“Following Jesus Together” Matthew 25:31-46 by Joe Ellis — July 26, 2026

This sermon is continuing the theme of exploring what it means to follow Christ. Let’s look more closely at the passage.

Jesus offers his listeners a parable of judgment about sheep and goats. He takes us to the day, when he has come into his glory on his throne and the nations shall assemble before him on his throne. Jesus takes us to the moment when justice shall be meted for both what the nations have done and what they have left undone.

Now the way Jesus tells this story doesn’t emerge from a vacuum. Jesus paints this picture of judgment in a way that is in step with how a great many prophets who came and told their own parables of judgment. Most clearly, Jesus is paying homage to the prophet Daniel, who also told a parable of judgment which he saw in a dream.

In his dream, Daniel saw four different beasts coming up out the sea.  Each beast represents a different King or nation. These nations weren’t goats, but vicious beasts — the second beast had ribs in its mouth and was told, “Go, eat your fill of flesh." Yet it was the last beast emerging from the sea that was truly horrible — it crushed and devoured its victims, making war against the people of God, blaspheming the Most High God. It’s after the fourth nation (or beast) that the one like a Son of Man takes the stage.  Just as the beasts represent different nations, the Son of Man represents Israel.  In Daniel’s vision, the Son of Man is enthroned by God, given authority and sovereign power over all nations and peoples. When the Son of Man comes onto His glorious throne, He pronounces the justice of judgment over the beasts that terrorized the people of God. Jesus is clearly taking a book from the pages of Daniel. Both describe the Son of Man exercising judgment over the nations. In both, nations are depicted as creatures who have fallen short of the demands of mercy and justice.

Jesus may also have been taking a page from the First book of Enoch, an apocalyptic Hebrew writing.  Enoch tells of a vision also of animals and judgment. The animals in Enoch also represent different nations, and the Lord judges these nations based on how they treat Israel — Significantly, Israel appears as sheep within that vision. Enoch’s vision is quite similar to Daniel’s vision —  in both, the animal nations are judged based on the harm they inflict on Israel.  And it's here Jesus’ offers a twist in how the story’s told. In Jesus’ telling, the nations are not judged based on how they treat Israel — they are judged based on how they treat the hungry, thirsty, the lonely, the sick and imprisoned. Isn’t that telling — for Jesus, the only criteria by which a nation will be judged is based on how it treats the poorest of the poor? 

But notice that in Daniel and Enoch the animals represent different nations.  In our passage, Jesus says, “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”  Most versions translate Jesus saying: “he will separate the people one from another…,” but Jesus doesn’t say people, he just says “them”.  Maybe it’s not a big deal, but for me when you replace the word ‘them’ with ‘people,’ you lose the sense that we are talking about the judgment of nations, instead it sounds quite a bit more individualistic.  Remember, Jesus says, “All the nations will be gathered before him, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”  Jesus is talking about separating the nations one from the other. 

Jesus says that there are basically two types of nations — goats and sheep.  And there are some big differences between Goats and Sheep.  Goats are sent off to eternal punishment.  Sheep, on the other hand, inherit the Kingdom.  This gives us a clue as to the identity of the sheep.  The sheep are shown to be citizens of the Kingdom of God.  The sheep are shown to be subjects of the King, who is Jesus.  Jesus is using the symbol of sheep, the sheep who are always a symbol for Israel, yet Jesus takes this symbol and reshapes it.  Here the sheep are subjects of the King, and that King is Jesus.  The sheep are those who have been serving Jesus by serving the “least of these." The sheep represents the nation which has allegiance to King Jesus.  Of course, the sheep are that collective known as the Church. 

Once again, notice that which distinguishes the sheep from the goats is the way that they care for the least of these, the ones Jesus identifies as His brothers and sisters.  It is in feeding the hungry and thirsty, in welcoming the stranger, in clothing the naked, in caring for the sick and the imprisoned that the sheep are shown to be sheep.  In their neglect of those same people, the goats are revealed as goats. 

Here is where I think it is helpful to say that the sheep and goats are nations as we think about following Jesus — the emphasis here is on the behaviour of the flock as a whole.  Jesus is describing the types of things that the flock does — satisfying the hungry and thirsty, welcoming the stranger, caring for the sick, visiting the imprisoned.  These are the activities that characterize the flock. For me, that recognition does a few things when we think about following Jesus — first it helps me to recognize that caring for the least of these is not primarily an individual responsibility.  This is the calling of the church at large, and we do this together.  When you look at the activity of the church at large, it is easy to see how beautifully the flock is behaving as Jesus anticipated.  The flock of Christ welcomes refugees, fights against sex trafficking, volunteers at local camps and soup kitchens, helps the poor and marginalized find meaningful employment, offers hospitality to lonely people, visits those in prison, cares for the sick.  I could go on and on but you don’t need me to.  There is such an abundance of beautiful stories of how the flock is behaving exactly as Jesus anticipated we would. No one does it all, but each sheep does within the context of its local flock within the context of the world-wide church. And you, the congregation of Telkwa Community Church are certainly doing your own part in attending to the needs of the ‘least of these’.  Again, not serving as though you were the only sheep in the game, but doing your part.  For me, this recognition that we follow Jesus as part of the flock relieves me of the pressure of needing to check every box on the list. It relieves me of the guilt that happens when a box is not checked.  We, the Church at large, are working together. Together, the flock can accomplish far more than any one sheep could ever accomplish alone.  This makes room for seasons of activity and seasons of rest.  This makes room for discerning God’s particular call on each of our lives — discerning how God is calling each of us to serve the least of these according to the particular on your or my life.  We don’t need to be all things for all people, we just need to do our part in the flock.

