Matthew 25:33 · World English Bible
Matthew 25:33 Meaning He Will Set the Sheep
He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
What does Matthew 25:33 mean?
In the old languages the right hand meant what we accept in ourselves, the left what we push away. So this dividing of the flock, sheep on one side and goats on the other, pictures what the mind does daily.
From the Psychoanalysis reading below.
Matthew 25:33 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Psychoanalysis
PSYCHOANALYSIS
Psychoanalysis
In the old languages the right hand meant what we accept in ourselves, the left what we push away. So this dividing of the flock, sheep on one side and goats on the other, pictures what the mind does daily. It keeps what it approves of close, and shoves the shameful parts into the dark where it need not look.
But the rejected side does not disappear. A man who buries his own cruelty still carries it, and it works on him without his knowing. He is healed only when he turns, faces what he set on the left, and admits it is his own.
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Live Matthew 25:33 today
- Think of one thing about yourself you would not want read aloud. Sit with it for two minutes without arguing or excusing. Just, yes, that is in me too.
- The next time someone irritates you out of all proportion, a driver, a coworker, a relative at dinner, keep your mouth shut and ask what they just showed you about yourself. Then be ordinary and kind to them anyway.
- When you are under pressure and feel something cold or petty move in you, do not pretend it was not there. Say it silently: that was mean of me. Admitted, it loses its grip. Denied, it drives.
What part of yourself have you set on the left, and what would change if you called it yours?
The same truth in other traditions
Taoism · Zhuangzi
The mind splits the world into this and that, acceptable and shameful, and then suffers inside its own fence. The sage lets both sides stand and finds the hinge they turn on.
Sufism · Rumi
There is a guest house in you, and every arrival is welcome, including the mean and the ashamed ones. Meet each at the door, because they may have come to clear you out for something better.
Buddhism · Tonglen practice
Instead of pushing away what is ugly in you, breathe it in and hold it. What you refuse to take in keeps working on you from the outside.
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