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When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him,
he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations
will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups,
just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the
righteous people on his right and the others on his left. Then the King
will say to the people on his right, 'Come, you that are blessed by my
Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you
ever since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me,
thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received
me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took
care of me, in prison and you visited me.' The righteous will then
answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger
and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we
ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' The King will reply,
'I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of
these brothers of mine, you did it for me!'
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Away from me, you that are
under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared
for the Devil and his angels! I was hungry but you would not feed me,
thirsty but you would not give me a drink; I was a stranger but you
would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me;
I was sick and in prison but you would not take care of me.' Then they
will answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or
a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and would not help you?' The
King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these
least important ones, you refused to help me.' These, then, will be sent
off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life.
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It had to happen.
I'd cycled for almost a year so I reckoned I possessed the knowhow
to try it in the wet for once. On the weekend I left my honey's house
for home on my usual route. During the initially feeble shower I took
it slowly, for there was no hurry. It was an uneventful ride even when
it began to rain seriously, so I gained confidence. But then my luck
changed.
Braking while I turned left down a slope, I hydroplaned over the wet
street when my bike skidded on slippery purple flowers lying everywhere
(having fallen from a nearby tree). Somehow or other I rocketed over my
handlebars, the bitumen rudely rushing up to meet me. I skinned my palms,
elbows, side, knees and mouth, struck my shoulder and chipped a tooth.
I lay there feeling lousy, groaning like hell, striving not to swear
since there was a very young child with an umbrella outside the house
opposite me. She hurried indoors, ushering out... yet another
umbrella-wielding young lady to see the hopeless, ignominious loser on
the street. How sweet. :)
However, my poor fortune was reversed soon thereafter with the
appearance of the ladies' father, who thoughtfully invited me into
his house where I could wash my filthy wounds. He spoke genially in
an unusual Eastern European accent and turned out to work in the
biology department of my university.
He then bound my deeper wounds, offered me a shower, and to cap
it off drove me to my house - saying it was purely what anyone else
would do. Without his help, I seriously don't know how my ride would
have ended.
Dr Jiri Stiller, you are my hero. Thank you so much for taking
the message of Matthew Twenty-Five to heart, and choosing to treat
this unholy fool as though he were someone important.
...though it was only later that I realised he'd helped a guy
with long hair, a beard, holes in his hands and a wounded side. ;)
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