Last Sunday of the Church Year

​Rev. Shemwell
1 Corinthians 15:20-28;
Matthew 25:31-46
11/26/23

Homily for the Last Sunday of the Church Year

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “When
the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His
glorious throne. 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. And He will place
the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. 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. 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.’ Then
the righteous will answer the King, 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?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it unto one of the
least of these My brothers, you did it unto Me.’”
Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, at the very end of
time and in the consummation of the age the King will come again in glory as judge to
separate the nations one from another as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats.
That is a fact. And as I have said in these previous weeks and even before that, none of
us know exactly when – nor can we ever know the precise hour of the Last Judgment.
But this much is certain: Jesus will come back, and soon.

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And when He does come, the righteous will then be set apart from the unrighteous, the
believing from the unbelieving, and in this divine division and sacred separation of sheep
from goat, the fruits of faith, good works themselves, will be a most consequential
source of evidence. And maybe that’s something that sort of bothers our Lutheran
thinking a little bit. Though it shouldn’t.
But before we get into all that, here is the first thing to observe this morning. Until
the Last Day, for the present time, that is, the sheep and the goats, they are co-mingled
and all mixed together. That is quite apparent from this final parable from our Lord,
according to St. Matthew’s gospel, which is why a separation on the Last Day is
necessary. To separate what is presently mixed. But we know this to be true as well from
experience, don’t we? The congregation of believers, the visible church on earth, exists
for the time being in the midst of the godless world, all mixed together. That has been
the case since the very beginning and it will be a reality until the very end. And maybe
the world will only become more godless in the meantime – that seems reasonable
enough to assume by taking a look around. Yet there is more to the story though than
just the indisputable fact that the church and the world stand opposed to one another.
There is clearly a distinction to be made between the visible church on earth and the
godless society which it inhabits, but the real distinction worth weighing here, the more
meaningful distinction worth acknowledging from today’s parable, is that much broader
distinction which exists beyond the borders of church walls, that distinction between the
believing sheep on the one hand and the unbelieving goats on the other. And I’m afraid
to say, that distinction is often rather blurred for us now, this side of heaven. It is not
black and white, as it were, but a shade gray.

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For instance, though it is troubling to admit, there are probably, for now, there are
unbelievers in the pews of the visible Christian church, there are; just as there are true
believers outside the walls of many Christian congregations. And most unfortunate of all
perhaps, there are likely even unbelievers in the pulpits and seminary classrooms of
some churches. No man can read the heart of another man. Not here below, anyhow. We
aren’t given to know who has saving faith and who doesn’t. Only Christ can read hearts,
not the laity, not the ordained. That task belongs solely to Jesus. And that is exactly what
He will do on the Last Day – He will read the hearts of men and women, for their better
or worse. But what is more, dear friends, is the unquestionable truth that neither can any
mere mortal, any man or woman, determine his or her own fate by looking within his or
her own heart. That’s just not how it works either. And that there, if you ask me, is the
most significant takeaway from this Gospel reading and from this last Sunday of the
church year. We can’t read the hearts of others, sure – but neither can we by ourselves
determine the definite nature of our own hearts at times, at least not by looking within
with our oh-so nearsighted vision as still fallen creatures.
You see, when the average person reads this eschatological parable, this end-times
parable from Matthew’s gospel chapter twenty-five, or hears it spoken aloud, they are
usually quick to notice the obvious: the fact that the righteous sheep in the parable
respond in quite a confused way to Christ’s suggestion that they have fed Him, quenched
His thirst, welcomed, clothed, and visited Him. Right?

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And most people understand this confused and uncertain response on the part of the
righteous sheep in the parable to be a result of the fact that Christ is making a very
profound point – that these things were not done unto Him directly over the course of a
life, but rather that they were done unto the least of men, the lowliest among brothers,
the average Joe, so to speak, and that they were only therethrough done unto Jesus in an
indirect way. You see, the common and sensible interpretation is that Christ is saying He
is in all men and women, to some extent, or at least He is represented in them, and so
when a Christian serves his neighbor, whomever it may be, he is really unknowingly
serving Christ. And that is absolutely correct, by the way. As I’ve said before, that is
precisely how C.S. Lewis used to put it: your neighbor is a little Christ to you – whom
you serve. Luther more or less said the same thing. So when we serve others, we serve
the Lord in them. And hence the traditional interpretation of what Christ means here is
entirely on point. The righteous serve Jesus through serving mankind, whether they
realize it or not, particularly through serving the humblest among their neighbors, per
our Lord’s specific words. So that’s all good and makes perfect sense.
But here’s where I read this text slightly differently from others. I don’t so much
believe that the righteous are confused in this parable because they do not recognize that
they were really serving Christ all along in the least of their brothers and sisters. Instead,
I believe that their confusion, uncertainty, and apparent ignorance is more so a result of
the fact that they never once actually stopped to focus on their own good works for very
long in such a way that they would even be able to remember them clearly – or would
even be able to pinpoint them as the fruits of their own faith. Throughout their holy lives,
that just wasn’t important to the righteous. That isn’t important to them. Their good
works aren’t their own concern. They aren’t preoccupied with their own righteousness.

