These verses describe the core of what will happen when Jesus comes again. The whole event will be cosmically awesome – the glorious presence of Jesus surrounded by every single angel. He will be seen to be the King of everything and everyone, and nobody will argue that He is not. Such obvious authority and power will make everybody come to Him. How, we do not know (just as we do not know how males and females of every type of animal came to Noah's Ark), but they will.
 
Nobody will be unaware or unaffected by His coming. Believers and unbelievers alike will know that they have no option about coming to Him as the Judge. Like all judgements, there will be a separation of the righteous from the guilty; or in the farming analogy Jesus used – the sheep and the goats. The categories will not be in family, tribal, ethnic or national blocks because He will separate the people individually as a herdsman separates the individual animals of his flock. Jesus says at the end of the passage, 'Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.' (Matthew 25:46). So the separation is unique and will finally result in two different eternal destinies.
 
The imagery of this short story is paradoxical. Jesus will be seen to be the supreme King over every nation, and yet He is also the shepherd (a lowly manual worker) who has intimate knowledge of each individual sheep or goat. He calls Himself the Son of Man, emphasising His humanity: but His Sovereign authority is that of the Son of God. The trainee apostles needed to be clear about His judgement: it would be without any error and with a total understanding of each person who will be before Him.
 
Without clear objectives, no business can succeed. The disciples, who would soon lead the Early Church, needed this teaching. And so do we. Every believer in Jesus Christ should be living in anticipation of His return. It will be a wonderful moment indeed. But His return is not just for us … it is for everybody who trusts in Him. That is a challenge to us because people will not trust Him if they have never heard of Him - His sacrificial death and saving grace (Romans 10:11-15). It is our task to tell them. If we care for our family, friends and colleagues, what can be more caring than telling them how to be prepared to meet Him (www.crosscheck.org.uk)?