You Did It to Me
In a case of nearly divine coincidence the article below arrived in a newsletter I read, and it's not behind a paywall! (All though, I highly recommend signing up as a supporter to The Guardian!) It's a long article and it's not required reading to get the message of my rant today. But, oh my, it's worth the read. It'll make some of my comments later in this article and this series make much sense.
Julia Carrie Wong
In my last post, in this series, we looked at Jesus' dim view of those who loved gold more than, apparently, anything. And he especially was ticked of at folks who make up stupid rules for others that you then get ignore, thereby making those folks miserable. Having not read this passage in full for a lot of years, I was stunned with the intensity of the diatribe. It was, by almost any measure, brutal.
In this post we move on to Matthew 25:31-46 and, in some ways, it makesMatthew 23 look downright calm. This passage is, however, one of the biggest indictments of the "empathy is a bug that will destroy us" worldview that we see described so starkly in The Guardian article above. How right-wing Christians have "forgotten" this passage I'll never understand. That's not completely true. Having been raised in a fundamentalist, mainly literalist, religion, and one that touted Bible study, we were actually not taught fairly large swaths of the Scripture.
If you doubt this concept of losing big chunks of the Bible, stop for a moment and read this passage about Lot and his daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It only takes a minute to read but this story didn't come to my attention until well into my adulthood. Imagine my surprise! However, it's been around for millennia. You don't like what God says…ignore it and for sure don't teach it to anyone.
With that story in the Bible, I'm not sure why the Bible hasn't been banned by the book-banners yet. And, by the way, there are plenty more of this kind of stories in the Old Testament. This one is not unique!
Ok, enough of my rant for now. Here's the passage for today. The paragraphs divisions are mine, just to make reading it a little easier to read. My comments are in parentheses.
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Matthew 25:31-48
Revised Standard Version
31 “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. (This passage always put the fear of you-know-who in me back in the day. Right or left. Heaven or hell. This is what it all comes down to. Not a gray area in sight.)
34 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? 38 And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? 39 And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ (Any ambiguity here? In doing good, even to strangers, you do it to him. These verses still give me a lump in my throat. Having been on the receiving end of gifts like from people who believed this part of the Bible, it's always moving.)
41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ 46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”. (No words)
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I just don't see any way to sneak out of this. This is Jesus at his most clear. You love me by loving those I send into your life. And, if you despise, mistreat, or even just ignore those you see in need in your life, you've despised, mistreated or refused to help God. I'm not sure any theory I've heard Elon or his supporters espouse can relieve you, as an avowed follower of Jesus, from this rather unambiguous obligation.
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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