The Sheep and the Goats: Jesus in the Poor

by Bishop Stacy F. Sauls, Founder and President

I have long been intrigued by the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in the Gospel of Matthew (25:31-46).  It is, on the one hand, a parable of judgment, and that judgment is relates to how one responds to the poor. In the language of South Africa, it depends on whether one is pro-poor or not. Those who give food and drink to those in need, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison are eternally blessed. “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, the king says, “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (v. 34). Those who fail to do the same things are condemned: “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

The passage is about more than the care of the poor alone, the doing of right or the not doing of right. It is about something much more to the heart of the matter of faith than behavior alone. It is about how one encounters God in the flesh, the Son of Man, Jesus. Those who cared for the hungry, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned among the least have done no less than the same to Jesus, he said (v. 40). It is the same with those who did not. In the exact same they have no less than neglect Jesus himself. 

It’s not so much about moral behavior and immoral behavior, I think. It is about building a solid relationship with Jesus in in a real way, not because it’s right but because it is what makes for the fullest possible life. 

I think Jesus is creating a sacrament of meeting him in Matthew 25. I think he was in a sacramental frame of mind. It is only 17 verses after the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats that Jesus begins to prepare his disciples for his final Passover with them (26:17). It is only nine verses later that Jesus takes the bread of the Passover and says these words, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And in the very next verse, he takes the cup and says, “this is my blood of the covenant.” Not these are like me or these remind you of me. No, these are me. 

It is exactly what Jesus is saying about the poor. It is not that they are like Jesus or they remind us of Jesus. It is that they are Jesus. As you have done it to these, you have done it to me. They are me. 

The pro-poor attitude of Love Must Act is nothing less than encountering God in the flesh. That is who we believe we meet in the children of Holy Cross School.