Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 25:40
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me.
40. ye have done it unto me ] This unconscious personal service of Christ may be contrasted with the conscious but unreal knowledge of Christ assumed by false prophets; see Luk 13:26.
Christ identifies Himself with His Church, as in His words to Saul, “Why persecutest thou me? ” (Act 9:4).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
One of the least of these – One of the obscurest, the least known, the poorest, the most despised and afflicted.
My brethren – Either those who are Christians, whom he condescends to call brethren, or those who are afflicted, poor, and persecuted, who are his brethren and companions in suffering, and who suffer as he did on earth. See Heb 2:11; Mat 12:50. How great is the condescension and kindness of the Judge of the world, thus to reward our actions, and to consider what we have done to the poor as done to him!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 40. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren] The meanest follower of Christ is acknowledged by him as his brother! What infinite condescension! Those, whom many would scorn to set with the dogs of their flock, are brothers and sisters of the blessed Jesus, and shall soon be set among the princes of his people.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
40. And the King shall answer andsay unto them, Verily I say unto you, c.Astonishing dialoguethis between the King, from the Throne of His glory, and Hiswondering people! “I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat,”&c.”Not we,” they reply. “We never did that,Lord: We were born out of due time, and enjoyed not the privilege ofministering unto Thee.” “But ye did it to these Mybrethren, now beside you, when cast upon your love.” “Truth,Lord, but was that doing it to Thee? Thy name was indeed dear to us,and we thought it a great honor to suffer shame for it. When amongthe destitute and distressed we discerned any of the household offaith, we will not deny that our hearts leapt within us at thediscovery, and when their knock came to our dwelling, ‘our bowelswere moved,’ as though ‘our Beloved Himself had put in His hand bythe hole of the door.’ Sweet was the fellowship we had with them, asif we had ‘entertained angels unawares’ all difference between giverand receiver somehow melted away under the beams of that love ofThine which knit us together; nay, rather, as they left us withgratitude for our poor givings, we seemed the debtorsnot they.But, Lord, were we all that time in company with Thee? . . . Yes,that scene was all with Me,” replies the King”Me in thedisguise of My poor ones. The door shut against Me by others wasopened by you’Ye took Me in.’ Apprehended and imprisoned by theenemies of the truth, ye whom the truth had made free sought Me outdiligently and found Me; visiting Me in My lonely cell at the risk ofyour own lives, and cheering My solitude; ye gave Me a coat, for Ishivered; and then I felt warm. With cups of cold water ye moistenedMy parched lips; when famished with hunger ye supplied Me withcrusts, and my spirit revived/YEDID IT UNTO ME.'”What thoughts crowd upon us as we listen to such a description of thescenes of the Last Judgment! And in the light of this view of theheavenly dialogue, how bald and wretched, not to say unscriptural, isthat view of it to which we referred at the outset, which makes it adialogue between Christ and heathens who never heard of Hisname, and of course never felt any stirrings of His love in theirhearts! To us it seems a poor, superficial objection to the Christianview of this scene, that Christians could never be supposed to asksuch questions as the “blessed of Christ’s Father” are madeto ask here. If there were any difficulty in explaining this, thedifficulty of the other view is such as to make it, at least,insufferable. But there is no real difficulty. The surprise expressedis not at their being told that they acted from love to Christ, butthat Christ Himself was the Personal Object of alltheir deeds: that they found Him hungry, and supplied Him withfood: that they brought water to Him, and slaked His thirst;that seeing Him naked and shivering, they put warm clothingupon Him, paid Him visits when lying in prison for the truth,and sat by His bedside when laid down with sickness. This isthe astonishing interpretation which Jesus says “the King”will give to them of their own actions here below. And will anyChristian reply, “How could this astonish them? Does not everyChristian know that He does these very things, when He does them atall, just as they are here represented?” Nay, rather, is itconceivable that they should not be astonished, and almostdoubt their own ears, to hear such an account of their own actionsupon earth from the lips of the Judge? And remember, that Judge hascome in His glory, and now sits upon the throne of His glory, and allthe holy angels are with Him; and that it is from those glorifiedLips that the words come forth, “Ye did all this unto ME.”Oh, can we imagine such a word addressed to ourselves, andthen fancy ourselves replying, “Of course we didTo whom elsedid we anything? It must be others than we that are addressed, whonever knew, in all their good deeds, what they were about?”Rather, can we imagine ourselves not overpowered with astonishment,and scarcely able to credit the testimony borne to us by the King?
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the king shall answer, and say unto them,…. Christ, though a king, and now appearing in great glory and majesty, yet such will be his goodness and condescension, as to return an answer to the queries of his people; blushing and astonished at his notice of their poor services, which they know to be so imperfect, and are always ready to own themselves unprofitable servants; and this he will do in the following manner:
verily I say unto you; a way of speaking often used by him, when here on earth, when he, in the strongest manner, would asseverate anything as truth, and remove all doubt and hesitation about it.
