"Lord, when was it..."

Matthew 25:31-46
"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. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that 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 something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me 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 nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, '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?' Then he will answer them, '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.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

As I read this passage I am struck by the fact that there was no real difference between those that helped and those that didn’t help. Both groups, after Jesus has told them what happened, say the same thing: “Lord, when was it…” The group that had clothed the naked, fed the hungry, ministered to the sick, visited those in prison, and given homes to the homeless, were just as much in the dark about what they did as was the group that had not done these things. Neither group knew what it was doing, yet one did the right thing—and one did not.

Sometimes I think that we get too bound up in our decision making processes. As a church, an opportunity comes before us and we will committee and study it to death trying to discern every possible outcome and seeing if it will truly be of benefit to us. Perhaps, we need to sometimes take a less structured approach to things. Perhaps at times we just need to go with the flow of the moment and do what we instinctively know is the right thing to do –not the measured and thought out thing to do. I am sure that the group that failed to minister as Jesus had hoped they would could have thought it our and realized that they might be doing a service to him, they would have done it in a heartbeat.

Therein lies the difference between the two groups. The group that did things correctly also didn’t have the chance to analyze the situation and say—“Yep, that’s what God would want us to do.” They didn’t know God was testing them either. However, they were different in that they instinctively saw a need and responded to that need. No board meetings to discuss it. No surveys to see the mood of the congregation. No trial balloons to see if it was feasible. They saw someone in need and they acted.

How can we do likewise?