This is the last parable in this series, and again it emphasises the importance of how we live now, and draws a link between this and the final day of judgement.
Before the parable itself, verse 31 contains an awful lot about the person of Jesus Christ and His return. There are still many who regard Jesus as "just a good man", but this verse so clearly contradicts this. As has been said by many, if He is not actually the Son of God, He is a deluded fool. He speaks clearly of returning on glory with many angels, and sitting on a glorious throne. Jesus knew exactly who He was, and that is the Son of God.
At the last judgement all peoples will be gathered before Him and He will pronounce judgement upon them. He is much more than a good man.
Those who are accepted will take their inheritance in the kingdom of God. This inheritance has been ready since before the creation of the world. So what did they do? They fed Jesus, gave Him water, welcomed Him as a stranger, cared for Him, visited Him in prison. The "righteous" (ie those declared right in the court of God) will wonder when they did all this, for they had never physically met Jesus. Jesus tells them that they did this whenever they did this for "one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me". There are various interpretations of who exactly "these brothers of mine" are, ranging from the Jews, Christians, to everyone. I do not think it is necessary to get bogged down in this. Jesus calls us to help many people, and if we are following Him helping all sorts of people will be part of that following.
The second group are sent to the eternal fire. This is the place prepared for the devil and his angels. No man is meant to go there, but sadly many will. Note that it seems that these people here are not overtly anti-God, but they did not obey God. They did not help the needy in any way.
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