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me: which is to be understood, not in so limited a sense, as to regard only the apostles, and the least of them, for these were not the only brethren of Christ; nor in so large a sense, as to include all in human nature; but the saints only, the children of God, and household of faith: for though acts of charity and humanity are to be done to all men, yet especially to these; and indeed, these only can be considered as the brethren of Christ, who are born of God, and do the will of Christ; for such he accounts his mother, brethren, and sisters; and who are not only of the same human nature, but in the same covenant with him, and the sons of God, not by nature, as he is the Son of God, but by adoption, and so are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: now he that does any of the above acts of kindness to these “brethren” of Christ, and because they stand in such a relation to him, even the “least” of them: though he is not an apostle, or a martyr, or a preacher of the Gospel, or has any considerable gifts and abilities for usefulness, but is a weak believer in spiritual things, as well as poor in temporal things; and though it is but to “one” of these opportunity and circumstances not allowing it to be done to more; yet as such is the humility and condescension of this great king, as to account such mean persons his brethren; such also is his grace and goodness, as to reckon every instance of kindness and respect shown to them, as done to himself in person; and will take notice of it, accept and reward it, as if it had been so done.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ye did it unto me ( ). Dative of personal interest. Christ identifies himself with the needy and the suffering. This conduct is proof of possession of love for Christ and likeness to him.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The least. The word in the Greek order is emphatic : One of these my brethren, the least. So Rev., even these least.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
40. Verily I tell you. As Christ has just now told us, by a figure, that our senses do not yet comprehend how highly he values deeds of charity, so now he openly declares, that he will reckon as done to himself whatever we have bestowed on his people. We must be prodigiously sluggish, if compassion be not drawn from our bowels by this statement, that Christ is either neglected or honored in the person of those who need our assistance. So then, whenever we are reluctant to assist the poor, let us place before our eyes the Son of God, to whom it would be base sacrilege to refuse any thing. By these words he likewise shows, that he acknowledges those acts of kindness which have been performed gratuitously, and without any expectation of a reward. And certainly, when he enjoins us to do good to the hungry and naked, to strangers and prisoners, from whom nothing can be expected in return, we must look to him, who freely lays himself under obligation to us, and allows us to place to his account what might otherwise appear to have been lost.
So far as you have done it to one of the least of my brethren. Believers only are expressly recommended to our notice; not that he bids us altogether despise others, but because the more nearly a man approaches to God, he ought to be the more highly esteemed by us; for though there is a common tie that binds all the children of Adam, there is a still more sacred union among the children of God. So then, as those, who belong to the household of faith ought to be preferred to strangers, Christ makes special mention of them. And though his design was, to encourage those whose wealth and resources are abundant to relieve the poverty of brethren, yet it affords no ordinary consolation to the poor and distressed, that, though shame and contempt follow them in the eyes of the world, yet the Son of God holds them as dear as his own members. And certainly, by calling them brethren, he confers on them inestimable honor.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(40) Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren.The words are true, in different degrees of intensity, in proportion as the relationship is consciously recognised, of every member of the family of man. Of all it is true that He, the Lord, who took their flesh and blood, is not ashamed to call them brethren (Heb. 2:11). We have here, in its highest and divinest form, that utterance of sympathy which we admire even in one of like passions with ourselves. We find that He too counts nothing human alien from Himself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
40. Ye have done it unto me By a turn of surpassing beauty the Lord confers an infinite value upon the least of their good or approvable acts. It was done to him. Eternal glory is the thanks he returns for personal favours. He identifies himself with the humblest object of charity, and assumes that all mercy done is done to him. He holds himself remunerator for all the good done.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of these my brothers, even these least, you did it to me.’ ”
For the King will point out that it was when they did these things to ‘His brothers’ that they did it to Him. The only people whom Jesus describes as His brothers in this way are those who have responded to His words and do the will of His Father (Mat 12:48-50; Mat 28:10, compare Mat 10:42. See also Heb 2:11-12). This is further confirmed by ‘even these least’. For that was precisely what His followers were to seek to be (Mat 18:4; Mat 20:27; Mat 23:11-12; Luk 9:48). Furthermore He has already said that to receive a disciple in His Name was to receive Him (Mat 10:40), and has spoken of those who give a cup of cold water to a disciple as not losing their reward (Mat 10:42). The evidence that we identify ‘brothers’ with followers of Jesus is conclusive.
Some suggest that ‘His brothers’ indicates the Jews, but Jesus never speaks of the Jews as such as His brothers. Others see it as indicating all mankind. That Jesus saw all decent men as His neighbours comes out in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luk 10:36-37). But again He never describes all men as His brothers. This further confirms that by ‘His brothers’ He was referring to His followers.
We are not to see ‘His brothers’ as being a separate group from the righteous and the unrighteous. They will indeed be the same as the righteous. Thus when Jesus said, ‘these My brothers’ He could be seen as indicating all the righteous with a wave of His hand.
By these words Jesus was demonstrating that while His true followers are to love all men, they are to have special love for their brothers. ‘By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another’ (Mat 13:35). And certainly as a result of persecution many of them would be in need of such help, for their faithfulness in testimony would often lead to poverty, illness, exile in a strange country and imprisonment, but Jesus’ expectation was that in such situations their brothers in Christ would sustain them. This would be one very real evidence of the genuineness of their faith. Nothing more surprised the ancient world than the love that Christians revealed towards each other.
That the description ‘His brothers’ does indicate His disciples and followers is important for the significance of the whole account, for it demonstrates that in the end it is the attitude of men and women towards Jesus that is in question. A few moments thought will demonstrate that the final judgment cannot possibly be limited to dealing with such matters as are described here, however important they might be. For however sentimental we might be, acceptability with God cannot possibly be seen as based simply upon these few requirements. Indeed there was nothing that the Jews were more diligent in than giving alms and helping their poor, and they were exhorted to it by the Scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus’ criticism of them did not lay in their lack of such behaviour but in their reasons for doing it (Mat 6:2) and their whole attitude towards people. Relief work is good and valuable, but it does not and cannot ensure entry into His everlasting Kingly Rule. It is only a small part of the whole. Such righteousness would not exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees. Doing fully the will of the Father is far more demanding than that.
