"Learning to See" - Matthew 25:31-46
A Sermon by Alex Evans, Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Matthew 25:31-46
“Learning to See”
There is a certain exercise – a test – that challenges your ability to concentrate. It is quite interesting. This comes in a video. In the video, there are people with white shirts and people with dark shirts. The white-shirt people throw a ball to other white- shirt people and the dark-shirt people throw a ball to other dark-shirt people. To test your ability to concentrate, your job is to pick one of the shirts – white or dark - and count the number of times that that team throws to a member of their team.
The instructions in this test say “Ignore everything else. Just focus on that.” So, the concentration test unfolds. You watch people run around and throw a ball. You count. “Seven, eight, nine, twelve, fourteen, seventeen, twenty-one. Twenty- one!”
At the end of the video, you answer the questions – if you followed the white shirts, how many times did they pass the ball? And if you followed the dark shirts, same question - “sixteen, seventeen, nineteen,” and there is a right answer – but it moves along fast.
And then – after you guess the number of throws to test your concentration – there is this question: “Did you see the gorilla?”
Most people – so focused on the assignment of counting the times the ball is thrown – say “what? . . . A gorilla?”
Yes – that is a real question – a gorilla amidst this busy game of white shirts and dark shirts throwing a ball. So, you go back and watch the video again – and sure enough - halfway through, a guy in a gorilla suit walks across the stage between all the people throwing their balls . . . and then walks off the stage.
You think it is a different video. Who could miss that – a gorilla!?! But almost everyone misses it in this concentration test.
And what we learn from this test is this – what we focus on determines what we see. What we are looking for often blinds us to everything else that might be happening. What we see are usually the things we expect to see.
It’s a great gift to be able to focus, to concentrate - but it has a flip side. The very act of focusing, like a camera, you focus on the foreground, the background becomes blurry. You focus on the background, the closer images become blurry, maybe even disappear.
What we focus on usually determines what we see.
We can look at a mountain; we can see hardwoods and changing leaves. We can see a great place to take a hike, enjoy nature. Someone else pulls up to that same mountain, and he thinks that he could make a million dollars mining coal. What we focus on determines what we see. (B McLaren, “Learning How to See,” episode 5, podcast)
That story comes from a really great podcast – “Learning How to See” – that features three great writers and faith-filled speakers – Brian McLaren, Richard Rohr, and Jacquie Lewis. Their dynamic conversations and insights delve deeply into this important subject. What we actually see, how we see, is so often colored, affected, filtered by so many variables, biases, perceptions, limitations.
Jesus cares very much about how we see – what we see. Listen to Matthew 25 – and remember, we seek to be a Matthew 25 church!
31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, 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 sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40And the king will answer them, ‘Truly 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.’ 41Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’45Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Did you catch the wording there – “Lord, when was it that we SAW you hungry, or thirsty. . when was it that we SAW you as a stranger or naked, . . SAW you sick or in prison?”
Jesus cares so much about what we see. And what we see is often so affected by what we want to see, what we might be looking for, what we focus on. Jesus is always trying to help us see better – see God’s plans, God’s ways, God’s purposes. In fact, Jesus wants us to learn how to see so we can work with God on healing the fractures of the world. Jesus wants us to learn how to see so we can be God’s agents – moving our lives, moving the world, closer to what God intends.
Remember, way back in the early pages of the Bible, especially in Deuteronomy, God promises “I will be your God.” The corresponding part of the covenant is that we seek to be God’s “treasured people.” To be “treasured” does not mean we just bask in God’s goodness and care. “Treasured” does not mean we are just saved by God’s abiding grace and love. “Treasured” means we are to worship and live, to love and serve in a way that moves us and the world toward a new reality in sync with God. “Choose” is a favorite word in Deuteronomy. We have to choose – to live in sync with God always.
