BY Alden Bass
Jesus was not too concerned about the afterlife. He spoke very little about heaven or hell. The majority of Jesus’ teaching was about a new kind of politics which he called the kingdom.
It’s a little confusing because in Matthew he often calls it the “kingdom of heaven,” but this doesn’t refer to heaven. Rather, kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God is Jesus’s way of talking about the community he began with his disciples and commissioned them to spread around the world. It’s a kingdom, a politics, but a politics unlike anything Rome or Jerusalem has to offer. In this kingdom, no human has ultimate authority; God alone is king. God’s subjects “do his will on earth as it’s done in heaven,” which is how Jesus defined the kingdom in his model prayer.
What makes this kingdom different? Instead of privileging the wealthy and powerful, in this kingdom the weakest are at the center. Jesus specifically names two groups when he talks about the kingdom – the poor (“blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom”) and little children (“let the little children come to me, for the kingdom belongs to such as these”).
The Sermon on the Mount explains that members of God’s kingdom will also forgive one another. They will tell the truth all the time. They will share their money and goods. They will help those in need and practice radical hospitality. And when they are attacked, either verbally or physically, they will not fight back, because God will defend them. This kingdom, this community of disciples, is going to look strange. It will stick out in the world.
It’s true that Jesus doesn’t say much about life after death, but he does talk about it some. Matthew 25 is one of the most extended treatments of judgment. In fact, it’s the only place in the gospels where Jesus gives any detailed description of what to expect on the judgment day.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…”
Teachers often give their students a rubric so that you know how their assignments will be graded. It’s very helpful. You might call the parable in Matthew 25 Jesus’s judgment day rubric. Imagine a list with boxes to check. The list looks like this:
Gave food to a hungry person
Gave a thirsty person something to drink
Welcomed a stranger or foreigner
Gave a naked person something to wear
Visited a sick person
Visited someone in prison
Many of us have seen others help people in these categories. Many of us have helped too. My daughters’ high school recently raised over half a million dollars for a local Boys & Girls Clubs. That’s fantastic.
But note that Jesus implies that this is not just giving from a distance. There’s a personal encounter here. You gave food or drink or clothing, you visited. This is essential because Jesus says that in that encounter, we don’t just meet the needy, we actually meet Jesus himself. He is there with the poor. He is one of the poor ones. He was thirsty and naked, called a criminal and imprisoned. And he remains the patron saint of the down and out, the “least” or lowest in society. When’s the last time you saw the lowdown? Because that’s the last time you saw Jesus.
Now, there are a couple of details in this parable which are easy to overlook. First, did you note that this is about the judgment of the nations. Nations is a special word – it doesn’t mean “all people” but rather “gentiles” or non-Jews. This is a story about how those outside the discipleship community will be judged. What about God’s people, the insiders? These are the “least of these.” “When you helped the least of these my brothers and sisters,” he said, “you helped me.”
We typically read this parable as a call to social action, a call to service. Which puts us in the position of the powerful, the strong, the wealthy, the giver. But when Jesus imagined his kingdom, his followers, his brothers and sisters, he did not imagine them in that upper class. They were among the hungry, the sick, the immigrants, and the imprisoned. If you go on to read the book of Acts, that’s exactly where you’ll find the apostles.
I’d like to conclude with the story of a saint named Father Damien. Father Damien was a Belgian missionary who was sent to Hawaii in the late 1800s. At that time, Hawaii was in the middle of a healthcare crisis. Among other things, leprosy had been brought to the islands. To curb the spread, lepers were isolated in remote settlements.
Damien volunteered to minister to the lepers, even though he knew that the disease was highly contagious. He taught and preached, but he also treated their ulcers and wounds, repaired their houses, made coffins, and dug graves. He joined the lepers in everything, and when he preached he would say “We lepers.” After working in the colony for 16 years, Damien stepped in a pot of scalding water and felt nothing – he realized he had contracted the disease. “As for me, I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all for Christ.”
Father Damien moved from service to solidarity, ultimately giving his life for the sick, imprisoned, and poor just like his Lord. He reminds us that that serving the least of these is not a matter of pleasing God, or checking the boxes, so that he gives us a reward or spares our soul from hell.
Living in solidarity with the sick, imprisoned, hungry, and homeless – the least – is actually how we meet God here and now. This is the kingdom. We don’t have to wait for heaven. God is here, and he invites us to join him. And like Father Damien, as we learn to identify with the least of these more and more, we actually become the face of Jesus to the world. “Inasmuch as you served the least of these, you served me.”
Alden Bass teaches scripture and theology at Oklahoma Christian University. He and his wife Candace lived in an intentional Christian community in St. Louis for 9 years.