The Undercover Boss: How You Love When You Think No One Important Is Watching

Have you ever seen the show Undercover Boss? The whole premise is right there in the name. A CEO or business owner puts on a disguise and slips into their own company to see how things are really running. They want to know if the business is working the way it is supposed to. They want to know if the employees are happy and doing what they are supposed to do. But the most interesting part is watching how people act when they have no idea who they are actually talking to.

Will the employee show hospitality? Will they give good customer service? Will they talk trash about their boss? Or will they reveal who they truly are the moment they believe no one of importance is in the room?

That is almost exactly the question Pastor Adam walked us through this week. As Jesus finishes his last big teaching on the Mount of Olives, he asks his disciples a version of the same thing the cameras on that show are always trying to catch. How will you act, and how will you love, when the people you do not think are watching turn out to be the ones who matter most?

The Master Is Coming Back, and He Comes as a Just Judge

To get our bearings, remember where Jesus has been. He had just sparred with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law on the Temple Mount and come out the other side. On the walk over to the Mount of Olives, his disciples started asking the big questions. When is the temple coming down? When is the end of the age? When are you coming again?

Jesus answered them, and then he reinforced it with parables. The ten young women waiting for the bridegroom taught them to always be prepared. The servants entrusted with bags of gold taught them not to wait idly, but to actually use what the master had given them. Be ready, and while you are waiting, do something with what God has placed in your hands.

That brings us to Matthew 25. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he sits on his throne, and all the nations are gathered before him. The master returns. And that is worth celebrating. If it is not, you are in the wrong building. But he does not come back only as a master collecting what is his. He comes as a King to establish his kingdom, and he comes as a just judge.

It Is Not Your Job to Separate the Sheep From the Goats

Here is a detail that is easy to skip right past. When the people are gathered and separated, like a shepherd dividing sheep from goats, who is doing the separating?

It is not the flock. It is the King. The shepherd. The judge. God is the one who does that job, and it is his role alone. He never handed it to his sheep.

Be honest. We fall into this trap all the time. We start to believe it is our responsibility to declare who is in and who is out. But that is not our spot. We are simply called to be good sheep.

Why Would Anyone Want to Be a Sheep?

That word, sheep, does not exactly sound like a compliment in our culture. While studying this passage, Pastor Adam stumbled onto a Reddit thread where someone who had walked away from their faith laid it out plainly. Sheep are dumb, they said. They blindly follow wherever they are told to go. They cannot think for themselves. But a goat can climb mountains and trees. A goat is independent and intelligent. Who would ever want to be a sheep?

You can feel that sentiment everywhere. When somebody is the best at what they do, we call them the GOAT, the greatest of all time. And over the last several years, how many times have you heard it? Do not be a sheep. Do not just do what you are told.

But here is the thing. All through Scripture, God describes his people as sheep. So is it really that bad? It is not because God wants to keep us dumb and obedient. It is because of how God describes himself. He is the good shepherd. And a good shepherd cares for his sheep. He protects them. He loves them. And when sheep experience that kind of love and protection, they follow, because they trust. They can follow in full confidence, knowing their shepherd will care for them. That is who our shepherd is. That is why we are called his sheep. It is a beautiful picture, not an insult.

The List Is Not a Cheat Code

When Jesus separates the two groups, he gets specific. The sheep fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, and cared for the sick and the imprisoned. The goats did not.

Read that list and it is tempting to treat it like a cheat code. Do these six things and you are in. But that is not how it works, and Jesus already said so back in Matthew 7. Not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom. Some will point to all the things they did in his name, and he will tell them plainly that he never knew them.

So which is it? Do we do the things or not? Paul untangles it in Ephesians. It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast. And then in the very next breath he writes that we are God's handiwork, created to do good works that he prepared in advance for us.

So it is both. We do not get a pass on the good works. But why we do them is what matters. And that why comes from Jesus. From being in a relationship with him. From actually knowing and experiencing the love he has for every one of us. Out of that love, we become people who can love.

We Do Not Just Live Differently. We Love Differently.

Here is the heart of the whole thing. The righteous and the wicked do not just live differently. They love differently. It is not only about the way we live. It is about the way we love.

We are only a few chapters removed from Jesus naming the greatest commandments. Love God, and love others. Everything else hangs on those two, and they are tied together. How we love one another shapes how we love God. How we love God shapes how we love one another.

Notice that both groups in the story ask Jesus the exact same question. Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or sick, or in prison? Neither side recognized him. He was the undercover boss the whole time, showing up in places they did not expect and in people they could never have imagined. And his answer cuts straight through: whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.

This is what separates the sheep from the goats. Not a checklist. The way we love. At the Last Supper, Jesus gave his disciples a new command. Love one another as I have loved you. By this, everyone will know you are my disciples.

That is not a call to love only the people who are easy to love, the ones who think like us, believe like us, or run in the same circles. It is a call to love the ones who are difficult to love, the ones in constant need, the ones making choices we would never make. It is easy to say and hard to do, especially when we try to do it on our own. Pastor Adam put it bluntly. He is not out here trying to love like Adam, because that does not work very well. We are trying to love like Jesus. That means spending enough time with him that our hearts, our minds, and our motivations start to look like his. We become a new creation, people who reflect God's heart for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. When we are faced with someone hungry or hurting or alone, we do not just say "I will pray for you." We serve. We feed. We forgive. We invite people into relationship with God and his community.

What We Do in Life Echoes Into Eternity

There is a line from Gladiator that Pastor Adam could not shake while writing this sermon. Standing in front of his soldiers, the Roman general says, "What we do in life echoes into eternity." He meant the battlefield. But Jesus is saying something close to it. It is not just the things we do that echo. It is the way we do them. It is the love of Jesus working through us, changing how we live and how we love. That is what carries forward forever.

The way you choose to love the people in your life, the ones you cross paths with on the Moscow-Pullman highway and in the checkout line, has eternal significance.

Taking It Into Your Week

Join Us This Sunday at Real Life

You were never meant to figure this out alone. Whether you have followed Jesus for decades or you are just starting to wonder who this good shepherd really is, there is a seat for you here.

We gather every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at the Eastside Marketplace in Moscow. We have a place for your kids too. Learn more about Lifer Kids before you come. And each week we take communion together as a family, remembering the love that came looking for us first.

Come as you are. We would love to meet you.

Plan Your Visit today!