Some of the teachings of Jesus are hard to understand. Some are just too hard to hear....
It is interesting that in forty years of attending a range of churches I don't every recall hearing a sermon on the passage below from the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 25) . But, perhaps the passage was preached on and I deliberately forgot...
This is no obscure passage. In Mattew's Gospel it is the last, and perhaps culmination, of Jesus teaching.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left....
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
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I've preached on it! It wasn't the main reading for the service, but it was incorporated in the broader idea of the sermon.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right, it's not taught much.
The NTE talks, though not church sermons, preached on this point.
ReplyDelete