Blessed or cursed
We are as humans very good at putting others in boxes. We so easily decide where people belong. I had a conversation with my brother not that long ago about the lack of tribes in youth culture. Now that just may be two middle aged grumpy old men bemoaning that it’s not the same as when we were young. The conversations I have had recently that I promised my younger self I would not have.
You see when we grew up we had several well defined groups. The casuals, the goths, at early points there were new romantics, head bangers and we certainly had indies and a mod revival at one point. We knew which music they listened to and just had to look at the dress code to know which particular group they belonged to. Easy… Not so now…? Well I know that’s not true. We still do it and there are groups now I just don’t see them because??? Well, I’m not supposed to, I’m old. Also my brother and I are putting people in boxes of our own making by saying there are no more tribes.
We do like boxes as they make us feel safe and secure. They denote what we should or can expect from an individual or a group of people. This expectation helps us make sense of the world and how it should work. The human equivalent of everything has a place and everything in its place. Be honest now although we are happier when we are certain of how the world is and works, we really don’t like ourselves being placed in a box. Particularly if it is the middle aged grumpy old man box ;-)
Here, in these verses, there are boxes. Jesus is placing people into three boxes. Ohh you say three boxes I can only read two… Sheep and Goats. Yes but I’ll come back to the third in a moment.
The first box is full of sheep. A good thing in this case because Jesus is the good shepherd, we know that. These sheep are placed to one side, the right, which you are aware is the place of special honour. Jesus sits at the right hand of God. The right hand symbolizes the hand of blessing and mercy. The right hand side is a good place to be. This box is also described as blessed. And in v 37 “the righteous…” Seems a good place to be.
The left is reserved for the …. Well, by definition the left, not so good? Well the left hand of the king normally represents judgement. But also the word sinister is derived from the Latin word for left which is, you guessed it “sinister” So left was already a box you did not wish to be in. I apologise to all of you who are left handed but you are considered sinister by simple “etymology”
I would imagine that we would all like to be in the right hand box. The blessed box. I would wait for an amen at this point so please indulge my silliness by saying a nice loud “amen, hallelujah, etc” There are a few particular problems or issues with being blessed however. Blessed in one sense is of course nice. The OT instances of blessing, signal a lot of... stuff, livestock, good harvests, slaves and offspring (especially sons). That last one we hear still but may not be such a wonderful thing really.
What do we think of when we hear the words blessed in connection to Jesus and the new testament though - the beatitudes? Which is a long list of what Jesus says are those who follow him are likely to experience. Which the first 5 are… the hungry, the poor in spirit, the truly poor, who hunger and thirst for justice and He throws in a those persecuted for the sake of justice.
Being blessed is not always what we think it might be. The acts of the apostles are littered with instances of followers of Christ being jailed, beaten, halled in front of authorities and stoned to the point of death. Jesus experienced all of those and we are asked to follow… we are then to be called the righteous because we face these things.
And when Jesus answers their query “when did I see you…” Jesus identifies Himself with the hungry, thirsty, the stranger, those who were naked, sick and those imprisoned …. The Followers, the sheep, those in the right hand box are blessed in one way and one way only. The ones who identify themselves with the same and with Jesus are blessed when they show mercy to the same in the face of their own experiences and circumstances. And like Jesus identify with the very same... the hungry, thirsty, the stranger, those who were naked, sick and those imprisoned
Only you can decide which you may identify more, those who are willing to be blessed in this way or those who are not. Right or left.