Welcome to my annotated commentary on Sunday’s readings. The purpose of my commentary is to give you the background for each reading, a little better understanding of its message and the message that all of the Sunday readings together provide us. I hope you find it helpful!
Ezekiel 34:11 – 12, 15 – 17
This Sunday, as we celebrate the 34th and last Sunday in Ordinary Time with the celebration of the great feast that has the impressive name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, we will first hear from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. Again, the passage was clearly chosen to prepare us for the Gospel. Let’s talk about this book since we haven’t seen it for awhile. As you may recall, most scholars would agree that most of the Book of Ezekiel comes from the prophet Ezekiel, who was the first prophet to receive his call outside the Holy Land. He was exiled to Babylon in 597BC and understood his first task was to prepare his fellow countrymen for the destruction of Jerusalem. The first part of the book consists of reproaches for Israel’s past and present sins and the confident prediction that Jerusalem would, in fact, be destroyed and everyone would be sent into exile. The second part of the book, on the other hand, presents a promise of salvation in a new covenant. We will hear this Sunday from the second part of the book. We will hear only the second part of the chapter on Sunday, but to understand it completely, we should read the first part as well. Let’s begin by reading vss. 1 – 10. Here, we hear the condemnation of Israel’s leaders who love meat and wool more than the sheep they are called to tend. “You have consumed milk, wore wool and slaughtered fatlings but the flock you did not pasture.” After this indictment of the wicked shepherds, we hear in this Sunday’s reading the Lord proclaim that he will be the shepherd of the people. He will judge between the sheep and will inaugurate an age of peace; we have heard this in earlier Books of the Hebrew Scriptures as well (cf. Jer 23:1-4; Is 40:9-11). Our Sunday reading begins with God’s decision to step in because the sheep have become plunder rather than a flock to be cared for and guarded.
11 For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.
I myself: this seems to indicate a return to a theocracy (cf. 1 Sm 8:1-22). It’s as if God is saying, “I told you so!” But, then he offers assurance that he will not abandon his people but will care for them himself.
tend: notice that God will not necessarily remove all danger in our path. As we hear in Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.” The Lord remains with us in the dark valley. He doesn’t remove the darkness but protects us from the danger it poses.
12 As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark.
13 I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the foreign lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel (in the land’s ravines and all its inhabited places).
Tends…scattered sheep…gather them from the foreign lands: clearly a reference to their exile in Babylon.
14 In good pastures will I pasture them, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing ground. There they shall lie down on good grazing ground, and in rich pastures shall they be pastured on the mountains of Israel.
15 I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD.
16 The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal (but the sleek and the strong I will destroy), shepherding them rightly.
the sleek and the strong I will destroy: these are the ones who took advantage of their fellow Jew rather than helping them in their waywardness, injury and sickness.
17 As for you, my sheep, says the Lord GOD, I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats.
We see here, on one hand, a typical apocalyptic vision: The good will be vindicated and the wicked will get what they deserve. At the same time, the image of this vindicator is not one of a fierce warrior but a gentle shepherding God who redeems and restores what others have let languish.
Before we examine this Sunday’s gospel passage, let’s read Mt. 18:12 -14, where we see that Jesus builds upon this passage from Ezekiel to express the nature of his person and his mission.
Now, let’s study Sunday’s passage.
Matthew 25: 31 – 46
This week, we continue to hear from Matthew’s Gospel, picking up right where we left off last week. It completes the discourse captured in all of Mt 25 which speaks of preparation for the end of time and judgment day with two parables: the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the talents. Picking up on the image of the shepherd judging between sheep that we heard in the first reading, Jesus speaks, once again, about the final judgment. As you will read in your footnotes, the conclusion of the discourse, which is peculiar to Matthew, portrays the final judgment that will accompany the parousia. Although often called a “parable,” it is not really such, for the only parabolic elements are the depiction of the Son of Man as a shepherd and of the righteous and the wicked as sheep and goats respectively (Matthew 25:32-33). The criterion of judgment will be the deeds of mercy that have been done for the least of Jesus’ brothers (Matthew 25:40). A difficult and important question is the identification of these least brothers. Are they all people who have suffered hunger, thirst, etc. (Matthew 25:35,36) or a particular group of such sufferers? Scholars are divided in their response and arguments can be made for either side. It is important to explore this question. First of all, where did the gospel writer get this story? Is it part of the oral tradition carried on from those who heard Jesus themselves or did the author borrow from some other sources? But leaving aside the problem of what the traditional material that Matthew edited may have meant, it seems that a stronger case can be made for the view that in the evangelist’s sense the sufferers are Christians, probably Christian missionaries whose sufferings were brought upon them by their preaching of the gospel. This is especially evident in the mention of visiting someone in prison. If the message is intended to speak of treatment given to the early Christian missionaries, then the criterion of judgment for all the nations is their treatment of those who have borne to the world the message of Jesus, and this means ultimately their acceptance or rejection of Jesus himself; cf. Matthew 10:40-42, “Whoever receives you, receives me.” Let’s read Matthew 16:24-27; the final judgment and the parousia are described here in very similar language; note the footnote for 16:27.
With this in mind, let’s examine Sunday’s passage:
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne,
Son of Man comes in his glory: we have seen Jesus refer to himself throughout Matthew’s Gospel with the self-deprecating title of “Son of Man” but here we see it used to anticipate his return in glory.
32 and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
All the nations: As you will see in the footnotes, we read in Matthew 24:14 that, before the end, the gospel will have been preached throughout the world; thus the Gentiles will be judged on their response to it as well. But the phrase “all the nations” includes the Jews also, for at the judgment “the Son of Man . . . will repay everyone according to his conduct” (Matthew 16:27).
