Luke 13:22-30
August 22, 2010
Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!’ 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, and you yourselves thrown out. Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
I’m about to say something that a lot of us think, but rarely say out loud. We keep it to ourselves because we worry that saying it out loud will somehow offend God. But here it is: You know, sometime Jesus can be really frustrating and irritating. I know we’re not supposed to think of Jesus in that way, but the truth is that he can be really, really frustrating in his teachings. As easy as many of his teachings are to understand, some are really, really tough to understand, and when they are, it’s aggravating.
For example he says elsewhere in Luke, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword. I came divide father against son, mother against daughter,” and so on. Wait, didn’t he come to bring peace? If this is true, why do we call him the Prince of Peace? Why does he tell us that “blessed are the peacemakers.” Very confusing. There are a number of Jesus’ teachings like this one that baffle pastors and laity alike.
Then there’s our passage for today. It is quite confusing and frustrating. What does he mean when he says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able”? What’s frustrating is that he doesn’t actually tell us in the passage what it is that we need to do to be able to enter through the narrow door. He just tells us that we have to strive to enter through it. But where is it. What’s the password to get through it? The whole narrow door metaphor kind of reminds me of an after hours nightclub where you knock on a door, and a bouncer opens a small, sliding panel on the door and says in a rough voice, “Yeah? What’s the password.” And we say, “Uhh,… Jesus?” And he goes, “Nope! Go away.” It’s like Jesus tells us we have to get through that door, but then says nothing about how. Very frustrating. Very irritating.
Over the years I’ve come across a lot of Christians who have been convinced that they know what the narrow door is. And they’re never shy about telling you what the secret is, and why they have entered through it and you haven’t. Basically you can put them in one of three groups. They are either right believers, right behavers, or right belongers. The worst of all are the ones who are all three because they are the most sure that they’ve not only entered through the narrow door, but that they are now the bouncers behind the door, deciding who passes and who doesn’t. Let’s look at each group in a bit more detail.
Who are the right believers? They are the people you come across who are sure they know everything. They think that if they can just know Christian theology well enough, know the Bible well enough, be orthodox enough (which means “right teachings or beliefs”) they can get through the narrow door. They are quick to tell you why your beliefs are inadequate. They quote scripture loud and often to back up their points, even though what they quote doesn’t always support what they say. They are so certain about their own rightness that to them everyone who disagrees is steeped in wrongness. They also drive you crazy because you can never get a word in edgewise, and if you can, you feel like you are in a court of law, with them as the prosecuting attorney, judge, and jury.
The basic problem with the whole “right belief” approach is that we can never know enough to be right. Our years are too short and our brains are too small to ever know all the theology and the Bible that completely. Also, they run into a little, itty-bitty problem highlighted in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Fill in the blanks of this sentence: “We are saved by _____ through ____.” Did you say “by grace through faith”? That’s the problem. Neither Jesus nor Paul ever say that believing the right things, having the right theology, or knowing the Bible well enough gets us through that narrow door. They tell us that the narrow door is a gift of God’s grace, freely given, that we accept through faith. Not right belief, but faith. Not right knowledge, but grace.
Then there are the right behavers. These people also bother you. They are moralists who always see their behavior as perfect, and everyone else’s as sinful. To them, they are without sin, or, if they do admit to some sin, they push it off as a minor sin in comparison with everyone else’s. What they don’t see is how strong the sin of pride and judgment is within them. They are so certain of their own rightness in the way they see the world morally that they become judgmental. They take the place of Christ in judging us, and in the process never see the plank in their own eyes. You know these people because you avoid these people. They are sure their behavior gets them through the narrow door, and ours doesn’t.
Finally, we have the right belongers. These are the people who are certain of their own salvation because they belong to the “right” church or the “right” group. When they talk with you, you are always wrong, not because of your beliefs or behaviors, but simply because you aren’t part of their church, denomination, or Christian movement. You could pray all day, be faithful in so many ways, go on mission trips through your church, but it’s all for naught because you simply belong to the wrong church.
I’ve come across Roman Catholics who are like this, non-denominational evangelicals like this, Orthodox who are like this, and so many more. You don’t find these types much in the Presbyterian Church nowadays, but go back fifty years and earlier, and you would have found these types all throughout our own churches. Generations ago, many thought that the only true church was the Presbyterian Church. Episcopalians saw themselves as the only true Church. Lutherans saw themselves as the only true Church. In our denominations today, we aren’t like this much anymore, and many Roman Catholics and Orthodox have let go of this kind of belief, but in any religious denomination or group you will still find some who are certain that they can get through the narrow door simply because they are part of the right group.
There’s a problem with each of these approaches, which I pointed out above. The basic problem is that Scripture points to salvation by grace through faith, not through right belief, behavior, or belonging. The process that gets us through that narrow door is a process by which we simply accept the gift of love that God offers us all the time.
So, what is the key that unlocks the narrow door? It may seem like a mystery, but you can find the answer. You find it by doing a little trick that we pastors sometimes use. It’s called “reading the rest of the Bible.” ☺ If you read our “narrow door” passage in context by reading what precedes it in chapters 12 and 13, you will find what Jesus says gets us through the door.
