Meatfare Sunday; Sunday of the Dread Judgment / St. Porphyrios of Gaza / 1 Cor. 8.8-9.2; Matthew 25.31-46.
F/S/HS. Brothers and sisters, this morning is the 4th of five Sundays leading up to the beginning of Great Lent, what historically our church came to name as The Sunday of the Dread Judgment.
Yes dear ones, there is going to be a mighty judgment day a comin, a day where you and I, where everyone, where—in the words of this morning’s Gospel—all the nations will be gathered before our Lord and separated into two categories, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. On our Lord’s right hand will be placed the righteous ones. And on His left hand, the unrighteous.
That this judgment day is a day of dread is to say that those assigned to the left will hear our Lord say to them these utterly awful words: Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. That this day is a day of heavenly joy is to say that those whom our Lord assigns to His right will hear instead: Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
I want to pause right here. One of the great mysteries in our Christian faith, a mystery that my puny mind struggles to comprehend, is that God’s judgment of those who will go to that everlasting fire is inextricably related to God’s love. The very nature of God is love. Nothing that God does is done apart from that love. It is indeed a great mystery that God’s love allows for some to end their lives living in the torment of everlasting fire, their tongue forever parched and burning as was the tongue of the rich man, while poor Lazarus lay peacefully tucked in the bosom of Abraham, across that great divide (Luke 16.19ff).
Great Lent is then a season of sobriety and self-reflection, a time to assess deep matters of the heart towards sizing up one’s life in preparation for this dread judgment day. Where such self-reflection yields repentance and contrition for having not abided in the love and commandments of God, Great Lent is a season set aside by our Church to aid us in amending our ways before God, to strive to abide in God such that one of these days, at our judgment day, we might hear those glorious words: Blessed of My Father are you. Come, inherit His Kingdom.
But let’s step back and ask ourselves what our Lord’s Disciples heard from the lips of their Master about this day of great judgment. Why historically has our church found this morning so significant that it forever marked the second Sunday leading up to the start of Great Lent as the Sunday of the Dread Judgment?
Our Lord’s entrance into this world, His Divine Incarnation as the Christ Child, can be captured in one word—humility. God humbled Himself; He set aside His divine attributes and assumed our humanity. His life as Jesus the Christ was a life of meekness, a propounding of peace to all, a life of sacrificial love, a love that smashed cultural boundaries that separated people into designated categories of those who are in and those who are out.
This same humble Jesus shared with His Disciples that He would have to die for the salvation of all humanity, that He would then rise again, that His Spirit—the Holy Spirit—would come and be His presence living within us; and that He would one day return to judge all the world.
And so it was that shortly before His death, shortly before Golgotha, Jesus sat down with His Disciples on the Mount of Olives to teach them about things leading up to His coming again, and teach them about that day of God’s dread judgment. Tell us, when will these things be? His Disciples asked their Master. And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?
For the next one-and-a-half chapters Jesus delivers a long monologue, a monologue that concludes with this morning’s Gospel. In that monologue Jesus shares three key themes.
First, there will be many sorrows as the judgment day nears; sorrows will abound, including sorrows in the lives of the faithful. Second, there will be the Great Tribulation, a time of trial and temptations amidst these sorrows. And third, Jesus will return in glory as the Son of Man.
Repeatedly our Lord underscores to His Disciples the need for watchfulness and stewardship along the way, stewardship defined as works of mercy and love for those in need of mercy and love. When exactly all of this will happen, and a chronology for how it will unfold, are noticeably absent from our Lord’s monologue.
And then, finally, we come to this morning’s Gospel, words from Jesus that are the majestic climax to His long discourse. Different than earlier in His discourse, where He spoke in parables, now He gives a narrative of the universal judgment that will happen to every person.
And it is hear dear ones that a rather seismic shift takes place, something that our Lord’s Disciples had never before witnessed. The utter humility that characterized our Lord’s life prior to His Cross gives way a different Jesus, a Jesus who portrays Himself as the Son of Man who will one day come in all of His glory, who will gather you and I and all the world around His judgment seat, in preparation to be assigned either a heavenly crown or a parched and burning tongue.
This great Judgment Day will be like none other. Never has the world known a day such as this will be. The heavens will open up. All of the angels will gather around, to witness God’s judgment; including our guardian angel, who will have a scroll upon which is narrated the events of our lives.
Our Lord’s first coming was as the Son of Man in humility, to serve and to die that we might have life. But on this day our Lord will manifest as heavenly glory, as a mighty King who judges all the nations.
And what dear ones will be the standard of our Lord’s judgment? Upon what basis, what norm, what criteria will our Lord assign us either to His left or to His right? The answer is utterly crystal clear—that standard is uncalculated mercy towards those in need of that mercy.
Time and again our Scriptures repeat that we are saved by our faith. But here on this judgment day it is the works produced by that faith that are emphasized. In other words, a saving faith that does not bear righteous works is no faith at all. Absent works of mercy, we make a mockery of our faith. We reveal ourselves to be whitewashed tombs.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor. 13.1-2).
One of the most shocking and sobering messages in this morning’s Gospel is about those who thought they were amongst the righteous, who numbered themselves as worthy, only to discover on this Judgment Day that they are neither righteous nor worthy, that they have instead been consigned to the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
In other words, how easy to fool ourselves by thinking that our faith in God is faith as God wants our faith to be. The evidence of faith in God, on this day of dread judgment, is the evidence of uncalculated mercy to those in need of your mercy.
And who are those in need? Foremost, says our church fathers and mothers, they are our fellow Christians who are suffering in some way and therefore in need of help. Additionally, they are anyone who is in need, who is suffering, who is poor and hungry and thirsty, who is a stranger in need of hospitality. They are those who need clothing, who are sick, or who are in prison.
Assuredly I say to you, Jesus answers those who thought they were meeting the needs of such persons, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. But to those who truly—with uncalculated mercy—meet the needs of those who suffer, these persons are judged by the Son of Man to be worthy of crowns of grace.
Dear ones, as Great Lent draws near, let us size ourselves up accordingly. For all of you children, how are you doing with treating your parents, your siblings, your friends with uncalculated mercy? Because how you treat your parents, your siblings, your friends, is how you treat Me, says Jesus.
For we young adults and adults, our Lord gives us countless times each day where someone who is in need is standing right before us. This moment is a moment of choice, where we can choose to ignore their need, or meet their need. Where we ignore that need, we ignore Jesus. Our Gospel this morning is crystal clear—That person before you is Jesus, right in front of you! Where we meet their need, we minister to the Lord of the universe. Where we fail to meet their need, we turn Jesus away—and will be condemned!
A day of judgment is coming, dear ones. Such a day is unavoidable. All of us will be judged. Not one of us is exempt. The real question is: How we will be judged. Will we be cast into the fiery darkness? Or will be blessed by our Lord to inherit His kingdom.
And so let us as we approach Holy and Great Lent have keen eyes and a gracious heart, to watch out for those in need of uncalculated mercy. And now abides these three: faith, hope, and love, said the Apostle Paul; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13.13). F/S/HS.
