Let’s get right down to
it and look at the Gospel.
It begins with the
familiar phrase: Jesus said to his disciples. This is
code for “I’m speaking to you. Yes, you. Listen carefully.”
When the Son of Man comes ….
The Son of
Man is, of course, Jesus himself and what he is going to do is put very simply –
he is going to ‘come’.
We might pause here and remark on
something you may already have noticed, the minimalism and simplicity of the wording.
There is no appeal to the emotions, no abundance of adjectives, just a simple account
of the truth. For example, Jesus does not explode
onto the stage of the Last Day with fanfare and great display. He simply ‘comes’,
and then he ‘takes’ his seat on his throne of glory.
When he stood before the judgment seat of Pilate
Jesus acknowledged that he was a King, but that his kingdom was not of this
world. That is why he refused to allow the crowds to make him king. His throne stood
in the eternal kingdom of his Father and he would not settle for an earthly
throne. This is why Matthew emphasises that he took his seat on 'his' throne.
We are told also that he will come in his ‘glory’.
I wonder what that will look like because we are not told. And what will Jesus himself
look like, I wonder?
You might recall that, in the Apocalypse,
the last book of the Bible, Jesus is referred to with a very powerful image as the
“Lion of the tribe of Judah.” I like that. It seems very fitting. But then, astonishingly, we
see him appear before the court of heaven as: a Lamb that seemed to have been sacrificed….
Something similar happens in the first
words of the Entrance Antiphon today. We are celebrating the feast of Christ
the King but then we begin: How worthy is the Lamb who was slain.... Jesus Christ, the King
of the Universe, is a lamb from the flock of humanity into which he chose to be
born, and for which he chose to die.
All the nations will be assembled before him….
There will be no invitations sent out for this gathering. There was a time (Matthew 23:37) when Jesus did invite us but we refused.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem … How often have I
longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
and you refused!
For
the Day of the Lord we will not assemble. No, we will be assembled.
All the nations will be assembled before him…. and he will separate men one from another as the shepherd separates
sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on
his left.
Then we
will be judged according to a simple rule – what you did to one of the least of
my brothers, you did to me – what you refused to do to the least of my brothers
you refused to do me.