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Which is what makes them truly righteous to begin with, you know? It is not so much
that they do not remember serving Christ directly – though that is also accurate,
obviously. But it is instead that they do not really remember serving their neighbor at all,
because they do not cling to these good deeds in a showy and self-righteous way. They
do not even see these good works as their own in the least. It was merely the Holy Spirit
doing His work in and through them all throughout. So the righteous do not identify in a
kind of prideful way with the good work of feeding, quenching, welcoming, clothing,
and visiting others and Christ in them.
For the righteous, all good works are God’s works, not their own. I cannot
emphasize that enough, guys. The righteous are simply vessels for God’s righteous will
and activity – and those who are righteous recognize that. And the lack of vain self-
reflection and the absence of a conceited self-righteous emphasis on one’s own supposed
charitable deeds is what makes the righteous righteous in the first place. Their humility
makes them right and good in God’s eyes. The sheep on the Last Day are rewarded not
for their works, not even for their fruits, but for their faith and the humble absence of
self-righteousness in their hearts which is all a result of their genuine faith in God the
Father, Son, and Spirit. Because they lack that corrupt sentiment of self-congratulation
and self-praise, the righteous don’t linger on their service to one another in a desperate,
works-righteousness sort of way. They don’t trust in their own efforts for their salvation.
They only trust in the cross of Christ and in their God-given faith. And so on the Last
Day, unsurprisingly, if you ask me, the righteous will be left wondering what Christ the
King and Judge is even getting at: “Whose works are You talking about, Lord? Certainly
not mine, for all good work comes from God, from You, never from me.”

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And here’s why that matters for us right now, today, before the end. I told you last
week that the fruits of your faith will be evidence of your faith on the day of judgment.
And as we hear this morning, the Lord will separate the sheep from the goats, the
believers from the unbelievers, based on this evidence. However, as I further told you a
week ago, the fruits of your faith are never your own to claim. They don’t belong to you.
They belong to God. They are godly fruits. And you are only God’s servant and
messenger – a frail vessel for His overabundant goodness and mercy. Therefore, I beg
you, dear flock: never look within for assurance of your salvation. Never look to your
own deeds. Never question your faith or the goodness of your heart because you
question the goodness of your works – or the seeming lack of good works altogether.
And furthermore, whenever you do happen to do some good, for that matter, some
sanctified deed, whatever it may be, don’t pat yourself on the back too much either. And
for the love of God, do no announce your pious efforts to the rest of the world. Let not
your left hand know what your right hand is doing – and don’t let you yourself dwell too
long on whatever good you happen to have done. Because self-righteousness and self-
congratulation and self-praise undermine all the fruits of faith; these poisons charity and
distort all loving action – and sinners will indeed be held accountable for these things on
the Last Day. Arguably nothing at all is grosser in this fallen world than self-
righteousness – than talking about how good you are and how much good you’ve
reportedly done, rather than the one true God. That is just downright disgusting. I don’t
know how else to put it. So do not look within. Because there’s only danger there.
There’s only the remaining sinful nature to be found and to be confounded by. You see,
here’s the thing: whatever good is in us is not us – it is solely the Holy Spirit working on
us and through us poor, miserable sinners.

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Put simply, dear friends: do your absolute best to refrain from keeping a tally of
your good labors and virtuous endeavors. Do not obsess over whom you’ve served,
whom you’ve fed, whose thirst you’ve quenched, or whom you’ve welcomed, clothed,
or visited. Serve other people for their sake, for Christ’s sake, not for the sake of feeling
good about yourself. And certainly never be eager or overly anxious to tell another soul
about your worthy efforts. Because your salvation does not lie in those efforts. It lies
instead right here, in the baptismal font. That is where assurance is located – and that is
something worth sharing with your neighbor. Holy Baptism and its free salvation for
you. Your salvation is to be found right here – and in the words of Holy Absolution
spoken Sunday after Sunday, and in the Lord Christ’s physical body and blood
consumed from this altar rail. That is where your salvation is to be discovered – without
exception. Not within you, but outside of you. Salvation is not found here [points to
chest] but here [points to font and altar], in this place.
Looking inward only ever causes you to doubt and question the sanctifying work
of the Holy Spirit – or worse, it leads to claim His work as your own. It leads you to
plagiarize the Spirit. For those who proudly preach works-righteousness, those who
falsely accuse us Lutherans of antinomianism, of being against the law and of being
proponents of so-called cheap grace, those who earnestly focus so much on the most
superficial transgressions, social transgressions, by the way, man-made transgressions
which often aren’t really even sins at all and yet those who then leave their neighbor out
in the cold day after day and who are pent up with resentment, self-certainty, self-
congratulation, and self-praise, all those pietists and puritans wheresoever they are, all
they really have to boast about at the end of the day is a total lack of faith and trust in the
Holy Spirit. It’s true.

