The nations on Judgment Day: Matthew 25:31-46
Our eternal destinies hang on two phrases: “I was a stranger and you took me in” and “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.” Jesus gives us two options when relating to strangers: we can welcome them into our lives or not. The Matthew 25 parable is about nations, not individuals. Come Judgment Day, the text argues, “all the nations of the world will be gathered together” before the Son of Man. The scene is that of a world court with Jesus the chief justice sitting in judgment. Presumably Russia, China, Japan and the United States are there alongside other nations great and small.