Trinity XXVI (observed)

St. Matthew 25.31-46

November 16, 2025

+INJ+

“I think I’m going to hell.” A text like today’s can provoke such a thought.

One wonders if the invention of purgatory was in part to deal with texts like today’s. I don’t meet the standard of the sheep, but perhaps if I can work off my sins in purgatory, then I might stand a chance.

But there is no purgatory. It’s taught nowhere in the Bible. It’s taught nowhere in the Apocrypha. It’s taught nowhere in the first few centuries of Christianity. The Lord Jesus presents two stark realities – the sheep and the goats, the blessed and the cursed, the eternal kingdom or the everlasting fire, punishment or life.

It seems to be entirely based on works. The goats are condemned, Jesus says, because

I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.

Indeed, Jesus demands a certain life from His disciples.

“Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.” “Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” The works Jesus identifies today fall under the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not murder.” The Small Catechism explains, “We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.”

So, if we just feed the poor, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned, we’ll be among the righteous, right? Those who go to hell simply weren’t good enough. But if it’s just about being a nice person, what’s the point of being a Christian? Other people do nice things.

Something else must be going on here.

You see, the standard Jesus sets earlier in the Gospel of Matthew is not do some good, be mostly good, or even be really really good. He says, “Be perfect.” “You shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” If you look at a woman with lust, you’ve already committed adultery. If you call your neighbor a fool, you’ve already committed murder. Unless you do good to your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, bless those who curse you, give away your money in secret, fast without talking about it, commend all your worries to God, and judge no one … unless you have done all these things, and not broken the least of the commandments, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

That’s not my opinion. It’s what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is driving us to this self-assessment: “I think I’m going to hell.”

Now in the chapter after today’s Gospel, Jesus institutes His Supper “for the forgiveness of sins.” So how can everything hang on your works? It doesn’t fit. Either Jesus has terribly contradicted Himself, or there’s something else at work here.

Listen again to the words of Jesus: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Who are Jesus’ “brethren”? Sometimes, “brother” just means a male sibling. Sometimes it means all Christians. But in Matthew’s Gospel, we see another frequent use of the word “brethren.” When Jesus rose from the dead, He told the women at the tomb, “Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.” These “brethren” are the Apostles. Then, just before His Ascension, Jesus says to His brethren the Apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus’ brethren, then, are those charged to preach the Gospel to all nations. In Matthew’s Gospel, those who baptize and teach the nations are Jesus’ brothers.

Jesus had said earlier, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” In today’s reading, all nations are brought before Jesus in judgment. How will they be judged? They will be judged according to how they received Jesus’ brethren. Did they receive the preaching about Jesus? Did they receive the pastors who invited them to repent and be baptized? Or did they ignore them and despise God’s Word?

This isn’t about special treatment for the pastor. It’s about special attention to the Words of Jesus.

Jesus says to the preachers He sends, “He who hears you, hears Me, and he who rejects you, rejects Me.” Elsewhere Jesus says,

Whoever receives you receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

In other words, those who give to the Apostles – these “little ones,” the “least of these My brethren” – whoever gives to them even a cup of cold water will receive a reward. The cup of cold water is not a good work to gain entrance into heaven; it is a sign that the hearer believes the good news of Jesus preached by His little brothers. Those who believe, do what the Word says: share all good things with his teacher. Your gifts to the church, your support of the preaching of God’s Word, indicates the value you place on it.

The minister’s job is to get out of the way and let Jesus speak and work. A pastor who tries to make himself the authority is making a mockery of God and blaspheming Him. It is God’s service, not the pastor’s.

Pastor Hoham and I are nothing; we are the “little ones.” But Jesus says that when you receive the Gospel from us, you are receiving Him. That’s why it doesn’t matter which of us baptizes you, which of us communes you, which of us visits you. It’s Jesus who baptizes you, Jesus who visits you, Jesus who communes you, Jesus who saves you – and it will be Jesus who raises your dead body from the earth and speaks Good News to you at the judgment. The men who are the pastors are nothing – but in that office, Christ has placed His promise.

Now, if you go about your day refusing to be kind, abusing others, yelling at your wife, nagging your husband, defrauding your clients, ogling women, gossiping about your neighbor, be warned: you must repent. God calls you to a new and holy life. When you have the thought, “I think I’m going to hell,” that’s your conscience driving you to confession.

But when you have done all that is commanded you, say, “I am a poor unworthy servant, I only did my duty.” Do good works, but don’t count on them. Everything depends on Jesus and His mercy. Trust Him. Trust the gifts He gives you through the “little ones” whom He has ordained.

Receive the gifts with repentant joy, and wait for those happy words which will be spoken to you at the last day: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” +INJ+