I was reading the Parable of the Sheep and Goats again (from Matthew 25). It's a Parable that most of us who've heard about judgment and hell have heard quite a few times, I'm sure. But something jumped out at me in the parable.
The King puts the sheep on his right hand and says this to them:
"Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation 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, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."The sheep are shocked. Consulting their memory, they don’t ever recall seeing the King on earth:
"Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"The King replies with the famous words:
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."Here's what I'd like to note about this parable.
What's interesting to me is that the sheep don't recognize Christ in any verbal way.
There's no doctrinal checklist that’s used to make sure every sheep has
his/her theological ducks in proper order. Instead, everything’s behavioral. Performative. Non-verbal.
In fact, the confession is flipped!
What
is salvific isn't our confession, recognition, intellectual affirmation
of Jesus. According to the Parable, we never see him when he’s in
front of us.
What's salvific is Jesus' confession, affirmation, recognition, of us! When Christ witnesses our lives, he confesses who we are!
"Come, you who are blessed by my Father."
Would that this were true of every Christian.