I am happy to have another chance to interpret the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, because I am not sure I have really understood it in the past. The depth and complexity of it is clear from the first verse, in which the Son of Man coming to his throne, seems to refer to the final day of judgment. Probably that day of judgment is the secondary meaning, and the primary meaning of the Son coming to his throne, is Jesus coming to the cross. The hymn "Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne", captures that meaning, because Jesus is the sacrificial lamb, who sensed very early that his ministry would end with execution.

I think the parable can be best understood in the context of the whole Gospel, beginning with the Sermon on the Mount. St. Matthew presents the Sermon in the opening days of Jesus' ministry, in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of his Gospel. Whether it was all given on one occasion or on several, it clearly gives us the central teachings of Jesus. Remember how Jesus surprised his listeners by saying that God blesses the poor, the meek, those who mourn, the merciful, the peacemakers, those who hunger for righteousness, and those who are persecuted. This list is not intuitive! People who are poor generally do not feel blessed, nor do those who are persecuted. In fact this list is largely opposite to what we believe even today. We feel blessed when we are prosperous, strong, happy, successful, and aligned with the powers that be.

The rest of the Sermon on the Mount brings these Beatitudes into focus. Jesus was setting forth in words, the way of living he would demonstrate in his life: "Do not resist an evildoer" he said, "go the second mile . . . love your enemies . . . be reconciled before you offer your gift at the altar . . . forgive others their prespasses . . . do not judge . . . do to others as you would have them do to you." Sooner or later, the person who lives this way, will be taken advantage of, will be perceived as meek, and may be persecuted, as Jesus was. This is the narrow gate and the hard road that leads to life (7:13), and it only feels like good news if you have already identified yourself as a sinner, or poor or persecuted when you hear it.

The reason for this teaching, I believe, is God's opposition to the hurt, betrayal and violence that always accompanies the human use of power. Whether it be the power of a king, an army, a goverment official, a religious leader, a business owner, the head of a family, or even the chair of a committee, human beings use power to do psychological violence, physical violence, and spiritual violence to others. Because I am one of those who have some power, I worry about the harm I may have done unintentionally, and I have agonized over decisions I have had to make recently.

The connection to the parable of the sheep and the goats now comes into focus. Jesus has chosen to be poor, meek, and forgiving; now in the parable he identifies himself with all those who are vulnerable: the sick, those in prison, the stranger . . . and he invites his followers to look for him in those vulnerable people, and not in those who are strong, healthy, and in control. There is a big element of surprise in the structure of the parable which Jesus intended his listeners to feel. As people of ALL nations gather before the throne for judgment, those who have tried to obey the law of Moses, as well as the leading citizens of Rome, believe themselves to be the sheep. Many people in the ancient world assumed that sickness and poverty were God's punishments for sin, so naturally the goats would be the sick, the poor and those in prison.

The parable turns upside down our normal human idea of where God is to be found. Being hungry or naked is not a punishment; being mournful or sick is not a punishment. Being a stranger, or even being in prison, is not God's punishment. In this parable, Jesus says all these poor and meek people are my sisters and brothers. Wake up, he says. Look for me in them, and take care of them as you would take care of me. If you do this, the Son of Man , the Lamb upon the throne, will say to you, "Come, you that are blessed by the Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

By placing this parable of the sheep and the goats immediately before the story of holy week, St. Matthew is connecting its meaning to the suffering of Jesus. St. Matthew is insisting that the cross IS the throne of glory: that the people who witnessed the crucifixion, and all those who hear the story of the crucifixion, are now positioned in front of the Judgment Seat. Whether they turn out to be sheep or goats does not depend on holding the right beliefs, it does not depend on right worship, or even on being sexually chaste. The sole criteria given in this parable, is the ability to recognize Jesus in vulnerable people. Here Jesus asked his listeners, and he asks us, to reverse our way of seeing and responding. When we see someone who is a stranger, or poor or sick, he asks us to see first, before everything else, a member of God's family whom God loves. Once we see that person as a brother or sister in the household of God, then we can act to take care of our relative. Our ability to see in this way is created, and formed by looking at Jesus on the cross.

As evidence for this interpretation, I draw your attention to the words that follow the parable. After the king says, the righteous will go to eternal life, St. Matthew says that "when Jesus had finished saying these things, he said to the disciples, You know . . . that the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." This interpretation is also supported by St. John, who refers to Jesus' crucifixion as " the hour for the Son of Man to be glorified" (12:23).

In all that I have said so far, I have focussed on the positive message of the parable. There is a negative message in the parable as well, which bothers me, and I have heard that it bothers many of you. The negative message is the casting of the goats, those who did not care for the vulnerable, into eternal fire. This parable is a support for the Christian idea of hell as the place of punnishment for the wicked. Let me tell you where this idea came from, and propose a different interpretation of the fate of the goats.

The idea of hell arose among the Hebrew people as a by-product of their view of the universe. What they believed was that God dwelt above the sky, the realm of heaven. Below the realm of heaven was the realm of earth where people lived, and below that was the realm of the underworld, Sheol, where all people went when they were buried. Over time, the idea developed that the souls of the righteous were near the surface, closer to God's realm, while the souls of the wicked were farther away from God, in a pit deep underground, called Gehenna. So the first thing we must notice, is that this was a cultural as well as a religious worldview of the Jews, which Jesus made a limited use of, without teaching it as the Truth. Here, and in the parables of the talents, and the Rich man and Lazarus, Jesus was telling a story, whose purpose was to motivate his listeners to behave in a different way. We need to ask how the idea of the punishment of sinners in hell fits with the central core of his teaching and his life.

The central core of Jesus' teaching was forgiveness of sins, love for neighbors and enemies, care for the vulnerable, and recognition of sinners as lost sheep whom God loves. On the other hand, he certainly taught these principles as the right way to live, as God's way, over against all other ways. If we glance back to our first lesson, the prophecy of Ezekiel which started at the beginning of Chapter 34, where God accused the shepherds of Israel of failing to care for his sheep, we will see an example of judgment without punishment. Perhaps that is a distinction we should make as well: that when we cause harm, and when we, by neglect or by choice do not care for the vulnerable, God judges us. In 3 of the 4 Gospels, Jesus actually tells us what "punishment" is given to those who are judged: "the last shall be first, he says, and the first shall be last" (Matt 19:30, 20:16, Mark 10:31, Luke 13:30). Sinners will be the last to come into the kingdom of God. The meek and the poor shall be first, while the powerful and the cruel shall be last.

What I am proposing is, that God's call to good actions is constant throughout the Bible. Second, I am proposing that God does judge us when we do wrong and hurtful things. Third, I proposed that Jesus significantly changed the definition of what those good actions ought to be, rejecting obedience to the law, in favor of compassion and forgiveness. Fourth, I propose that since God's nature is love, God's love for us prevents him from casting sinners into eternal fire. This leads me to agree with St. Paul, rather than the Book of Revelation. St. Paul says, in his first letter to the Corinthians, that after God destroys the last enemy, death, "God will be all in all" (15:28). And so I invite you to hear all these verses in the teaching of Jesus, in which the one-talent slave is thrown into outer darkness, and those who did not see Jesus in the hungry, are sent into eternal fire, not as literal statements of truth, but rather as the strongest possible statements of how much God wants us to love one another.     Amen