But if in reality the judgment is being made on the basis of the attitude of the judged towards Jesus Christ, as revealed by their behaviour towards His brothers (compare Mat 10:42 where the same principle is in mind), then it brings us back to the basis of salvation found all the way through the New Testament, that salvation finally depends on response to and attitude towards Jesus Christ Himself. For there is no other Name under Heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved (Act 4:12). They are not saved by ‘do-gooding’ but because of their response to, and attitude towards, Him which results in even greater ‘do-gooding’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 25:40. Verily I sayin as much, &c. This is unspeakably astonishing! The united wisdom of angels could not have thought of any thing more proper to convey an idea of the warmth and strength of the divine benevolence to man, or offered a more constraining motive to charity, than that the Son of God should declare from the judgment-seat, in the presence of the whole assembled universe, that such good offices as are done to the afflicted through genuine love, are done to him. Having in the day of his flesh suffered injuries and afflictions unspeakable, he considers all the holydistressed members of his body, loves them tenderly, and is so much interested in their welfare, that when they are happy, he rejoices; when they are distressed he is grieved. In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Wonderful condescension of the Son of God!
Astonishingstupidity of men! who neglect altogether or are persuaded with difficulty, to do good to Christ. What wonderful condescension, that the Son of God should call any of us his brethren! This happy relation arises from the manhood, which he still possesses in common with us. The faithful are with him, but in an infinitely inferior sense, sons of the same Father, after whose image they are formed through the influence of his Spirit working faith in them. It is this conformity of nature human and divine, which makes men Christ’s brethren; for which reason, in whatever person it is to be found, he will acknowledge the relation, without regard to any circumstance whatever, that is out of the person’s power. See Macknight. By these my brethren, Dr. Heylin also understands, the saints, who should come in Christ’s train to judgment. See Mede’s Works, p. 81 and Wetstein.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Ver. 40. One of the least of these my brethren ] What a comfort is this, that our own Brother shall judge us, who is much more compassionate than any Joseph. What an honour, that Christ calls us his brethren. What an obligation is such a dignity to all possible duty, that we stain not our kindred. Antigonus being invited to a place where a notable harlot was to be present, asked counsel of Menedemus what he should do. He bade him only remember that he was a king’s son. Remember we that we are Christ the King’s brethren, and it may prove a singular preservative. Vellem si non essem Imperator, said Scipio, when a harlot was offered unto him, I would, if I were not general. Take thou the pillage of the field, said Themistocles to his friend: , , for thou art not Themistocles.
Ye have done it unto me ] Christ, saith Salvian, is, Mendicorum maximus, the greatest beggar, as one that shareth in all the saints’ necessities; and who would but relieve necessitous Christ? Find some Mephibosheth, in whom we may seal up love to deceased Jonathan. My goodness extendeth not to thee, saith David, but to the saints, Christ’s receivers, Psa 16:2-3 . Mr Fox never denied beggar that asked in Jesus’ name. And being once asked whether he knew a certain poor man who had received succour from him in time of trouble, he answered, I remember him well: I tell you, I forget lords and ladies to remember such.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 25:40 , n so far as = (Heb 7:20 ), used of time in Mat 9:15 . , the Judge’s brethren spoken of as a body apart, not subjects , but rather instruments , of judgment. This makes for the non-Christian position of the judged. The brethren are the Christian poor and needy and suffering, in the first place, but ultimately and inferentially any suffering people anywhere. Christian sufferers represent Christ, and human sufferers represent Christians. seems to be in apposition with , suggesting the idea that the brethren of the Son of Man are the insignificant of mankind, those likely to be overlooked, despised, neglected ( cf. Mat 10:42 , Mat 18:5 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
the least. Emph. = even the least.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 25:40. , inasmuch as, in as far as) An intensifying particle. Without doubt, even individual acts will be brought forward.-, unto one) All things are accurately reckoned up; nothing is omitted. Even a solitary occasion is frequently of great importance in either direction; see Mat 25:45.-, of these) used demonstratively.- , My brethren) It is better to do good to the good than to the wicked; yet these are not excluded from the operation of Christian love (see Mat 5:44), provided that a due precedence be preserved in the character of the men and works. Men, the more that they are honoured, treat so much the more proudly those with whom they are connected (suos): not so Jesus: at the commencement of His ministry He frequently called His followers disciples; then, when speaking of His cross (Joh 13:33), He once called them little sons,[1103] and (Joh 15:15) friends; after His resurrection (Joh 21:5), , children,[1104] and brethren (cf. ch. Mat 28:10; Joh 20:17; and cf. therewith Ib. Mat 13:1); and this appellation He will repeat at the judgment-day. How great is the glory of the faithful! see Heb 2:10-12, etc. During the time of His humiliation (exinanitionis) the honour of Jesus was guarded, lest from such an appellation He might appear to be of merely common rank; but in His state of exaltation no such danger exists. Observe, however-(1) that Christ addresses no one as brother in the vocative; the case is different in ch. Mat 12:48-49, and Heb 2:11-12; (2) that Scripture does not call Christ our brother; and (3) that it would not have been suitable in Peter, for example, to have said, Brother, instead of Lord, in Joh 21:15; Joh 21:20; Joh 21:7 (see Ibid. Mat 13:13). Even James, called by others the Lords brother, calls himself the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jam 1:1. Jude also, in the first verse of his epistle, calls himself the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James; see also Mat 23:8; Luk 22:32. Amongst mortals, unequal fraternity is so maintained, that the superior friend honours the inferior by the title of brother; whilst the inferior addresses the superior by his title of honour. Thus also the heavenly court has its own etiquette, without any conflict between humility and confidence. Thus, also, the appellation of friend appears one-sided, so that the Lord calls His own, friends, but is not so called by them: see Joh 15:15. We must except the faith whose freedom of speech attains to that of the Canticles.- , of the least) sc. outwardly, or even inwardly. A certain species is pointed out in the whole genus of saints: there are some who have received, others who have conferred favours.- , ye have done it unto Me) not merely to Me also, but TO ME absolutely; cf. , neither have ye done it unto Me, Mat 25:45.
