Trinity Last
Today we come to the Last Sunday of this Church Year. In the countdown to today, we have been hearing the past few weeks about Jesus’ return and the Final Judgment. We heard Jesus teaching about His Second Coming using parables—the wise and the foolish virgins and with the parable of the talents. But today’s Gospel is not a parable. It is Jesus describing the Judgment, comparing it to a shepherd dividing the sheep from the goats. Notice how Jesus begins today’s Gospel: When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Note: Jesus says When; there will be no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. And His coming will be a magnificent sight—He will be there in all of His divine glory and majesty. How different that will be than from when He came in all lowliness and humility, as a Baby born of the Virgin on that silent and holy night. Now the angels will not just be seen by a few shepherds but in their glory by all people. And then Jesus sits on His glorious throne—of judgment to judge all people, the living and the dead. And that judgment will be a great separation—the Christian from all those who rejected Jesus: Before Him will be gathered all the nations—notice: no one will be exempted—even the dead will be raised—, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. There is the great divide, the great separation. During His earthly ministry, Jesus said that a person is either for Him or against Him. And here, in the Judgment, it will be clear.
But then there is that statement from our Lord that really strikes a sour note particularly in the ears of Lutherans: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And why? I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. It seems that Jesus is saying that the Final Judgment is by works. And actually earlier Jesus had said, also talking about the Resurrection [Jn 5.28-29], The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. So what gives? Are we saved by our works? Is St. Paul wrong when he says [Eph 2.8,9; Rm 3.28] that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus apart from the works of the law?
The Final Judgment will be a judgment based on works because it is a public judgement. In it, Jesus will point to works—the good works of the Christian and the evil works of the non-Christian—showing to one and all that His judgment is right and just. And the works that Jesus points to? --Those are the works of faith. Yes, faith saves us. But faith is something invisible to the human eye. God can see it—we can’t. Faith cannot be seen; we can see only its evidence, the good works that come from it. So that’s why Jesus points to works in the Judgment.
Here is also something very comforting to note: with the Christian, Jesus doesn’t point to any bad works; He doesn’t weigh our works in the scale and if we have just slightly more good than bad we have done, then we get to go into heaven. Instead, notice, no sin/ no evil work of the Christian is ever even mentioned, only the good. What does that show? –It shows that all our sin/ evil works is all/ completely forgiven; it doesn’t even stand in the sight of God/ our Judge. Forgiven our sin, all that stands is the good that we do, the good flowing from that faith.
Remember, also, with the greatest joy and comfort Jesus’ beginning words: Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. We, dear Christian, are the Blessed. Our good and gracious God has prepared the kingdom of heaven for us. And He did it for us from the foundation of the world; that is even before we could do anything “good” to earn or merit it. He has prepared it for us and He gives it to us solely out of His grace and love. That’s why Jesus says: inherit the kingdom prepared for you. We don’t earn/ we don’t deserve heaven. Instead, we inherit it. So, far from this scene of Judgment Day and Jesus’ judging us on the basis of our works teaching a salvation by works/ that a person is saved by the good works he/she does, it actually teaches us our Lord’s pure grace and mercy toward us/ that heaven is for us a gift of God’s pure grace and mercy. Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So now, in faith in Him and in love of Him and strengthened and empowered by our Lord, we live a life of good works as we strive to do His will. And Jesus will point to those good works in the Judgment!
Our OT reading today—our text—fleshes out this theme of our Lord’s grace and mercy to us that on the Day of Judgment will culminate with: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. In our text, we find a very familiar theme/ image: Jesus our Good Shepherd!
For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. Our Lord’s pronouncement on Judgment Day: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, is not just some arbitrary, spur-of-the-moment decree. Instead, it is the result of a long working on His part; it flows from His love for us that goes back into eternity.
Why is it that that Jesus, our Good Shepherd, searched for us and sought us out? Because of that great love He has for us from all eternity and His mercy on us.
