I developed this "revised" version of Jesus' classic sheep and the goats parable in Matthew 25:31-46 for one of my week of prayer talks on our mission to Saipan last month. It is inspired by the fantastic retelling by Keith Green. You can watch the video at the end. It's about eight minutes long, but well worth the time, I think.
But when the son of Man comes in His glory and all the
angels with Him, then he will sit on his glorious throne and all the schools
will be gathered before Him and he will separate them one from another as the
teacher separates those who will pass from those who will fail. And he will put the passing students on his
right and the failing students on his left.
Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come you
blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you for you from the
foundation of the world. For I was
hungry and you shared your lunch with Me. I fell down and you didn't laugh at
me and instead helped me up. I was a new
kid and you invited me to play with you.
I was weird and the other kids made fun of me and you stood up for
me. I was annoying and you were patient
with me. I didn't understand how to do
the homework and you helped me.
The righteous will answer
Him saying, Lord when did we see You hungry and share our lunch with you and
when did You fall down and we helped you up.
And when were you the new kid and we invited you to play with us—I mean
we invited everyone but I know we’d never forget that face. And when were you weird and we stood up for
you. I mean that doesn't even seem right
to say. Holy, Awesome, Majestic, but weird.
. .Lord, that couldn't have been you.
And when were you annoying or have trouble with Your homework and we helped you?
And the King will answer them saying, “Truly I say to you to
the extent that you did it to even one of these brothers of mine, even the
least of them, you did it to Me."
Then he will say to those on His left. “You thought detention
was bad? Depart from me accursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels. For I was hungry
and you shared nothing with me. I fell
down and you mocked me. I was new in
school and you ignored me because it was easier to just hang out with the
people you were already comfortable with.
I was weird and when the other kids bullied me, you did nothing. You were mean to me because you thought I
deserved it for being annoying and you did not help me with my homework."
Then they themselves also will answer saying "Lord, when did we see you hungry, Lord. Are you hungry now? Someone want to run out and get the Lord a
hamburger and a coke? And when did you fall down and we didn't pick
you up. Lord, I’m sorry. I don’t
remember that. I mean there was this one
kid, and it was so funny. [snicker,snicker, snort,snort] Sorry,
sorry. Was that You? Oh, Lord I didn't
know. And when were you a new kid? Lord you know how it is. . . .And when were
you weird or annoying. That’s not
fair. We didn't expect you to be like
that! And Lord one more thing. When did you ever need help with Homework? I
thought you knew everything!"
Then He will answer them saying, “Truly I say to you , to
the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do
it to Me.”
And these will go away into eternal punishment but the
righteous into eternal life.
No comments:
Post a Comment