[1103] Filiolos. The word in the original is , plural of , which is the diminutive of -child or offspring-derived from , to bring forth.-(I. B.)
[1104] Puerulos- being the plural of , which is the diminutive of .-(I. B.)
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Unto Me
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.Mat 25:40.
1. Our Lord is here lifting the curtain of the Unseen. He is describing a great symbolic act of final judgment. The Throne of God is pictured, set upon the clouds; the nations are gathered before Him. The King is seated to judge in person. The issues of eternity depend upon His word. He will give sentence, with discernment that cannot err, of reward or punishment to every man according to his works. He calls no witnesses, for none are needed. The books that are opened, spoken of elsewhere, are but the universal memory of the Divine omniscience which this Judge brings to His work. Without hesitation, without the possibility of other than perfect justice, He divides, separating one from another to the right hand or to the left, and they that have done evil go, in that timeless existence which we call eternity, into punishment, but they that have done good into life.
2. The two earlier parables of judgment refer to those who are in confessed relationship with God. The parable of the Ten Virgins represents the relationship of friendship,that of people who would share in the joys of Gods home, as friends at a wedding feast; the parable of the Talents represents a less intimate relationshipthat of service; the talents are committed to their proprietors own servants. Now the scene changes, and we are brought out to the larger world of the nations; the judgment of those who do not know Christ as their Friend or consciously serve Him as their Master is here typified.
I
The Judge
1. The Judge is the Son of Man. The significance of that title is thus drawn out by Dr. Sanday: The ideal of humanity, the representative of the human race. Jesus did deliberately connect with His own Person such ideas as these. This deeply significant title at the centre is broadly based upon an infinite sense of brotherhood with toiling and struggling humanity, which He who most thoroughly accepted its conditions, was fittest also to save.
It is the conception which fits most closely to St. Pauls thought of Jesus as the Head of the race, the second life-giving Adam, the consummation of humanity, in whom all that is human is gathered up, the new Father of the Race, for at His birth, perhaps by virtue of His birth of a virgin, there came into the stream of human life a fresh impulse of creative power, as some swift-flowing clear and wholesome stream pours itself into a sluggish and polluted river. He has bound humanity to Himself, and Himself to humanity, in His incarnation, multiplying the bonds of union in His love. None is so near akin to each of us as He, not even brother or child; therefore none is faint and weary among us, none is wrong or oppressed, but He feels the pain and the heartache. It is this first that gives truth to His words, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me. He is the Son of Man because He stands in a unique relation to the human race.
Not with people as social accidents have sorted themas rich or poor, as wise or foolish, as lords and ladies or humble folk, has He that close affinity which makes Him call us all His brethren; but deep within these wrappings of rank or circumstance He who shares our nature reads the characteristic features of our manhoodcommon infirmity, common need, common pains, and common mortality. In these it was that He took part. In these, as often as He sees them, He still claims to have a share. Whatever sharpens in your bosom the sense that your neighbour is your brother-man must likewise sharpen the sense that he is a born brother to the Son of God. Is it not, then, due to this deep underlying unity of His nature with all our race, a race which, sundered by many things, is one in its sorrows, that Jesus Christ bids us discern Himself in every man who hungers, bleeds, weeps, or dies? With that most human of all things, suffering, the badge, not of a tribe, but of our whole race, has He most completely identified Himself, who is Himself the Ideal Man and the Representative Sufferer for all mankind. Ye did it unto me!1 [Note: J. O. Dykes, Plain Words on Great Themes, 165.]
Not long since, a lady stood on our southern coast and saw a dear sister drown. She could neither give help nor procure it; she could only stand still and suffer. And it is told to this day how they both died together, one in the sea, and the other on the land. As the remorseless current choked life in the one, grief palsied the heart of the other. Not a blow was struck, not a wave touched her feet, but that awful sympathy which links our souls became insufferable, and went to her heart as fatally as an assassins steel.2 [Note: J. H. Hollowell.]
The first evangelist, who delights to grace his narrative of the ministry of Jesus with citations from the Hebrew scriptures containing oracles that have at length found their fulfilment, bethinks himself of that weird description of the suffering servant of Jehovah in the writings of Isaiah, and the text which appears to him most apposite is: Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Surely, indeed! The oracle is happily chosen. What strikes Matthews mind is the sympathy with human suffering displayed in Christs healings. He could easily have found other texts descriptive of the physical side of the phenomenon, e.g., the familiar words of the 103rd Psalm, who healeth all thy diseases. But it was the spiritual not the physical side of the matter that chiefly arrested his attention: therefore he wrote not that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by David, saying, who healeth all thy diseases, but that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our diseases, translating for himself from the Hebrew to make the text better suit his purpose. The evangelist has penetrated to the heart of the matter, and speaks by a most genuine inspiration. For the really important thing was the sympathy displayed, that sympathy by which Jesus took upon Himself, as a burden to His heart, the sufferings of mankind. That was the thing of ideal significance, of perennial value, a gospel for all time. The acts of healing benefited the individual sufferers only, and the benefit passed away with themselves. But the sympathy has a meaning for us as well as for them. It is as valuable to-day as it was eighteen centuries ago. Yea, it is of far greater value, for the gospel of Christs sympathy has undergone developments of which the recipients of benefit in Capernaum little dreamed. Christs compassion signified to them that He was a man to whom they might always take their sick friends with good hope of a cure. How much more it signifies to us! We see there the sin-bearer as well as the disease-bearer, the sympathetic High Priest of humanity who hath compassion on the ignorant, the erring, the morally frail; who, as a brother in temptation, is ever ready to succour the tempted, whose love to the sinful is as undying as Himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.1 [Note: A. B. Bruce, The Galilean Gospel, 130.]
