The Gospel portraits of Jesus revolve among three central images - Christ as prophet, Christ as priest, and Christ as king.  Today, as we celebrate Christ the King, we're given a glimpse of the end of days when Jesus, victorious over the powers of sin and death, returns as Lord over all creation, a reign that will never end.

Today's Gospel also concludes the portrait of Jesus by the author of Matthew.  Last week we heard Jesus' parable about money and spiritual gifts, which challenged our assumptions about the reasonableness of hoarding versus the risk involved when we invest in the reign of God.

This morning Matthew reaches back to the prophet Ezekiel, from whom Jesus has drawn one of his own favorite metaphors, likening humanity to a flock of sheep, and God to a shepherd.  At times the figure of speech is full of comfort, as Ezekiel writes: "...Thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. ... I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak."

This is the love-song of Jesus, the shepherd willing to lay down his life for the sheep.  This is Christ our Great High Priest.  Ezekiel, however, also provided to Matthew the images of Christ the King at the end of time: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats ...." 

Here is Christ who is not only the Great High Priest, the icon of compassionate love, but Christ the King, who feeds God's sheep with justice as well mercy. As Ezekiel had written: "I shall judge ... between rams and goats: ... I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged;"

Now, I don't know about you, but part of me wishes the Gospels had just left well enough alone and stopped with Christ as Priest, as lamb sacrificed for the sake of his friends, as shepherd willing to die for the flock.

But when I come to Christ as Prophet, as seen through the eyes of Ezekiel, or Christ the King, as envisioned by Matthew, I instantly begin covering my tracks - counting up in my spiritual plus-column all my good works!  Yet I fear that the goats sound a lot like me when I'm caught up in my own needs and desires and I forget about the needs and desires of others.  Isn't it enough, Ezekiel writes-- to have good pasture for yourself?  Why do you also tramp down the rest, while you're gorging on your own?  When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest for others?  Must you push and butt the weak as you horn in to take your entitlement?

Here Matthew picks up Ezekiel's theme, with Jesus teaching his followers saying: All I asked was for you to care for others at least as much as you care for your own desires.  Like when I was hungry and you gave me food, or when I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, or when I was a stranger and you welcomed me, or when I was naked and you gave me clothing, or I was sick or in prison and you came in to visit and took care of me.

The more I have wrestled in the night with this parable, the more I have been tempted at times to set things straight by just going out and doing what Jesus chided his followers for having failed to do, checking them off my list one by one.  Yet in the clearer light of day, I'm less convinced this is what Jesus is trying to convey.  For the very sheep he is holding up as a good example have no idea when they have ever done for Jesus the things he lauds them for doing.  ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' ... ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.'