Today's Meditation - Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Today's Meditation

Read Matthew 25:31-46

³¹“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. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴Then 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; ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ ⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ ⁴⁵Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

     During college I was very involved in my home PC(USA) church as well as several on-campus parachurch groups, which are Christian faith-based organizations that are not overseen by any particular denomination.  Those parachurch groups tended to be evangelical in nature and emphasized something called "the believers prayer".  It was a prayer that you could say, asking forgiveness for your sins, and wanting Jesus to come into your life as Lord and Savior.

     Because I had both a mainline denomination upbringing and a solid learning in the evangelical side of theology, I have had difficulty justifying the two very different views from scripture, when it comes to salvation.  One side tends to emphasize that our salvation comes by faith alone.  Ephesians 2:8,9 says, "For by grace you have been saved by faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast." The other side tends to emphasize that it is by our works that we are saved.  Our scripture reading for today would certainly suggest this.  Jesus tells of the Judgment of the Nations in this passage from Matthew in which he separates us into two groups - one group who basically cared for others and the other group who did not.  Only the group that treated others, especially the "least of these" as if they were Christ would enter into eternal life.  Those who did not do the "works" of Christianity were thrown into eternal punishment.

      As you can see both views are represented in scripture.  So, which is it; do we enter into eternal life through grace by faith, or do we enter eternal life through grace by works?  I don't believe it is an either/or issue, but rather a both/and issue.  I believe that we are given opportunities to see the need for God in our lives, to ask God for forgiveness, and to come under the gift of God's immense grace and to accept it.  But, we are ALSO given opportunities to see the Christ in others, to see the Christ in the "least of these" and to behave accordingly.  And that behavior is repeated over and over again by Christ himself throughout the gospels both by example and in his teachings.

The Least of These