"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 | |||
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Meeting the Lion | |||
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Something like the judgment scene in
Matthew 25:31-46 is played out in a brief scene in C. S. Lewis'
The Last Battle. At the end of time for Narnia, Aslan stands
before a Door and all the people and creatures in Narnia rush toward
Aslan looking him in the face. Some behold him with fear and hatred and
our turned away to Aslan's left, into darkness. Others look at the Lion
with love and turn to his right, through the Door, which they all thought
was a doorway into stable, but is actually the Door into the recreated
and renewed Narnia that is Aslan's eternal kingdom. The parable of the text is only a little image of sheep and goats being divided in verses 32 and 33. The rest of the text is explanation and explication that is not parable at all, but a description of the last judgment. There is absolutely nothing in the context or in Matthew's Gospel at all to set up or indicate the dispensational (think Left Behind) interpretation that this is the judgment of Gentiles who were kind (or not) to Jews during the Tribulation. I'm going to assume that interpretation is nonsense resulting from fitting the text into a pre-determined scheme (which has little to recommend it in all of Scripture), rather than a genuine attempt to understand what the text itself says. It seems much better to take the "all nations" of verse 32 at face value and see here, as Lewis did, an image of all people who have ever lived standing before the Lord (the Son of Man in verse 31 and the King in verse 34, in other words, Jesus) for judgment. As we say in the creeds, "He will come again to judge the living and the dead." What gets us worried (particularly as Protestants), of course, is that the judgment here is on the basis of works of compassion. Where is our salvation by grace? Where is the need even for explicit knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ? In verses 37-39 some of the "blessed" might be understood to have been ignorant even of who Jesus is, much less His presence in those who were poor and needy. Yet they are placed on the right, in the kingdom. The fact is that Scripture has never been and is not going to get any clearer about these matters. There is a clear message of forgiveness and grace bringing us into the kingdom through no merit or work of our own. There is also a clear call for works of love and compassion toward others and a warning of judgment for those who fail to do such works. The expectation is that those who have received God's love will show love to others. Those who have been forgiven will forgive. Those who trust in grace will offer grace to those around them. Just how they are linked or how they both fit together on Judgment Day is not perfectly clear, but genuine biblical faith will contain both reception of grace through Christ and service to others for Christ. Perhaps one way to grasp this parable is as a warning that we cannot truly love Jesus without also caring about people in need. If we think we can pull off our own individual salvation on the basis of faith alone, without love, we're sadly (and perhaps disastrously) mistaken. That's not what the reformers meant by sola fide. So part of this parable is the reminder that meeting Jesus at the end is not all sweetness and light, just as meeting Aslan (a huge and ferocious lion) in Narnia is a scary deal. The more we become the kind of people He wants us to be, the less fearful that meeting will be. And what a wonderful promise there is in this text, that we may already be meeting Him in all sorts of unexpected ways as we become people of compassion and love. | |||
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I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
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Beth So what DID the reformers mean by "SOLA fide?" Just want to keep you on your toes, and keep our marriage from being boring.... ; ) Love, B (11/21/08)