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29th January 2025
WednesdayReflection
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"Allen Browne"
lecturer, Academic Dean, and Principal of
Riverview Colleges
"Who are "my brothers?"
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Who was Jesus expecting us to help when he said,
"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me"?
Who are Jesus' brothers/sisters in this statement?
The King will reply,
'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'
.... Matthew 25:40 NIV
The context is where he's sorting sheep from goats, based on how they took care of his needs.
The sheep ask, "When did we ever see you in need and help you?"
And that was the king's response.
So, was Jesus thinking only of Christians as his brothers and sisters?
Or did he have the whole human family in view?
It matters, because the church needs to be clear about its mission.
Commentators start with the assumption that the king ought to judge people on the basis of how they respond to the gospel.
What matters is whether people accept or reject Jesus, so the least of these my brothers must mean the messengers who carry the gospel.
In Blomberg's words, "The sheep are people whose works demonstrate that they have responded properly to Christ's messengers and therefore to his message.
The other two positions have significant supporters through church history and today.
Again, it's interesting to see how the presuppositions we bring to the text shape the way we read.
Jesus introduced this story by saying it's about all people.
The son of man has kingship over all the nations of the earth, regardless of whether they recognize his throne or not.
The language drawn from Daniel 7 does not allow any lesser view of his kingship.
And if that is the scope of the king's authority, then how we treat any human who belongs under his authority is how we are treating our king.
It's too small a view of Jesus' kingship to restrict the story to those we judge to be Christians.
And that's a major point of the story.
The king denies us any place in deciding who are his people and who are not.
Both the sheep and the goats are confused about how he has judged them and ask,
"Why have you placed me in this group?"
Any interpretation that requires us to say, "Well, it's only about how we treat Christ's people" founders on the assumption that we know which ones are Christ's people.
We don't.
In practice then, since only the Shepherd is able to judge between sheep and goats, we cannot treat the king well unless we treat all his flock well, whether sheep or goats.
The authority the son of man received from his Father makes him Lord of all, whether they acknowledge him or not.
The worst possible interpretation of the least of these my brothers would be to pervert it so that it refers only to the special status of gospel messengers.
The whole point of the story is that how one treats the greatest person in the kingdom (the king) is demonstrated by how we treat the neediest, for that's there the king's heart is.
It's time to lift the church's vision beyond itself to the world where Christ is king by heaven's decree.
That kingdom vision gives the church its mission in his world.
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
"Allen Browne"
Currently I work with Riverview Church in Perth Western Australia in a teaching role.
Over the last 20 years, I've served as lecturer, Academic Dean, and Principal of Riverview Colleges, and lectured at other colleges in Perth.
I've created content for discipleship programmes
If Jesus had an About page, he would identify himself as "son of man."
His activity was "kingdom of God."
The son of man establishing the kingdom of God?
Is that how you describe Jesus?
It shocked me to realize I didn't understand Jesus in the terms he used to describe himself.
That is now the pursuit of my life, and the reason for this blog.
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