The Sheep And The Goats
April 28, 2008 by Jonathan Brink
There are some things about being a follower of Jesus that are really hard to deal with. They don’t provide easy answers, even when we want them to be easy. The following passage below of “The Sheep and The Goats” is one of those. This is the one people typically point to in regards to hell.
Honestly I’ve avoided this post for a long time. Why I’m writing it today is a mystery to me. Maybe it’s the hard week I’ve had. Maybe its the reflective music I’m listening to. Maybe its the quiet corner in Starbucks on my personal day.
It’s obvious which side we want to be on. We want to be the sheep. We want to be ushered in wondering what we possibly did that God would accept us.
One of the things that strikes me about this passage is that Jesus doesn’t use typical terms. He uses the metaphor of the sheep and the goats. In some respects this seems like an invitation to try and figure it out, only to find out this is the trick. Those who keep trying are the ones tricked. We like to control don’t we?
The second thing that strikes me about this passage is that it says NOTHING about belief. It’s not wrapped in a pretty little disposable package that we can endlessly design, manufacture and sell. The goats haven’t said the wrong thing in their sinner’s prayer, or even avoided it all together. There’s no long diatribe of incorrect theology or even heresy. There’s no Buddhist, or Universalist, or even a token homosexual for good measure. Jesus refuses to make it easy for us.
Their sin? They forgot to engage love.
It’s likely that we all get this passage wrong. And we don’t like that do we? We don’t like it when we can’t figure out the complete measure of God, as if we really could. But do we really want the mystery of God to cease? Do we really want him to fit into our box?
All He gives us is Jesus, who says “Come follow me.”
And this is the journey of faith. To let go of the judgment process and to trust that we will be the sheep. It’s hard putting our future into the hands of God, as though it weren’t there in the first place. And the only way he’s given us a clue as to which side we are on is to love.
Listening: The Cure For Pain by Jon Foreman
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31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Interesting day to post this… my blog has the daily Bible verse thingamajig on it and today’s is Proverbs 21:27,
“The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable- how much more so when brought with evil intent!”
When I read it, I chewed on it… am still chewing on it as a matter of fact. If we blend the points of this passage with the one you quoted… whaddaya think? (I’m hoping you’ll chew on this one with me)
My first thought is that I don’t know what you want me to chew on.
The points of both of the passages.
As far as I can tell, the Bible doesn’t contradict itself. So what are both of these passages saying and what are we to take from both ideas?
Sorry if I’m being unclear.
Proverbs 21:3 To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
The lament David talks about is within a burdensome religious world. God isn’t looking for our sacrifices. He’s looking for our participation in our restoration.
I think sacrifice smacks of religion. When we sacrifice so God loves us, it’s religion. When we accept God’s love unconditionally, sacrifice becomes something entirely different: the reflection of His love.
The distinction of sacrifice is taken care of in Jesus. It was to remove people from religion and bring them into a relationship not based on performance.
I agree, religion is all about works and lacks relationship with God that we are now allowed to have through Jesus Christ.
But then how is works/religion separated from feeding, clothing, having hospitality, and visiting prisoners in jail?
It has to do with intention. Works doesn’t save us, as in earning God’s love through something we do. That’s religion. That’s what Cain started. God’s not interested in simply getting us to heaven. He’s interested in us living within His kingdom here and now and participating in our restoration.
Love restores us. Love is the natural expression of a released Holy Spirit in our lives. It’s an expression of surrender. It’s the proof of God in our lives.
We are designed to love. So when God calls us to love, it’s not to earn His love. It’s His desire to realize what we are designed for. It’s to help us understand that we can’t on our own, that we were never meant to be separated from relationship with Him. The call to love helps us understand our brokenness because we can’t love on our own.
And this awareness invites us to surrender and trust, to engage what God is already doing. It allows the Holy Spirit to move within our lives. And the natural outcome of that is the fruit of the Spirit, which is love.
Matt 7:16 - By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
God’s not the one broken. We are. And much of the mission of God is to get us to realize our own brokenness and seek restoration. Much of the tension in the Gospel is our unwillingness to engage God’s restoration for our lives.
