Matthew 25:31 “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. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
34 Then 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; 35 for 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, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
37 Then 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? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
40 And 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.’
41 Then 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; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I 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.’
44 Then 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?’ 45 Then 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.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Both groups are shocked.
The sheep, through their surprise, also exhibit their attitude toward others. Again, with emphasis for understanding, the Son of Man says to them, 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, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ In their surprise, they respond, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And 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.’
The sheep acted. The sheep helped others. Their action was also, like the goats, rooted in their perspective. Sheep have a different mindset from goats in the parable. Whereas the goats perceived the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick or the prisoner as other, as them, the sheep didn’t. The sheep saw no others, no less than, no them, just us. The difference wasn’t in value but need. Whereas the goats had a dualistic mindset of us and them, for the sheep, there was simply us. Surely there were people in need and people who weren’t, but there was no distinction of in and out. Jesus hints at this difference between the two groups in their judgment. To the sheep, the Son of Man calls the least of these who are members of my family, and for the goats, they are simply referred to as the least of these without the family marker. Make no mistake, the sheep aren’t doing charity by helping those in need, they are simply helping out other members of their “family.” They did not see any distinction. Just us.
When they hear the judgment placed upon them, both goats and sheep alike are surprised. Their surprise reveals their perspective – specifically, their perspective about those in need. What Jesus says to the goats, how they heard it, and their response is best illustrated with a little highlighting. The Son of Man says to them, I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I 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.’ 44 Then 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?’ 45 Then 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.’
The goats did not feed, clothe, or essentially help any of those described. They complain at the unfairness of the judge’s accusation. The response is, “That’s not fair! We didn’t know that the hungry, thirsty, strange, naked, sick, imprisoned person we saw was you. If we had known it was you we would have done something!” They don’t understand and in their protest show their bias. They only perceived that they hadn’t helped the judge, not that they hadn’t helped people in need. “Nobody told us it was you. If someone would have told us, we would have helped you. You would have been worthy of our help.” The goats suffered from a dualistic mindset. For the goats, there was us (goats) and them (not goats). Others are clearly not us, clearly less than, clearly other.
When we are young, and beginning to explore the world, we learn about what something is through its opposite.
As quickly as you can, go through the following list and name its opposite. The first one is done for you.
hot… cold
young…
clean…
big…
dumb…
skinny…
friend…
east…
night…
One of the primary ways we interpret the world is through polarities. As a child, when your vocabulary was growing exponentially each day, you learned what something was by what it was not. For example, one of the first words you probably learned was hot. Your mother or father said, “Don’t touch that, it is hot.” Your little mind was thinking, ‘Hot? What is hot?”
You were puzzled until you went to wash your hands, and mom said, “Not that one, dear, it’s hot. Use this one it is cold.” What is hot? Not cold. What is cold? Not hot. While you were learning about hot and cold, you were also learning about two other opposites, safe and dangerous.
Here are some more antonyms. Can you come up with the opposites of these words?
wet…
tall…
night…
stalagmite…
George Washington…
Do you have an opposite for George Washington? Unlikely. We don’t classify people by their opposites, unless of course we put them into groups. Once we have a group, opposing labels are easy. Consider these groups.
Republicans…
Christians…
Saints…
Northerners…
Us…
As individuals, it is hard to declare an opposite, I and you, are not opposites, but combine us into a group and it’s easy, the this and not this way of thinking just falls right in. As soon as you have us you have them.
Here is another quiz. If you are born in these countries what is your nationality, what are you called.
If you are born in Canada, what are you called.
Mexico.
Brazil.
The United States?
Abbie said, USians. Which makes everyone else Themsians.
I asked my friend Willie who is smarter than I am, “Well, it’s the United States of America, it’s probably to shorten it from United States of Americans to just Americans.”
Our natural tendency was to think about the world in terms of same and opposite. Churches form around the like minded and consider everyone outside as the them to their us.
In Jesus’ day, the religious so themselves as righteous and others and sinners, we might say believers and nonbelievers or unbelievers, forcing others into our labeling.
When Jesus tells this story and divides people, the sheep and the goats think differently. The goats understand us and them. “What? If we would have known that hungry guy was you we would have fed him…”
The sheep think in terms of just us. We didn’t know that hungry guy was you! That was Fred. One of us.
We think in terms of synonyms and antonyms, Jesus thought in hyponyms. Jesus was trying to show them a leap in thinking. Jesus didn’t think in terms of antonyms when it came to people, other than perhaps lost and found, connected and isolated. Jesus thought in terms of hyponyms.
Hyponyms are important because there are a lot of words that cannot be defined in the same way we learned that hot is not cold. Many words don’t have antonyms. For example, Tulip… What’s the opposite of tulip? What’s the opposite of any flower? There isn’t an antonym for tulip. Snake… Like tulip, there is no opposite for snake. Lots of synonyms: viper, serpent, lawyer… Tuesday… There is no opposite of Tuesday. Thursday pairs nicely, but they are both just part of a greater category. Yellow… There is no opposite of Yellow. There are lots of other colors, but none are opposite. They are all part of a greater category.
A hyponym is a subcategory of a greater category, a broader classification. For example, chair, table, couch, and love seat are all hyponyms of the broader category furniture. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are all hyponyms for days of the week. Red, yellow, and blue are all hyponyms of primary colors. The mind loves polar opposites, especially for things we are unsure about, like people. But people aren’t opposites for other people any more than your left hand is the opposite of your right. Left and right hands are just hyponyms for hands.
For Jesus, with individuals or groups, there are no opposites, no antonyms, only hyponyms. For Jesus, us and them are just hyponyms for a greater category, a larger, universal US. Jesus would have no more defined the Pharisees and tax collectors as opposites than he would have considered his left hand the opposite of his right. Left and right hands are just hyponyms of the greater category of hands. Jesus would have agreed with Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird when she said, “I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” For Jesus there was just folks. One big, not always happy, but one nonetheless, US. For Jesus, there were US that get it and US that don’t. The tax collectors were starting to get it, but the Pharisees were stuck in their old mindset. Jesus was inviting them to leap, not just for their own benefit, but for the world.
The leap from us and them to just us, or US, has the power to not only transform lives and communities, but the world.
Jesus was an Usian. Even dying on the cross, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” Us and them was still us. He still included them.
Afghanis…
Haitians…
Rich…
Poor…
Wounded…
KKK…
Addicts…
Faithful…
Doubters…
Friends…
Enemies…
Beloved…
Children of God…
That’s right. It’s the same answer for all of the above. All these words are hyponyms for US. Not an individual swallowing crowd, but an US that doesn’t need scapegoats but instead wants you to be THE you, and me to be THE me God created us to be and to help others do the same.
