What is it like to look at another person and witness Christ in them? What is it like to see them as bearing in their essence a reflection of the Divine, That-of-God within them? What is like to treat them as we hope we would treat Jesus, with respect and care (rather than the way Jesus was actually treated)?

The answer does not need to be extraordinary – we do this naturally to some degree with the people we love.

Yet when we say “yes” to trying to follow the Way of Jesus, part of what we’re committing to is deepening and amplifying our ability to witness the humanity of others to the point of seeing no-one less than Christ in their hearts. When we say “yes” to following Jesus we are saying “yes” to the ultimate truth and value that everyone bears in their essence a reflection of the Divine. Maybe it’s buried deep down; neglected or even crucified – but it’s there.

It’s easier to see this or at least trust it’s true regarding the people we’re inclined to care about.

But think of the people who you’re not inclined to care about, whose needs you’d in fact rather ignore, whose humanity even you’re inclined to dismiss or denigrate or deem not worthy.

Think of the people whom others in your society want you to fear, the people whom others in your society want you to scapegoat and blame for all our problems, the people whom others in your society want you to help expel or extinguish or at least keep out of sight and out of mind.

Think especially of people who have very real, raw, urgent needs for food, shelter, safety, healing, comfort, companionship. Jesus is specific in his teaching here in Matthew 25: this is about how we treat someone who is a stranger, a foreigner, in need of welcome; someone who is sick, in need of care; someone who is imprisoned, in need of companionship; someone who is homeless, in need of shelter; someone who is hungry, in need of food; someone who is exposed and in need of clothes.

What is it like to encounter someone like that and to witness Christ in them, and to do unto them as we hope we would do unto Jesus … and as we hope someone would do unto us?

At times it may be we who are in need of others to do right by us. It may be we who are in need of others to care for our humanity and dignity and basic human needs, when we are vulnerable of being passed by or trampled underfoot or neglected or kicked out.

The past few weeks we have been exploring the virtues and values that our way of faith calls us to live into and to represent and to advocate for in the world. The need seems especially pressing in this time of strife and division in our country, with contesting visions for the future.

When Jesus said “That which you do to the least of these you do to me,” how is he calling us to live? What does that mean for times such as these? What’s at stake?

Jesus’ parable recounted in Matthew 25:31-46 makes it very clear that what is at stake is not just being nice, or feeling good or virtuous about ourselves.

The nations that do well by this truth find new life, Jesus says. The nations that do not do well by this truth find themselves, you could say, suffering the same hell they have caused others to suffer.

Now, this passage is one of the few that has been used to stoke fear of eternal torment in hell at the hands of an angry God. That’s a misunderstanding that too often has distracted from the actual message of this passage, in which Jesus is unleashing a revolution in ethics into the world.

I need to take a moment to be clear: This is not about eternal punishment in some kind of unending hell realm in the underworld.

One key word here is “aionios.” This means “an era” or “an age,” not “an eternity.” The difference is important: a period of time that has an end, rather than one that never ends.

The other key word that is often translated as “punishment” – “kolasis” – actually means something more like “chastisement,” “correction.” It literally means “pruning.” The difference is important: this isn’t about torture or retribution, but correction. It’s not pleasant, but it’s not permanent, and it’s for the sake of growth and learning. (For a close study of “aionios” and “kolasis” see David Bentley Hart’s seminal translation of the New Testament, pp. 53 & 537-543)

One way to think about this is to remember that Jesus’ famous prayer says, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The “age to come” Jesus envisions is about a state of affairs when the division between the realm of God and the realm of earth erases and the Creator and creation move toward union.

When this happens, the ways we have divided ourselves from the reality of God and the reality of the sacredness of life become painfully clear. We can no longer deny the suffering we have caused, and we can’t run from our accountability for it. At the same time, the ways we have said “yes,” even a little, to ultimate truth become seeds that blossom into glory before the dawning of the Love Supreme.

This is, after all, the kind of growth that most are challenged with and rewarded with when we welcome Christ into our hearts.

Most teachers in the early church were universalists. They believed in universal salvation. In fact, one theologian who advocated for eternal damnation complained about the fact that Christians in his day did not believe in it. Rather, they understood that through Christ all souls – all souls – ultimately would be reunited with the one God whose love is universal. We’re talking about “ultimately”, “in the end” – there may be a process to get there. (See “That All Shall be Saved: Heaven, Hell, & Universal Salvation” by David Bentley Hart).

Visions of people getting their just comeuppance was about giving their souls a chance to let go of their attachment to sin to receive God’s cleansing of the sin-sick soul for a return, in innocent surrender, to love. Whatever chastisement or correction involved is a stage, in a process towards universal union with the Divine.

God’s Love wins in the end. Period.

That’s really good news.

Now, I don’t want any of this to get too abstract. Jesus certainly didn’t.

Jesus always brought it back to the real needs of real people.

“That which you do to the least of these you do to me.”

What does it mean that Jesus knew this was true of him, as the Son of Humanity? What does it mean that Jesus urged us to realize that we are all accountable to this?  

In a very real way, the reality of God unites us all, in our needs, right here and now.

So, if someone is suffering and we deny and dismiss or deepen their need, we’re going to have to taste some of the hell they’re going through.

But if we join with the love of God and show compassion and humanity, we taste some of that heaven on earth. Life and Life Abundant.

Now, in the scenario where the shepherd is separating the sheep from the goats based on what they did or did not do for the least among them in need, the truth is that most of us could fit in either category. Most of us have got in us some “sheep” and some “goat,” times when we have done right by others, and times when we haven’t.

God help us! God have mercy! The good news is, God does have mercy. Thank God. Yet we are still accountable for our choices and actions. So let’s act like it.  

Moreover, we live in a society, we are involved in a society, we participate and are implicated in a society that overall has quite a mixed record when it comes to how it treats its scapegoats and cast-away castes.

Is that important? You bet it is.

Notice how in Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25, the Son of Humanity brings together “all the nations.” It is in fact “the nations” he is sorting out like a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats.

Is this even about personal virtue at all?

Or is Jesus speaking in the great tradition of the Hebrew Prophets before him, who held their people as a nation accountable for the well-being of the least of these among them?

If that’s the case, then – really – God help us!

God have mercy.

The good news is, God does have mercy. Thank God.

But, as Jesus makes clear, we – we ­- are still accountable for our choices and our actions when it comes to how we treat the least among us. So, let’s act like it.

Delivered Sunday, October 27, 2024, by Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg, at the United Church of Christ at Valley Forge. You can watch video of this sermon when it is uploaded here.