OUR RIGHT-HANDED GOD?
Matthew 25: 31-46
For years a beloved baritone soloist
in this congregation, Reid Morrison, would sing these words: “Then, then shall
the King say unto them, upon his right hand: ‘Come ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world: inherit
the Kingdom prepared for you.’” Taken
from Matthew 25 in the King James Bible, there has been no clearer passage to
show that there will be a Day of Judgment. On that day, the King of kings, the
one seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, will look toward faithful
ones who have sometimes been confused and afraid, but who always needed the
Savior, and bless them. Likewise he will look to those who have been willful,
who put their trust in others or who did whatever society told them to do, and
he’ll tell them they will end up elsewhere. Those goats were, figuratively or
literally speaking, on the left hand of the King. Such imagery makes its way throughout the
Bible. It was a source of great consternation to Joseph in Genesis 48 that his
father, Jacob (also called Israel), when asked to bless his grandsons, took his
hands and crossed them, blessing the younger grandson with his right hand, and
his older grandson with his left. To a left-hander like me, I might have hoped
that this was a greater blessing to the older of the two, but it was not. The
right hand always wins in the Bible! David wrote in Psalm 16: “I keep the Lord
always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” And it
was the words of our Lord himself who, when challenged as to whether or not he
was the Christ, proclaimed with frightening authority: “I am; and you will see
the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of
heaven!” Being on the right hand of someone meant something then, and in many
parts of our world it means something even now. For that reason, I always
counsel wedding ushers to escort with their right arm, which is the hand of
honor; and I counsel those training for the ministry to offer benedictions and
to baptize only with their right hand. The left hand might be welcome here, but
not in other cultures. How our foreign policy could improve if we made sure to
honor the blessings and curses, the holy ground and the unholy ground of other
cultures, instead of ignoring theirs or imposing ours. Cultural practices
matter.
As a left-hander, my hand smears the
wet ink from fountain pens as it brushes across paper, and I go home with
ballpoint pen ink on the edge of my left hand daily. When trying to use scissors
in my left hand, most of the time they simply won’t cut. In grade school I used to have to wait for the
one or two pairs of scissors labeled “lefty” so I eventually learned to cut
right handed. I learned I could play golf equally poorly with left-handed or
right-handed clubs, so my father said since most courses are designed for
right-handers, to play right handed! The
world is a right handed world now, as it was in Biblical days. There are some
famous left-handers in every sport from Tim Tebow to Barry Bonds to Ty Cobb.
There are former presidents like Ford, Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, and Clinton
who were left-handed. There are artists like DaVinci and Michelangelo;
musicians like Cole Porter and Paul McCartney; and leaders such as Julius
Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Norman Schwarzkopf. America has stopped
labeling left-handedness as something that needs to be corrected, but in what
we call the Middle East, which includes Biblical areas, there is an
understanding today that was also in place in Bible times: it is that the right hand is the hand of power and blessing and the
left hand is the hand for dirty work and personal hygiene. In the
As Cara’s class studies the Apostles’
Creed, they will be studying the line we will say today: Christ “ascended into
Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” What did our
Lord do when he left the earth? Quoting mostly from Psalm 110 verse 1, the New
Testament describes Jesus the Lord as being seated at God’s right hand, the
position of supreme majesty and authority. He sits there while God makes his
enemies his footstool! …” We already quoted Jesus declaring he would be seated
at the right hand of power. Peter also told the crowd on Pentecost that Jesus
was “exalted at the right hand of God.” Just before Stephen was stoned to death
in Acts 7, he said “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man
standing at the right hand of God.” And in Romans 8, Paul declares, “Is it
Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right
hand of God who intercedes for us?”
So today, on a Sunday when we honor
Christ as King and Lord, what do we make of all of this emphasis of blessed
ones being on the right hand of a King? Just as Jesus, through faithful
actions, is seated at the right hand of his Father, so we, through faithful
actions, can be seated at the right hand of the King. Sheep are not brilliant
animals, but they are ones who are wholly dependent on a Good Shepherd. The faithful are said to be like sheep. The
shepherd takes care of his flock. Goats, on the other hand, wander, stir up
trouble, nibble on the bottom of the clothes of anyone near them, and can be aggressive.
In learning that, we have life
lessons for this week: The King is looking for those who serve, as he served;
those who follow him as he followed the directions from his Father; and those
who know they need a Good Shepherd to keep them from straying and to rescue
them from the dark and dangerous places of life. The King is also looking for
people to feed, clothe and visit others as if you are feeding, clothing, and
visiting Jesus. If you are willing to do that, then this proclamation is for
you: “Then shall the King say unto you,
upon his right hand: ‘Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom
prepared for you.’” Kingdom, or outer darkness; where will your actions lead
you at the end of your life’s journey?
Jeffrey A. Sumner November 23, 2008