| November 14, 1999 | Creative Accounting at the Judgment | Matthew 25:31-46
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Creative accounting may not be a term with which you are familiar. It names a deceptive practice that businesses may get into in order to impress their stockholders or others who look at the financial reports of the company. They hide things they should reveal and sometimes downright lie about their finances.
The title of this message suggests that there is some special accounting going on at the final judgment. Now, don't misunderstand me to be suggesting that God is doing something underhanded or deceptive. No, what God does is very pure and certainly holy, however, it doesn't always match human ideas of how judgment ought to work. That is very good for us.
Today we move into the part of our church year called the last Sundays of the Church Year. In fact, if it were not celebrated as All Saints Day, last week would have been the Third Last Sunday of the Church Year. This week is the Second Last, and next week, November 21, is, you guessed it, the Last Sunday. The following week we break into a new year and begin with Advent.
So here we are on the Last Sundays which have the theme, appropriately enough, of those things which come last. What comes last for us is the return of Christ and the judgment to follow. After that we begin eternal life with heavenly, glorified, resurrected bodies. These are the last things.
Now, what ought our general attitude be towards this coming judgment? Shall we fear it? It will certainly be a frightening and terribly sad event for some, but as one who trusts in Christ, your attitude should be one of joy. Why? Well, listen, and you shall hear.
According to the text, the judgment happens this way. Christ comes, that is, returns to earth in a visible form. He is joined with all His angels forming quite a crowd. This will be a time of great glory, for Christ will be given the full honor and praise He is due from all people. The glory of Christ was hidden while on earth previously. His glory was hidden while He was nailed to the cross. Now, His full glory will be revealed and He will sit upon the throne, the seat of judgment.
Now, who shall be judged? It says, "all the nations will be gathered before Him." All peoples from around the world. All the living and the dead, as we confess in our creeds, will be judged when Jesus Christ comes.
Now the judgment occurs and it is a simple process. It is compared to that which a shepherd does when separating sheep from goats. What is that process like? Now, here I go again trying to describe something with which I am sure that many of you are much more familiar. Are not sheep the ones with the curly hair and goats the straight hair? Goats have horns and sheep don't. In any case, it is easy to separate the two, especially if you know what you are doing, which would be the case for a shepherd.
So, this separation is complete. The group is divided into two parts, one on Jesus' right and the other on His left.
False Pictures of Judgment
There are many people spreading false pictures of judgment in our world. These scenes picture the people standing in line as the judge reads the charges against them and then decides if they were good enough. You have the jokes that say when so and so gets to the gates, there is Peter asking him three questions. These all create false ideas in our heads of how the judgment will occur.
You can see what is missing in our text is a reading of the charges before judgment is made. Rather, the separation, the judgment is made before there is any mention of deeds of the people. You must get this point, we are not judged based on our works. We are not judged according to what we have done. Jesus judges based on grace, and without that, all would end up on one side.
Some of you probably didn't hear what I just said. Others may find the idea too strange to accept. So, to help that, let us follow the judgment and see where we arrive. Let us skip down to those who come out of the judgment facing punishment. What does the judge say to them? He says "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." That has to be the saddest thing to hear from our Lord: "depart from Me." To have our God send us away into a punishment that never ends, into what is equivalent to eternal death, is surely the most unpleasant thing that could happen. It is saddening also to hear that this punishment was prepared for the devil and his angels, not for people.
Then what does the judge say? He rebukes these people for failing to feed the hungry, to give the thirsty a drink, to show hospitality to strangers, to give clothes to those lacking, and to visit the sick and imprisioned. The person they failed to do these things for is the judge Himself, Jesus. They failed to serve Jesus in these ways. These sad people do not know when they failed to do this. In other words, they do not know their sins and believe they are without sin. Then Jesus helps them to see that when they failed to serve even one of the least of His brothers, they failed to serve Him.
It is important to see how exclusive that statement is. If they failed to serve even one of the least of Jesus' brothers, then they failed to serve Jesus. Turn it around and you see that He lays before them the standard of perfection. You should have served all of my brothers, for in failing to serve just one, only one, you failed to serve me. In other words, one mistake and you are out.
Our Lord demands perfection. So, have you ever failed to serve someone in these manners? Do you know one person in the world who is hungry or thirsty? Have you taken care of them all?
As one person attending the Bible study this week on this text mentioned, this seems impossible. Simply because it seems impossible does not mean that we should doubt that it is our Lord's requirement. So, you better get busy if you want to get to heaven...based on your works.
So, as we look at the accounting, we can see that in the case of those who are going to be punished, every sin counts against them. They have a balance on the negative side and nothing on the positive side. This is the normal system of accounting. Debts show up on the debit side and there is no way to hide them.
This is the place where all of us would be without the grace of our Lord. The Formula of Concord, one of our Lutheran Confessions, has the following to say about this judgment:
Thus far the Formula of Concord.
Thanks be to our Lord that there is another system of accouting used for us. Call it "grace accounting." This is a system where we get what we don't deserve. We are given a gift.
You can see it in the words that the king, Jesus, uses to identify the sheep. He says, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father." These words tell us they have been given a gift, a blessing, from the Father. They are under grace accounting.
Notice, He doesn't say "Come, you who have earned the right to be here." He doesn't say: "Come you who have made the decision for Christ; you who have given your life over and prayed Jesus into your heart!...Oh...and by the way...thanks so much!" That is not how the sheep are addressed. Rather, they are the ones who are blessed by the Father.
Now, after the judgment, they are praised for their good works but again grace accounting is used. Their failures are not identified, but only their sucesses. They are praised for feeding, giving water, etc. to Jesus. You then see how they are unaware of their good works. "When did we do it?" they ask. They don't even realize the good works they have done. In their humble state, confessing their sins, they realize that all their works are as filthy rags. Rather, the good works that they did are done by the power of the Holy Spirit alone.
Grace accounting here says their failures are not counted as they are for those who will be punished. Rather, Jesus says, whenever You did it for one of these the least of my brothers, you did it for Me. Every good work counts favorably, though those works are not what resulted in their being judged to go free. Those not under grace accounting have every sin count against them. Those under grace have no mention of sins, but only of good works.
Hopefully you are now saying that this creative accounting system sounds pretty good for those under grace. Hopefully you are saying, I'd like to be on the side of grace. So, how do we get placed there? It is not the result of anything we do. It is where God wants us to end up. It was in His plans since the creation of the world. This is the kingdom prepared for you, for YOU, since the creation. Eternal life is where God wants us to end up. What do we need to do to get there? Nothing. It comes as a free gift.
Some turn down the gift. How sad for them to hear the punishment, "depart from Me" which they bring upon themselves. They receive the punishement which was not what God intended for people. Rather, it was prepared for the devil and his angels. How sad when the free blessing of our Father in heaven is rejected.
What a blessing to have the gift of eternal life. What a joy to have our sins not be counted against us. This is the grace of our Lord which allows us to look forward to the judgment. It is a grace which was earned for us through our Lord's death on the cross. He paid the price so that we could hear those wonderful words: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." What a joy to know that grace accounting through the king, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.