A Good Heart

Matthew 25:37-40; Deuteronomy 15:7-11

The character of a nation should be judged by the care received by the neediest of all. This simple examination reveals the heart of a people, its formative ideals, and the hopes carried by its communities. 

At least, that is what the Bible says.

A theme that runs through the Law and the Prophets, a theme picked up by Jesus in his preaching, teaching, and presence within the world, and a mandate indicated throughout the epistles by the earliest missionaries is that care for the poor—the proverbial “Least of These”—is not simply a nice, voluntary action done by people with good intent, but is the absolute core of a people who would claim to be formed by God. 

Nowhere does this theme get greater illustration than in one of Jesus’ final parables—the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats—a parable that is so very familiar to us that we really do not pay attention to its details. 

In the end, Christ will come making a final assessment of the human enterprise. The criteria is nothing that any guru of success proclaims from the self-help aisle, nor from the latest corporate model for team building and marketing strategy. No, the criteria is the care for the Least of These—the poor, the lost, the helpless, the prisoners, the forgotten, the dependent, the broken—how these people fare will be how all people are graded on their alignment with the principles of God.

If we really listen to the parable, it becomes one of the most frightening stories Jesus ever told.

The really scary point is that neither goats nor sheep will have any idea of who they are in the eyes of God. That runs completely counter to the latest prosperity gospel—you will always know that you are the blessed by God because your success will be manifest to every person who sees you! No, the goats will follow their self-fixated way in utter oblivion (which really comes as no surprise at all when you consider a self-fixated life—there is no room for anyone else anyway); but so will the sheep even as they live self-sacrificially, generously, and charitably within the human community (but, again, that comes as no surprise because such a life never really considers itself or the material gains present, just doing the right thing to whomever is met). But, the parable warns, God is forever taking stock of us, noting us, and noting what we are doing within the human community. Grades are coming!

Now, to help us out, I coupled the parable to a text from the Law. We need to look and listen to that word, too.

Chapter 15 is what I call an “Oh, wow!” portion of scripture—as you read through it, its power and profundity are simply overwhelming, leaving you with an, “Oh, wow” on your lips.

The power of this text is that it gives us a model for society that will embed the ideals of Christ’s love into the very fabric of that society. Look at our verses this morning—what leaps from them is a call—yes, it reads as an admonishment—don’t do this, but do this—but it says something wonderfully hopeful—if we want to be whom God made us to be, approach the world with three direct outlooks and responses to it—be openhearted; be openhanded; and be openminded. Now, of course, those three things need unpacking.

To be openhearted is allow love to lead into all encounters with other people. Pause before encounters and interactions to remind yourself that you are meeting a child of God. This person before you was made by the God who made you. This person was formed by love. This person was blessed with all the attributes with which God blessed you. Therefore, they are a walking treasure—act accordingly.

To be openhanded is to recognize the above paragraph applies to the neediest person you meet. All the same blessings are present, but something has veiled them, emptied certain potentials, and seemingly interrupted the resolution of the promises held in being created. Therefore, they need help—not grudging help, help formed by love to heal, to restore, and to redeem. A person in need may no longer feel the presence of God; so we are to become that presence for them as we give our help. God will be with us to make it effective.

To be openminded is to restrain the all-too-human impulse to meet someone with judgment first. A member of our congregation endured a break-in in which someone ransacked the house top to bottom, but as they wreckage was sorted, it became clear they were looking for things to sell quickly. Judgment immediately condemns the thief; what Jesus calls us to do, though, is think about why someone would be that desperate for cash that all conscience was overridden by want. Addiction? Debt? Hunger? Sheer brokenness? Mental health? Yes, the thief needs to be held accountable (you don’t do that); but we also need to be openminded enough to then meet the thief not with a basic impulse to throw them on the existential trash heap, but work to redeem them, the world, and the victim so it becomes less likely to be repeated. Vengeance redeems no one, and in many cases, simply compounds the violence.

So, in these three opportunities we find our hope—even a national hope. Practice the three openings—heart, hand, and mind—and we can find ourselves become more sheeplike everyday.