Devotional Reading from the Common Daily Lectionary: Matthew 25: 31-46

Text: Then the righteous will say, “Lord, when did you see you hungry and give you feed, or thirst and give you something to drink?” (v. 37)

Doing good with hope of reward is not “doing good”. It is a transaction, plain and simple.

In the parable of “the sheep and goats”, the followers of Jesus were told that the key to the Kingdom is found in caring for the least, the last and the lost, not in the hope of “going to heaven” or receiving “good karma”, but in simply doing the will of the One revealed in Jesus. In other words,we care for the least, the last and the lost because it is simply who we are. Nothing more,  nothing less.

At a different time Jesus told His followers that they could always tell a tree by the fruit it produces. Good trees do not produce bad fruit and vice versa.

Today’s reading and text invites us to do “a gut check”; take a deeply personal and honest inventory of who we really are. I believe that when we realize that we our not our own, but Another’s, then we begin to see the world with a whole new set of eyes.

Lord God, give me the courage to look deeply into my heart. Help me present my motives that need Your cleansing fire. Purify me, make me humble and seek only to please You. Amen.