Through all of Jesus’ teachings, we learn what living in sync with God looks like: we are salt and light, we love and forgive, we share what we have, we spread peace and hope, justice and joy in the world. And as we learn in Matthew 25 – we are, for sure, called to focus – SEE - on a certain segment of society – the poor and the lame, the hungry and the naked, the stranger and the prisoner. We are here to make a difference – not just assume we are God’s treasured people. We are here to mend the fractures of the world, a day at a time, an act at a time, for as long as it takes to make the world a place of justice and compassion where the lonely are not alone, the poor are not without help, where the cry of the vulnerable is heeded. This is what we do as God’s treasured people – learn to see and help the needy and hurting; learn to see and care for the outcast and stranger; learn to see and serve in ways that heal the fractured world.
As one mystic put it – because this is God’s world and we are God’s people, “someone else’s physical needs are my spiritual obligation.” I love that. The choice is never between faith and works. It is always our works that faithfully express who we are and what we believe. It is putting “Christ” back into what it means to be Christian. Jesus is trying – in story after story – and especially in Matthew 25 – to help us learn to see – works and faith are never separate. We are always learning to see in ways that change us – change everything about us.
In writing about this great passage – Matthew 25 – Tom Long writes that all through Matthew, Jesus has been the great teacher, and this last parable is Jesus’ “final teaching, . . . the parting lesson, the cumulative moment in his teaching ministry.” This passage starts out “When the Son of Man comes in his glory.” This is the same Jesus who – at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel - was born to Joseph and Mary surrounded by great suspicion and anxiety. This is the same Jesus who as a baby had to flee for his life from Herod. This is the same Jesus who “had nowhere to lay his head” and is now he now seated on the royal throne as King. He was rejected by people in his own hometown, and now “all the nations are gathered around him.” By Matthew 25, we have come a long way with Jesus, and this is his final teaching, parting words about judging everyone – separating the sheep and the goats.
The Son of Man pronounces judgment and separates the sheep and goats. For the sheep, the news is good. They are given divine blessing and are revealed as the true heirs of the Kingdom of heaven because they provided food, drink, hospitality, clothing and care for the Son of Man. As for the goats, they are condemned, cast into the darkness, because they supplied none of those ministries, even though the Son of Man was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, sick, naked, and in prison.
But this is not just a morality tale – do good and you receive life. Do not do good, and you are cast aside. That is a familiar religious parable found in lots of places. The interesting and powerful point here is this – neither the sheep – in helping and loving and serving SAW Jesus in the midst – nor the goats, in their indifference, had any clue that they were rejecting – not seeing – the Lord. Both groups ask – “Lord, when was it that we SAW you hungry, or naked, or in need?”
And the answer – as we all know – whenever they acted compassionately and with great care – or did not act that way – they did so to Jesus Christ. (see T. Long, Matthew, p. 284) We all assume – we hope to be sheep – but the real issue is singular – it is all about our compassion and care. Seeing – and living with compassion and care.
Jesus is everywhere present in the world. We are to act with compassion and care always because Jesus is everywhere present.
There is an old proverb that says this: There are 10 strong things in the world. Rock is strong but iron breaks it. Iron is strong but fire melts it. Fire is strong but water extinguishes it. Water is strong but the clouds carry it. The clouds are strong, but the wind drives them. The wind is strong, but humans withstand it. Humans are strong but fear weakens us. Fear is strong, but wine removes it. Wine is strong, but sleep overcomes it. Sleep is strong, but death stands over it. What is stronger than death? Acts of genuine compassion, love and care for others, especially the least, the less fortunate – that is stronger than death. (See J. Sacks, To Heal A Fractured World, p. 41)
When human beings choose to act with justice and generosity and kindness, then learning and love and decency prevail. Friends, in these very challenging days, Jesus keeps trying to help us learn how to see – see how to live, and love, and serve as God’s treasured people. AMEN
Prayer of Commitment: Holy God, fill our hearts with your Spirit, shape us in the ways of courage and commitment, and give us eyes to see – in sync with your grand promises for us and for the world, following Jesus. Amen
Alex W. Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon for Sunday morning worship on November 22, 2020. This is a rough manuscript.