June 9, 2013 Page 1 of 5 Follower: A Christ-Follower is a Protector Biblical Text: Matthew 25:31-40 Dr. Michael F. Gardner, Senior Pastor Old Mission United Methodist Church, Fairway, KS. I borrowed one of the props our kids will use in Bible School as they learn about the parallels between the Jedi of Star Wars and the followers of Jesus. Oh, you don t recognize it? It s a light saber. I know it really is a pool noodle. My grandkids call it a pool bopper for obvious reasons. But if you use your imagination, which children possess in larger measure than most of us who are adults, you can see how it might be transformed into a stand-in for the belt mounted laser that the Jedi used to protect people from the forces of evil. That s pretty cool. Whatever your age is, you really ought to think about joining us for Bible School, and bringing your kids and grandkids. It is going to be a lot of fun. I just noticed this week that the first two letters of Jesus and the first two letters of disciple make up the word Je-di, until someone pointed out to me that would really be Gee-di which didn t sound nearly so cool! OK - so much for your pastor stretching a metaphor just a little too far! What isn t too far a stretch are the four Biblical characteristics of following Jesus in this sermon series, that we re also teaching in Bible School that disciples of Jesus are students, peacemakers, protectors and servants. I have been wrestling all week with the image of a follower of Jesus as a protector. At first I thought, maybe I just don t understand what a protector is. So I did what my parents taught, me, I looked it up in the dictionary - and it says a protector is One who, or that which, defends or shields from injury, evil, oppression, etc.; a defender; a guardian; a patron. The word protector, in that sense, first stirred up in me all kinds of superhero images, like Superman, who leaps small buildings in a single bound. Or other comic book heroes, like Spiderman, Ironman, like that!
June 9, 2013 Page 2 of 5 I suppose that s because I am still a kid at heart who never quite forgave my mother for throwing away all those first edition comics I collected as a kid. I could purchase a lot of things on my can t afford list if she saved them! But, we can t all be superheroes. So that didn t really work for me. And then I thought of all the ways we protect our own stuff, and family and how important that is to us. We have surge protectors for our electronics, security systems for our houses, alarms on our cars, insurance policies and retirement savings, and still most of us don t feel very safe and secure. None of those things are bad, I do all that and so do most of you. But Jesus never told us to just look out for our own family and own security. Instead, he said in Luke 6:32, If you only take care of those who love you, what credit do you deserve for that. Even sinners do the same. (Luke 6:32) The world tells us to look out for ourselves, but Jesus calls us to put other s needs in front of our own, to protect those who think no one cares. It finally dawned on me, that a disciple, a follower, a protector is one who cares. And that does work for me. More importantly it worked for Jesus. Matthew 5, which we looked at last week, records the first words of the first sermon of Jesus. Our text from Matthew 25 this week has the last words of the last sermon of Jesus. There is remarkable consistency in his teachings. In Matthew 5:3, his first words were, Blessed are the poor In our text from Matthew 25:40 he said, Whatever you did for one of the least of these you did for me. And Jesus restatement in Matthew 25:45 is even clearer: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Theologians and Biblical scholars are clear that Jesus had an agenda on behalf of those they have called: the least, the last and the lost. And Matthew 25 is one of those texts that make this clear. This text is central to the Bible s understanding of Jesus message and it makes it crystal clear what it means to follow him. But it isn t easy.
June 9, 2013 Page 3 of 5 The scene he paints in his final sermon is one of the final judgment: When the Son of Man comes in his glory all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 25:30-31) But his judgment here is not a hellfire and brimstone sermon about heaven and hell. It s much more practical, more down to earth. It is about what really is the truth, what actually has transpired in our human behavior and in all our relationships. Since this is the last message of Jesus before his death, it is though he were saying, If you forget the other things I did and said, please remember my final message. And what is his final message? According to this text, his message is that there is an eternity of difference in people. And the final question, the one essential question by which we all are measured, is really a surprising one. I say surprising, because you can find all kinds of sermons and doctrines about what you and I have to believe or do in order to be saved, to get to heaven, in order to make it in by the skin of our teeth. Most go far beyond Paul s answer from Ephesians 2:8, It is by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8) But that is not Jesus focus here that wasn t his question. He embodied that grace Paul later talked and taught about when he was with us. He welcomed tax collectors and sinners, fallen men and women, the thief on the cross. He lived the way of the wide welcome for all children of God. His focus here is how we live if we follow him. Here s his question by which our following is judged. How did we respond to human need? That s it - that is the question. As Fred Craddock put it in one of his messages: I was alone. I had no one in the world. My husband had died. My children lived in another state but I was alone. Did you or did you not come? I was in prison, cut off from society for my misdeeds. A criminal, yes, but still a human being. Did you or did you not visit?
June 9, 2013 Page 4 of 5 I was hungry. In a world of banquets and diets, I saw more food put down disposals than my family had eaten. Did you offer me anything to eat? I was without clothing, looking into the shop windows, gazing at the wardrobes of the world. Did you offer me anything to wear? I was a stranger, new at the job, new in the city, new in the neighborhood. I did not know a soul. Did you introduce yourself to me? 1 A number of years ago Fred preached at his home church in Oklahoma. He had an afternoon engagement and had to leave right after the benediction. In order to get to the parking lot quickly, he cut through the back, through the choir room. He said to one of the women in the choir as she was putting away her robe, I appreciated very much the anthem this morning. She said, I hope so, because that s it. He said, What do you mean? She said, That s it. I m hanging it up. She was putting away her robe. He said, Are you retiring? (She d been in the choir 103 or 104 years.) She said, No, I m quitting. He said, You re quitting? She said, I m quitting. He said, Oh, you re not quitting. I m quitting. Well, why are you quitting? She said, I sat up there in the choir loft this morning and looked around at the other choir members. I looked at the minister. I looked at the ushers and just looked out over the congregation. I said finally to myself what has haunted me for years. He said, What s that? She said, Who cares? Fred says, I was in a hurry so I said, Oh, you ll be all right. Take an aspirin, you ve got a headache, all right? I went to the parking lot, but all the way to my engagement and all the way back I thought of that indictment. When I got home that afternoon, I called that lady. I said, I want to talk to you. She said, If you want to. I said, I want to. So Fred says I went over there; we talked, and we just disagreed. 1 Exegesis of Matthew 25 from The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock, Copyright 2011, Westminster: John Knox Press.
June 9, 2013 Page 5 of 5 She said to me again and again, No one cares. Fred says I said to her You re wrong, you re wrong, you re wrong. And she said, I m not. So Fred finally said, I get to travel to churches all over the country, and everywhere I go there are people who care for each other. They take care of each other. They love each other. She said, Where? Fred said, Everywhere I go, there are people who care. She said, Really? Fred said, Yes, really. And she said, Name some. Fred says, You see, she wanted names. 2 They all do, don t they? The hungry in need of food in a world of plenty, the thirsty in need of clean water, the stranger in need of welcoming, the poor in need of clothes, the sick or imprisoned in need of someone who cares? They don t really want or need more sermons. They want the names of those who care. May I give them your name? Is it okay if I give them your name? 2 Op. Cit., The Collected Sermons of Fred. B. Craddock. From the sermon Who cares?