2. The Son of Man is identified with us not only in nature but in condition. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. His design in coming here at all was to be a Healer, Rescuer, and a Comforter for mankind. To One who came forth from the unseen world of bliss on such an errand, the most suitable place and the most attractive would be the place where He was needed most. In His own language, the physician must go where the sick are to be found; and the sore, sad sickness under which humanity pines away to death is at once sin and the suffering which is sins shadow. To get near enough to our stricken race that He might probe and know its misery, feel and bear its evil, and win the power at once to stanch its wounds and lift from it its whole burden, Jesus needed to become familiar with men in whom the malady had worked itself out to its painfullest consequences. Therefore he bare our sicknesses and carried our sorrows. He became the companion of the unhappy, and the resort of outcast men and women and of the desperately sick whom no one else could save. It was on the shady side of life that He expected to find a welcome. The proud and prosperous are too well satisfied with the world and with themselves to make likely patients for a Divine Healer. Where people had drunk lifes cup down to the bitter lees, and found at the bottom only failure, penury, sickness, and sorrow of heart, there He hoped to win a hearing for His soft and soothing call, I will give you rest.
What is this quality of sympathy which Jesus so constantly revealed? Certainly it is something more than amiable pity for distress. Such the priest and Levite might have felt, who nevertheless passed their wounded countryman on the other side. As its meaning teaches, sympathy is never indifferent. It is a suffering with the distressed. It is the passion of doing good. It is the satisfaction of self in the helping of others. A reader of the woes of soldiers left to die on a battlefield knows the emotion of pity. It is a Florence Nightingale who sympathizes with them by nursing them back to life. One learns with regret and concern of the wretched lives of the lepers in the penal colonies in the south seas. It is a Father Damien who by his self-devotion and tireless labours, ending only in the common death of the afflicted ones, reveals what sympathy in its truest form can mean. Herein is seen the revelation of Gods life in Christ. His is not the passionless and unsuffering life which the medieval saints loved to picture.1 [Note: H. L. Willett, The Call of the Christ, 167.]
3. The Judge is so identified with the moral law that He feels every violation of it as an outrage upon Himself. Dr. Dale of Birmingham used to say, In God the moral law is alive. We may go further. This word of judgment, which we are now considering, is true only because in Jesus the moral law is alive. To resist His will is a synonym for sin. It is the nature of Christ which is outraged by every sin that is committed. Holiness is simply the will of Christ, and whenever we have put from us truth as we know it, or right as it called to us, whenever we have held down the good within us and given rein to the evil, it was Jesus who was there despised and rejected.
Dora Greenwell, in her poem, A Legend of Toulouse, describes the act of wilful sin as the flinging of a dagger at the heart of God, in desperate revolt against the splendour of His holy nature.
A legend was it of a youth,
Who as it then befell,
From out his evil soul the trace
Had blotted out of guiding grace,
Abjured both heaven and hell;
That once unto a meadow fair,
(Heaven shield the desperate!)
Impelled by some dark secret snare,
Repaired, and to the burning sky
Of summer noon flung up on high,
A dagger meant for Gods own heart,
And spake unto himself apart
Words that make desolate.
The dagger that was meant for God found its mark in the heart of Christ; and in the blood from His wounds we are to see the appeal of God to the sinner for mercy, upon the cross, and in His crucifixion in the soul of the sinner.
There came from out the cloudless sky
A hand, the daggers hilt
That caught, and then fell presently
Five drops, for mortal guilt
Christs dear wounds once freely spilt:
And then a little leaf there fell
To that youths foot through miracle
A leaf whereon was plain
These words, these only words enwrit,
Enwritten not in vain,
Oh! miserere mei; then
A mourner, among mourning men,
A sinner, sinner slain
Through love and grace abounding, he
Sank down on lowly bended knee,
Looked up to heaven and cried,
Have mercy, mercy, Lord, on me
For His dear sake, who on the tree
Shed forth those drops and died!
II
The Standard of Judgment
The standard of judgment is intensely human and practical. It is no ecstatic rapture, no ritual observance, no external profession that is to be the test. It is plain humanity, a cup of cold water, a morsel of breadsocial service, in a word. In this tremendously Divine word, with its sweep of authority so amazing, here is the kind of test most natural to man, as it is true to His own example.
