Homeless Jesus

Goats Are Weird

https://youtu.be/1paueaTWFRE

This is a goat. Goats are weird. My wife, Karen, had a billy goat growing up. A billy goat named billy goat. Kept getting into everything, eating everything locked up or otherwise except for the thing it was supposed: the grass.

Well, what do you do when you have a goat who will eat anything? And an expensive garbage collection bill?

Cancel the trash pickup, feed all the garbage to the goat! From banana peels to aluminum cans.

Goats are weird.

Church: Who are we and what are we doing here?

We are loving God. Good. How do we do that?

Well, I said a few weeks ago, our primary act of worship is to love one another. As Jesus said, right after the “greatest” commandment is “love your neighbor as yourself”. If we love God, we love others. If we don’t love others, we don’t love God.

This people, this church, you called out ones, this is the “school of love” where we learn, where we teach, where we discipline ourselves to love one another. To forgive one another. To bear one another’s burdens.

But that isn’t enough. We are then called and commanded to go out and love “our neighbor”. Not just our friends and the people like us but the “Samaritans.”

Sheep and the Goats

Hang around church long enough and you will hear this expression. The sheep and the goats. It is about separating the “good guys” from the “bad guys,” usually. With a strong emphasis on “we are the good guys.”

Matthew 25:31 ESV

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Metaphor or prophecy? Parable or prophecy?

Jesus is telling them exactly how it is going to go down.

Matthew 25:32 ESV

Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Now he introduces a metaphor (or simile, actually). “as” as a shepherd.

And this was a common everyday experience. Like a farmer would regular separate wheat from chaff (as Jesus shares elsewhere). As you and I might, in this season, take the “hairy stuff” off the corn on the cob so we can grill it.

It isn’t a mystery, which are “sheeps” and which are “goats”. It is immediately apparent which are which, it is a simple matter of sorting them out according to their obvious characteristics.

“That’s the weirdest sheep I ever saw!” “oh, that’s a goat.”

Matthew 25:33 ESV

And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.

What is it that separates them? What is the outward designation?

If you think “saved and unsaved”... “Christians and non-Christians”… that’s how we usually think of this… but that isn’t what Jesus says.

Baptized and unbaptized?

Born again and not?

If you think “righteous and unrighteous”… you aren’t wrong. That’s true… but that isn’t how Jesus presents it at first. Just as if I was separating sheep from goats, I am going to look at the most absolutely obvious trait. I’m not separating by pupil shape… though goats have freaky eyes. I’m not going by DNA sampling.

Immediate external obvious characteristics. Fluffy wooly short creature, to the right.

Taller hairy horned creature, to the left.

No hesitation, easy and obvious.

But the stakes couldn’t be higher:

Matthew 25:34 ESV

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Sheep good, goats bad.

So what is it? What are those external obvious traits, if we peel back the metaphor/simile?

Am I a goat or a sheep?

The Master says to the “sheep”, here’s how I recognize you as sheep:

Matthew 25:35–36 ESV

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

The “sheep”, now called the “righteous” don’t even know what Jesus is talking about.

Matthew 25:37–39 ESV

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

Matthew 25:40 ESV

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

And in case we possibly missed it, he says it all again from the other direction.

And then to the left. Them goats.

Matthew 25:41 ESV

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

… not good.

Matthew 25:42–43 ESV

For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

They also don’t know. Here them call the “Son of man” “Lord”. They call him “Master”. Are these people who believe in Jesus, who call him Lord, who think that they are sheep?

Matthew 25:44 ESV

Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’

Matthew 25:45–46 ESV

Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Now if I say “are you a Christian?” I sure hope you have an answer ready for that.

Do you believe in Jesus? Is He your Lord and Savior? Yes? Amen, let’s find some water and dunk you!

Do you have good doctrine? Knowledge of His Word? I hope you’re growing in that even right now...

But are you a sheep or a goat?

The people in Jesus’ story… or really Jesus’ prophecy… they didn’t know. The goats were surprised? That’s scary. They called the “Son of Man” Lord, too. But they were surprised!

The sheep were surprised. They didn’t know what they had done right.

The Least of These - Calling the Cops on Jesus

In Bay Village, Ohio the police were called out to move along a homeless man sleeping on a park bench. Cops arrived to find, not a homeless man, but this statue titled “Homeless Jesus.”

Who are these?

Jesus’ examples:

The hungry.

The thirsty.

The strangers.

The naked. Naked strangers? That’s a picture.

The sick.

The imprisoned.

What answers will Jesus accept?

Well, Jesus, did you know that 1% of every Amazon purchase went to the salvation army?

With my hard work in our capitalist society I raised the total GDP which, over the arc of time, has elevated many families out of poverty. Not wrong… but not exactly what Jesus speaks too.

Do you hear how personal he frames it?

Jesus says “I was hungry.” “I was thirsty.” Personal, one on one. It doesn’t mean operating at scale isn’t good, or giving to social programs where you aren’t directly involved isn’t good, those are all great and good ways… we can do this collaboratively and systematically..

but we also have to do it personally.

That is: we can’t outsource this. The question is, are we faithful to love?

In particular: are we faithful to love the “least”? The most vulnerable. The most in need. The hungry, the thirsty, the naked the imprisoned. I’ll expand that list. Jesus isn’t exhaustive here. Scripture is full of God’s care for “widows and orphans”, watch Jesus heal the “homeless” beggars, the lepers, the sick and wounded. Watch Jesus love on the foreigners. The prostitutes and tax collectors.

It isn’t checking a box or collecting a set.

It is recognizing Jesus-in-person as the person in need right in front of you.

Jesus is Knocking

If we have so organized our life that we are largely insulated from anyone in “need”… shame on us. We need to change that.

Fortunately, we don’t have that particular problem. God has given us a gift.

This is “Dustin”, fixing his skateboard while he charges his phone in front of the church.

Here is a couple sleeping under the playground for a few days.

There’s a dude camped out in a hollowed out spot in the “thicket” right now.

Risky but not Reckless. Let’s be wise… but how easily we could talk ourselves into turning “Jesus” away at the door. It’s not safe… after all, he’s a naked hungry stranger and he might take advantage of us.

And let’s be clear. We probably will be taken advantage of. We will. We will make mistakes. We won’t do this perfectly.

But we will do this.

Because “when the Son of Man comes in his glory...” and we come before our Master, our Savior, our Lord. I want to recognize his eyes, his smile, because I have fed him, clothed him, visited him, loved on him a thousand thousand times.

Pancake Breakfast

and Brainstorm. Bring your ideas. I’ve got some, KK and I have been dreaming about this for awhile. I know some of you have been excited about this or even called to this for years.

We are going to brainstorm together and decide, not if, but how can we start now and what are being led to next.