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But all we need – all you need, beloved, is faith in God. Sola fide – “faith alone” in the
Latin. We Lutherans take that dreadfully seriously. All you need is faith. The Holy Spirit
will do the rest of the work, rest assured. Anyone who tells you otherwise is twisting
Scripture and deforming doctrine and misleading you.
Yes, the fruits of your faith will be evidence on the Last Day, but if you really and
truly believe that the Spirit works through means, through the Word and Sacraments and
through believing Christians, through their holy lives, through their witness, through
their hands and feet, without any merit or worthiness in them, then you don’t need to
waste a moment of your life or your time keeping an account of your own good works.
In fact, after you’ve done any good whatsoever, be sure to let it go and forget it forever.
Don’t cling to it in the least. For whenever you cling to it, it quickly loses its good nature
and becomes tainted by your lingering sinfulness and your iniquitous desire for acclaim
and glory from others. I know, because sadly I speak from experience. Because I am a
hypocrite sometimes.
Again, any truly good works to be had aren’t even ours to begin with. They don’t
belong to us. So just have a simple faith instead; just have faith that God accomplishes
His will for you and through you, His passive vessel, and don’t concern yourself with the
end or with your faith’s eventual evidence. Yes, I am telling you once more not to worry
about the Last Day and the Final Judgment. You are here, are you not? You are in the
sheepfold already, within the sheepgate, you are receiving the gracious gifts of God, you
are being fed and sanctified in body and soul, you are the Shepherd’s sheep. Plain and
simple. Therefore, fret not about works. Good works will without doubt flow out of you
naturally and indeed involuntarily sometimes, for the fruits of faith always follow from
it.

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As a righteous sheep of the Good Shepherd though, you must never concern yourself
with the good you have done but on the contrary you should instead worry about all the
good that’s left undone. And there’s plenty. So concentrate on that instead.
And if you do, with a humble heart, then when Christ finally does return in His
glory you will be able to ask Him with a perfect contrite faith: “But when on earth did I
do any good, Lord? Was it not You, dear Christ, all along Who did only good and the
only good, and Who occasionally worked some small benefit for others through my
painfully weak flesh? You, Lord, hungered in the wilderness for forty days. You thirsted
on the cross. You were rejected by Your people and left unwelcomed, You were arrested
and imprisoned without a visitor in the world, and Yours were those clothes torn apart
and left to the lots – it was You Who were hung naked outside the city walls and left to
die, so that through Your death You might destroy death itself, that last enemy of all. I
have not served You a single day, but rather You have served me for a lifetime – for an
eternity even – from the very foundation of the world – and You are the One Who has
served my needful neighbor through me time and again and so often without my
knowledge or even against my fallen will. So to Your name be all the glory and never
mine. Let Your name be praised forever and ever.” Yes, these will be the words of those
proven righteous on the Last Day. These will be your modest, humble, deferential words,
dear saints. And I cannot wait to hear them myself.
In closing, Christ says in Matthew chapter six: “Thus, when you give to the
needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the
streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received
their reward.” Yes, the hypocrites already have their reward here in this brief life. The
goats have the trash of this godless world to feed on.

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But on the Last Day, those goats will be without help, for they lack all faith and trust in
the Spirit. The sheep, on the other hand, those of us here in the flock, who sound no
trumpet when we do good, we seek not the approval or praise of others, especially not
the esteem of this broken world. Because we know that good only comes from God
above, never from us. It is one-directional and has only one source. And even when
some good does just so happen to happen through our meek and terribly weak hands and
feet, all the glory nevertheless belongs to God alone. For we are only His vessels, His
hands and feet here below.
As the Good Shepherd’s sheep, our reward, though, it has yet to come. The
hypocrites have their reward, but ours is still on the horizon. Our eternal reward is not
yet here. But I promise You: He is coming soon. Our reward, Christ, the everlasting
Sabbath, is coming very soon. So prepare yourself by clinging not to your own works
but to His final work, and to that God-given faith worked for you by the Spirit in your
Holy Baptism. Keep ready by returning to this place week by week. By receiving God’s
free gifts. By prayer and thanksgiving. And through these necessary things, you will
most certainly be blessed without end by the Father in heaven. All so that on the last day
of all Christ the King Himself will be able to say to you individually, His beloved sheep:
“Come now, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” In
the holy name of the coming King and Judge of all things, in the name of our precious
Lord, Jesus. Amen.