1. The final test for every soul is its relation to Christ Himself. It does not seem to be so much a verdict passed by one who has heard the evidence and sums it up impartially as a sentence which results from the touchstone of His presence. He implies that Hepartly the word He has spoken, partly the works He has done, but essentially He Himselfis the standard by which men will be tried. In some of His sayings the idea of the Judge almost melts away, becomes an inappropriate image. Rather there appears simply the gracious Saviour of men, the only One who could really save them, and for that reason the only One who could really judge them. He is there, not only in the last day, but now always in the course of human history, in our midst, willing to save all who will accept His call, rejecting literally no one, but for that reason passing an unwilling verdict on those who will not come unto Him that they might have life. It seems to be in this sense that He regards His function of judgment as beginning from the time of His manifestation to men. And we almost gather that the scene of a judgment-bar, and the dramatic division of all mankind into two classes at one moment, is sketched for the sake of pictorial representation to the multitude, but that what fills the mind of Jesus is the intrinsic determination of mens destiny by contact with Himself in the field of human experience. Following up this suggestion, which comes more from a study of His modes of thought than from an accumulation of particular utterances, we arrive at the idea that He is the appointed Judge of all mankind for this reason: at the long last, when the ultimate destiny of every human being will be determined, the one factor which will be decisive must be the relation of each to Jesus.
The place assigned in the last judgment to Himself in the words of Jesus is recognized by all interpreters to imply that the ultimate fate of men is to be determined by their relation to Him. He is the standard by which all shall be measured; and it is to Him as the Saviour that all who enter into eternal life will owe their felicity. But the description of Himself as Judge implies much more than this: it implies the consciousness of ability to estimate the deeds of men so exactly as to determine with unerring justice their everlasting state. How far beyond the reach of mere human nature such a claim is, it is easy to see. No human being knows another to the bottom; the most ordinary man is a mystery to the most penetrating of his fellow-creatures; the greatest of men would acknowledge that even in a child there are heights which he cannot reach and depths which he cannot fathom. Who would venture to pronounce a final verdict on the character of a brother man, or to measure out his deserts for a single day? But Jesus ascribed to Himself the ability to determine for eternity the value of the whole life, as made up not only of its obvious acts but of its most secret experiences and its most subtle motives.1 [Note: J. Stalker, The Christology of Jesus, 241.]
Thou didst it not unto the least of these,
And in them hast not done it unto Me.
Thou wast as a princess rich and at ease
Now sit in dust and howl for poverty.
Three times I stood beseeching at thy gate,
Three times I came to bless thy soul and save:
But now I come to judge for what I gave,
And now at length thy sorrow is too late.2 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Poetical Works, 148.]
2. Christ interprets our relation to Himself by our conduct to the least of His brethren. We cannot spend our treasures as Mary did in ministering to the personal honour or refreshment of our Divine Lord. He is far withdrawn now beyond need or reach of human ministry into the serene heaven of His glory. But, though absent, He has left His proxies behind Him. No disciple may excuse himself to-day from imitating Marys open-handed gratitude on the plea that the Saviour is out of reach. For every purpose of devotionfor giving Him pleasure, for testifying our own thanks, for winning in the end His praiseit is really all the same if we minister to His poor ones as if we spent our money on Himself. Through this appointed channel is our homage to reach Him there where, priest-like, He stands at the heart of this ailing race, a sharer in each mans sorrow.
This means that the face of every man and woman and little child we pass in the streetsin-scarred or careworn or tear-stainedmust be to us as the very face of Christ. Behind that marred countenance, under that brutalized, besotted husk, lies hidden a beautiful brother, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Dare we think cheaply and contemptuously of the vilest man whom Christ loves, for whom Christ died? Since He is not ashamed to call them brethren, for His sake they are sacred and dear. The touch of His nature, the blood of His sacrifice, make the whole world kin.
The people we know personally, the men we work with, the women we mix among, our own companions, our own servants, our own neighbours, have this imperious claim for ministration, whenever we grow aware of their need. Often they will not, or cannot, seek us out; it is for us to seek them out. They are perhaps prisoners of pride or reserve or shyness, and our sympathy must penetrate to them. The people who most deserve help will hardly ever bring themselves to ask for it. But it is loves instinct and prerogative to anticipate Christs necessities before ever He makes a request.
I was hungry, and Thou feddest me;
Yea, Thou gavest drink to slake my thirst:
O Lord, what love gift can I offer Thee
Who hast loved me first?
Feed My hungry brethren for My sake;
Give them drink, for love of them and Me:
Love them as I loved thee, when Bread I brake
In pure love of thee.1 [Note: T. H. Darlow, The Upward Calling, 218.]
Edward Irving caused it to be engraved on the silver plate of his London church, that when the offerings of the people no longer sufficed for the wants of Gods poor, the sacred vessels were to be melted down to supply the deficiency. He was right. It is the Masters mind. Christ has expressly transferred to the honest and suffering poor His own claim on the devotion of His people. Even while He was warmly defending the action of Mary of Bethany on that Saturday evening, He hinted that after He was taken away from the reach of our personal homage the poor would remain with us in His stead. He made this still more plain on the following Wednesday. When, in the majestic passage before us, He foretold with dramatic vividness the awful transactions of the judgment, He made it for ever unmistakable that the enthusiastic love of the Church for her absent and inaccessible Lord is now to pour itself out in deeds of practical beneficence, finding in the distressed a substitute for Him who was once the Man of Sorrows.2 [Note: J. O. Dykes, Plain Words on Great Themes, 160.]
