1 Corinthians 15: Resurrection Information for Every Body.

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 25 April 2022 (the week after Resurrection Sunday) by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Last weekend we celebrated Easter. What is the main point of Easter? Jesus defeated sin and death. He died and raised from the grave; so I thought I would look into resurrection in general a little bit today.

First, I have my only story of someone raising from the dead: from when we were serving in Toronto. In one of the corps we were responsible for – the Warehouse Mission – they had very many great outreaches into the Inner City community. We had talent nights once a month that were amazing – everything from absolutely top-of-the-line professional musicians to people signing their hearts out (and our ears!) or playing instruments that they didn’t necessarily know how to work. It was so much fun! Everyone was so encouraging too. We also had regular meals and did so much more. One thing we had on the wall when you entered our space was a bulletin board where we would place funeral cards and notifications of people’s deaths and memorial services - so we could pay our respects and let others remember those who have been Promoted to Glory. Only once we had to actually take down funeral card – because the person wasn’t dead anymore! Maybe they weren’t really dead in the first place but their information was all on the board and people who remembered them were telling me all about it. You can imagine – it was quite exciting when a number of our people met a friend they all knew, who they knew/thought was dead. That is my only resurrection story. And -according to my wife - they probability they weren’t really dead in the first place but even if it isn’t a resurrection story, it still was more than a little exciting when people cried out that she was alive! (We then took her funeral card down)

It would have been very exciting with Jesus’ resurrection! His friends saw him die and then, after He rose, He actually appeared to hundreds of different people, at different times, in different places, and people touched Him to make sure that He wasn’t a ghost. Paul is writing this letter to people who knew this

Today we are going to ask a few questions of our text, 1 Corinthians 15, about the resurrection at the end of time (the eschaton) as it relates not only to Jesus but to all of us.

 

First: What does it mean to be resurrected?

It means to be raised again… with a body – as Jesus showed everyone again and again. The resurrection is NOT about ‘going to heaven’. When we die, we DO  have the opportunity to go to Heaven. Heaven is where Jesus is. Like the thief on the cross, when we pass on, we can go to Heaven. But that is not what Paul is talking about when he is writing about the resurrection. Paul is making the point in Chapter 15 that the resurrection is something different. The language he uses (in Greek) is quite blunt. He is quite upset that some people seem to think that Heaven was the end of it. Paul says there is still something else. Paul here is talking about what some have called, ‘life after, life after death’ – when we get new physical bodies.  What does it mean to be resurrected? It means to be raised again with a body.

 

How does resurrection and especially Jesus’ resurrection relate to the Gospel?

1 Corinthians 15 tells us that this is the Good News of Salvation. Paul says the Gospel that saves us, as Scripture says, is this (vv. 2-4):

·       Jesus died for our sins

·       Jesus was buried

·       Jesus raised from the dead

So we can have everlasting life: Good Friday is all about Jesus dying for our sins. Easter is all about His resurrection to everlasting Life. But…

 

 Next question: Can people other than Jesus really be resurrected from the grave with a new body and not have to die again?

 

Yes. This is important. The Apostle Paul says (vs 13) that there has to be a resurrection of the dead, because Christ has been resurrected and many people, who are still alive (when this letter was written) have seen Him and touched Him and can verify what they saw and felt. The fact that you have seen Him, Paul writes, proves that people can be raised.

Now when God ultimately raises us from the grave (at the eschaton; at the end of time) we will be free of death. Paul says that if Christ wasn’t raised (which they know He was) than you can’t be free of death. Everything born on this planet dies. Everything. And so, Paul says, that when Christ rose from the grave, He in essence opened the door to the grave and left it open so that we can all walk out, in due time of course. Many of my sermons talk about how God is with us here and now in our daily lives and this is important. But Paul very importantly says here that vs 19, if our hope in Christ is ONLY for the here and now, we are to be pitied more than anyone. So, can people really be resurrected from dead? Yes, many of those receiving this letter had seen the first person who was raised like this.

