{"id":4197,"date":"2018-02-13T10:06:09","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T16:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/?p=4197"},"modified":"2018-02-11T19:09:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T01:09:01","slug":"matthew25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/matthew25\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Like Matthew 25"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

37<\/sup>Then the righteous will answer him, \u201cLord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38<\/sup>And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39<\/sup>And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?\u201d 40<\/sup>And the king will answer them, \u201cTruly 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.\u201d (Matthew 25:37-40)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is probably going to sound odd coming from someone who works for an anti-hunger ministry, but I cringe nearly every time someone cites Matthew 25. It\u2019s impossible to avoid, much as I try. It isn\u2019t that I have anything against the author of the Gospel (though, really, isn\u2019t Mark more exciting?) But the chapter is cited uncritically so often that it becomes tedious, like the cloying relative who corners you at every holiday, leaving you searching for distractions anywhere and everywhere. Yet, in the last month, I have heard not one but two presenters draw on this troublesome chapter and, through their words, force me to re-think my distaste for it.<\/p>\n

Some of the problems with the passage are intrinsic to the words themselves. \u201cThe least of these\u201d? Really? We should feed people who hunger, clothe people who are naked, give drink to those who thirst and fellowship to those ill or imprisoned because they are \u201cthe least\u201d? The \u201cleast\u201d what? The least deserving? The least important? The least powerful? No one in their right mind wants to be considered \u201cthe least of these.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, there\u2019s the whole problem of whom Jesus is talking about. Most often, modern uses of Matthew 25 seem to imply that \u201cthe least of these\u201d includes anyone in need (or, anyone who might be considered \u201cleast\u201d by any measurable standard, however idiosyncratic it might be.) But there are some reasons to believe that Jesus didn\u2019t mean \u201canyone in need\u201d here. Many biblical scholars point out similarities between Matthew 25 and Matthew 10, noting that Jesus may be referring here to how people are to treat his disciples. So, this passage might have more to do with how we are to treat followers of Jesus than it is about how we are to treat neighbors who are hungry, thirsty, naked or imprisoned. (Or, it might not. That’s how biblical interpretation rolls.)<\/p>\n

Still, even these are not the things that trouble me the most when I hear Matthew 25, especially among Lutherans. The biggest problem I have is how quickly we turn from the gospel message of grace back to the law. Matthew 25 is too often set up as a legalistic charter for determining who gets saved and who doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The passage itself seems to set this up \u2013 you\u2019re either a sheep or a goat. And as the old children\u2019s song goes, \u201cI don\u2019t wanna be a goat \u2013 nope\u2026I just wanna be a sheep \u2013 baa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Matthew 25, a visual interpretation<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The goats are destined for afterlife apart from God, while the sheep will enjoy eternal fellowship with the Savior and Creator. Which side we\u2019re on will be determined, it seems, by how or whether we do the stuff Matthew\u2019s Jesus tells us to. How quickly we slide from saying that the Christ event reveals God\u2019s grace to us, who have been convicted by the Law and freed by gift, to saying that there still exists a litmus test of obedience that determines our salvation.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t get to have it both ways. We don\u2019t get to say we are saved by grace and then say that if we don\u2019t act in a certain way, we won\u2019t be saved. It doesn\u2019t work like that.<\/p>\n

But does that mean that none of the works listed in Matthew 25 matter? Of course not. Jesus is clear that as we encounter the neighbor in need, we are encountering the Christ. There is something here about how we see the face of God, how we serve God, how we participate in God\u2019s being in the world. And that\u2019s worth paying attention to, though maybe not in the ways we have paid attention to it in the past.<\/p>\n

Being saved by grace, as Martin Luther made clear, doesn\u2019t free us from works but from false ideas about works, namely the false idea that works can save us. Too often, we lose sight of this when it comes to Matthew 25, and we start tossing it around as a new law. But it isn\u2019t a new law or to-do list for the anti-goat crowd. Matthew 25 is not a Carnegie seminar for getting into Heaven. It\u2019s a treasure map for finding God. <\/strong>If we are to stay true to the message of the gospel, indeed, the message of all of Scripture, the key is that God is to be found in places of need and among people in need. Maybe \u201cleast\u201d here means \u201cleast expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

“Well, I’ll be! God’s right there in that neighbor.”<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Grace impels us to seek God in our midst. St. Augustine characterized love as the pursuit of the object of our love. We pursue what we love. The beloved draws the lover to it. Love of God means being drawn to God \u2013 and to all that God loves. We moderns then ask the question, \u201cHow can we love what we cannot see?\u201d Matthew\u2019s answer is rather straightforward: you can see God! You see God every time you see your neighbor, especially when you see your neighbor in need. In a strange parallel to the preteen Jesus, I imagine the resurrected Christ saying in exasperation, \u201cDidn\u2019t you know I would be out on my Father\u2019s streets?\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Where else would we find the crucified God than among the \u201ccrucified people”?<\/p>\n

Seen this way, the passage makes much more sense to me. It stops being about whether we\u2019re sheep or goats, or whether we\u2019re \u201cleast\u201d or \u201cmore.\u201d Those kinds of hierarchies make it difficult to envision ministry as mutual. It also makes it difficult to encourage authentic service of our neighbors that goes beyond begrudging obedience. But if we start with grace and then do our interpretation, there is so much more to be gained. (Ain\u2019t that always the truth?) Grace changes our service from begrudging acceptance of a task to joyful embrace of a mission. It transforms the neighbor, too \u2013 from a tool for our own salvation to a complex reflection of Emmanuel (literally, \u201cGod with us.\u201d)<\/p>\n

If we read Matthew\u2019s chapter through a lens of grace and allow it to shape ministry in such a way that we see our neighbors as visible manifestations of the living God, maybe there\u2019s hope for this passage yet. And maybe there\u2019s hope for us, as we learn ever-deeper ways to live out our faith in an increasingly needy world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is the (often ornery) program director of hunger education for ELCA World Hunger. He can be reached at Ryan.Cumming@ELCA.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  37Then the righteous will answer him, \u201cLord, 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":4201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,58,17587,751,76],"class_list":["post-4197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-post","tag-elca-world-hunger","tag-hunger","tag-matthew-25","tag-ministry","tag-poverty"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow I Learned to Stop Worrying and Like Matthew 25 - ELCA World Hunger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the most ubiquitous passages about hunger is also one of the most troubling. 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