Proper 29
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Matthew 25:31-46
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I.
Separation anxiety occurs in infants and toddlers as they mature. The symptoms include constant worrying that a parent will die or not return or that something bad will happen.
Most of us outgrow this by age three or so.
Or do we?
In my experience, the feeling that something bad is about to happen isn’t limited to just toddlers.
In fact, manipulating our anxious tendencies seems to be the business model driving algorithms that power our news feeds.
“If it bleeds, it leads,” is an old saying in journalism.
II.
Today’s reading from Matthew will provoke anxiety in anyone who takes it to heart.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”
The separation described here is the final differentiation of the human race into the saved and the damned, the sheep and the goats.
This is a vision of the final fulfillment of the Bible’s first prophecy, which is found in Genesis 3:15:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
Here, we read that God divides mankind in two. The whole Bible can be read as the story of the development of these two races of men: the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.
For a time, indeed for much of human history, these two races grow side-by-side. They develop together. They intermarry, often with disastrous results.1
Now, in today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells us how the final separation will occur.
It will be an ethical separation.
Both sides, sheep and goats, recognize and call Jesus, “Lord.” In Matthew 25, verses 37 and 44, they ask, “Lord, when did we….”
The decisive factor, that which determines whether they enter the kingdom or go away into eternal punishment, is whether they were doers of the Christ’s word, and not just listeners who pay lip-service.2
“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
“Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
III.
This past week I read an interesting article describing how imperial Romans became more stupid as the empire advanced and more intelligent as they became Christian and the empire gave way to Christendom.
According to the article, the Roman cognitive decline had three causes:
A decline in fertility and family formation among the upper classes
An increase in female hypergamy (marrying up)
An increase in the slave population, particularly foreign slaves3
On the other hand, early Christian Europe saw a reboot in cognitive abilities because the Christians did two things:
They favored monogamy, which limited the number of sexual partners a person had.
They brought peace, order, and stability to society, which allowed entrepreneurial individuals to flourish.4
If we are serious about “following the science” then we should follow that science into monogamy.
But we don’t need the DNA analysis to tell us that. We have the word of God. In Genesis 2:24 we read:
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
It’s no accident that Jesus gathers the nations before His judgment seat.
The nations that become doers of the word will find themselves standing on the right side of the throne.
The nations that ignore, pervert, or twist the word of God will find themselves standing on the left.
IV.
The righteous ask Jesus a question.
They ask:
“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?”
There is humility in this question, if not genuine ignorance.
Elsewhere, Jesus has told His followers:
“So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”5
It is the Christian’s duty to perform the corporal works of mercy, to feed, give drink, clothe, welcome, visit, and do it all without being asked to.
The reward is peace and prosperity, as the later Romans discovered.
In the same way, Jesus, seeing our need, humbles Himself to serve us and to meet us in our hunger, thirst, despair, sickness, nakedness, and loneliness.
The nations that imitate Christ in His humility will find that they make the cut. They will be counted among the sheep. They need never be anxious about separation again.
V.
Ezekiel writes in today’s reading:
“For thus saith the Lord God: I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.”
Rome succumbed to fatness and brutality.
America is on a similar path today.
We can expect God to “feed” us with His judgment. It won’t be pleasant.
But we also know that God actively seeks us, we who are lost.
He drives us away only to bring us back. He breaks us so that He may bind us up. He makes us sick on the filth of our sins, only to restore us to strength.
The nations have not yet been gathered before the throne of Christ the King.
We live in the time between the two advents of Christ. There is still time. Let us not waste it. Amen.
See James 1:22.
Aporia. n.d. “How Christianity Reversed the Roman Demographic Decline & Restarted Cognitive Evolution.” www.aporiamagazine.com. Accessed November 23, 2023. https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/how-christianity-reversed-the-roman.
Ibid.
See: Luke 17:7-10.
Separation Anxiety