The Sheep and the Goats examined

The Parable of the Sheep and Goats is the last of a series of three parables. And in this parable, Jesus Christ taught us what it means to be Christ-like: Feeding the hungry, quenching their thirst, treating the sick, visiting the incarcerated, clothing the naked, and embracing the stranger. When reading the parable, we should be careful not to read it too literally, we must read it for what it is – a parable.

Jesus surprised us by showing who is included and who is excluded. He did not say that the Judge will condemn the murderers, liars, idolaters, and thieves etc. Neither did Jesus say that God will expose those who don’t believe in Him. Instead, God will judge us for what we did not do for the poor, the sick, and the alien stranger. Again, let's not read it too literally. And let's also keep in mind that Jesus shared this story under the Law, when justification was a result of works.

Christ challenged the presumption of his audience. Often we think that we are the included ones, the sheep. After all, “we were baptized, we took communion, we went to church.” Some will claim they prophesied, cast out demons, and performed miracles in Jesus’ name (Matt 7:21-23), but Jesus never knew them. So Jesus shocks those who feel entitled to God’s kingdom. If we fail to see the less fortunate, we fail to see Christ.

As St. John Chrysostom said, “If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find him in the chalice.”

Our Christ-less religious resumes will not impress God. What Jesus will look at is how we imitated Him, how we extended mercy.

St. Silouan the Athonite, once said:

“If you should find out that even one of your brothers is suffering outside the heavenly city, would you not implore the Lord to show him mercy and bring him in? And if you would not, then your heart is made of iron. And there is no need for iron in paradise.”

You see how Silouan reversed the understanding of who should be seen as included or not? This reflects Jesus’ criteria in Matthew 25, which is focused on our compassion or ignorance of “the least of these.”

Some will be startled to be dismissed as goats, and others will be shocked when God welcomes them as sheep. They will wonder, “when did we see you hungry or thirsty and fed you, or naked and poor and we clothed you, or sick or in prison and visited you?”

And our Lord will say:

“I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me! Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom.”

These had not consciously recognized Jesus in these least, yet they will to their surprise be included. While others will be astounded since they can’t recall how they overlooked Christ.

Finding Mercy in the Story

Although this story instills fear, we find hints of mercy even for the goats.

Jesus teaches us that the sheep are justified because of their relationship with Jesus, of which they are unaware interestingly. But the goats, which are described as “baby-goats” in the Greek, are separated. But the separation that occurs, is occurring within His shepherding. Because Jesus immediately after speaks about how He must lay down his life for the sheep and goats alike. For “after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

Pope Benedict XVI in his trilogy on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, encouraged his readers to remember that the punchline to every parable is the death and resurrection of Christ. Whatever judgments we find in the parables raise questions about the nature of God’s judgment, that Christ answers from the cross with a prayer—“Father, forgive them,”

Maybe we could ask questions, then, such as: What if the Judgment seat of Christ has become his Mercy Seat? What if His final verdict is forgiveness? What if the same Lord who shut the doors on the foolish virgins, in his resurrection shatters every locked door, even the gates hades itself?

So when Jesus dismisses the goats, He sends them to “kolasis aionion,” (Matt. 25:46). What does this mean?

Young’s Literal Translation translated it: “punishment age-during.” Rotherham Translation translated it: “age-abiding correction.” Weymouth Translation translated it: “punishment of the ages.” Concordant Literal Translation translated it: “chastening eonian.” DBH Translation translated it: “chastening of that Age.”

These translations claim that the punishment, correction, and chastening lasts for a particular age(s).

If Jesus intended us to hear a threat of retributive punishment, there were other words He could have used. Clement of Alexandria explains that ‘kolasis’ carries the idea of correction and restoration. This aligns with Hebrews 12, where the author informs us that God’s punishments are the chastisement of a loving Father, who is out to restore us.

The Greek scholar, William Barclay, points out that ‘kolasis’ originally meant the “pruning of trees to make them grow better.” He also pointed out that in Greek literature the word is most often used to describe remedial punishment.

If this is what ‘kolasis’ in fact means, then it would make little sense to translate ‘aionion’ as eternal, since a chastisement, or a correction, comes to an end when its corrective purpose is accomplished.

Augustine argued that since ‘aionios’ referred to both life and punishment, it had to carry the same duration in both cases. However, he failed to consider that the duration of ‘aionios’ is determined by the subject to which it refers. For example, when ‘aionios’ is used to describe, in the Septuagint, the duration of Jonah’s entrapment in the fish, it was limited to only three days. Or we could use my friend, Ryan, as an example. He’s a tall man. If Ryan stood in front of a tall building, we would have a tall man in front of a tall building. “Tall” does not mean the same here, Ryan is not as tall as the building, because the adjective modifies the noun to which it is connected.

‘Aionios’, then, does not always have to mean ‘eternal’. And even if it does, it means eternal when associated with God. Thus it simply refers to that which comes forth from Him and relates to His purposes; ‘aionios’ is a quality of essence rather than of duration. For example, when Jude describes the “eternal fire” that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah, the point is not that the fire literally burns forever without consuming the cities. We could confirm this by a visit to modern-day Sodom. But the point is that the fire is the divine judgment that has its source in the eternal God himself.

And since Jesus seems to indicate that the ‘kolasis’ will have a corrective purpose, the punishment, then, may not continue forever without accomplishing its pedagogical, purifying, and restorative purpose. But it is eternal in the sense that nothing could ever stop His purposes.

If this is so, then the “baby-goats” are destined to “grow up.” They will go to, what can be translated as the “chastening”, “correction”, “pruning” or “obviating the growth” of that Age. They will go to a period (aionios) of rehabilitation (kolasis).