We don’ t live in proximity to livestock any longer so have lost the context of the differences between sheep and goats.
Goats are very curious animals and independent but sheep like to stay with the flock. Goats are also found in the wild where they do not obey a shepherd but sheep are almost entirely domesticated and easily taught to obey a shepherd, even learning to follow their shepherd by the sound of his voice. Goats eat more and give less meat and no wool, while sheep eat grass and give more meat and wool for clothes. As adults, goats sometimes dominate sheep when they are herded together.
The whole theme of the Gospel of Matthew is Jesus as a king. The whole passage about sheep and goats has the the theme of kingship and the king executing judgement against nations.
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. (Mathew 25:31-33)
The sheep and the goats are nations. Some nations are independent, domineering, disobedient, consume much and give back little like goats. Some nations are obedient, docile, do not demand much and bear much fruit.
Jesus will sit on a throne and judge the nations. The criteria for how he will judge nations is how well they treated the least of their people.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ (Matthew 25:42-43)
The whole thing is a reference to Ezekiel 34.
Thus my flock had to graze on what your hooves had trampled and drink what your hooves had polluted. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will judge between the fat and the lean. Because you push with flank and shoulder, and butt all the weak sheep with your horns until you drive them off, I will save my flock so they can no longer be plundered; I will judge between one sheep and another. I will appoint one shepherd over them to pasture them, my servant David; he shall pasture them and be their shepherd. (Ezekiel 34:19-23)
Jesus quotes or references the prophet Ezekiel many times.
The high priests, scribes, and pharisees were only interested in themselves. The were only insterested in their own riches and power and were not interested in mercy. Much of the Old Covenant law was about mercy - forgiving debts and releasing slaves and servants every seven years, helping widows and orphans and the elderly - but the leaders of Israel had abandoned that. They were poor shepherds.
Matthew 24 and 25 is where Jesus the King, who has come to establish a new kingdom, begins to pronounce judgement on the old Kingdom. He had just told the disciples that the temple would be torn down and that Jerusalem would be destroyed “before this generation should pass away” in the previous chapter and here he continues to illustrate how the priests, scribes and pharisees, by their abandonment of God’s commandments to be merciful and their greed and desire for power, have given up the right to lead. Jesus continues to pass judement on them as he establishes his kingdom.
I think there is a definite moral sense to this scripture which we can apply to today’s leadership in many different nations, but I really don’t think we can draw the conclusion that Jesus is condemning left wing democratic ideology and promoting right wing republican ideology. Given his criterea about how he will judge nations, “As you have done to the least of them you have done it to me”, we have all fallen short in many respects.
-Tim-
