Point for Meditation: Matthew 25:40- “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” 

Going back into Jerusalem from Bethany, Jesus and His disciples ran across the fig tree He had cursed the day before. Mark 11:21 explains how the disciples saw the withered fig tree and Jesus made a lesson out of it about having faith.

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. ²³“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. ²⁴“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

The parallel in Matthew 21:19 compresses the details, making it seem like the disciples reacted immediately all at once when Jesus cursed the fig tree, but the word “immediately” can also be translated as “presently,” which would work with the way it’s chronologically laid out in Mark 11.

Anyway, they head into Jerusalem. It was 4 days until Passover, and in that year, it was the Sabbath. He went into the temple for a long day of preaching. Matthew 21:23-23:39 retells his long day of preaching in the temple. In Matthew 24, as He leaves the temple, He starts talking to His disciples in a private group, and when they follow up with a question about the sign of His coming, He launches into the Olivet Prophecy, and giving parables to explain His coming. Matthew 25:31-46 is the parable we’ll focus in on—the parable of the sheep and the goats:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

³⁷Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ³⁸When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

⁴⁰And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ ⁴¹Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ⁴³I 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.’

⁴⁴Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵“Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

As we go into Passover, think about the ways we lay down our lives for each other. Whether in big, dramatic gestures of kindness or in small, subtle or even anonymous ways; how much do we pray for our Church brethren, how much do we ask after their well-being to know how to serve them, how much do we give them of our time and attention?

Today’s Point for Meditation: Matthew 25:40- “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”