So I’ve answered your questions. Now tell me what your chewing on.
(I’m smiling)
Well, the verse that I came across this morning kinda churned my stomach… ‘The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable…’
The passage that you quoted, I’ve always seen as intentional living - as in, when we do things we ought to do them as if we were doing them for Jesus Himself.
I think that the two passages are surprisingly parallel.
If we do things of our own volition, regardless of how altruistic it is, then we’re told it’s detestable to God. If we do things with the intention of serving God, then we’re told will be ‘blessed by the Father’ and recognized as sheep.
I LOVE that you said that the natural outcome of the Holy Spirit is love… Not something that we have to force, something that just seeps out of us because GOD IS WITHIN. Amazing, isn’t it? We spend all of this time in classes and reading books and the simple truth is that ‘it’ will all happen, without intention, as proof of the Holy Spirit within us. Crazy.
Maybe it’s just easier for us to try and peg down an equation? Safer?
Jonathan, your post on this particular scripture brought to mind one of my favorite scriptures. Proverbs 25:2: It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
I have no real insight on the scripture passage you’ve quoted, but just wanted to comment that it seems in some scriptures, like this one, we can see God delights to have us search out a matter after He’s concealed it. Somehow this really delights me about God: A bit of hide-n-seek from Father to His child.
Tracy, I personally love that verse. As heirs to the throne, to search out what our Daddy has hidden delights him.
The problem is not when we’re right that conflict arises, but when we’re wrong. And I wonder how many of us have gotten it wrong.
“All He gives us is Jesus, who says ‘Come follow me.’ ”
That reminds me of a comment made years ago by a friend of mine when talking about atheism. It ran something like this:
“An atheist goes to the edge of existence and peers over the edge down into the abyss and says, ‘Is this all there is?’
After a moment, the abyss answers, ‘You want more? You can’t handle what you’ve got.’”
Ray, that is honestly one of the coolest quotes I’ve heard in a long time.
The interesting idea is that the goal of our lives isn’t to be counted as a sheep at this event. If that were it, we have missed the point. The sheep are the sheep not because they went out and cared for others thinking “This is good, I’m doing this to Jesus, this is really good, I’m being a good sheep.” The sheep in the story were clueless that what they were doing was for the Lord. Their motivation to serve and love others came from their experience of and relationship with God. They knew God, and out of that flowed this heart of love for others. The goats, however, didn’t know God, because if they had their response would have been the same as the sheep…. I’m not sure I’m making any sense
Rebecca -
I think the goal of our lives is absolutely to be counted as a sheep. He is the Good Shepherd - who laid down His life for His sheep. His sheep know Him and hear His voice.
I believe there will be many people who thought they were sheep but aren’t (see Matt 7:23) - but I don’t see Biblical grounds for a bunch of surprised goats.
Interesting timing - I was at a Bible study this morning on faith and works and a couple of applicable verses came up - 1 Peter 2:12 says “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” Eph. 2:10 says we were created in Christ for the purpose of doing good works.
I think Titus 1:15,16 is telling as well “to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; both their minds and consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works…”
Personally, I don’t want a wishy-washy am I sheep or am I a goat sort of life. Jesus did not clearly state in THIS passage who’s a sheep and who’s a goat - but the Bible is full of clear Scripture on this, that does clarify. Scripture resounds with Scripture. I think this passage re-iterates what James says in chapter two - that faith and works go hand in hand. Don’t profess to be a sheep, but not feed and clothe the hungry. Don’t go about leading a foolish slefish life, when you can take care of Jesus’ brothers. Let your works so testify to your faith.
Maybe the “when did we see you…?” is more in line with the passage that speaks of ministering to angel’s unawares - or the sheep were contemplating the theophanies - perhaps they understood Jesus’ words to be literal - who doesn’t want to have come into physical contact with the King in their lifetime? But Jesus straightens them out - when you minister to His brothers (other believers) - His hands and feet - you are serving Him.