Sunday, February 15, 2004
Last Day of Meatfare (Tone 2)
Sunday of the Last Judgment
Kellia: Genesis 18:16-33 Epistle: 1 Corinthians 8:8-9:2 Gospel: St. Matthew 25:31-46
Genesis 18:16-33 LXX, especially vs. 21, "I will go down to see whether
they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will
know." The cry of the Church in the throes of history - now reviled, now persecuted, now
ignored, now sought after in hope - is lifted up to God in the Paschal verses taken from Psalm
67:1 LXX: "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered, and let them that hate Him flee from
before His face....And let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice in the presence of God."
The Church offers these words to her Lord, God, and Savior in fear and trembling as well as in
triumph, hope, and adoration; for she has learned the truth of judgment from her Lord. God is no
detached Observer on the affairs of mankind. Through mighty acts He teaches His People to
expect His judgment on their affairs and their history. In His judgments, through His laws, His
Prophets, and in the supreme gift of His Son, He reveals Himself - not cloaking His will for our
race - so that we might have hope amidst the flood of wickedness around us.
After the "Three Visitors" received the hospitality of Abraham, they "set out and...looked toward
Sodom" (Gen. 18:16). Note, the verbs "to see" and "to look" are the way Scripture speaks of
judgment, especially when God is the One looking. The Lord knew perfectly well where Sodom
was. He looked in the manner spoken of through the Psalmist: "For He hath looked out from His
holy height, the Lord from heaven hath looked upon the earth, to hear the groaning of them that
be in fetters, to loose the sons of the slain" (Ps. 101:19, 20 LXX).
God sees. The Lord Jesus "looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
And He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And He said, Of a truth I say
unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all" (Lk. 21:1-4). And when He sees,
judgment eventually becomes Divine action when His warnings and rebukes are cast aside. As
He warned after passing verbal judgment on the inequities between those who gave at the
Temple: "As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be
left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Lk. 21:6). The system itself would
come under Divine judgment, even as did Sodom and Gomorrah. And it was so!
The grace in God's judgment is that He does not withhold His view of what He sees nor of what
will follow if men will not walk in His ways. Today's account reports a conversation within the
Godhead: "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become
a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him?" (Gen.
18:17, 18). No, God will not! Above all, the Lord includes His People in the process leading up
to His acts of judgment, in the same fashion as He did Abraham, so that afterwards "he may
charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing
righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has promised him"
(vs. 19). Do you see God's grace? He will "bring...what He has promised!"
Sodom was close to the hills where Abraham pitched his tents and cared for his flocks. The
Patriarch knew the wickedness of the place, yet God gave him hope for his nephew, Lot, and for
any others who might not have succumbed to the degradation there. For the merest handful of
godly men and women, God often restrains the destructive edge of His judgment. Why does He
spare? Because love, compassion and restoration are ever His primary concern. "For God did
not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be
saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned" (Jn. 3:17, 18).
"Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." (Ps. 50:1, 2 LXX)
