The Difference Maker

There are so many people in the world today who need our help. The Our Children Project, they need donations to help child victims of sexual abuse get the emotional help they need to move forward in life in a healthy way. The Optimist Club of Apple Valley needs more members so we can bring out the best in kids in our community. With all the devastation going on in our world with COVID and natural disasters, there are too many people and organizations that also need our help, like donating blood, especially folks who have already had COVID. Many of the people in need are also fellow believers in Christ. If you pay attention, even a little, you’ll find that the needs greatly outweigh our ability to provide. This can be very overwhelming.

Imagine if you will, a man comes home from work. He has been out in the heat all day doing his job, and as normal, the first thing he does when he gets home is to check the mail. It is quite a stack today. As he is going through the mail he notices that it is mostly bills. After the fourth or fifth bill, he is greatly overwhelmed at the amount he owes. The next envelope he opens is from his church. They are asking for donations for their annual mission efforts. Deeply sorry, he concludes that he cannot assist his congregation again this year. He puts his head in his hands in deep despair.

Perhaps, this is you. I understand that most of you all here are on fixed incomes. There is so much you would love to be able to do to help out our own church’s finances. However, with COVID and the like, prices of everything have gone up and you can barely keep your head above water as it is. Let alone trying to figure out how to have Thanksgiving and Christmas this year with the family. And each year we get older we find that we are not able to do the things we used to. There is a lot of work to do around our old church building, and you can’t even pull a rake anymore let alone painting the trim on the church and our two gazebos.

You know what this man is going through. How many times have you found yourself with your head in your hands because you can no longer do what you used to? How many times have you fallen into despair when you open your check book or your wallet and find nothing but cobwebs and dust? You see our bulletin every week and you see how far down we are on weekly offerings and you want to do something about it so bad that it makes your heart hurt because you just cannot.

Christians want to help other Christians. This sincere desire is part of our sanctified nature, the new creation that God has worked in you since your baptism. But so often our own needs overshadow the needs of others. As a result, we may be unwilling or even unable to help those in need. Our own needs take on many forms. So also do our excuses. Too little time or too little money. Perhaps we have health restrictions, or we feel as if we have nothing to offer. Some of these limitations are legitimate. Some are not. We listen to Jesus describe those who, without their knowing it, served Him, and we see more clearly our neglect of others. Have you ever wondered if you were even a sheep, when selfishness and lack of care for others? Ever put your head in your hands in despair crying out to God doubting your own salvation?

Fortunately, an inheritance makes all the difference. The man who came home to find all those bills in his mail had one more envelope on the coffee table to open. The return address is from a law firm across the country. I can’t imagine what might have been going through his mind at the time, all those bills, a letter to help is congregation with their annual mission goals, and now a letter from a law firm. What ever could this be? More bad news is not what this man needs.

With shaking hands, he picks up the envelope and begins to tear it open. Unfolding the letter inside he read the following:

“Dear Mr. Smith,

This letter is to inform you of the death of your uncle, Robert Smith.

Robert has a will that names you as the sole beneficiary of his estate.

The estimated value of his estate is $300,000. We will be reaching out to you via phone to set up settling the estate. There will be several documents that you will need to sign and notarize.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Todd Bucknator, esq.”

Wow! This changes everything in the man’s life. Instead of holding his head in his hands in despair, he is now praising God for this new blessing he has received. Instead of paying his bills first, he decides to write the first check to his congregation to assist in their annual mission goal. What a difference an inheritance makes.

In Jesus’ picture of the Last Day (Mt 25:34), he speaks to his sheep as those who have received an inheritance. Their kind actions toward “the least of these” flow from the promise of their eternal inheritance. Likewise, all Christians, made heirs in Baptism, are enabled to show kindness to their brothers and sisters in Christ.

The full realization of the inheritance would not come immediately. The man in our illustration this morning would have to wait several months to a few years for the estate to be settled and the inheritance received. Similarly, the fullness of our inheritance in Christ will not be realized until Jesus returns. In our text, the foundational difference between the sheep and the goats is not their behavior. It is the inheritance prepared for the sheep. This inheritance has been prepared for God’s people from the foundation of the world. Notice that God’s grace goes all the way back to creation. Revelation tells us that our names have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world, “the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (rev. 13:8). God secured our inheritance by sending Jesus to become the sacrificial lamb on the cross. Our inheritance is in the precious blood of Christ. Then the guarantee of this inheritance for us Christians is found in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20-28). It can neither perish nor fade (1 Peter 1:3-4). The promise of eternal life is for all who believe in Christ.

Therefore, we are enabled to live as heirs, loving those in need. Our text this morning gives us a glimpse of what will happen when Jesus returns. It is a description, a preview. If you will notice, there are hardly any commands in this text.

When Jesus describes the behavior of the sheep and the goats, He is describing the difference made by the inheritance. The good works of the sheep, that is feeding the hungry, giving water to those who thirst, welcoming the stranger, and visiting those who are sick or in prison, are necessarily the results of living as heirs. We sheep take the Gospel in which we are saved by, namely Jesus’ innocent life, suffering, death and resurrection, and we just cannot help but to help others. It is our life in response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It just comes natural for us.

The goats, however, are those who have tried to work their way into heaven, not knowing that everything has already been done for them through Jesus. The natural love for others that the Gospel of Jesus gives us, they did not have. Instead, they focus on their works...”Look at all we did for you” yet Jesus answers 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.” (v. 45) and these were led away into eternal punishment.

God’s promise of inheritance turns those who were previously worried about themselves to look toward and think about their brothers and sisters who need their help. Jesus is the difference maker by making us heirs. You see, by making us heirs, Jesus makes us glad to help our brothers and sisters in need.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer described how Christians treat one another by saying that Christians practice the “self-forgetfulness of love” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Communion of Saints [New York, Harper and Roe: 1963], 123). This is the impact of our inheritance. Knowing that God has given us a magnificently rich and eternal inheritance lets us forget about ourselves, because there is nothing we can gain for ourselves that adds to what God has already given us in Christ Jesus.

Remember the man in our illustration today who received word of an inheritance? News of this inheritance made all the difference. It enabled him toward self-forgetful endurance and generosity. Jesus embodied such self-forgetful love toward us by dying on the cross and rising from the dead to provide an inheritance from the foundation of the world. This good news enables us to exercise our own self-forgetful generosity toward others.

In Jesus name and for His eternal glory. Amen.