Matthew 25: the real deal

An hour-long conversation reveals the riches found in Jesus’ teaching on ‘The Judgment of the Nations’

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

Dr. Bridgett A. Green (photo courtesy of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary)

LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Dr. Floretta Barbee-Watkins calls her online outreach “Zoom at Noon,” and Wednesday’s edition “Matthew 25: the real deal.” But it might well have been labeled “Exegeting Matthew 25:31-46 in practical ways everyone can understand.”

Barbee-Watkins, transitional general presbyter for the Presbytery of Detroit, had has her guest  Dr. Bridgett Green, assistant professor of New Testament at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, who’s set to start in January 2022 as Presbyterian Publishing Corporation’s vice president of Publishing and editorial director of Westminster John Knox Press. Watch their hour-long discussion here.

The Presbytery of Detroit is among the nearly 80 mid councils (presbyteries and synods) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to have accepted the Matthew 25 invitation, which “calls all of us to actively engage in the world around us, so our faith comes alive and we wake up to new possibilities,” according to the Matthew 25 website.

Green noted the word “you” in this key passage, titled “The Judgment of the Nations” in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, is plural in the original Greek.

“The implication is this is not just an individual act,” Green said, but instead it’s how everyone is called to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked and visit the sick and imprisoned. “How do we do it collectively?” Green asked.

The term “nations” derives from the Greek “ethnos,” often translated “Gentiles” but “nations” in this case, Green said. The Matthew 25 focus of dismantling structural racism may be needed now more than ever, but don’t think racism is a relatively new concept, Green said.

“We have to get out from understanding that racism is a construct developed only in the last 200 years,” Green said. “It has been used more robustly in the last 200 years, but it is a construct that has been around since 700 or 600 [Before the Common Era].”

Using terms like “king” and “kingdom” also implies “that the merits of this story are political,” Green said. “It’s a theological conversation, but it’s also a political conversation.”

There’s plenty of political language in the text, Green noted. The Son of Humanity is sitting on his throne of glory, a political seat, a seat of power, Green pointed out.

The Rev. Dr. Floretta Barbee-Watkins

“So many congregations don’t want to talk about politics. They try to separate that from the Bible. They just want to hear about Jesus and his love and grace,” Barbee-Watkins said. “That’s not to be excluded, but here we are hearing political language and a judgment based on an understanding of the way we are structured as nations, as people. This brings a whole lot more richness for preachers. We talk about the sovereignty of God, and that’s very political.”

One common problem, Green said, is that people tend to conflate “political” and “partisan.” In Greek, “political” has as its root “polis,” a city or town — the people. In addition, she said, most Presbyterians are very familiar with the term “polity,” which is “not about being partisan,” Green said. “It’s how we have decided to govern as a people.”

Ever since the Enlightenment, church and state have been separate entities, according to Green. But that wasn’t the case in the biblical world, where “theology was just as political as it was personal.” Today, “how we are called to serve in the world is participating in the polis of the communities we are living in.”

What followed was a discussion on offering hospitality that included this insight from Green: Hospitality is “creating and making space even to the extent that I might be outnumbered.”

“It’s not an in-house situation, not ‘whatever you have done for the least of these in our congregation,’ or ‘in your neighborhood,’” Green said. “The parable establishes that the king is on the throne and calling for all the nations, not just one or two … The family is everyone, not just particular groups.”

Earlier this year, Green led a Bible study for leaders in the Presbyterian Mission Agency. “The least of these,” she pointed out then, is “Greek shorthand for ‘the least among the ones who are here.’”

“A person isn’t born the least,” Green told Barbee-Watkins. “A person is brought into a circumstance imposed by outside forces that create a situation.”

As well, a community of people experiences racism “not because of a race, but because of the way people are raised,” Green said. “They have been racialized, creating systems and policies applied to create disparities and inequities which have become generational.”

A person isn’t born “with God’s intent that they would become the least,” Green said. “But we have systems that allow people to be removed from access to resources, prospects of potentiality, offers of opportunity.”

Green expressed gratitude that friends have helped her see people not as homeless, but as experiencing homelessness. If such were the case for Green, “my name isn’t Homeless, and their names are not The Least,” Green said.

What difference, Barbee-Watkins wondered, does this teaching make?

Green started with the fact that it’s Jesus’ final teaching before his passion and resurrection, and the final teaching before he offers up the Great Commission to his disciples.

“This is part of our call to discipleship. What this parable of judgment offers is, what is the fruit of our labor supposed to look like?” Green said. “It is understood to be apocalyptic teaching, but it’s also a component of the message from a divine source so we can understand what needs to take place so we don’t end up with the goats.”

“In this parable is our call to do the work — not to make us look good, but in terms of providing care and serving all those who are considered part of the king’s family. There are far more people outside our congregations than within our congregations … What are we called to do in terms of manifesting this vision? The work of the congregation is not just those who assemble under a certain roof and are surrounded by certain walls. We are called to minister and increase who we understand our congregation to be.”

“I know this will spark more conversation,” Barbee-Watkins said while thanking Green for taking time to share wisdom about Scripture. “Our congregations can get more insight … into what it means to be faithful over a few things and live out our faith in a way that makes a difference to God’s children, our siblings.”