THE PARABLE OF THE SHEEP AND GOATS

When you read Matthew 25:31-46, it’s difficult not to scratch your head and wonder just a little about Jesus’ theology. Okay, now that you’ve reached chapter two, I think we’ve developed enough of a friendship for me to be more direct than that. When you read Matthew 25:31-46, it’s hard not to think that Jesus’ theology is terrible. Let me explain.

In this passage, Jesus tells a parable of a shepherd who separates sheep from goats. (These animals were often pastured together and would likely need to be separated for purposes such as breeding.) We can see how this connects to the way that believers (sheep) and unbelievers (goats) will be separated at the Last Judgment. The sheep will be placed on the right and the goats on the left. Simple enough.

But what’s fascinating is what Jesus said about how the sheep and goats will be separated. What sets them apart? Is it a profession of faith in Christ? Is it church attendance? Knowing all sixty-six books of the Bible? Quoting John 3:16? Eating at Chick-fil-A? None of that. According to Jesus, here is how the sheep will be identified:

Did Jesus really say believers will be recognized by whether they feed, clothe, and visit people? That doesn’t sound like the gospel, does it? It sounds more like works-based salvation or moralism. “Want to go to heaven? Give someone a sandwich!”

Notice that the sheep in the parable seem just as surprised. In the next three verses, they ask when they did these things, repeating the list verbatim. The king replies that when the sheep did these things to serve others, they were serving him.

It’s all turned around for the goats. When they hear that they did not feed, visit, or care for the king, they, too, ask when they saw him in such need. The king responds as he did for the sheep—when they didn’t do these things to serve the least of people, they didn’t serve him.

This list of feeding, clothing, and visiting stands out, doesn’t it? After all, we read it four times in these sixteen verses. It’s almost tedious to read. I think it’s supposed to be. Jesus wants this list to jump out at us and surprise us. He wants this unusual detail of the parable to be unforgettable.

We know the gospel is about the grace God gives to us. It’s about what Jesus has done in his sinless life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection, not what we do. Let’s be clear: people are not saved from eternal damnation by feeding others. Nor are they saved by clothing or visiting people. People are saved one way: by trusting in Christ. There is no other way. Jesus, of course, knows this, far better than we do. Jesus certainly isn’t a terrible theologian. So, what’s going on here?

To understand this parable, let’s get a running start by backing up to the beginning of Matthew 25. This chapter records a series of three parables: the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), and the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). In the first parable, Jesus describes ten women waiting for a delayed wedding to begin. Five prepared by bringing the oil they needed, but the other five didn’t. When the wedding finally begins, the five foolish women who had failed to prepare rush out to buy oil and miss the wedding.

Then, in the parable of the talents, Jesus tells of a master going out of town and entrusting three of his servants with some of his wealth. When the master returns and asks for his money back, the first two return him double what he had given them. They are recognized for their faithfulness. But the third servant gives the master only the money that had been entrusted to him. This servant isn’t praised for increasing his master’s wealth, of course. He didn’t. But he isn’t even thanked for preserving it. Instead, the master calls him evil and casts him into darkness.

What is it that connects these three parables and explains why Matthew grouped them here? Each parable is about the foolishness of failing to act. The women at the wedding should have brought enough oil to the wedding, but they didn’t. (Weddings in Jesus’ time could have lasted for days.) These women should have known that, planned accordingly, and acted properly. The servant, meanwhile, should have invested his master’s wealth, but he didn’t. He even admitted that he knew it was what the master expected. But instead of at least investing the money in a bank and drawing meager interest, he did absolutely nothing. Then, in the last parable, the goats should have fed, clothed, and visited people, but they didn’t. They saw people in need but didn’t act to meet those needs.

Jesus’ point in this triad of parables is this: If you are going to be one of his disciples, you need to act. You need to do something. It’s foolishness not to.

There’s one more thing we need to notice. Feeding, clothing, and visiting people didn’t make the sheep sheep. Doing these things identified the sheep as sheep. The sheep were already sheep, and the goats were already goats, at the beginning of the parable. Jesus didn’t imply that feeding, clothing, and visiting saves anyone. His point is that these actions reveal a true disciple, just as elsewhere he talked about how we can know a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). I’m not much of a botanist, but I can identify an apple tree if it has apples on it. Likewise, it shouldn’t be hard to identify followers of Jesus. His disciples will act like disciples. They have to; that’s at the core of what it means to be a disciple. The notion of one of his followers not following in his ways is foreign to Jesus. It should be to us too.

What we believe saves us. What we do identifies us.

THE GOAL OF DOING

If Jesus’ point in this parable is that, as believers, we will be recognized by our characteristic actions, then this is the best place for us to start finding our goal of family discipleship. Our goal should be to disciple our kids so that God recognizes them as sheep because they act like sheep. Or, put more simply, our goal is for our kids to live out their faith day by day. That’s what they’re here to do.

Now, I realize what I’m saying here might feel off to you. It might sound like I’m after behavior modification or moralism—the belief we can earn God’s acceptance by what we do. And that might make you cringe. I’m glad. We need to be discerning about moralism. But that’s not what I’m saying. Behavior modification and moralism are contrary to the gospel.

I’m all about gospel centrality. I...