Hope you had a happy Labor Day.  Our regular Monday writer, April Terry, took the day off and will be back with us next Monday.  I thought I’d share a quick fill-in thought with you in her absence.  

I spent a day with some friends and advisors on Saturday, and we began our time with a little prayer exercise called a “lectio divina”.  We spent some time together praying through Matthew 25:31-46.  It was a fantastic experience, but the thing I wanted to share was something I noticed in this passage for the first time during that exercise.  

The two groups (the sheep and the goats) had at least one thing in common.  They both seemed to not notice Jesus.  The repeated phrase, used by both groups, was, “Lord, when did we see you…?”  

Now, I don’t know how significant this is, really, but to me it was piercing.  The fact that neither group noticed Jesus was a stinging indictment on my own life and agenda.  I go through life pretty consumed with myself and my own agenda.  If I had to judge myself today and put myself in the goat or sheep category, well…let’s just say I’m feeling very goat-like.  

Anyway, the better news is that even though the sheep didn’t notice Jesus they were given credit for serving him anyway…as they served the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. (One of the participants in the day with me emailed us all about how The Message translation broadened his view of this passage.  Check it out.)  The goats saw those same people and did nothing.  That cost them everything.

This has been a particularly troublesome passage for me in recent years regarding what “counts” to God when it comes to who is “in” and who is “out”.  There is not a single word regarding anything we have been taught gets somebody in or out here.  It’s not even clear that the “sheep” are implicitly “Christians”, although they do refer to him as “Lord” here (I suspect in that moment EVERYONE will call him that).  

Nonetheless, the main thing that struck me on Saturday was how both groups simply missed Jesus.  They didn’t notice him all around them, in people who were hurting.  One group (the sheep) appears to have inadvertently served him, and the other (the goats) appears to have thought they were serving him but missed him altogether.  The consequence for missing him altogether were haunting to me on Saturday:  ”Depart from me…” (v.41). Those words made me weep.  Just the thought of ever hearing Jesus say them to me…

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.  Help me notice you today in people around me, but also to serve those in need even if I don’t.