A parable of Jesus

The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats

How we treat the hungry, the stranger, the sick, and the prisoner is how we have treated Christ himself.

Where and to whom Jesus told it

This is the climax of Jesus' teaching on the Mount of Olives, the last of the three parables of Matthew 25 and the final picture of the last judgment before the passion begins. It is not a story of servants or virgins but a vision of the end itself, the Son of man on his throne of glory with all nations gathered before him. Everything Jesus has been teaching about readiness comes to its point here, in a scene of universal reckoning.

The image of dividing sheep from goats was drawn from ordinary shepherding, where mixed flocks grazing together were separated at day's end, the sheep and the goats needing different care. Jesus takes that homely picture and makes it the figure of the final separation of humanity, done not by us but by the King himself.

The parable

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, Jesus says, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. To the sheep on his right hand the King says, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you; for I was an hungred and ye gave me meat, thirsty and ye gave me drink, a stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye clothed me, sick and in prison and ye came unto me. The righteous, astonished, ask when they saw him so. And the King answers, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

To the goats on his left he says the reverse: depart, for I was hungry and you gave me no meat, and what you did not do to the least of these, you did not do to me. Both groups are surprised; neither recognized that they were serving or neglecting the King himself in the needy. This is the heart of the parable: the King so identifies with the hungry, the stranger, the sick, and the prisoner that what is done to them is done to him, and the final judgment turns on mercy shown or withheld to the least.

What it means, and how it has been misread and rightly read

This parable has been the ground of much debate, and it can be misused in two directions. Some turn it into a pure gospel of works, as though we earn heaven by charity apart from faith in Christ, which cannot be squared with the whole of Jesus' teaching. Others explain the mercy away as unimportant, which cannot be squared with the parable itself. The truer reading holds both: genuine faith is never alone but shows itself in mercy, and the startled question of the righteous, when did we see thee, reveals that their love was unselfconscious, not a calculated bid for reward.

Read rightly, the parable strips away the comfortable illusion that we can love a God we cannot see while ignoring the needy we can. It teaches that our treatment of the vulnerable is the truest evidence of where our hearts stand, and that the neglect of the goats is not active cruelty but simple failure to see and to act, the sin of the priest and Levite who passed by. The judgment is real, it is universal, and it turns on love made visible in mercy.

The heart of God and the kingdom

This parable reveals a King who is also, astonishingly, hidden among the least. The Son of man on the throne of glory is the same Lord who is hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned in the persons of the needy. God has so bound himself to the poor and the suffering that to serve them is to serve him, and to pass them by is to pass him by. This is one of the most staggering identifications in all of Scripture.

It reveals, too, that the last judgment is real and that it is moral, turning not on outward profession but on the presence or absence of the mercy that marks God's own children. The God of infinite compassion looks, at the end, for compassion in us, not as a wage we have earned but as the sure sign that his love has taken root and become the shape of our lives.

What it asks of us

This parable searches how we live right now, calling us to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned, and to see Christ himself in them. It refuses to let our faith remain an inward feeling or a verbal profession; it demands that love take on hands and feet toward the vulnerable who are always near us.

And it comforts as well as convicts. The unselfconscious surprise of the righteous, who did not even realize they were serving the King, tells us that true mercy becomes second nature, not a strained performance for reward. We are not asked to serve the poor in order to be seen, or even in order to be saved, but to become the kind of people in whom Christ's own compassion flows so naturally that we hardly notice we are meeting him in the least of these.

How it points to Christ

Christ is the King upon the throne of judgment, and he is also, in his lowliness, the hungry, the stranger, the prisoner, hidden among the least of his brethren. He first became poor for our sakes, and now he meets us in the poor. To serve them is to serve him; to belong to his sheep is to have heard his voice and followed him into a life of self-giving love. Our mercy does not purchase his kingdom, but it is the mark of those who are truly his, made like the Shepherd who laid down his life for the flock.

Frequently asked questions

What does the parable of the sheep and the goats mean?

At the final judgment the King separates people by how they treated the hungry, the stranger, the sick, and the prisoner, because 'inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me' (Matthew 25:31-46). Christ is present in the needy.

Who are 'the least of these'?

Readers differ. Some understand all the poor and suffering everywhere; others take it more narrowly as Jesus' persecuted followers and messengers. Either way, the King identifies himself with the needy, and mercy toward them is mercy toward him.

Is this parable about salvation by works?

It is about the fruit that reveals a heart. Jesus elsewhere teaches salvation as a gift of grace received by faith; here he shows that genuine faith shows itself in mercy. The sheep were surprised, having served without calculating reward.