[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #636, Christ the King, 11/23/08

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Christ the King -- November 23, 2008

Ezekiel 34:11 16, 20 24
Psalm 100
Ephesians 1:15 23
Matthew 25:31 46


Doing the King a Kindness

The twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew contains three happy stories: the one about the bridesmaids who were ready when the bride groom came, the one about the salves who made a profit for their master, and the one about those who did the king a kindness.  

"Then 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...'"   (Matthew 25:34)

The very idea that anyone would be welcomed into God's presence for doing God a kindness!  How could anyone conceive of doing God a kindness?  The creator of the universe says, "Thank you and welcome."  The eternal one grateful to us!  Imagine plodding your way through life's frustrations, coming to the end and finding out that you have actually succeeded, you actually belong.  The idea in the parable of the sheep and the goats is very different from the common idea, the idea that we have to do what God tells us to do in order to belong.  Obeying orders is not the same as doing someone a kindness.  In this parable the king responds to people who volunteered their care, not just to those who obeyed his command.  It was an old idea that one could get in good with God by following certain rules, but the=2
0incarnation of God gave us a new idea, that one could actually do God a kindness. 

Ezekiel passes on the judgment of God against those who fail to obey the command to care for God's flock.  "And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?"  (Ezekiel 34:19)  He also proclaims God's promise to come and take loving charge of the flock.  "For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out."  (Ezekiel 34:11)  Ezekiel can foresee God the shepherd.  What he doesn't foresee is God the lamb.  We can conceive of our fellow human beings as God's flock and live under God's command to tend the flock.  Then we live under, and are judged by the command.  That is the old idea, the idea that we can belong to the kingdom by following the rules.  The incarnation of God in Christ, the lamb, opens up a new possibility, that we might be drawn to God out of compassion, that we might do something righteous because we care not because we fear.  

"God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places..." (Ephesians 1:20)  There is power in this reciprocal identity of God, namely that the lamb is the king, and the king is the lamb; the person in need is the king, and the king is the person we helped.  This is the heart of charity, of grace, of belonging to God's family, to respond to the needy as y
ou would to the king. 


May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
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