But of course, each of us does need to discern how we are to follow Jesus within the flock. So let’s think a bit more locally on how God calls us to follow him in caring, in clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. Let’s start very local by remembering that each of us was born naked and hungry. Each of us was born utterly helpless to feed, clothe, and take care of ourselves. Remember that we are only here because someone, often (but not always) our parents nurtured us in the very ways Jesus describes in this passage. It is our caregiver’s constant provision of nurture, the thankless work of feeding, clothing, disciplining, nursing us when we’re sick — it is these things that shape us into humans who can stand on our own two feet and offer this care to others. It is worth naming that neglecting that duty would result in creating the very people Jesus calls us to care for — the naked, the hungry, the sick. In this passage, Jesus calls us to follow him in being faithful caregivers to those he calls us to extend care — and this certainly includes the people in front of us who need to be fed, clothed and taken care of. This includes people in our lives like our kids and our aging parents.

And this is one reason we come together as a church — to support each other in this work of nurture. In the church’s baby blessing, we covenant together to join in this work of nurturing each other. We covenant to support this child:

- by teaching the gospel of God’s love,

- by being an example of Christian faith and character, and

- by giving the strong support of God’s family in fellowship, prayer, and service…

In providing a loving, caring, nurturing presence to each other, to our families, to those who are not our kids, to those who are not our parents or to those who are not even grandparents — we are supporting each other in the work of nurturing to which Jesus calls us  — feeding, clothing, visiting and healing. And as we participate in this ongoing work of nurturing one another through small groups and potlucks, through expressing an interest in each other’s kids, in youth group, in bringing meals for each other, in visiting each other — we create a community in which it's very difficult to become destitute, neglected when sick or isolated when in trouble, to become hungry you have an empty fridge.

That was the witness that came across so powerfully in Danielle’s memorial service last Saturday. This sister of ours came in a time of real need, and this community came around offering support, meals, prayer, encouragement, loved her and loved her family. Church is a structure that helps Sheep come together and together take care of the least of these. That’s one of a church’s functions. And if we’re honest, I think each of us have a sense that we are not far from being the least of these.

In witnessing some of the heartache that has visited our community of faith, we know that we are not far from a place of deep need of care.  We are here because we recognize our need for one another’s care, and to offer one another care. We need this community of sheep to come around us and nurture us when we’re lonely, or sick, or in trouble, or struggling. The church is a structure which helps us come together and live out this calling.

But in saying all this, we, as part of this nation of sheep, must not lose sight of the strong outward call of this passage. The call to care for the stranger. Jesus intends us to go out to those who, for one reason or another, are in desperate need of nurture — people we don’t know. He calls us to go to the stranger who cannot clothes themselves, who is sick with no one to take care of them, who is bound and captive, whether in jail, whether by the cycles of historical trauma, whether by poverty. Jesus calls His sheep to move beyond only caring for the people in our own circles and to offer care and compassion to those not in our fold. He calls us to move out beyond our boundaries and offer care to the least of these — to those most different form us. This is central to following Christ.

In what way is this central to our call to follow Christ? — this is perhaps the most important point I am about to make. Caring for the stranger, the least of these, is following Christ not simply because Scripture tells us to do this— although in Scripture Jesus does exhort us to care for the “least of these” again and again. Caring for the least of these is following Jesus in a far deeper way than simply obeying his commands. Jesus tells us that He, the King of Glory, the Son of Man so identifies with the least of these that anything we do for the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, the sick — we do to him. Let that sink in.

If we are to follow Jesus, we must go to where he is — which He tells us is in “the least of these." In a very mysterious way, the poor are a sacrament —  they are the ones in whom Jesus clothes Himself. So if we want to follow Jesus, we must follow him to where he is: which He tells us is in the least of these.

This is perhaps no better illustrated in the story of St. Martin of Tour, who lived in the fifth century. He was a Roman Officer and a Christian during a time when it was deadly to be one. One day, a beggar came up to him, naked, shivering and cold. Martin, saw him and was moved with compassion. He took his cloak, his red officer’s cloak, he cut in half and wrapped it around the poor man who gave him thanks and went on his way. That night Martin had a dream. In the dream Jesus appeared to Martin. Jesus was wrapped in that half cloak Martin had given to the beggar. And Martin said, “Lord if I had known it was you, I’d have given you the whole cloak.” And Jesus said, “Martin, it's always me.

So, sisters and brothers, let us seek the face of Jesus together, as we serve one another, as we care for “the least of these.”