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats: the separation of sheep from the goats can still be observed in modern Palestine. Although sheep and goats feed together, they are moved separately to when it is time to go to other pastures. The sheep are the ones who have accepted Jesus as the Messiah and have followed him; the goats are those who have rejected him and all of his followers, neglecting them and even throwing them in prison.
33 He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
King: Jesus is given the title of king, which is very unusual in the Gospels, and an indication of ecclesiastical expansion. Whereas Mark and Luke record others calling Jesus a king, in all the synoptic Gospels, it is only here that we hear Jesus refer to himself as king.
Kingdom: pay attention: this is not the reign that Jesus proclaimed when he began his public ministry but the eschatological kingdom “prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,
36 naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’
37 Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
The righteous: remember, the righteous are those in a right relationship with God. They are called righteous here because they have accepted Jesus as God. They will be astonished that in caring for the needs of the sufferers they were ministering to the Lord himself.
38 When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
39 When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
40 And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
One of these least brothers of mine: As we saw earlier in Matthew 10:40-42, these are the disciples who have gone out to proclaim the gospel.
41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
You accursed: The accursed (Matthew 25:41) will be likewise astonished that their neglect of the followers of Jesus was neglect of the Lord himself and will receive from him a similar answer.
Fire prepared . . . his angels: cf. 1 Enoch 10, 13, part of the Jewish pseudoepigrapha, where it is said of the evil angels and Semyaza, their leader, “In those days they will lead them into the bottom of the fire – and in torment – in the prison (where) they will be locked up forever.”
42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
43 a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
44 Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’
not minister to your needs: The surprise of those who are condemned is due to the fact that they did not accept Christ’s teaching that they encountered God in others.
45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’
46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
You will notice that there is no mention of faith in this judgment. That does not mean that faith is not important. Rather, faith, as is clear in so many of the New Testament writings, is the first movement to God, but is not the whole movement. Faith should transform the disciple into one who wills to love as God loves.
There is also no mention of love of God. But, Jesus identifies himself with the people that do or do not receive the love and care, so we see that love of God is expressed in love of neighbor.
I hope you have been able to read this passage with this new lens. Contemporary scripture scholars suggest that it does not say what most people generally think it does. When the triumphant Son of Man identifies with the lowliest of his brethren, we have learned to think of them as the poor of the world. But based on how Matthew has used the terms for the lowly and brethren – as we have seen on several occasions in this gospel – most commentators suggest that they are not the poor in general; they are the Christian missionaries, the new family of Jesus, who go out representing him. This does not disparage service of the poor, it simply says that Jesus was not referring to the generic poor of the world in this parable. He was talking about his missionary disciples, the lowly ones who evangelized in his name.
The position of this chapter in Matthew at the conclusion of the final discourse of Jesus suggests that it is intended to be the last word of Jesus to his disciples. The chapter is weighty and theological. Like the last discourse in John’s Gospel, the theme is love based on the identity of Jesus with men. In the last analysis, it is love that determines whether men are good or bad.
1 Corinthians 15:20 – 26, 28
We hear again from Paul’s letter to the Christians in Corinth. After a triumphant assertion of the reality of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor 15:20a), Paul explains its positive implications and consequences. As a soteriological event of both human (1 Cor 15:20-23) and cosmic (1 Cor 15:24-28) dimensions, Jesus’ resurrection logically and necessarily involves ours as well.
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
The firstfruits: the portion of the harvest offered in thanksgiving to God implies the consecration of the entire harvest to come. Christ’s resurrection is not an end in itself; its finality lies in the whole harvest, ourselves.
21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came also through a human being.
22 For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,
a human being: Our human existence, both natural and supernatural, is corporate, involves solidarity.
In Adam . . . in Christ: the Hebrew word adam in Genesis is both a common noun for mankind and a proper noun for the first man. Paul here presents Adam as at least a literary type of Christ; the parallelism and contrast between them will be developed further in 1 Cor 15:45-49 and in Romans 5:12-21.
23 but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ;
24 then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power.
every sovereignty and every authority and power: Paul’s perspective expands to cosmic dimensions, as he describes the climax of history, the end. His viewpoint is still christological, as in 1 Cor 15:20-23. 1 Cor 15:24,28 describe Christ’s final relations to his enemies and his Father in language that is both royal and military; 1 Cor 15:25-28 insert a proof from scripture (Psalm 110:1; 8:6) into this description. But the viewpoint is also theological, for God is the ultimate agent and end, and likewise soteriological, for we are the beneficiaries of all the action.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death,
The last enemy . . . is death: a parenthesis that specifies the final fulfillment of the two Old Testament texts just referred to, Psalm 110:1 and Psalm 8:7. Death is not just one cosmic power among many, but the ultimate effect of sin in the universe (cf 1 Cor 15:56; Romans 5:12). Christ defeats death where it prevails, in our bodies. The destruction of the last enemy is concretely the “coming to life” (1 Cor 15:22) of “those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor 15:23).
27 for “he subjected everything under his feet.” But when it says that everything has been subjected, it is clear that it excludes the one who subjected everything to him.
The one who subjected everything to him: the Father is the ultimate agent in the drama, and the final end of the process, to whom the Son and everything else is ordered (24.28). That God may be all in all: his reign is a dynamic exercise of creative power, an outpouring of life and energy through the universe, with no further resistance. This is the supremely positive meaning of “subjection”: that God may fully be God.
28 When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will (also) be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
As we come to the end of the liturgical calendar once again, we are confronted with the reality that God’s Son, who was sent to shepherd God’s flock, leading them back to God, will, at the end of time, also judge God’s flock, welcoming those who have seen him in others – especially those who continue his ministry of proclaiming the gospel – into his eternal reign. We must pay careful attention to this message; our eternal destiny relies on it!