I was visiting one of my favorites sites (www.theooze.com) and found this article. I love when humor makes a serious point.
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THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS: Revised Version
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by Heather Wax
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“Then the sheep will say to Him, “But Lord, when were you naked, and we clothed you, or hungry, and we fed you, or sick or in prison, and we visited you?”
Jesus will reply to them, “For as much as you have done this to the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto Me.”
Then the sheep did a very interesting thing, and replied, “Lord, I remember this story. In the original version, I’m supposed to be all naive as if I never got to read this story, and not know that when I do things for the least of my brethren, I’m doing it to you. So, seriously Lord, for my entire life I’ve sorta been on the lookout for, you know, the “least of these” to um, feed, clothe, and visit and stuff, because I sorta got tipped off when your disciples wrote this stuff down in the Bible and all. But, I gotta admit, I’m still sorta confused.”
Jesus nodded. “Go on.”
“Well, the reality is, no matter how far I looked, I never really found the least of these to clothe, feed, and visit. I mean, I tried to, I really did, but it just didn’t work out.”
Jesus nodded again. “But you did find them.”
The sheep replied, “No, I seriously didn’t Lord. I mean, I thought I was helping one of the least when I picked up that homeless guy, but, he ended up being a pretty cool guy and turned into one of my best friends. He actually was a prophet – remember how he helped me get right with You about that one issue in my life? He’s not one of the least – He’s….Well, he’s just Ed. My friend. My best friend Ed.”
Jesus just went, “Hmmm.”
“And Lord,” the sheep continued,” I gave some clothes to that family, but they weren’t the least either… they were soo cool to be around. I mean, they definitely took some getting used to…but I think that was more me than them. I learned a lot about my messed up ways of viewing people by dealing with the fact that I didn’t want to hang out with them at first. And now once again, I have to say – they sure ain’t the least. They’re my friends…”
Jesus smiled. “And the orphan you took in?”
The sheep replied, “Lord, please! She’s my daughter! We don’t call her an orphan! I mean, you gave her to me – you of all people..I mean…oh whatever… You should know that she’s not “the least!” In fact, I think she’s probably the most important person in my view in the whole world! She’s my baby!
And Jesus smiled again. “Never mind. Forget the “least” stuff. How bout you just sit by my side with all your friends and family here and help me out with these goats here?”
The sheep said ok… still a bit confused. But, ready to change subject to the goats.
So Jesus told the goats – “You didn’t feed, cloth, or visit the least, and therefore you didn’t do it to me.”
The goats objected, of course. After all, they had read the story too, and not only did they know the fate which awaited goats, and earnestly didn’t want it to be them…but they also knew the drill, and had acted somewhat proactively to deal with that. “Lord, we read this story and we went looking for you – We fed a bunch of hungry people, clothed some naked people, and visited some sick and imprisoned people. We got our bases covered. See? “International Ministry to the Least” – that was our 501c3. We had it covered. We had YOU covered, Lord.. We even had ourselves covered…prayer covering, board or elders covering, etc etc. There seriously is a mistake here. Are you sure you don’t want to check again? (Meanwhile, the goats called their prayer network up to start praying about their situation. They were promised it was covered.)
Jesus asked one of the sheep to step forward. “Goat, do you recognize this sheep? She was in your small group.”
The goat nodded. “Yeah, I remember her Lord, but, she wasn’t the least. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I never thought she amounted to very much – but, you know, she wasn’t hungry, sick, in prison, or naked or anything. She was just sorta annoying. “
Jesus asked, “Did you treat her like a friend?”
The goat answered, “Lord, you gave me friends. And besides, I was pretty busy with the ministry to the least. And this sheep here..sheesh… I didn’t even click with this person. You don’t want me to be friends with every person in my church, did you?”
Jesus answered, “In as much as you were not a brother to your sister, you were not a friend to me either. However, since this is the revised story, and I’m just a caricature of the real Jesus, I’m not going to sentence you to fire or anything. But I am going to sentence you to think long and hard about the heart of both sheep and goats – when you lay in bed at night, when you’re in the shower,and driving to work…and ask you to read the real story over again. That way, when you meet the real Jesus, you’ll hopefully be a little more ready. Watch and pray.”
Many of us (Christians) understand the story found in Matthew 25. We get that what we do to the “least” of these we do to him but Jesus never intended for us to view people as less-than. That no one is less than us but rather they might be on the margins/underbelly of society. People might have the least but they are not inferior. To believe that is to the miss the point of the parable. Something else we miss is that Jesus is speaking about how we treat everyone. Are we so wrapped up in ourselves that we miss the people God has put in our path. People who need us to listen/pray/help/be-friend/love/cherish/lift up/and most importantly…they need to see Jesus in their circumstances. Here is a video we watched Wednesday night (http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/index.php?ct=store.details&pid=V00498)
I believe this idea can help us connect word and deed at its deepest level. Jesus had friends. He said “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) So many friendships are based on things like beliefs/economics/likes/dislikes but what if we stopped building these kind of relationships and built them on this text. What if we built relationships on this principle that there is no greater love than to lay down ones life…that would be a mark of a real/true friend. What if we like Jesus saw all people as worthy of that kind of friendship. As we head into the celebration of Christmas let us be mindful of how we treat others and what we are willing to lay down our life for. Let us each day keep our eyes open to the people in our path and show each of them the love of God through the life/death/resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Merry Christmas
Nate
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