The trajectory of Sheep and Goats
In my last blog, I talked about the trajectories our lives take. Just as there is a law of momentum well-known in Newtonian mechanics (“an object in motion tends to remain in motion until acted upon by an outside force”), a similar principle applies in life. The choices we make and things we do in life produce certain results (often predictably) that arise as a logical consequence of what we have done. Many times, of course, actions have unintended consequences, but those consequences still arise as a result of the action we have taken. In Hinduism, this is reflected in the notion of karma. In the Bible, this notion is reflected in passages such as the following: “those who plough iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same” (Job 4:8); “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,” (Proverbs 22:8) “they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7); “Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love” (Hosea 10:12). Jesus specifically referred to the direct relationship between a person’s character and their actions when he said, “You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit” (Matthew 7:16-18).
Naturally, our lives are actually much more like a tennis or volleyball game, with many forces and circumstances beyond our control acting upon us. But the question that confronts us directly is this: “In that realm of life in which I am in control, to what end will I direct my life?” A soccer team, for instance, heads the ball downfield with one purpose in mind: direct the ball into the goal. It will be bounced back and forth many times, but the singular focus of the team is to get the ball into the goal box.
The same can be said for larger groups, churches and society as a whole. Just like the soccer team, an entire society develops a trajectory based upon the accumulation of individual choices and actions made by its members.
From time to time, prophetic voices appear in the Bible to warn Israel about the direction towards which it is heading based upon the actions taken by its leaders and inhabitants. Implicit in these warnings is the principle that a course correction can be made.
This same sense of trajectory and accountability for one’s actions is found in Matthew 25:31-46. In this passage, Jesus speaks about an accounting the nations (or peoples) of the world will be asked to give of their actions over time. Jesus says that the Son of Man will come and separate out the nations as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The nations will be separated out according to some very specific criteria: whether or not they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger (read: foreigner or sojourner), visited the prisoner. Curiously, there is no mention of believing certain doctrines, baptism, membership in a certain church or any of the concerns that separate one religious group from another. The only criteria in the words of Jesus is how we treat one another, and particularly, those who are most vulnerable in our midst.
Jesus provides this story as a prophetic commentary on the choices and actions that lie before us as a society. It is like a coach sitting down at half-time with the team and saying, “If you keep kicking the ball they way you have been, we are going to lose. If you start playing the game differently, we can win.”
Frederick Buechner puts it this way:
Just before the final benediction, the New Testament ends with the prayer, "Come, Lord Jesus!" When he came the first time, he came so unobtrusively that except for Mary and Joseph and a handful of shepherds, nobody much knew or cared. But he says he will come a second time. Who knows how will come, or when, or where. He says himself, "Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." People who in search of a timetable try to crack the Book of Revelation like a code are on a wild goose chase. People who claim that all who join their sect will be saved and all others lost are wrong. The ones who will be saved, Jesus says, are the ones who feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and the prisoners. If you love, in other words, you're in. If you don't, you're out. It doesn’t seem to matter to him whether you're a Jehovah's Witness, a Jesuit, or a Jew. In one of the more outlandish of his outlandish images, he says he will come like a thief in the night. We must be ready at all times therefore. We can never be sure when he will break into the world like a house, when he will break into our lives. (Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark, p. 101)
We have a future that lies open before us that is as yet unwritten. We can determine what that future will look like by the actions we undertake now. There is a trajectory to our lives, individually and corporately. What is so great about Christianity is that it proclaims that the future is in our hands, and we have a choice in how it will unfold. But we are not left to our own devices. We have a map of how to get to the Promised Land. If only we will follow it...
Comments
Post a Comment