Okay, Jesus bodily raised from the grave, never to die again. If we are convinced by Paul that He was first and that we will follow with new glorified bodies, a couple of more natural questions arise:

 

Question 4: What will our bodies look like? And,

 

Question 5: How will all this happen?

 

Verse 35-41, Paul says our bodies, such as they are now, are like seeds. Reinhart is away. He is an amazing gardener. I don’t know if anyone else here is a gardener. Paul says we right now are seeds. It is like this room we are in is one big packet of people seeds. When we are dead and buried, it is like God is planting us in the ground. Then one day, at the time of the resurrection, we will each grow from our seed into brand new people. The English translations when speaking about the seed bodies calls them ‘perishable’ or ‘corruptible’ or ‘natural bodies’. When referring to the new bodies that grow from these seeds the English translations call them ‘imperishable’, ‘incorruptible’, and ‘spiritual bodies’. One thing all the journal articles and commentaries I have read recently -after long discussions about Greek words and context - point out is that these new bodies are indeed real bodies. They are not just spirits; they are not ghosts; they are spiritual, incorruptible, everlasting bodies. Just as Christ has a touchable spiritual body – that never ages and never dies, so will we. It is neat here too because Paul speaks about animals and birds and fish all having different bodies too – like they are from different seed packet but one that was planted, like we will be when we are buried, and will grow again. He says the same for heavenly bodies as well; so, who knows? We just buried Sally Dzus’ pets and her second husband in the grave with her next to her first husband’s grave; maybe her pets will be raised again too in new non-perishable bodies! Maybe our pets and livestock will be with us at the resurrection.

So… What will our bodies look like at the resurrection and how will this happen? I don’t know but they will be different – like a seed is different from a plant - and they will be bodies that will not perish.

 

 

The next natural question is when will this happen? 

 

When will we get our new bodies? Verse 51 onwards: this will happen at some undisclosed future date; it sounds like it will all happen at once. Verse 52, “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the dead will be raised imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”

There is one interesting footnote that I want to chat about briefly today – not because it is particularly important but just because I find it interesting.

 

What about the baptism of the dead?

15:29: “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” Now no one knows what the baptism of the dead is. We can gather from this that baptism is symbolic rather than transformative – because we obviously can’t save a dead person by baptizing them. But I always thought that this would be a  ceremony The Salvation Army might decide do one day (if we ever implement baptism by water) to baptize the relatives of all our unbaptized p-t-g Officers and Soldiers on their behalf. 

 

 Why does our resurrection matter?

 

If we all go to Heaven to be with Jesus after we die anyway, why is this ultimate resurrection so important to the New Testament and Christianity? (See Revelation where Heaven comes down to earth at the Eschaton)

I think it is important because it tells us what the Kingdom to Come will look like when it is fully established at the Eschaton. It lets us know a couple of things:

1)    We won’t just be disembodied ghosts or spirits floating around in the air with no body -like Casper the Ghost or Ghost Busters or something. We will have bodies.

2)    There will most likely be plants and animals and maybe even stars and planets at the resurrection and as they don’t die or age, the lamb can then lie down with the lion (Isaiah 11:6-9; Revelation 21:1-4) because he has no fear of being eaten

3)    We won’t have our old bodies that just keep getting older with all the ever-increasing aches and pains of aging (unlike poor Tithonus from Greek mythology). This is why Paul can say elsewhere (Philippians 1:21) to live is Christ -which is great! - but to die is gain.

And this is our hope, that at the end of everything God will create new heavens and a new earth where nothing will grow old, nothing will decay. Nothing will die because between the cross and the empty tomb, as Christians around the world celebrated last week, Christ defeated death so we can all have life and have life abundantly!

One last thing: Paul ends our discussion in this way. He writes, vv. 57-58, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we all have the opportunity be raised to eternal life.

 

Let us pray.

