Matthew 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 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, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters 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, ‘Truly I tell you, 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.”
My Thoughts
Remember how Genesis starts? “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” God was complete in that beginning but He had a greater purpose for all time — an eternal kingdom. Jesus learned the necessity of separation in those early days of eternity as He watched His father define His kingdom by separating light from dark, day from night, land from sea and mankind from dust.
Jesus tells this parable about separation just a few days before His arrest. It’s more than a story about judgment of behavior, it’s about relationship and firsthand experience. Did you notice the odd truth all those contrasts in this parable revealed about those two groups? Both groups were surprised to discover Jesus noticed their choices. Both were surprised that what impacted their kingdom destiny in such a dramatic way was not just their choices but their relationship, or lack of it, with Jesus Himself.
Jesus understood the inheritance prepared for the “blessed” was eternity with Himself in a kingdom created for them. He’d seen it created firsthand. Jesus’s warning to the “cursed” was separation from Him and a destiny of eternal punishment “in a land of forgetfulness and separation,” not inhabited” by God. He could warn them of that absolute truth with certainty because He knew in just a few days He would briefly experience the reality of that separation firsthand.
a Leviticus 16:20-22 The goat shall bear upon himself all their iniquities, carrying them to a land cut off (a land of forgetfulness and separation, not inhabited)! AMPC
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