Luke 13: 22-30
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - 21 August 2016
Rev. John Derme
What would you say if somebody would come to you and ask, "How many people are going to be saved?" I don't know how you would answer that question, but I can tell you how most American Christians would answer. A national survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in 2008 asked American Christians, "Who Achieves Eternal Life?" Sixty-five percent answered, "Many religions can lead to eternal life." The survey also asked, "Which Religions Lead to Eternal Life?" A majority of Christians answered that Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism lead to eternal life, and that people with no religious faith will have eternal life, too. How many people are going to be saved? Most American Christians would say, "Almost everybody."
Is that answer correct? Is that how you would answer? In our Gospel of the Day, Jesus speaks about being saved as entering through a door. Today, we not only want to answer how many people will be saved. Even more importantly you and I need to know the answer for ourselves to this question: Will you get through the door?
We don't have to wonder what Jesus' answer to the first question would be. One day, while he was teaching, somebody came up to him and asked, "Are only a few people going to be saved?" Jesus answered that many people will try to be saved, but they will not be, because the door to eternal life is narrow. God will one day close the door to eternal life. Many people will be left outside. Some of them will say, "Open up! Let us in! We ate and drank with you and listened to you teach!" But God will say, "Get away from me. I don't know you."
Jesus went on to explain that being shut out of eternal life isn't like being shut out of anybody else's house. It's not as though someone who doesn't get through the door can simply say, "I'll just go to a different house, then." Jesus says that all who are shut out will experience weeping and gnashing of teeth. Instead of eternal life they will have eternal suffering.
With this picture, Jesus was preaching the law to the Jewish people who were listening. That's why he said, "You will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you will be thrown out." Many of the Jews assumed that it would be easy for them to enter eternal life just because they were descendants of Abraham. Not even the fact that that they ate and drank with Jesus and listened to him teach would be enough to get them into heaven. Jesus explained that many from the north, south, east, and west would enter the kingdom of God, instead of them. Those people are Gentiles, who are not physical descendants of Abraham and never saw Jesus with their own eyes. Even though there are many people who will not enter eternal life, there are also many people who will be saved.
When Jesus was asked, "Are only a few people going to be saved," he explained that it is not easy to get to eternal life, that a person cannot enter the kingdom of God without faith in him. That's also an appropriate message for Jesus to teach us today, since most American Christians think that almost everybody will get to heaven no matter what they believe! Now that you've heard Jesus' answer, how would you answer that question?
We're tempted to answer the way that most people today would answer, aren't we? We might not think it sounds very nice to say that some people aren't going to be saved. Other people might say that we are being intolerant of their beliefs if we say that. But other people aren't the ones who decide who gets into heaven. Jesus is the one who decides that. And we may want to appear that we are being nice, but not telling the truth about how to get to eternal life doesn't make us nice. I'm pretty sure that we can't be nicer than Jesus, who loves all people perfectly and died for all.
So even though we may be tempted to say that it is easy for all people to enter eternal life, that answer is not correct. There is another, similar temptation that we may also face. We are tempted to think that it will be easy for us to enter eternal life. We may never have seen Jesus with our own eyes, but we could say the same thing that Jesus said people who will be shut out of heaven will say: "We ate and drank with you and listened to you teach!"
We listen to Jesus teach in every church service when we hear his Word. We eat and drink with Jesus when we receive his body and blood in the Lord's Supper. Of course, these are valuable for us. But we are wrong if we think that just because we do them, it will be easy for us to enter eternal life. Hearing Jesus teach and receiving his Supper is not something that we do. It is something that he does for us. If our faith is in anything other than what he has done for us, we will not get through the door into eternal life. If we think that anything we do will make it easy for us to get to heaven, we will be shut out in eternal suffering.
It is good for us to want to be in heaven. And it is good for us to want everybody else to be there, too. But the door to heaven is narrow. It is not easy for anyone to get there. We need Jesus to let us in. Jesus has done everything necessary to get us through the door into eternal life, because we could never do it for ourselves. Jesus loved all people, so he lived perfectly for all and he died to pay for all people's sins. That includes you and me. And, because his gospel is so counter to what anybody in any society would say, Jesus has brought you and me to believe the good news of what he has done to save us. Jesus has not only earned our place eternal life, but he also has brought us from the north, south, east, and west and invites us to enter through the door!
How many people are going to be saved? How would you answer? The only right answer, of course, is the answer that Jesus gave. There are many people who will not be saved, because they do not trust in Jesus. But because of what Jesus has done, there will also be many people who will be saved. Even more importantly, you and I need to know the answer to this question: Will you get through the door? Trusting in Jesus' perfect life and death for you, yes you will. The door is open to you!