This passage sometimes referred to as “The Sheep and the Goats Judgment” or something similar has been a rather confusing to interpret over the centuries.

Here is the passage:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 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. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

I don’t think I have clear answers. The best short answer I think is that this passage should be looked at more like a parable than a literal description of future events.

My two main reasons for this are pretty simple. First, the whole chapter may be describing one sermon, but even if it is not, it is thematically linked— a bunch of parables that speak to the link between what we do now and what happens at the end of days. Second, the language is heavily metaphorical. It actually overlays two metaphors. One is that of a herder with his animals. Herders often kept sheep and goats together, but at times would have to separate them. The second is that of a king speaking to his subjects. While some may argue that using two metaphors simultaneously points away from it being a parable (a reasonable point), it certainly should at least guide one toward looking at this passage as imaginative storytelling rather than a collection of propositional truth statements.

The highlighted statement above is not very complete and not very satisfying. But let me go through the process of getting there before moving forward.

1. When I was young, this passage was described to me as describing a special event in the future. I was raised in a tradition that tended toward Dispensational Premillennialism. That is a mouthful, and the explanation is no less daunting. However, Dispensational means that God works in different ways at different times (something that is pretty self-evident I think) and that Israel and the Church are in an eschatological sense separated in term of God’s future plans (a much more doubtful point). Premillennial means the belief is chiliastic (the 1000 year reign of Christ will literally happen) and that literal event happens after the “Church Age” and before the “Eternal State.” I am agnostic regarding chiliasm (millennialism). As far as dispensationalism… the key word for me is not agnostic, but “unconvinced.” The thing is, if you don’t accept Dispensational Premillennialism, then the Sheep and Goat Judgment falls apart almost immediately. And even for those who believe in DP, this passage is a very difficult fit. Within that perspective. Jesus comes back to establish the Millennial Kingdom. At that point, He brings the various Gentile nations together and then separates them between those who have been kind to the Jews and those who have been unkind. The kind nations enter the Millennial Kingdom, while the unkind ones don’t. The problems with this are many. One is that the listeners back then when Jesus was speaking would understand the terminology to be referring to Gentiles… not to political entities or even people groups. Another is that the language later on is clearly pointing towards the Eternal State, NOT a Millennial Kingdom.
2. I have heard some use this passage to explain why missionaries MUST or MUST NOT do developmental ministry. The MUST seems easy enough. The passage says helping people out in their “nonspiritual” needs is good… I mean REALLY GOOD. The MUST NOT is harder to grasp, but the argument seems to be something like this— If this passage is about Gentiles (the nations) treating the King’s “brethren,” these brethren must be Christians. (Would Jesus call unbelievers His brothers?) So if this command is for how we treat Christians, it gives no guidance how we are to treat unbelievers. This is a very weak argument. It kind of sounds like a strawman argument… and truthfully, I have not heard it used very often. Clearly, one only has to read the rest of the commands of Christ to know that regardless of how limiting one wants to make this particular passage, it points to a broader universal command— the Great Commandment. That one cannot be limited.
3. I have heard people get all bogged down in this passage because it can be interpreted as saying that we are saved (enter the Eternal State) based on how good our works are. I will leave it to others to wrestle with this idea since the question of salvation really must be looked at through the lens of the whole of Scripture, NOT one passage. But I find it strange that people tend to interpret this part of chapter 25 of Matthew very different from the rest of the chapter. After all, I don’t think many people would argue that our salvation is dependent on how patient and prepared we are for Christ’s return (verses 1-13) or how we spend our (God’s) wealth (verses 14-30). This is part of the problem, in my mind, of looking at these earlier sections as parables, and looking at the final verses as being something very different.

It seems to me that the Kingdom of God is made of “God’s People.” Chapter 25 does not focus on how one is saved, but rather the characteristics of citizens of heaven (technically, the eternal state of heaven on earth):

• Expectant… looking longingly for the full establishment of the Kingdom of God.
• Always Prepared… ready for Christ’s return today, tomorrow, 20 years from now… 800 years from now.
• Faithful and Obedient. Good servants of God now.
• Love put into action.