Authority through Grace. 11/26/17 The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges

Matthew 25:31-46

A couple of years ago I visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC.  It’s the largest Roman Catholic church in North America which means that when you enter into the worship space it’s really big.  And what catches your eye in the midst of all there is to see is a huge mosaic of Jesus located behind the main altar.  Like the church, this art piece is one of the largest of its kind - Jesus is about 100 feet high, at least two times as tall as the inside of this church.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  And I’m not just talking about its size but also its depiction of Christ.  The motif itself is nothing new.  It’s been around since the 4th century.  It’s called Christ in Majesty which has Jesus sitting on his heavenly throne as ruler of the world and judge of nations.  But what makes this Christ in Majesty particularly striking is the fearsome intensity it conveys.  There’s no getting around this giant Jesus with his piercing eyes and his distinct eyebrows that slope down and inwards - the best way to see it in your mind’s eye is to think angry emoji.  But that’s not all.  Dressed in a red toga which drapes over his left shoulder, Jesus’ arms are extended in a powerful gesture revealing not only the scars on his hands, but a bare and quite muscular right arm and chest.  And literally to top it off, above Jesus’ head is a halo with flames shooting out.   Christ in Majesty is the official name, but it has also gained a telling nickname, Scary Jesus.   

And Scary Jesus was one of the images that came to mind as I reflected on our reading from the gospel of Matthew this week which speaks of a time when the Son of Man will come in glory, sit on his throne, judge the nations, and separate the sheep from the goats.  All is well if King Jesus deems you a sheep, but if you are put on team goat, you’re doomed.   If our destiny really does come down to a type of two column ledger system with all the good we’ve done on one side and bad on the other then Christ coming in majesty as our king is very scary indeed. 

If that’s the way things will work out in the end then the gospel of Matthew is serving as a type of cheat sheet by slipping us the questions to our ultimate final exam so we know how to prepare: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit the prisoner.   All very good things we are called to do, but there’s a glaring problem in this approach.  If we engage in these acts of mercy from a place of fear in order to win God’s favor, hoping to earn our way into heaven then we aren’t loving our neighbor, we’re using them - using them for our own gain. 

This is not what King Jesus, the Christ in Majesty, has in mind for us.  True acts of mercy are done not out of fear of punishment or hope of gain, but out of genuine love and care for the other without a focus on the self.  We see it in the question uttered by everyone in this story, “When was it that we saw you?” they ask in disbelief.   None of them had any idea that their actions or lack of action made any impact on Jesus at all.  Those who do feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and tend the sick do so because it’s just what you do when you know God’s love and seek to follow the way of Jesus.  These acts of caring that don’t earn a place in the kingdom of heaven, but serve to reveal who it is that is already living as citizens of Christ’s Kingdom.  The sheep inherit the kingdom because they already belong.  For God’s kingdom is not so much a place that is found on a map, but a way of being and relating and seeing the world around us.   It’s a kingdom that can be easily overlooked by the casual observer.

Which brings me to another image that came to mind this week.  It too was something I saw in DC on the same day I encountered the daunting Christ in Majesty altarpiece.   In stark contrast, though, this piece of art was not found in the glory of one of the largest churches in the world.  Instead, it was located outside on an ordinary sidewalk between the U.S. Capitol and the White House.  It was a life-sized bronze sculpture of something that most of us have seen more than once in our lives - a man sleeping on a park bench covered with a blanket from his head all the way down to his ankles.  Only his bare feet are exposed.  The sculpture looks so lifelike that if you’re not paying attention you could easily assume that it’s a real-life vagrant.  And some people actually have.  One woman made the news when she called the police to report the sleeping man as a threat to the neighborhood.  However, for those who are willing to slow down in order to look and see, not only will they notice that this artfully sculpted man is made out of bronze, but that the holes in his bare feet identify who he is - Homeless Jesus. 

This is our king, Homeless Jesus, whose kingdom is so radically different than anything the world has ever known.  A kingdom where the first are last and the king is servant of all - which provides some pushback on the fearsome visions our minds and our art can create with the image of Christ in Majesty.   Now none of us can help but see Jesus through the lens of our own experience in our own time.  When early Christians imagined Jesus sitting on the throne of glory they portrayed him in a way similar to a Roman emperor of their time.  We also have our own images and ideas of what power and authority look like, but any picture we conjure in our head that has God in Christ using authority in a traditional way, as in demanding obedience through the power of force and fear, is not the gospel truth.  

Jesus’ power and authority in the gospel is known to us through love, mercy, and grace.  There is no ledger system of judgment where our good works save us - that’s the world’s way, not God’s.   God’s way is to judge us as needy and come to us with liberating power that seeks to heal, transform, and save all of our lives so that we may live in this world as citizens of God’s kingdom.  Citizens who seek to serve the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned, not out of fear, but out of love for the king.   On that day when Christ does come in majesty - whatever that may actually look like - we will live more fully in the reality of  glorious Kingdom of God.   And we will see Jesus, not as the scary one, but as our king whose reign is service, whose throne is humble and whose judgment is a fire in our hearts to serve those in need.