ongoing process of evaluation and assessment that I am called into every day. I am called to measure, evaluate and judge my life based on those two things every day. Do I show the grace to others that Jesus shows to me? Does my life show the same compassion that Jesus’ life showed? Those are questions I am called to measure my life with every day – that is the judgment.

Third, this story points to where the living Jesus can be found in this world – right now. In early Celtic Christianity, there’s an expression called “Thin Places.” A “Thin Place” for the Celtics was a place or situation where the boundary between a person and God becomes almost permeable. It’s a special place where God is felt and experienced in a beautiful way. Thin places “may come as a feeling, an insight, or making connections between things you’ve never seen before.” Maybe you can think of thin places that are spiritual places for you – Sedona, Ariz., the ocean …

Think about those experiences and times when you felt close to God or perceived, in some special way, God’s presence. That’s a thin place.

Perhaps this story from Matthew is, in part, a description of a special “Thin Place” where Jesus reveals himself and is experienced in the world. Mother Teresa once said about this story that Jesus appears in “the distressing disguise of the poor.”

If it is an experience of the living Jesus that I am really looking for, then I need look no further than the “Thin Place” of the faces of the poor, the marginal, the suffering, the starving, the malnourished, the lonely, the vulnerable, the stranger, the outcast, the rejected, the abused, the forgotten, the struggling, the overwhelmed, the lost, the least, the last – anyone who is fragile and vulnerable on this planet. It just may be somebody sitting next to you this morning. Do you see the face of Jesus in your neighbor?

As a person who intentionally names himself a follower of Jesus, this story changes everything for me. For it means that every face on this planet is sacred; that I cannot ever look into a face again and see it as just an ordinary face; or see it merely as the face of an adversary; or an enemy; or someone I dislike or distain; a face I turn away from because I do not want to acknowledge their pain. For if I dare look deep enough and I dare look long enough, I risk seeing the face of Jesus – and that changes everything – even me!

Rev. Dan Koeshall is the senior pastor at The Metropolitan Community Church, 2633 Denver St., San Diego, themetchurch.org