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.

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. 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, 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.’

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

- Matthew 25:31-40

In 2006 Guy Goma got an interview as a data cleanser in the IT department at the BBC. At the front desk, the receptionist falsely identified him as Gay Kewney, a technology expert, who had come to be interviewed on the BBC News channel. Want to know what happened next? Click here.

Cases of mistaken identity can be comic, but sometimes they can have more serious consequences. Take the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. If you start with the wrong set of ideas, you will end up reading the passage as a moral checklist: you should care for the poor, the sick, the imprisoned (and if you don't you'll face judgment). It’s a compelling message, and not without an element of truth - God has a particular care for the vulnerable. But in this moment, Jesus is teaching something more specific and more surprising.

Who is being judged? Not the disciples, but the nations. Who are “the least of these”? Not humanity in general, but Jesus’ own brothers and sisters - those who follow him and do the will of the Father. And what is the basis of judgment? How the nations respond to these vulnerable messengers of Jesus. In receiving or rejecting them, they are - without even knowing it - receiving or rejecting Jesus himself.

This changes everything. The parable is not a command to try harder or rouse ourselves to feats of compassion. It's a promise to those who risk everything to follow Jesus. Those who are overlooked, rejected, and persecuted are not forgotten. Their lives are seen. Their suffering counts. Jesus is "with them to the end of the age", so close to them that their treatment becomes his own.

And for the rest of us? There’s an invitation. Not just to show kindness to the marginalised (we should be doing that anyway, btw), but to step into the risky space of faithful obedience.

You may not “win” by the world’s standards. You may even end up doing things that look like a failure. But the King Jesus is on the throne. And in the end, he will make things clear.