This morning’s Disturbing Thought had me looking at a well known passage in a way that I have never looked at it in the past.

All the nations of the world will be gathered before him, and he will separate them into two groups as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The Son of Man will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to the people on his right … (Matt 25:31)

The word I had not noticed, but drawn out by Bodenheim is nations. It is nations here that are arranged to the left and right, not individual people as I had ‘heard’ before. I am not sure what that means for us today!

It is interesting to see, as well, that neither set of people, the goats and the sheep, has any idea as to why they are being judged as they are. As Bodenheim points out, there is nothing about professing faith, or claiming Jesus as Lord; the believers are not separated from non-believers. Instead nations who show compassion are separated from nations that do not.

Today I have been disturbed by this and as the day draws to a close wonder if this is really all about how we use the power that we have to help the poor and neglected? Do we, instead get embroiled and use our power to attempt to win arguments in the stuff that God is not that bothered about while we dismiss the issues that clearly God is concerned about, such as how we treat the weak in our societies?