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[1] Richard A. Horsley, Pneumatikos vs. Psychikos Distinctions of Spiritual Status among the Corinthians In The Harvard Theological Review Vol. 69, No. 3/4 (Jul. - Oct., 1976), pp. 269-288 (20 pages)

[2] Cf. W. Harold Mare, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Corinthians/Exposition of 1 Corinthians/VIII. The Resurrection of Christ and of the Christian (15:1-58), Book Version: 4.0.2

[3] Cf. NT Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (Louisville, Kentucky, USA:WJK, 2004), 128 and Simon J. Kistemaker, 1 Corinthians (NTC: Grad Raoids Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 149: 1 Corinthians is probably the oldest record of the observance of this memorial

[4] Cf. J. Paul Sampley, 1 Corinthians, (NIB: Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002), 935 for a very good discussion of the intentionality of the use of the phrase,' do this in remembrance of me."

 

 

 

  

John 20: So that You May Believe

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, Resurrection (Easter) Sunday, 17 April 2022 by Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Many things happened in our Resurrection Day text. Here we have the first preacher of the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus rose from the grave. This woman, Mary Magdalen is the first Christian teacher / preacher / proclaimer of the resurrection. She doesn’t quite get it yet. But she proclaims what she sees to Peter and another person, presumably John.

Next in our Resurrection Day text, after they hear the Good News John and Peter run to the tomb as fast as they can, I assume, to see for themselves! John gets there first and stops at the door, examining the scene and taking the whole thing in. Peter – like a child or younger sibling – comes running up behind him, roars past John, who is stopped at the tomb then seems to call out: “I win! I was here first. I won!”

They take it all in. They see Jesus’ burial clothes lying there – but Jesus is gone. It says John saw all of this and believed but he did not understand. Then the disciples just went home. I can only imagine. What else could they do? …if they don’t understand? They know Jesus is gone and maybe they will know he has raised from the dead but they don’t quite understand, why? How? What next? Where is He? What is happening? They don’t understand

Now it seems that Mary had gone back out to show them the tomb and, of course, the boys went running off ahead. When she gets there Mary stays outside the tomb even after the boys leave. She’s crying, and crying, and crying. So much is going on. She loves Jesus every bit as much as the boys do. I imagine she is completely overwhelmed by the immensity of it all. She bends over to look in the tomb herself again and she sees two angels where Jesus’ would have been laying.

They turn to her -I don’t imagine she recognizes them as angels yet but maybe she does – and they ask her, ‘why are you crying?’ She answers them and then she turns around and when she does, she sees Jesus. But she doesn’t recognize Him at first – understandably: she is crying – she is probably trying to avoid eye contact. And anyway, when is the last time you went to visit someone’s grave and they tapped you on the shoulder and started speaking with you? No wonder she doesn’t recognize Him immediately.

Jesus also asks her ‘why are you crying’? Why is everybody asking her this? You’d think everyone would know why someone would be crying at a graveside, really! Especially if the tombstone and everything was in place but person you went to see wasn’t there anymore. But Jesus does ask her, ‘why are you crying?’

She thinks He is the gardener; so, He asks, ‘who are you looking for?’ I imagine He is just waiting for her to look up and see who He is or even stop crying a bit, take a breath, and listen to His voice. I imagine that is why He keeps speaking to her like this: ‘why are you crying?’ ‘Who are you looking for?’ So she will stop and pay attention. She talks to Him like He is the gardener, probably looking away and the He eventually just says, ‘Mary!’ and then she recognizes Him.

She cries out to Him and I imagine she tries to hug him but Jesus says, “remember to social distance”, “No touchie”. No, that’s not what this means. He says, don’t detain me, I still have to go see My Father, Our Father, My God, Our God.

Mary then begins to understand a little bit about what the boys didn’t’ understand and she runs off to tell them that she saw Jesus. Mary for the second time in our text is playing the part of the first evangelist: sharing the Good News of Jesus being raised from the dead and telling of her interaction and relationship with the resurrected Christ!

