Jesus knew that, in order for humankind to join him in eternal life – that final victory banquet spread before us, as Psalm 23 describes it – we need a little direction. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus offers his disciples just that: instructions on how to live in right relationship with the Lord, so that when the Son of Man comes in his glory, they will be able to demonstrate that they received the Word of God with open hearts, with care and concern and love for other. He will then be able to say to them, 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. To live in this way is to recognize Jesus as king of our hearts, allowing him to direct our lives, that he might lead us to eternal salvation.
In this, Jesus follows in the tradition of salvation history. From the time of Ezekiel, God promised that he himself will look after and tend his sheep; he will rescue them from every place where they are scattered when it is cloudy and dark. Ezekiel calls out the shepherds of Israel who failed to take care of the sheep, who landed them in exile in Babylon: the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly. God, however, offers justice to the lost and the strayed and the injured and the sick, providing the direction and care that they need. We must, like the psalmist, recognize that the Lord is our shepherd, in order to live in right relationship with the God who loved us into existence.
The sleek and strong of Ezekiel’s time are not unlike every sovereignty and authority and power that Jesus seeks to subject to his own rule, the arrogant of the earth, in other words, whose presumption of power puts them into direct conflict with God. As Paul tells the Corinthians, only once Jesus has put all enemies under his feet, making his rule universal, will he surrender all to God. At that moment all will be brought back to God, whose love is for all, so that God may be all in all. Our hope and prayer is that Christ will be King of the Universe in truth because all have accepted him as such. We must never lose confidence in the fact that he does rule our hearts, in order that he might lead us from death to resurrection, so that in him, all shall be brought to life.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