Our passage for this morning is part of a very large group of teachings Jesus gives in which he lays out what the narrow door is. First, in chapter 12, Jesus contrasts his approach with the Pharisees who are obsessed with the law. Luke tells us about a woman Jesus healed. She had been bent over for 18 years, and he healed her. Afterwards the Pharisees are furious and critical of Jesus. Why? Because he healed on the Sabbath. It doesn’t matter that God did something amazing through Jesus and healed a woman from her suffering. All that mattered was that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, thus breaking God’s law. Jesus does God’s will by breaking God’s law. Jesus basically is saying that when we do God’s will no matter what, even if it means breaking religious convention, we become ready to enter through the narrow door.
Then Jesus talks about the heart and treasure, using the passage that I preached on several weeks ago, saying that where our treasure is, there our heart is, too. When our treasure is in possessions, money, and security, then the door is closed to us. But when we place our treasure in heaven, in God, and in sharing God’s love, the door becomes opened to us. He goes on to say that we need to let go of our worries and trust God. He points out that God takes care of sparrows and lilies, and God will take care of us, too, if we let go of our anxieties and worries.
Jesus then tells us a parable about a master who returns home and sees what his slave has been doing. Now, typically, when a master goes away, what would you expect the slaves to do? Hang out and do nothing, right? But this master finds that his slave has been working hard to do the master’s will. This is a way of living that Jesus says we need to have if we are to enter through the narrow door, which is to have a passion for doing God’s will, even when we don’t sense God anywhere near.
Finally, he uses the example of a fig tree to show that to be truly in sync with God. He says that our lives must produce good fruit. He basically is saying that when we are doing God’s will, when we are overcoming all obstacles to doing it, and when we do it whether or not we sense God, we produce good fruit. The fruit is the proof of our openness to God. When our hearts are with God, goodness flows out of our actions.
The whole point is that we make the narrow door complicated, which is why it seems so confusing to figure out how to enter. Entering by the narrow door can be simple, although being simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy. Entering is a matter of simply being open to God in all things, and letting God’s grace flow through our lives in everything. But that doesn’t mean it’s not hard. Opening to God’s will is always hard, but when we do it, our lives can become very fruitful in amazing ways. Let me share with you an example.
Back in 1992, Susan was sitting at home when the telephone rang. Her son answered it. He called out to her, “Bob Thompson is on the telephone.” “Bob Thompson? Bob Thompson?” she thought. “That name sounds familiar. Who’s Bob Thompson?” Suddenly she realized who he was. He must be related to Beverly Thompson. As she thought this, she reflected on her experiences during the past year.
It was almost a year ago that she prayed to God to help her find a way to serve God. She felt disconnected from God, and overwhelmed by being a single mom for three children. Every morning and evening she was making a 45-minute trip from her home in New Hampshire to her job in Vermont. She worked in the accounts receivable department of a toy company. It was difficult, and she was becoming overwhelmed. So one morning she prayed as she drove. She prayed to God about her three children and about her situation as a single mother raising them. She thought about how much her church had supported her, and how attending worship and the weekly women’s Bible study were important parts of her week. Still, she wished she could find a way to serve God more and better. So she prayed. She said to God, “I want to serve you so much, but I don’t know how. How do you want me to serve?” She expected an answer that would call her to do something active and unique, but bubbling up from her heart she heard the answer: “Pray.” God wanted her to simply pray. This is not the answer Susan expected, but she responded to God by saying, “Okay, I’ll pray, but you have to give me people to pray for. I’ll devote my trips to and from work to prayer.”
A few months later she came across Beverly Thompson’s name. Beverly owned a toy store. She had sent a check for a shipment of teddy bears, and with it a note apologizing for being so slow with the check. She said that she had been ill and to please forgive her tardiness. Susan knew then and there that she was called to pray for Beverly, and so she did. Every day, to and from work, Susan prayed for Beverly even though she didn’t know anything about her.
After several months, Susan decided to send a letter to Beverly saying that she was praying for her. There was no response. Several months later she sent another letter telling Beverly that she was praying for her and also a little bit about herself. Again, there was no response. Every few weeks she would send a short note, but there never was a response. Still, she continued to pray.
When Susan answered the phone, Bob Thompson introduced himself as Beverly’s husband and told Susan that Beverly had died recently. Then he said, “While we were going through her things, we found your cards and notes tied up with a red ribbon. I know she must have read them over and over because they looked worn. My wife had been diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of forty-eight. She never suffered any pain at all. I know that this was a result of your prayers. The reason you never heard back from her was that she also developed brain cancer. Our relationship with God amounted to going to church once in a while, but it was nothing that had much effect on our lives. I wanted you to know that my wife asked to be baptized two weeks before she passed away. The night before she died, she told me it was okay for her to die because she was going home to be with her Lord.” (adapted from Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul, 2000).
Entering through the narrow door is simple, although it’s not always easy. It requires us to be open to God in everything, everyday. The question for you to ponder is this: Are you prepared to enter through the narrow door?
Amen.
