Matthew 25:31-46

If you were to ask a truly righteous person what they have done for Christ in the past week, they would likely say, “I really didn’t do anything of significance.” But if you pressed them, you’d likely discover a dozen or more things that just never registered on the scale of “ministry” for them. Things like calling a friend who was ill, taking cookies to a new neighbor, writing an encouragement note to a church staff member, attending worship, saying “Hi!” to someone in the Church Lobby, pulling up a chair during coffee fellowship with someone sitting alone, sending a birthday card to a loved one, the list could go on.

Ministry happens in the little, ordinary things of life as much as it does in big, public events.

This is one of the many lessons in this story.

The “righteous”, as they are called here, are the ones who have integrated their faith into the whole fabric of life; they have embodied Jesus himself. These acts may be confused with simply being kind, or gracious, yet this is the essence of the message Jesus gives throughout his ministry. Following Jesus’ example, “obeying his commands” (Matthew 28:20), and performing acts of ministry is exactly that. It’s about being the human God imagined. The whole biblical story is about recapturing the “very goodness” of creation. Love, kindness, and grace are so simple and ordinary that we miss their profound impact. These foundational characteristics are actually extraordinary (and surprising when we experience them).

Being righteous, then, is not about striving toward sainthood by being more pious than everyone else. Rather, it is embodying Jesus every day and his way of love in the simplest of acts. It’s also how to reclaim the You God has always imagined and intended.

Peace ><>