The Pastor’s Pen

The Good, the Bad, and the Uncertain

It’s been many years since I’ve watched one of those old western movies starring Clint Eastwood, but I did enjoy them back in the day. They weren’t “high” cinema, but they were entertaining to a tweenager. I remember very little about any of the films. Concerning one, however, – “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” I remember asking my father which one of the three main characters fit which title role. To this day I am not sure of the answers or how they were derived from the story. In any event, I’ve been thinking about good and bad lately. (I long ago accepted Ray Stevens’ view that “Everything is beautiful, in its own way.”) Anyway, I’ve been thinking of good and bad, and who may be which and why.

When thinking about who may be the good guys and who may be the bad guys, (and there seems to be a lot of talk about that these days) I think we should probably look to Jesus’ teaching in the gospel.   Specifically, I recommend we all give Matthew 25 a good read followed by a prayerful think or two. If you’re not a chapter and verse person that’s okay. I know more Bible verses and stories than I know chapter and verse citations for them. I think knowing the story and having an idea about what it is teaching is probably way more important than being able to tell someone on what page it can be found. So, Mathew 25 (the last part of it, really, is the story Jesus tells about the final judgment. It’s the one where he separates people into two groups as a shepherd separates sheep and goats, presumably a skill shepherds would need sometimes. Jesus welcomes one group of people into the kingdom provided for them since the creation. The other group Jesus casts out into eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

The interesting bit in this story is that neither those who are welcomed into bliss, nor those cast out into eternal torment seem to have the slightest premonition about which of these sentences will fall to them. Each group asks Jesus, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and thirsty and feed you and provide            refreshment; or when did we find you naked or imprisoned and clothe you and visit you?” Jesus’ answer, of course, is, “Whenever you did these things for the least of my brothers and sister, you did them for me.” And the opposite, “Whenever you did NOT do these things for the least of these, you did not do them for me.”

In my experience, very few people think they are the bad guys in life. But in the story Jesus tells, neither those who receive reward, nor those who receive punishment knew which fate they might be headed for. What are we to make of this? I would say that the story is not Jesus telling people exactly what will happen. Rather, the story is Jesus’ teaching caution in both our judgment of others AND our self-assessment or judgment of own deeds. He is telling us that it is good to treat others, especially the “least of these” well, for in that way we help make the blessed kingdom and are welcome citizens thereof. To ignore or deny good to the “least of these” thwarts the coming of the blessed kingdom to others and, ultimately to ourselves.

Jesus’ story is a caution. None of us can know for certain whether we’ll be sorted to the left or the right. What we can do in our uncertainty is to have faith that the Good Shepherd who does the sorting will get it right, and we can tune our actions to work in favor of those Jesus calls least among us. Another thought I remember that helps with the uncertainty is this: The good that I do is not enough to change the world; but the world needs all the good which I can do.

Do the good you can and trust in God’s grace as shown in Jesus Christ,