Sheep, Goats, and the Mission of the Church

Can't give you a sermon manuscript---I'm working on my own!---but here's how I think through the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.

1.  I think your first impression is correct.  I think that when Jesus refers to "the least of these" in 45, that's the same group referenced in 40 when he says "the least of these my brothers."  There are two crucial things to consider here--the meaning of "the least" and the meaning of "brothers."  On "the least," elachistos, it's not quite true that it's not used of disciples anywhere else.  Jesus uses it in Matthew 5:19 to refer to those who will be called "least in the kingdom of heaven."  Paul uses it to refer to himself in 1 Corinthians 15:9 as "the least" of the apostles and in Ephesians 3:8 as "the least of all the saints."  Maybe even more to the point, other than those instances, I don't see any other places where the word is used of humans at all.  Maybe I'm missing something, but there certainly don't seem to be lots of places where elaxistos is used of non-disciples!

Besides that, elaxistos, "least," is just the superlative of mikros, "little."  And Jesus uses that quite a lot to refer to his followers.  Matthew 10:42, for example, says, "Whoever gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will be no means lose his reward."  You could look also at Matthew 18:6, 10, and 14.

Which brings up Matthew 18:5.  That's not talking about the needy, I don't think.  It may be talking about the child who's sitting on Jesus' lap; I think it's even more likely that it's talking about disciples who are like that child.  After all, Jesus has already made that metaphorical pivot in verse 4 from the child himself to those who must be like that child, and then in verse 6 he actually brings it home by talking about "one of these little ones who believe in me."  Keep Reading >>>