The Sheep and the Goats

There is a tendency among many to read the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25:31-46 with a reaction something like, “Yes, but.” This picture of the final judgment messes with our Protestant sensibilities. Are we not justified (declared right with God) on the basis of faith, not works? This picture of the judgment says nothing of faith. Jesus seems to judge people entirely on the basis of their works.

The works in question are 1) feeding the hungry, 2) giving drink to the thirsty, 3) inviting in the foreigner, 4) clothing those without clothing, and 5) visiting the sick and imprisoned (and presumably bringing them things they need). Our tendency to write off passages like this one highlights the fact that we are often selective in our reading of the Bible and that our cultural and political affiliations often overwrite our application of the principles of Scripture.

Don’t worry. This passage can be integrated with our belief that we are justified by faith. However, it is important for us to “sit with” this passage before simply dismissing it. This story tells us what God’s values are. It portrays these values as central to God’s sense of whether we truly have faith or not. They are not second-order values or optional ones.

Pastor Szmara highlights two features of this story that relate directly to the question of immigration. The first is, of course, the word xenos, often translated as “stranger.” However, the word does not refer merely to people you don’t know very well. It is a word for the immigrant, the foreigner in your midst. Jesus mirrors the Old Testament value of integrating the foreigner into your community.

A second feature of the passage that Pastor Szmara features is the fact that Jesus seems to separate the various ethnoi from one another (Matt. 25:32). That is to say, Jesus seems to judge the world by groups in this parable rather than by individual. The point that he is making is that God may hold us accountable not only for how we as individuals have treated the foreigner but for how we as collective peoples have treated them. 

If this interpretation is correct, then we are accountable for more than how we, as specific people, have treated others. It suggests that we bear some responsibility for how our groups have treated the foreigner.