My high school math teacher liked to hand out his tests prefaced with the bleak prediction, now we’ll separate the sheep from the goats. He enjoyed this bit of drama, but for the rest of us—sheep or goat—the biblical reference got lost in the angst of test-taking.

This idea of separating sheep from goat originated with Jesus. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Jesus goes on to describe his sheep as those who give the hungry something to eat, who clothe the indigent, who care for the sick and the prisoner and the poor. The goats ignore all of the above, concerned only for themselves.

To give his point a bit more pop, Jesus pointed out that the righteous (the sheep) go away to eternal life, but the goats to eternal punishment. Consequences follow the culling of the herd.

Jesus laid out the natural results of faith in him. The Christian religion is not merely a private matter, but overflows into the ways we live. Jesus continually underscored our need to do unto others and we would have done unto us.

Fortunately, we don’t have to be good at math to understand Jesus. Sheep follow the Shepherd, goats not so much.

Matthew 25 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Harry Grout