When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

Matthew 25:31

What would you consider to be the most important day in the history of the world? For Christians, we might say the day that Jesus was born. Or the day that he died, or the day he rose again. Those who do not share our faith might name something like the end of one of the World Wars, or the invention of the printing press, or any number of other events that have shaped our world. 

But today’s gospel reading (Matthew 25:31-46) reminds us that the most important day in the history of the world might just be one that has not yet come. And that is the day that the Son of Man returns to judge the living and the dead. The day when the Son of Man will come in his glory, and all the angels with him. When he will sit on the throne of his glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him.

What a day that will be. It may happen today. Or it may not even happen in our lifetime. But it will happen. That is what Jesus promised.  And even if we die before it does happen, we will not miss it. Because Jesus promises to raise the all dead on that day, and gather everyone who has ever lived before the throne of his glory. 

It will be arguably the greatest day in the history of our world. But today’s gospel reading reminds us that it will also be a disturbing day. For there will be a separation that day: The sheep from the goats; The righteous from the unrighteous. On that day, Jesus tells us, the righteous will inherit the kingdom that has prepared for them; and the unrighteous will depart into the eternal fire prepared by the devil and his angels.

So what do we make of all this? What do we make of the fact that on this great day we will all be judged? We believe that we will. We confess it each Sunday when we say that Jesus “will come again to judge the living and the dead.” But what do we mean by this? I want to think about this with you today, as we celebrate Christ the King Sunday and think about the day that Jesus will come again in his glory. And to start out, I want to lift up two common mistakes that I believe we sometimes make when we think about these things.

Dismissing Judgment

First, we can be tempted to simply dismiss it. We might decide that judgment is an old-fashioned, outdated concept. And so we simply dismiss it. Surveys in our country suggest that nearly all Christians believe in Heaven, but far fewer believe in Hell. And yet, there are all these repeated references in Scripture to Hell, many from Jesus himself. If our Lord’s words are to be trusted, Hell is very real. And judgment is real. We can hope that Hell is empty, as one great theologian put it, but we cannot say that it doesn’t exist. Just as we cannot say that there will not be a final judgment. Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. The Bible is clear about this. Whether we want to believe it or not, Jesus is coming again to judge us. So dismissing this reading is not an option for Christians. 

Considering Judgment to Be a Test Which We Can Pass

But there is another mistake made in interpreting this reading. And that is to read it and conclude that life is some sort of test that we must pass. This is something I mentioned last Sunday, too, but it’s important to remember, because it is a very obvious way to misinterpret this reading. To read it and think that since Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, we had better be ready for the big test. We’d better get busy feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and visiting the lonely. We’d better do everything that Jesus taught. Because he is coming to judge us. So, if we have done what he taught, we can look forward to the reward of heaven. And if we haven’t done what he taught, we will receive the punishment of Hell. 

We had better hope this is a misreading of this passage, but if that is the case, we have to ask ourselves: who will be rewarded? When we look around our world, there are a lot of hungry people; people literally dying of hunger every day. Surely, our Lord will be disappointed in all of us when he returns; to see so many with more than enough, and so many others with hardly anything. Surely, it’s a mistake for any of us to think that we have done enough to earn a reward from our Lord for all of our good works. In fact, Scripture tells us that it’s a mistake for any of us to think that we are even righteous by our own merit. St. Paul is very clear about this, in his Letter to the Romans: 

“There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness; there is not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12)

To those who think that life is a test, it is clear from St. Paul that it is a test that we all have failed. No one is righteous, not even one. So what, then? If none are righteous, who will be saved? And how will we be saved? We know how, of course. It is Jesus himself who saves us. That’s how he got the name, Savior, right?!

The Cross

To see this in a different way, I want to remind you of the words that directly follow today’s Gospel reading. It is easy to misinterpret this reading if we forget to read these next words. Remember, this reading ends with Jesus saying the unrighteous “will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” But listen to the very next words: 

“When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’” (Matthew 26:1-2)

You see? Before the Son of Man returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, he will first be crucified. Why? For you, and for me, and for all who are unrighteous. He came to save us, to take our sins to the cross. Before he judges us, he dies for us. Before he comes in glory, he dies in shame. This reading today does not simply mean that we must do good works in order to be saved. It can’t. Because if it does, then the cross is pointless. Or to quote St. Paul again, “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing” (Galatians 2:21). If we can save ourselves by our good works, then we don’t need a Savior. But because Christ died for us, we do have a Savior. The very same one who will judge us is also the one who has saved us. 

And so, we who trust in this Savior need not fear Judgment Day. We will stand before Jesus that day to be judged; but we will be able to stand before him with confidence, knowing that he died for our sins. We who cling to the cross in faith can look forward to the last day of history. It will truly be a wondrous day!

We do not dismiss the Final Judgment as Lutheran Christians. Nor do we think that by ourselves we can pass the test and earn eternal life. But instead we cling in faith to the life-giving cross on which was hung our salvation.

What About the Hungry?

Now, there’s still a question here, isn’t there, about the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, and the imprisoned. And it is clear from this reading that we as Christians are called to care for them. But did you notice in this account of the Final Judgment that the righteous were not even aware that they were doing these things? They ask Jesus, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?” They weren’t aware of doing it. It was done naturally, spontaneously, without any thought or expectation of reward. 

You see, the righteous know that anything they do is simply a very small response to the one who has done so much for them. Our Lord died for us to take away our sins. Surely, we wouldn’t think that feeding someone who is hungry would earn us a reward? The truth is that anything and everything we do is but a small, humble response to the overwhelming gift of God’s mercy given to us through the cross of Jesus Christ. We do all these things, and more, not to nullify the grace of God, not to earn our salvation, and certainly not to earn some kind of heavenly reward. We do it simply because God wants us to.

Listen to these words from Lutheran Scholar Richard Jensen: 

We are called to do lots of good works. 

We are also called not to keep score. When we keep score of our deeds we want to credit our love of neighbor to our heavenly bank account. Loving our neighbor is not the problem. Keeping score of our good deeds of neighbor-love is the problem. 

The truly righteous don’t keep score. Their left hand doesn’t know what their right hand is doing. Such as these will stand before the Sovereign one day clothed in Christ’s righteousness alone.

Closing – “Come, Dear, Last Day”

It will be a grand day. The day when we stand before the King of kings and Lord of lords, clothed in his righteousness alone. The greatest day in world history. It is a day for us to look forward to. That’s why the early church would often pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!” And that’s why Martin Luther would often repeat a simple prayer: “Come, dear, last day.” And that is why we will pray next week, as we begin a new church year together, “Stir up your power, O Lord, and come.” Yes, Lord. Stir up your power and come – to judge us and to save us. Amen.