Look at that image. Why does our Good Shepherd search for us? Why does He have to search for us? It’s because we have gone astray. It’s because we have left Him. In fact, from the very first moment of life—we were conceived in sin—we were sinners who did not know God rightly and who did not love Him and did not strive to do His will. From the very get-go we were lost and straying, like the prophet Isaiah says [53.6]: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one to his own way. Left to ourselves and our devices, there’s no way that in the Judgment we’d hear the verdict: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. But what happened? Precisely so that we could inherit the kingdom, the Good Shepherd sought us out and found us and brought us into His sheepfold of the Church. It wasn’t going to happen from our end—but only from His end.
And look at the places where our Good Shepherd found us: and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. Clouds and darkness—places of misery; He rescued us from the oppression and misery of our sin and guilt and damnation. In great love He took charge, looked for us and rescued us. Our Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus, true God came from heaven and entered into this sin corrupted, contaminated world, becoming also true man so He could take all of our sins upon Himself to the cross and die for them to reconcile us sinners with the holy God. That’s how far He came and searched for us, what depths He went through to seek us out and find us and rescue us!
Perhaps now, you feel yourself as if in clouds and heavy darkness. Perhaps you still feel yourself lost in sin; you feel yourself away from God. Take heart—the Good Shepherd, full of tender-loving, care is searching for you: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. Hear His voice as He calls out to you in His holy word. Listen as He calls to you come to Him and cast your burden on Him. The Good Shepherd is near to find you and gather you so that He may say to you on the Last Day: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Not only does our Good Shepherd gather us but He feeds us spiritually with the best possible spiritual food filling all our soul’s hunger. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. This happens in a wonderful and glorious way in Jesus’ Church into which He seeks to gather all people. Jesus’ decree on Judgment Day is not random but it is a culmination of His saving work of us. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, sought us out not only for the sake of gathering us into His Church. But because He gathers us in His Church, there He can feed us the best possible food and heal us from all our sins and hurts. He finds us and brings us into His Church through Holy Baptism, where He washes away our sin, gives us His Holy Spirit and faith to receive all His gifts and blessings. Here in the Church, He heals us as He forgives us all our sins, giving us the holy absolution as we confess our sins. Here He gives us His holy word through which He strengthens our faith and is true food for our soul. His Holy Spirit is at work in the word making our faith in Him firm against all the lies and attacks of the devil and his allies; here He gives us great peace even as we are in the midst of all sorts of trials and sufferings. And in a very wonderful and mysterious way, Jesus Himself comes to us in the Holy Supper giving us His very body and blood with the bread and wine. Here He comes to us and unites with us and we with Him. Here He comes and gives us all of His gifts and blessings fully and freely. Here our sin is forgiven and we are readied for heaven.
Jesus says in our text: I myself will be the shepherd of My sheep, and I myself will make them lie down…I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak... In the holy word and Sacraments of the Church, Jesus feeds and strengthens our faith; He keeps us from error; He comforts us in temptations and sorrows; He protects us from the devil’s wiles and power; and heals us from all our hurts. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, seeks us out to heal us from our sin and hurts and give us what we truly need—forgiveness of sin, peace with God, eternal life and heaven. What great peace and contentment we have: I myself will be the shepherd of My sheep, and I myself will make them lie down. Here gathered into the Church, we lie down: we are safe under His protection. What great peace we have! Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is leading us and guarding us/ protecting us. We can feel safe under His guardian care because we know by faith that He is leading us to our heavenly home. With all the troubles and trials that come upon us, with the attacks on our faith, we know that as we remain close to our Good Shepherd, He is there protecting and leading us, working out all things for our spiritual good. Our great joy and comfort is the anticipation of hearing on the Last Day the voice of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, saying to us: Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. We know and see that this is all the result of God’s love and mercy toward us; that our salvation is all the result of His work for us. We know in faith that in that love and mercy He is leading us to a blessed eternal future with Him in the glories of heaven where as St. John reports [Rv. 7.16-17]: They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
What a great grace—we inherit the kingdom because the Good Shepherd searched for us, led us, protected us and brings us to our blessed heavenly goal where we will eternally be with Him. INJ