Scripture Study for

The reading from Ezekiel comes from a passage that focuses on  the failure of Israel’s leaders, who have not shown solicitude for the  socially and spiritually vulnerable but instead have been negligent  or even taken advantage of God’s flock for their own gain. Now,  God says, I will do myself what you did not do. In God’s care, the  neglected, abused, or those who were allowed to “go astray” will be cared for properly; “the sleek and the strong” who took advantage of them will receive their judgment. Yet even among the flock will be  found the faithless, whom God will seek out. But some of them will  resist, proving themselves not part of God’s flock, but goats and rams. 

At least some of the Corinthian Christians denied the resurrection of  the dead, yet had apparently accepted Paul’s teaching on Christ’s role  in God’s redemption. Paul points out that if there is no resurrection,  and Christ was not raised from the dead, the gospel message is meaningless and false because they are still in their sins and have  no hope beyond this life. The gospel is that Christ was raised from  the dead, and because of this the baptized have received life in and  through him and will be resurrected too at his second coming. Christ  alone will be sovereign, the only authority, and all powers will be  subject to him, including and especially the power of death.

The final judgment scene must be understood against the  background of Jesus’ consistent teaching, found throughout  Matthew’s Gospel, on the great difficulty of entering “the kingdom  prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” One must  completely reform one’s life, starting at the level of thought, attitude,  and interpretation of reality. Thus the sheep have not made their  way easily into the kingdom simply by a few “works of mercy.”  Their actions represent a fundamental disposition toward God  that is manifested in their actions on behalf of others. These are the  members of the flock who denied themselves, took up their crosses,  and thus became followers of Christ. The goats represent those who  never did deny themselves or take up their crosses, and thus never  really lived for anyone but themselves.