LOVE AND THE LEAST OF THESE
“‘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.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”[1]
These are sobering words from the Son of Man. The severity of consequences for not knowing God mentioned in this passage merits a very close look at the verses leading up to it. In Matthew 24, Jesus quoted the prophet Daniel regarding the Great Tribulation of the final generation.
So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains… For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.[2]
Jesus explained that the severity of the coming tribulation will eclipse any event in world history. Take a moment to allow that to sink in. Consider the genocides throughout history. The civil wars. The displacement of millions of refugees. Consider WWII and the Holocaust. The coming trouble is going to be significantly worse.
This is a difficult thing to accept. The Lord has shown us that when He says difficult things, we have two options; to go the way of the offended crowd, or to huddle in closer and hear what the Author of Life has to say.[3]
If we remember that the Lord is inviting us into deeper friendship by knowing Him in the context of His return, we will have significantly better odds of being those who endure to the end. Let’s set our hearts to be diligent to go the way of the Shepherd and not the way of popular or comfortable opinion.
The future time of trouble has a particular goal in mind; the salvation of all Israel.[4] Throughout Jewish history, the Lord has used the wickedness of other nations as a tool of chastisement for His beloved people, Israel. And on every occasion, He has done so to bring them back to Himself. God’s discipline of Israel has always been, and will always be with the sole purpose of winning back His wayward son.[5] Yet the nations the Lord uses to chastise Israel will not be held guiltless. In fact, quite the opposite is true.
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 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. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.[6]
When the Lord returns to the earth and establishes His glorious throne in the City of the Great King, He will proceed to judge the nations and separate them to His right and to His left. Jesus explains to us what distinguishes the two groups:
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. For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me.’[7]
The nations will be separated based on how they treated Jesus.
Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did
we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You
drink? And when did we see You a stranger and welcome You,
or naked and clothe You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.”[8]
And how the nations treated Jesus is determined by how they treated His brothers. So we need to have clarity on who Jesus has in mind when He says “brothers” because He is about to condemn people to eternal punishment for their mistreatment of them. It’s weighty, so we need to get it right. When Jesus refers to His “brethren” in Matthew 25 He is talking about His kinsmen according to the flesh, the Israelites.[9]
I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to
My inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered My people among the nations and divided up My land.[10]
God will judge the nations for how they treated His people, Israel.
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. For I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, 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.” 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?” 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.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.[11]
Mistreatment of the Jews is mistreatment of Jesus Himself. Those who harm Israel are harming the apple of God’s eye.[12] You can’t jab a finger into God’s pupil and expect to be on good terms with Him. Inversely, showing hospitality toward God’s people in their greatest time of need is considered affection toward Jesus Himself.
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..”. And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.”[13]
The time of Jacob’s trouble[14] will be a time of unprecedented persecution of the Jewish people. They will be fleeing from those Hell-bent on their destruction. And we will be standing in the way. As Christians in the last days bearing witness of the coming King, we will be serving the Jewish people. Feeding them, clothing them, hiding them. Consider what happened to families in WWII caught hiding Jewish people in their homes. Doing good to Jesus’ brethren at the end of this age may cost us our very lives—but not doing good to them will cost far more.
This sacrifice will not go unnoticed by the King of the Jews!
Maranatha.
Jordan Scott lives in the Muslim world with his wife and children. He is the host of THE WAY podcast and author of A Call to Compel: The Simplicity, Urgency, and Joy of Making Disciples, available now from FAI Publishing. Jordan can be reached by email at jordan@faimission.org.
