Today’s Gospel lesson from the 13th chapter of Luke began with these words: “He” – that is, Jesus – “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.’”
You’ve probably heard those words many times before – I certainly have – but they took on special meaning for me this past week when I read about a Lutheran church in San Jose, California that proudly proclaims and advertises that it is a “progressive” congregation. They state that by calling themselves progressive, “we mean that we are Christians who: 1) Proclaim Jesus Christ as our Gate to the realm of God; and 2) Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the gateway to God’s realm.”
Think about what you just heard for a second or two. This “progressive” Lutheran church says that Jesus is the gate to the “realm of God” – but that there also are many other gateways to God’s realm. So in other words, Jesus is the way to heaven – but if you really don’t want to believe in Jesus, then don’t worry about it because there are other ways to get to heaven, too. Now that doesn’t jive in any way, shape or form with what Jesus Himself actually says. “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” The Greek word θύρα that Jesus used here is correctly translated as “door,” but it can also mean entrance or – as this “progressive” Lutheran church calls it – a gate. But we have a real contradiction here, for Jesus says that this door or entrance or gate is narrow, but this Lutheran Church in California and unfortunately many others of many other denominations like it are saying that the door or entrance or gate is wide-open. Will those who are saved be few as the man in the crowd asks Jesus – or is it really just a case of y’all come?
Last week we talked about taking a stand either for or against Jesus because there’s no middle ground – you’re either for Him or you’re against Him, period. We have the same type of situation today – either the gate is narrow or it’s wide-open. It can’t be both – narrow and wide-open are words that totally contradict each other. So which is it? Who’s right?
Let’s step back and listen again to the opening verse of the Gospel lesson, which tells us that Jesus “went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.” Just over six months ago – Sunday, February 14, the final Sunday before we began the Season of Lent – we marked the Transfiguration of our Lord as recorded in Luke chapter 9. Included in that day’s Gospel reading was a reference that many people just gloss right over. In Luke 9:30-31 we read: “And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” We think about Moses and Elijah when we think about the Transfiguration, but we totally miss the reference to Jesus and his departure at Jerusalem. The original word that’s used here is the Greek version of the Hebrew word “exodus,” which immediately reminds us of the exodus of the Children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt to the Promised Land of Israel. Our ESV Bible has it correctly translated as “departure,” but it can also be translated to mean “death.” So from the time of the Transfiguration on, Jesus is single-mindedly headed to Jerusalem where He knows that He will suffer and die. Throughout his Gospel, St. Luke repeatedly describes Jesus’ work of salvation as a movement out of this world through suffering, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. It’s a one-way trip. Every word that follows the Transfiguration account is pointing us to Jerusalem. Pointing us to the cross. Pointing to the death of God’s own and perfect Son for the forgiveness of our sins.
So Jesus is on His way to His crucifixion and He tells His questioner to “strive to enter through the narrow door.” Doesn’t sound quite so wide-open, does it? If this door or gate really is wide open, then why does Jesus say that many “will seek to enter and will not be able”?
We’re all familiar with those two lynchpins of our Christian faith, Law and Gospel. We all know that the Law tells us how God wants us to live and shows us that we can never live that way. The Law tells us that God demands perfect obedience and a sinless life – and on our own we can never ever meet those demands. If we had only God’s Law and nothing else, we would all be doomed to hell. The door to heaven would be permanently locked shut and no one – absolutely no one – would ever enter in.
But we also have the Gospel, the good news – the great news – that Jesus died for our sins. The great news that God looks at the believer and sees none of the sin we commit, but only the righteousness that Jesus gives to us. Jesus says in John 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is our door, our entrance, our gate to the Father, our door to heaven, our door to eternal life. In one sense that door really is wide-open, because not only it is open to all who believe, but it remains open for all believers for all time until Jesus returns on Judgment Day.
But when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, when all who have died are resurrected in new imperishable bodies, the door will be shut. It will be sealed. Permanently. For all eternity. Our Gospel lesson says that those who are inside with Jesus “will recline at table in the kingdom of God.” The indescribable joy of heaven is often put into terms that the hearers of Jesus could understand – that of a great feast. A feast, a celebration that will never end because we will be in the presence of our God.
But Jesus makes it very clear that not everyone will make it through this narrow door to partake of this great feast. Many will think that they should have made it but won’t understand why they didn’t. “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.”
So why will the many be left outside the door, forever unable to enter in? Well, the obvious reason is plain old-fashioned unbelief. Remember those words from John 14:6 when Jesus says that “No one comes to the Father except through me.” John uses the same Greek word for “through” that Luke uses – through, by, on behalf of, on account of, because of. Jesus is the door to the Father, to heaven. Jesus is the only door. And when that door is shut, all kinds of people will be left wondering why they didn’t make it in. Confused because churches like that one in California and far too many like it are saying that there are other names for that door to heaven. But the Gospel truth is that if the name of that door isn’t Jesus Christ, then it’s no door at all.
The danger of this so-called “progressive” theology is that it actually leads people away from Jesus. It leads people away from the only door to eternal life. Just imagine how shocked and dismayed those people will be on Judgment Day when they think they’re headed right into heaven – and find out that they’re headed to hell instead.
But now let’s go back one final time to the words of Jesus. “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!’” These aren’t only people who were total, absolute non-believers. These aren’t only people who mistakenly thought that they didn’t need Jesus to get to heaven. Some of these will be people who say things like, “Hey, Jesus, you have to let me in just because I was baptized or confirmed at such-and-such Lutheran Church. I used to go to church there a long time ago.” But if that person’s faith withered and died out, the door will be shut. The Jewish people of Jesus’ time thought that they had a one-way ticket to heaven simply because they were Jewish – and Jesus told them that they were wrong because they had no faith in Him. The same holds true for us today. Just calling yourself Lutheran or Christian doesn’t make it so for those who have abandoned their faith. If every person alive today who had been baptized and/or confirmed at St. Paul were here today – and here I’m not talking about those who have moved from this area or those who have become members of other churches, but specifically those who have fallen away from their faith – we’d be setting up chairs in the aisle, the narthex, the basement, the lawn and probably even the parking lot.
But sadly, some of those people who aren’t here won’t be making it through the door to heaven with those of us who truly believe in Jesus. It’s true that we can’t and don’t know what’s in their hearts, what they believe. We cannot and we must not judge. But Jesus knows. Jesus will judge. And when he pronounces that judgment, that door will never be opened again.
Today’s Gospel lesson is one that provides comfort and reassurance for all who believe in Jesus Christ. But it’s also an incredibly stern and serious warning for those who don’t. In Revelation chapter 3, Jesus says: “I am coming soon.” We don’t know when He will return, but we know that He most definitely will return. When Paul and Silas were miraculously freed from the chains of their prison cell, their jailer asked then, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And Paul and Silas answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
“Believe in the Lord Jesus.” No matter what anyone else may falsely tell us, Jesus is the door – the only door – to eternal life.
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