Sheep and Goats

It will be like this...

At the end of the day, the farmer gathered the sheep and the goats together. He divided them, putting the sheep on the right and the goats on the left.

He turned to the sheep. "You are blessed, my faithful ones. You have served where you ought to, and you have honored me by treating every person you see as if it were me. You've encountered me in places both holy and profane. Enter now into the sheepfold, the place of rest."

And the sheep stared dumbly back to him. "Excuse me," the lead sheep said, "but when? I mean, we never really saw you. We struggled to believe. We did a few things, but when did we serve you? We just did what we did."

And the farmer said, "Whenever you did what you did to the ones who are considered the least, you did it to me."

Then the farmer turned to the goats. "And you..." He paused. "You don't know how it pains me to say this, but you will not be entering into the sheepfold. You didn't serve me, you only served yourselves. You made sure people knew your name, but not mine. In places holy and profane, your thoughts were only of yourself. Depart from me, for you don't belong to me."

The goats were shocked. The lead goat spoke up, "What? What are you saying? We had our names listed in the membership of the best sheepfolds. We were very quick to say your name when we were thanked for anything. Did you see the huge religious symbols we wore? And we made sure to make huge contributions to any cause that bore your name. How can you say you don't know who we are? Everyone knows who we are!"

The farmer looked sad. "That's just it. Everyone knows who you are. But you don't know who I am." And the farmer turned his back on the goats, and went to be with the sheep. The goats wandered off into the wilderness, forever away from the farmer.

And Jesus looked at his disciples. "Do you understand this?"

(based on Matthew 25)