That evening many of the disciples are gathered together. They are concerned. They lock all of the doors – in light of everything that has been happening and what they know and do not yet understand, they are afraid of the Jewish leaders.

Picture this with me then. They are trying not to be noticed. They are afraid. They are hiding. The doors are locked. And then in the middle of the room, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “peace be with you”. I picture a similar scene as when He was speaking with Mary earlier. I wonder how long He was standing in their midst before they actually heard, listened to, and recognized Him. After however long, He then shows His hands and His side, with the wounds from His crucifixion. Everyone there is excited! No Kidding! When is the last time you went to someone’s funeral and they showed up at the lunch afterwards?! …showing you the scars from how they died.

He says again to them ‘peace be with you’ – I imagine this is after the commotion has died down a bit and everyone has had their turn touching Him and greeting Him.  ‘Peace be with you’ He says, Verses 21-23, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Now this is very important: On that first day of the week, right at the resurrection, Verse 22, we have the Advent of the Holy Spirit infilling people in the New Testament! Not forty days later in Acts Chapter 2. Acts Chapter 2 is about something entirely different. But also this, of course, isn’t the first time the Holy Spirt shows up in the Bible – He was present at creation – and before. He is there at Jesus’ baptism. He is there in John Chapter One. Here, in John Chapter Twenty, on this the resurrection day, Jesus breathes and His Holy Spirit fills the disciples. They are filled with the Holy Ghost.

Now then Thomas, for some reason, wasn’t with them. They tell him the whole story but he doesn’t buy it. He thinks they are pranking him or something! So he says unless I see and touch Him too, I don’t believe you!

Now Jesus is nice enough to accommodate him. Later they are all in the same house, with the doors locked again – and this time Thomas is with them when Jesus shows up and says, “Peace be with you”. Jesus asks him to touch His wounds, His scars. Immediately Thomas worships Jesus. Jesus then goes on to perform many more miracles and signs and He does this again and again for his disciples. So why does Jesus do all this? Why does John or whomever, and the other Gospel writers, record all this? Verse 31: …These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name.

And that is my hope for each of us here. May we know so that we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and as we really are all sent, may we be evangelists like Mary and the other disciples so that others who have not yet seen Jesus may yet believe and so that they and we may all have life in His Name. For now and evermore. Amen.

 

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Matthew 12,18,25: Three Little Sheep

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley, 03 April 2022 by Captain Michael Ramsay

To read a version presented to Corps 614 Regent Park and The Warehouse Mission, Toronto, on 22 January 2017, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2017/01/sheep-love-stories-matthew-1212-15-1810.html

 

We have had the opportunity to read through Matthew as a congregation this Lenten Season. We are all, no doubt familiar with the Three Little Pigs. Today we are going to chat a little bit about the three little sheep in Matthew. The first little sheep we read about is from Matthew 12:7-15. There is a man with Jesus with a deformed hand. Reading again Vs 11-14:

 

11 He [Jesus] said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Jesus tells us the story of the first little sheep – and the story didn’t go over so well. People plotted to kill him. Jesus had just been accused of breaking the religious law prohibiting working on the Sabbath.[1] He responds by telling this 1^st sheep story and quoting the Bible, Hosea 6:6, and then he further provokes his accusers by not only healing on the Sabbath but by doing so right in the synagogue (the near equivalent of a church). This would be like if a police officer ticketed you for J-walking and then when he was done you J-walked right over to the police station.

 

it is important to note that Jesus wasn’t changing the religious rules here (see Matthew 5:17) at this time many educated, religious, and other people had many different ideas about what was allowed to be done on the Sabbath.[2] Priests worked on the Sabbath and they did not get another Sabbath day off in lieu. [3] Some in that synagogue would have held that it is quite alright to heal on the Sabbath. In Jewish communities even today, hospitals are open on Saturday.

 

Jesus here, through the story of the first little sheep and his actions that accompany it, is showing us that when we interpret our traditions, our culture, our religious practices, and even the Bible, God’s love needs to be the centre of it.[4] God’s love needs to be the centre of God’s law and God’s love needs to be the centre of our lives. That is what Jesus is telling us here with the story of the first little sheep.