The saying, The poor ye have always with you, was literally true with Lord Ashley, and it remained true to the end of his life. The state of the weather, depression in trade, illness, bereavement, separation from children or friendsthese and a hundred other things suggested to him no extraordinary cause of complaint as they affected himself personally, but they led him invariably to think how much more terrible similar circumstances must be to the poor and friendless. Nor did his sympathy exhaust itself in merely thinking about the poor and friendless. During the pauses in the greater labours which absorbed so much of his time, he would devise schemes for the relief of those within his reach, and would make the help he gave a thousandfold more acceptable by the manner in which he gave it. He was never too proud to grasp the hand of a poor honest man, or take up a sickly little child in his arms, or sit in the loathsome home of a poor starving needlewoman as she plied her needle. He never spoke down to their level, but sought to raise them up to his, and his kindly words were as helpful as his kindly deeds. The time had not yet come for that personal devotion to the welfare of the poor which distinguished his later years; that was only at this period occasional which afterwards became continual, but the principle that inspired it was the same; it was devotion to Him who had said, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me. To Lord Ashley, Christianity was nothing unless it was intensely practical.1 [Note: The Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, 175.]
Look you to serve Me but above?
Nay, rather serve Me here below;
Would you on Me heap out your love?
On want and sin your love bestow;
Have I not said it? What you do
To these, My poor, ye do to Me;
Whatever here I take from you
Sevenfold returned to you shall be.
Doubt not if I am here; with eyes
Of mercy know Me, wan and pale.
What! hear you not My anguished cries,
My moans and sighs that never fail!2 [Note: W. C. Bennett.]
3. Our Lord sets their true value upon the unconscious services that we render to our fellow-men. Ye did it unto me, even when ye knew it not. There is a holy art of anonymity, the giving and doing for His sake and for His eye alone, which is as beautiful as it is rare, and which imparts to those who have learned to practise it an inner peace and glory which nothing else can produce. It is this that determines the value and quality of every actionis it done for Christ and for His glory alone? Our debt to Him is payable at the bank of humanitys need, and He estimates at its eternal worth all that is done to alleviate that need, even though it be unattended with blare of trumpets and the limelight of self-advertisement. By Him actions are weighed.
It is said that when Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, returned to his native land with those wonderful works of art which have made his name immortal, chiselled in Italy with patient toil and glowing inspiration, the servants who unpacked the marbles scattered upon the ground the straw which was wrapped around them. The next summer flowers from the gardens of Rome were blooming in the streets of Copenhagen, from the seeds thus borne and planted by accident. While pursuing his glorious purpose, and leaving magnificent results in breathing marble, the artist was, at the same time, and unconsciously, scattering other beautiful things in his path to give cheer and gladness.
So Christs lowly workers unconsciously bless the world. They come out every morning from the presence of God and go to their work, intent upon their daily tasks. All day long, as they toil, they drop gentle words from their lips, and scatter little seeds of kindness about them; and to-morrow flowers from the garden of God spring up in the dusty streets of earth and along the hard paths of toil on which their feet tread. The Lord knows them among all others to be His by the beauty and usefulness of their lives.1 [Note: J. R. Miller, Glimpses Through Lifes Windows, 11.]
There is one motto which is more Christian than Mr. G. F. Watts saying, The utmost for the highest, and that is, The utmost for the lowest. Lifes biggest and bravest duties are, according to the teaching of Jesus, owed to the least of these my brethren. While we are all applauding the sentiment that God helps those who help themselves, the one outstanding Christian teaching is that God helps those who cannot help themselves; and that when Christ thrust into the foreground of His programme the weak, the helpless, the morally, spiritually, and economically insolvent, and told an astonished world that the last should be first, the least should be greatest, and the lost should be found, He was setting the pace for all who aspire to follow Him.2 [Note: C. Silvester Horne, Pulpit, Platform, and Parliament, 81.]
Wherever now a sorrow stands,
Tis mine to heal His nail-torn hands.
In every lonely lane and street,
Tis mine to wash His wounded feet
Tis mine to roll away the stone
And warm His heart against my own.
Here, here on earth I find it all
The young archangels, white and tall,
The Golden City and the doors,
And all the shining of the floors!
Unto Me
Literature
Burrell (D. J.), The Verilies of Jesus, 82.
Butler (W. A.), Sermons, ii. 347.
Carroll (B. H.), in The Southern Baptist Pulpit, 54.
Darlow (T. H.), The Upward Calling, 217.
Dykes (J. O.), Plain Words on Great Themes, 159.
Eames (J.), The Shattered Temple, 79.
Ford (G. E.), in Religion in Common Life, 72.
French (E. A.), Gods Messages through Modern Doubt, 75.
Hepher (C.), The Self-Revelation of Jesus, 54.
Holden (J. S.), Redeeming Vision, 86.
Jenkinson (A.), A Modern Disciple, 205.
Leach (C.), Sermons to Working Men, 24.
Lucas (H.), At the Parting of the Ways, 277.
Miller (J. R.), A Help for the Common Days, 31.
Parker (J.), City Temple Pulpit, ii. 22.
Parkhurst (C. H.), Three Gates on a Side, 157.
Pearson (A.), The Claims of the Faith, 53.
Service (J.), Sermons, 216.
Tyng (S. H.), The Peoples Pulpit, iii. 61.
Watts-Ditchfield (J. E.), Fishers of Men, 91.
