You Did For Me (Matthew 25:40)

 

Thursday, 20 November, 2025

Psalm 48

2 Kings 21:1-18

Matthew 25:31-46

You Did For Me (Matthew 25:40)

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

I once heard a man who played trumpet with the Air Force Band comment that the hardest gig he ever had to play was the Last Post. The tune itself is not very difficult – in fact, it is very similar to the basic warm-up most trumpet players do every day before they practise. The difficulty comes from the fact that you are standing up there, by yourself, playing alone. Brass playing is, as they say, a “team sport”, and so there is something especially tough going it alone.

Christianity, or perhaps shall we say, the intended way for humanity to exist with their God, is a team sport too. God made us as a race, the human race. And the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, died, and rose again so that all may come to him and live as members of his body, with him at the head. Human beings were made to be less like a lone bugler, and more like a big brass band.

When Jesus speaks of his Second Coming, he talks of himself in a way almost like a parable, of a King judging over how his subjects treated one another. He identifies himself with his subjects to the utmost degree. If we help someone else, we are in fact helping him.

Love is both a feeling and an action. If we feel great love for Jesus, we can show our love for him by performing actions of love towards our fellow humans. And when we do, we can hear the words of Jesus saying to us “you did this to me”. What words could be more desirable for us to hear?

How is the health of your love for Jesus? How is the health of your love towards your fellow human?

Jesus, our Brother and our King, who came to be as one of us, to die for us, to bring us to everlasting life, and to show us the way of your love: give us opportunities to love one another, that we may love you through them.