Scripture Reading: Luke 13:22-30
He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
Strive to Enter Through the Narrow Door
Pastor James Huenink
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus's words today are a bit of a challenge for us. They begin with Jesus going about through the villages. It says Jesus went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And during this someone asks a question, and someone said to him, "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" And He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will NOT be able."
The Question That Doesn't Matter
One of the things that Jesus does on a regular basis is people will ask him kind of a generic question or tell him to do something that's rather big picture. We saw this not too long ago, when someone comes up to Jesus and says, "Jesus, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." And Jesus says, "Don't get caught up in worldly goods." He doesn't actually answer the question. He says, "Life isn't about stuff."
He does the same thing here, though. A man comes up to him and says, "How many will be saved?" And he doesn't answer the question, because that actually doesn't matter, does it? He wants to answer the big questions that lots of us have. We have questions that the Bible doesn't answer. In fact, I get them all the time in Bible study—all of these questions that we have got this long list of: Why did you do it this way? Why are things going this way? What's going on in the world? But God doesn't answer those questions for us.
He acts just like Jesus, who instead turns back on the man and says, "Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you will seek to enter and will NOT be able."
Salvation Is Personal
What Jesus tells the man is that salvation isn't something that you worry about for other people—you need to be serious about it for yourself. "Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many will not be able."
It means that salvation for each and every one of us should be at the heart and center of our lives, that following our savior is very important, because the door is narrow to eternal life, and the path is wide to damnation. And the door to eternal life will not always remain open. There will come a day when it will close. For most people, that door closes at our death, though for some, it will be when the Savior appears with cloud and lightning and power and he raises the dead.
Jesus says, "Strive to enter through the narrow door." That is why we gather here, why the Christian church has from the very beginning, done what it says in the book of Acts: "And they gathered around the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of the bread and the prayers." The community comes together to hear the Word of God, to receive the Holy Sacraments, to pray together our communal prayers and receive the grace of God that gives us eternal life, because that is what guides us through the narrow door. It's the gift of grace that God gives us, whether it's through the words of the promise, the absolution that you hear with the forgiveness of sins, or Christ's Body and Blood received on the lips—that is the narrow door.
When the Door Is Shut
Now Jesus tells us, "For many I tell you, will seek to enter and will NOT be able when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us,' then he will answer, 'I do not know where you come from.'"
This is a piece of Jesus's words that actually kind of upsets me. I don't know if it upsets you. It's people who come to the door and say, "Lord, let me in." And he says, "No." People who knew who he was call him Lord, and yet the door is shut.
There is a time when Jesus will reveal himself with that power and might, and everyone will know that He is Lord, whether they followed him in this life or not. The Bible tells us that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, whether they like it or not. (That I added that part.) So on that last day, once the door of grace is shut, there will be a crowd of people knocking on it, saying, "Jesus, we want in," and it will not happen.
The Assurance of Grace
Now for many of us, we might hear this and say, "Whoa, Pastor, my heart is quaking. You've been giving us a lot of harsh law today—the door might close. We need to strive. What is happening now? Could I be one of those who knock on the door and cry out, 'Lord, Lord, let me in?' And he says, 'Nah, I don't know you.'"
We remember, entrance into Christ's kingdom comes not by our own works, but by his grace. And that's what we're here for. It's the grace of God given to us through the means of grace—the word, the sacraments and the blessed gift of baptism that little George received today. This is how we enter into the Feast of the kingdom of God before the door is closed.
And so if your heart is quaking when you hear these words, if your heart cries out, "Oh no, on the last day, will I be knocking on the outside?" Know that there's actually a very simple way to have the assurance of your salvation. "I forgive your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"—we said it already, right? Or "the true Body of Christ given for you, the True Blood of Christ shed for you." That is how you know that you can enter into that open door.
Knowing Jesus vs. Being Known by Him
The passage continues: "Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets.' But he will say to you, 'I tell you I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.'"
When I was younger, as a high school student, this passage and passages like it often confused me as someone who grew up in a church my whole life. I didn't understand what was going on here. I thought to myself, "Who could know who Jesus was, and call him Lord, and still not be saved?" And I think that's a challenge, this part, right? For we think, you know, we're saved by grace, through faith. You believe in Jesus. How could that happen?
And I think one of the questions is the question of, how are we actually saved? We confess this, right: We are saved by grace, through faith on account of Christ. And yet, many people who know the name of Jesus count on their actions and their thoughts to get them into eternal life. They count on that scrap of Bible knowledge that they learned when they were kids in Sunday school 20, 30 years ago. They count on their prayers at home, as if praying can get you into the kingdom of God. They count on their good works: "I'm a good person. This will get me into heaven."
So many people who call themselves Christians who reject the grace of God, do so, counting on their own righteousness. And this is so much of what would have happened for the Pharisees and many of the Jews who followed Jesus, who thought that it was their good works, their performance of the rituals, their actions, their lives, that got them God's love. But it wasn't. It is always God's grace under the Old Covenant or the new—only Grace saves, which is why we gather here.
The Great Reversal
Jesus continues: "In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth where you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out, and people will come from east to west, from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last."
Jesus's words here would have been pretty upsetting to the Jewish people following him that day. Recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Gentiles? No way. "We won't even eat by ourselves unless we wash off the Gentile stink when we come home from the market"—that's what they would say. "How could all of these foreigners from far away come and eat with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and I be cast out?"
That's what Jesus is trying to say. The patriarchs, these great men of faith this history, they would have table fellowship with Gentiles before many of the people who saw Jesus teach in the streets and heal and do His miracles. The unclean, the sinners, the prostitutes—they would be the ones in the kingdom of God and the good church people cast out.
The Feast for Sinners
We have to remember: Jesus only invites sinners to his table. He only invites sinners who need the forgiveness that He wants to give them to gather together into His kingdom. So the people who feel righteous in their own efforts, their own prayers, their own knowledge, their own actions, their own heart—they are the ones who are cast out this great feast.
We have access to it, we who are here today—not just on the last day, but a feast that we can be invited to now. In fact, we're going to do it in just a little bit with the bread and the wine come forward to you that is Christ's Body and Blood. Because when Luke talks about reclining at table, he is almost always pointing to this celebration that we have here, where we break the bread and take in the wine that is Christ's Body and Blood.
This fellowship is the fellowship that we share with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This fellowship of eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ brings us together in unity around him, and it is a sure and certain promise that when the last day comes, you will have entered in through that narrow gate.
And so we strive, not by our own actions, but by the work of Christ. We strive to enter that narrow gate by receiving the means of grace, knowing that we are sinners in need of salvation.
In Jesus' name, amen.
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