Christian World Pulpit, xviii. 89 (J. H. Hollowell); xxiv. 337 (T. R. Evans); xxix. 259 (R. Veitch); lxxxi. 310 (L. G. Broughton).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
the King: Mat 25:34, Pro 25:6, Pro 25:7
Inasmuch: Mat 10:42, 2Sa 9:1, 2Sa 9:7, Pro 14:31, Pro 19:17, Mar 9:41, Joh 19:26, Joh 19:27, Joh 21:15-17, 1Co 16:21, 1Co 16:22, 2Co 4:5, 2Co 5:14, 2Co 5:15, 2Co 8:7-9, Gal 5:6, Gal 5:13, Gal 5:22, 1Th 4:9, 1Th 4:10, 1Pe 1:22, 1Jo 3:14-19, 1Jo 4:7-12, 1Jo 4:20, 1Jo 4:21, 1Jo 5:1, 1Jo 5:2
the least: Mat 12:49, Mat 12:50, Mat 18:5, Mat 18:6, Mat 18:10, Mat 28:10, Mar 3:34, Mar 3:35, Joh 20:17, Heb 2:11-15, Heb 6:10
ye have done it unto me: Act 9:4, Act 9:5, Eph 5:30
Reciprocal: Gen 12:3 – And I Gen 27:29 – cursed Gen 50:17 – servants Exo 1:20 – God Num 24:9 – Blessed Deu 15:10 – thine heart Deu 23:4 – Because they met Jos 6:17 – because Rth 2:16 – General 1Ki 13:4 – Lay hold 1Ki 18:4 – fed them 2Ki 4:10 – Let us Neh 13:2 – Because Job 31:32 – The stranger Psa 22:22 – my brethren Ecc 11:1 – for Son 5:1 – eat Son 7:13 – I have Isa 63:9 – all their Jer 39:17 – I will Mic 5:3 – his Zec 2:8 – the apple Mat 5:18 – verily Mat 6:1 – otherwise Mat 10:40 – He that Mat 25:35 – I was an Mat 25:45 – Inasmuch Mar 9:37 – receive one Luk 3:11 – He that hath two Luk 8:3 – of their Luk 8:21 – My mother Luk 9:48 – Whosoever shall receive this Joh 2:2 – his Joh 13:20 – He Joh 21:17 – Feed Act 22:8 – whom Act 26:15 – I am Rom 8:29 – that he might Rom 12:8 – giveth Rom 15:26 – the poor Rom 16:2 – ye receive 1Co 8:12 – ye sin against 2Co 8:4 – the ministering Gal 4:14 – as Christ Gal 6:10 – especially 1Ti 6:2 – because they are brethren Phm 1:17 – receive Heb 13:2 – some Rev 17:14 – shall make
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRIST IN HIS POOR
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.
Mat 25:40
The ground of the judgment, you note, is the carrying out in this life the principles of active love. No mention is made of faith in Christ; but all that is done (or left undone) has its direct relation to Christ.
I. Brotherhood.The great truth of the Brotherhood of men gripped the mind of the first believers; and well it might. They loved to call themselves brethren, and well they might. Often yielding allegiance to the faith at the expense of the snapping of all earthly ties of blood-relationship (fathers and mothers, wife and children left), they found the manifold more in the wider bond of the spiritual family.
II. Equality.From fraternity we glide into equality. About which latter, a word. In our relation with our God we are equal. But we may not reason from this that we are equal in our mutual relations with each other. Bring back the early Christian communism, it could not last longer than it has lasted. Make men equal to-morrowlet us all have one pursethey would commence diverging the day after. What Christianity does is not to cancel the lowly lot, but to raise and adorn it. Our subject is not no needy in Christ, but Christ in the needy. Blessed Saviour, how dost Thou assert Thyself in Thy gracious condescension! Never a lowly act of love and help for one of Thy least ones, but is counted by Thee as done to Thyself.
III. Ministering to Christ.Mens chances of ministering to Christ were meagre and often missed. May it be given to us to fill up that which is behind. Something weay, the least moneyed of usmany do to turn these prisoners of despondency, perhaps of despair, into Prisoners of Hope, pointing their drooping hearts to the stronghold on which they have long ago turned their backs. Christ in these!
Bishop Alfred Pearson.
Illustrations
(1) A passage from The Heart of Midlothian has a distinct bearing on this passage in Matthew: Alas! it is not when we sleep soft and wake merrily ourselves that we think on other peoples sufferings. Our hearts are waxed light within us then, and we are for righting our ain wrangs and fighting our ain battles. But when the hour of trouble comes to the mind or to the body and when the hour of death comes, that comes to high and low O, then it isna what we hae dune for oursells, but what we hae dune for others, that we think on maist pleasantly.
(2) O that we may feel now the truth that came too late to Amos Barton, in the story, as he stood beside the cold body of his sainted wife: She was gone from him and he could never show his love for her any more, never make up for omissions in the past by showing future tenderness. Oh, the bitterness of that midnight prostration upon the grave. Milly, Milly, dost thou hear me? I didnt love thee enonghI wasnt tender enough to theebut I think of it all now. Yes, it is very touching and very sad. But how much more sadsad beyond all sadnessto have to say at last, O Saviour, I never did anything out of love to Thee.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
5:40
This verse tells us the main object of the parable. Jesus is not on earth in person and hence we cannot show him such personal favors as these good sheep are said to have done. But his disciples who are his and our brethren are here, and we always have opportunities for doing them good. (See Gal 6:10.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 25:40. Unto one of these least (or, these the least) of my brethren, ye did it unto me. This principle is the basis of Christian charity, as of all Christian morality. The prominence given to it shows that real faith in Christ must manifest itself in such Christian charity. The early Christians acted at once on this principle. Christ lives again and perpetually in the persons of His people; as we treat them, we treat Him. All men are to be treated thus, because possible brethren of Christ. Some suppose that the saints appear with Christ as judges; hence the expression, these my brethren. But no theory need exclude the pleasing thought that some may have unconsciously been blessed by the Father, with love in their hearts, feeling its way to Him who is Love, through acts of charity to men, even while Christ has not been made known to them.