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Day 18 - Saturday, March 6
Title: “WHEN DID WE SEE YOU?”
Scripture: Matthew 25: 31-46
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 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; 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 Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Poetry: 
The Guest
by Wendell Berry

Washed into the doorway
by the wake of traffic,
he wears humanity
like a third-hand shirt
–blackened with enough
of Manhattan’s dirt to sprout
a tree, or poison one.
His empty hand has led him
where he has come to.
Our differences claim us.
He holds out his hand,
in need of all that’s mine.
And so we’re joined, as deep
as son and father. His life
is offered me to choose.
Shall I begin servitude
to him? Let this cup pass.
Who am I? But charity must
suppose, knowing no better,
that this man is a man fallen
among thieves, or come
to this strait by no fault
–that our difference
is not a judgment,
though I can afford to eat
and am made his judge.
I am, I nearly believe,
the Samaritan who fell
into the ambush of his heart
on the way to another place.
My stranger waits, his hand
held out like something to read,
as though its emptiness
is an accomplishment.
I give him a smoke and the price
of a meal, no more
–not sufficient kindness
or believable sham.
I paid him to remain strange
to my threshold and table,
to permit me to forget him—
knowing I won’t. He’s the guest
of my knowing, though not asked.

WHEN DID WE SEE YOU?

It is helpful to pair this Matt. 25 passage with the two works chosen for this devotion today:  the Renaissance multi-panel painting, entitled Seven Works of Mercy, originally commissioned in 1504 for the parish Church of St. Lawrence Alkmaar, Netherlands, and the 2010 Works of Mercy Project by Dutch photographer Thijs Wolza, commissioned by the Church of St. Lawrence in Rotterdam. Both works represent those that Jesus identifies in this passage as his people, the ‘least of these’--the hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, sick and imprisoned (Catholic tradition adds the dead and their need for a dignified burial). 

Take a look at these two sets of works. Can you identify the images of ‘the least of these’ in each work?

In our Matthew 25 passage, an eschatological (end-times) vision, all the nations are gathered before  the “Son of Man” (v. 32), clearly enthroning him as King over all. All the angels are with him, as if heaven has been emptied out for this royal event (v. 31). Although this passage is commonly referred to as the “sheep and the goats,” the chief focus is actually King Jesus himself.  He appears in full royal glory (vs. 31) and sits on his ‘glorious throne.’ (v. 34).  What was mockery, when it was written on the cross, ‘the king of the Jews,’ is now no longer ironic, but prophetic in a way much grander than even the disciples hoped for. And what Jesus the King announces then is the politics (or economy) of his kingdom. It is one where the ‘least of these’ are front and center.

What both artistic works provide us is a geographic context for finding the least of these in Jesus’ kingdom: the city. The Greek word for city is polis, which reminds us that every city is "political" in the best sense of that term. “Politics” fundamentally is the discussion and discernment about what is good for the city (polis) or kingdom and its people. Of course, for most of human history, including in the time of Jesus, this was not a discussion at all. As the king (or queen or caesar or emperor) determined the good, so went the kingdom. And it was seldom with the good of the hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, sick, and imprisoned in mind.

In the 1504 work, the artist has placed these merciful works in the context of an idealized Medieval city. Taller dwellings and businesses frame and draw our attention to the charitable acts that fill the foreground and background of the narrow streets--as if this were the main business of the city. The figure of Jesus looks on from the crowd in each panel, governing the city with his mere loving presence. Wolza’s photographs whisk us from there to the modern city of Rotterdam and its busy charitable agencies including the Rotterdam Food Bank, the Noordsingel Prison, the Nico Adriaan Foundation for drug addiction, and the Pauluskerk (St. Paul’s Church) for undocumented immigrants. In these representations of the city, too, charity and justice are foregrounded as the important ‘business’ of the city.

It is in places and among people like these that the goats had not thought to look for a king. It was not where the action of the city was. The aim of life in the Caesar-Kingdom, which the goats knew well, was to move as far toward human strength and power as possible (to sit on the King’s left and right as the disciples, too, thought), and to get as far from human poverty and weakness as possible. They assumed, no matter who this new king was, it would be business and politics as usual.  

It is easy to be self-righteous when it comes to the goats. But don’t we all want to escape the harsh distress of the human situation, the natural impoverishment of being human, its vulnerability, its insecurity, its fragility, its weakness, its sickness, its darkness, and the places in our cities where those who suffer huddle together? I know I do.

Do I even know where these places are in my city--the soup kitchen, the shelters, the clinics? I am not sure I can name them. They are not in my foreground. It is not my idea of a polis. But I think this is where I need to begin again, to look for these places, to bring these into my foreground, Maybe I will just drive by at first, or park in their lots. At some point I may get out of my car and see what takes place there. Perhaps, I will meet someone "fallen among thieves . . . his hand held out like something to read."

Prayer:
Most merciful God,
We confess that we have sinned against you
In thought, word, and deed,
By what we have done,
And by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
Amen 

Todd Pickett
Dean of Spiritual Development
Campus Pastor
Biola University

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