 

Some similar examples I have heard from church culture would be when people feel unwelcome in church. One person told me that she remembered as a child that her family was only allowed to sit at the back, in the balcony, so others wouldn’t see them; I had one friend tell me that The Salvation Army was the only place she felt welcome because she was a single mother. That is terrible. Whatever rules people have for church, they – we - really need to interpret them through the lens of love so that we can bring people to God’s love and rather turn them away from that support we all genuinely need. That is what Christ is about and that is what we the church are supposed to be about.

 

This brings us to our second little Sheep, Matthew 18:10-22. We will re-read Verses 102-16 and 21-22:

12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses…

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

 

Jesus says that if our little sheep wanders off, we go and get them; then he explains what it means. If someone gets trapped by a sin; if someone gets stuck in a sin; you do what it takes to free them from it because you love them. First you try to help them on the spot, by yourself like a shepherd would try to help his sheep from a pit. Then, if you can’t help them out by yourself, you get one friend or a whole bunch of friends to help you help them out of trouble.  You do whatever you can to help them return to safety and if they are clear that they don’t wish to be saved from their situation, then it says that we are to treat them like we would treat pagans or tax collectors; Now, what does it mean to treat people like tax collectors?[5] Who is a famous tax collector in the Bible? Matthew. Matthew is the one who wrote this book. He is the one who wrote this story. Matthew is saying, 'treat the person caught in sin as Jesus treated me' – with the love God – hoping that indeed at some point the second little sheep will return to the flock.[6] This is what the parable of the second little sheep is telling us. And Verses 22-22, How many times must we forgive someone who sins against us, always? Always times forever Jesus says.

 

Jesus, the Church and Christians aren’t about attacking people with random laws to punish them, we are about loving one another so that they can all experience God`s salvation both now and forever.

 

I am going to share a bonus story that has the same message as the story about the second little sheep. This one is about a trip or two our family took to Florida when Rebecca and Sarah-Grace were 6 or 7 years old.

 

The first time we were in Florida we went to a gator farm where Rebecca and Sarah-Grace were allowed to have their pictures taken sitting on real alligators, holding their taped shut mouths. They did. This was fun.

 

There was one thing though: there are signs everywhere in Florida (like this one) 

telling you not to go near ditches, lakes, or any still water because it may have an alligator, and not a nice tame one like the girls sat on, waiting for you.  On our second trip, a year or so later, Rebecca, for whatever reason, just wouldn’t listen.

 

 

I was getting quite frustrated. Every time I turned around 6- or 7-year-old Rebecca would be bolting to look in another body of water. I kept telling her not to, not because I had some arbitrary law that I wanted to enforce but because I love her and I didn’t want her to be eaten by an alligator. Sure enough, the last time 7-year-old Rebecca went unaccompanied by any Floridian water, no sooner had I picked her up and headed up the embankment than an alligator came out of the water right where she was standing. We were just in time.

 

It is the same with us and God. That is why we are always to forgive and to try to restore each other to holiness: not to punish or to be mean to people but to save each other from the alligator of sin that wants to drown and devour. Just as I never gave up, time and time again, pulling my daughter from the water’s edge, none of us should ever give up on anyone we know; we need to keep pointing them to God’s love and His Salvation. God can help them and us in any situation we find ourselves. That is the point of both the stories of the alligator and of the second little sheep. And that brings us to the third little sheep in the book of Matthew - the parable of the sheep and the goats.[8] Matthew 25 again from Verse 31:

 

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 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. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

       34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

 

To the sheep, Verse 40: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these siblings of mine, you did for me.’” You are welcome in my Kingdom. The goats, who (equally unknowingly) did not do these things, miss out on the Kingdom. The sheep are in; the goats are out.[9]

 

On a third trip to Florida, this time after Heather was born, we all went to the Animal Kingdom in Disney World. Do you know the Animal Kingdom? It is like a big zoo, nature reserve and/or safari with all the requisite Disney characters and rides added to it. It is quite neat.

