31 “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. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 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 took Me in;
36 I was naked and you clothed Me;
I was sick and you took care of Me;
I was in prison and you visited Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or without clothes and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and visit You?’
40 “And the King will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ 41 Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels!
42 For I was hungry
and you gave Me nothing to eat;
I was thirsty
and you gave Me nothing to drink;
43 I was a stranger
and you didn’t take Me in;
I was naked
and you didn’t clothe Me,
sick and in prison
and you didn’t take care of Me.’
44 “Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?’
45 “Then He will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.’
46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Read Matthew 25:31-46 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Every so often, as I am studying, a word or phrase jumps off the page at me, and in our passage for today’s journal entry, as I read through Jesus’ teaching, a single word jumped out at me that I had never noticed before.
As the King is responding to the “sheep” on His right, and how they ask Him when did they see Him hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, in prison, or without a place to stay, He says the following phrase in verse 40: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”
The word that jumped off the page as I was reading this is the word “brothers”.
Often we think of God the Father as the one sitting on the throne as King, but God the Father has no “brothers”. However, Jesus did have actual brothers, because He came to earth and was born into a young family. When Jesus returned to heaven following the resurrection, He was lifted up as King.
This means that Jesus is the one sitting on the throne as a judge. This is something that other passages in the New Testament shed light on, but I had never noticed that it is clearly pointed to in Jesus’ words in this passage.
I believe Jesus also uses the word “brother” to help draw our attention to helping each other out in humanity. God and/or angels are not going to sneak down to earth to test us and see if we will be kind to them directly. By using the word “brother”, millions if not billions of opportunities open up as everyone is connected under the umbrella of the human race.
So instead of judging or looking for ways that excuse us from helping someone in need, how would we act if we saw that person as Jesus’ brother or sister? Jesus is a brother to everyone in humanity, and by helping the brothers of Jesus who are in need, we are actually able to help Jesus, the one who sits on the throne as King.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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