“I Never Knew You”

[Our lessons today were Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28; Psalm 31:1-5, 19-24; Romans 3:21-25a, 28; and Matthew 7:21-27.]

This is a short Gospel reading today, but it carries a very strong message. Jesus tells us that if you prophesy in his name, and cast out demons in his name, and do deeds of power in his name, that isn’t enough! If you call out to him, it isn’t enough!

“I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers!”

First, Jesus talks about this as a requirement for entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. Remember, when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven, he isn’t talking about the afterlife. The Kingdom of Heaven he proclaims is here and now. It is the place where, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Your will be done.” It is the place where God’s justice will be carried out, where the poor and the hungry and the ill are taken care of. So, when Jesus talks about what is needed, this is what he refers to.

Who gets in? “Only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” We might think, “Isn’t doing the will of God all of these things we speak of?” Obviously it isn’t, or it isn’t sufficient. Something else is needed, something more than the acknowledgment of God as Lord, something more than just doing what you think God wants; something more than just allegiance, more even than obedience, more than hard work, diligence and following all the rules.

Go back to the reading from Deuteronomy:

“You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead.” And what words were these? From earlier in Deuteronomy we hear: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength.” This is the missing ingredient: love!

All of these things we do must come from love. Love is that foundation of rock on which we must build. It must be there from the beginning and without it, nothing we do is doing what God wants.

If we obey Jesus only out of duty, doing things because we are proud of our ability to get things done, we will have left undone the greatest duty of all, the duty to love one another. If we obey only out of fear of punishment, we will be acting without that perfect love which casts out fear. If we obey only because we seek a reward—a reserved seat in the kingdom of God, we will be merely seekers of a prize; not lovers of a beloved.

God gave himself to us in his great love for us, through the redemption that is in Jesus. This is how, and how much, God loves us. And God wants nothing from us but our love in return. He wants us—ourselves, as we are, with our offerings of love, that mean more to God than anything—all treasure, all the prophecies, all of the casting out of demons and all the deeds of power. Those are the words to be put in our hearts and souls, bound as signs on our hands and fixed as emblems on our foreheads. Then all that we say and do and feel and think will be for the love of God.