 

While Rebecca, Heather and I were visiting the petting zoo at Disney, all of a sudden the sheep left the goats. They were all in one place and then the sheep just split like an invisible hand was separating them. They all ran away from the goats. Rebecca (who was a teenager then) and I noticed this and so we decided to go stand with the sheep.

 

I then asked Heather, who was six at the time, if she remembered the parable of the sheep and the goats and how they were separated. It was at this point that one of the Disney employees must have heard part of our conversation because he told me that the animals do this by themselves. He doesn’t know why but every once and a while the sheep just separate themselves from the goats.

 

I thought about that comment – that the sheep separate themselves from the goats – and I thought this must be the real life example that the story is drawing on to make its point that our actions (whether or not we show mercy, love to one another) are the fruit that broadcast to the world whether we are sheep or goats. If we are sheep we will naturally show love by feeding the hungry, watering the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and the imprisoned... Just like a good tree cannot produce bad fruit; so too we who love God will naturally produce acts in keeping with repentance and salvation. God won’t make us love one another against our will and we will not have to master our own will to do those things either. As we come to love God more and more, we will naturally show our acts of love to God and to our neighbour just like how we naturally show our love to our family and friends and just like good trees naturally produce good fruit and good sheep naturally move from the goats. God loves us all and He wants us all to have the joy of loving and caring for one another.

 

These are Matthews stories of The 3 Little Sheep (and the alligator).And today, as we have been looking at these 3 little sheep stories, I encourage us to this end: Let us love the Lord our God and show mercy and forgiveness to one another. Let us seek the Lord with all our hearts for as we love Him and as we love our neighbour, God will naturally transform us into His likeness as easily as He separates the sheep from the goats. Let us all be sheep.

 

Let us pray.

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[1]M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 279: This is a legal accusation rather than a question
[2] Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993), 131
[3] Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993), 132
[4] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 279: Love is the centre of God’s Law: here Jesus is not replacing Sabbath worship but rather explaining it.
[5] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Know Press, 1993), 213-215 for a good discussion of this question.
[6] Daniel Hetherington, SJ, Sacra Pagina, The Gospel of Matthew, 272, “The implications of Matt 18:15-35 for life within the3 Church today are great. The text outlines a clear procedure designed to help the sinner recognize the sin and return to the community. It roots reconciliation and forgiveness of sins in God’s mercy, and thus reveals the foolishness of those who try to set limits on their willingness to forgive others”
[7] Cf. NT Wright, Matthew for Everyone Part 2: Chapters 16-28 (NT for Everyone: Louisville Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004),, p. 30-31 where it is highlighted that while Seraphim always ordinarily have their faces covered in the presence of God, the angels who advocate for the ‘little ones’ always see the face of God.
[8] But cf. D.A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VI. Opposition and Eschatology: The Triumph of Grace (19:3-26:5)/B. Fifth Discourse: The Olivet Discourse (24:1-25:46)/6. Parabolic teaching: variations on watchfulness (24:42-25:46)/e. The sheep and the goats (25:31-46), Book Version: 4.0.2: Strictly speaking, this passage is not a parable. Its only parabolic elements are the shepherd, the sheep, the goats, and the actual separation.
[9] Cf. Jim Wallis ‘ Matthew 25 in the Age of Trump’ (Red Letter Christians: January 6, 2017) for a contemporary political reference point, Jim Wallis  reminds us of Matthew 25 Pledge: I pledge to protect and defend vulnerable people in the name of Jesus. Online: https://www.redletterchristians.org/matthew-25-in-the-age-of-trump/
[10] Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Devotion 2.35/88: Matthew 7:18: Good’ (Thoughts from the Riverside Café: Sheepspeak.com, 13 January 2017) online: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2017/01/devotion-23588-matthew-718-good.html