Feed My Sheep

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

FEED MY SHEEP

Matt 25:31-46

31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' 41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'   45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." 

NIV

We are in the middle of this scene where Jesus is upon his throne making the final judgment on the eternal state of man. We will first consider those he placed on his right, the place of honor, those who Matthew says are the sheep. It is interesting that while Jesus was still with his disciples, he made the point of telling parables about the shepherd and his sheep and that he said his sheep know his voice and after being in the same pen with many other sheep, only the sheep of one shepherd follow him because they know his voice. We are the sheep of the Great Shepherd and as we continue to follow the voice of our Shephard, we will find ourselves standing on his right side. Being the sheep, Jesus tells us that we can come and take our inheritance, the place that he prepared in advance for us. What is a tad confusing is that it would seem being the sheep has more requirements than just accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans, that is we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, we will be saved. It is also said that we are saved by faith and not by works lest anyone boast. Yet, here Jesus says that the reason he puts the sheep on his right side and gives them their inheritance in the kingdom of God that he prepared is that we gave him food and drink when he was hungry and thirsty and we invited him as even when he was a stranger and clothed him and looked after him when he was sick and visited him while he was in prison. What is that all about? Jesus said that it is not that we did all this directly to him, but as we do all this to the least in these brothers of his, we did it to him. So, then there is work for us to do, as James would say that our faith is dead unless it is accompanied by works. This may not imply works in the physical sense, although it could, if we see food as the word of God, water, like living water, clothes as the armor of God, inviting strangers as sharing the gospel, or being hospitable to new people who come into the church, or visiting the those in prison would be more like visiting with those held in the grip of sin, which is spending time with sinners, so as to share the gospel as some point in time. All this may be seen as “Good works” in the spiritual sense, bearing fruit as it were because we are connected to the vine, Jesus. Again, said we can do nothing apart from him. Nevertheless, we are to be doing, not just sitting and soaking, so to speak. However, the doing may well be those done in the spirit rather than in the body. The reason we think this is that even those who are the goats can do the physical things as many great humanitarian deeds are being done, but have nothing to do with spiritual matters, as we will see in the next words of Jesus. Just as Jesus told Peter, if we love him, we will feed his sheep.