Luke 13.22-30
The story is told of a little Jimmy who came home from school and asked his parents the following question: “Where did I come from?” Mum looks at Dad, Dad looks at Mum – the ‘birds and the bees’ moment has suddenly arrived. Mum smiles and as she leaves the room she says ‘This is a moment for dad and son bonding, don’t you think?’ So dad takes a deep breath, sets little Jimmy on a chair and begins to explain the facts of life. Little Jimmy’s eyes get wider and wider and his mouth falls further and further open. When dad has finished little Jimmy says “Dad, Mikey says he is from Larne. Where did I come from?” Sometimes you have to know what is behind being asked in order to understand the question in the first place. The same is true this morning for the question asked in verse 23 of Luke 13. Turn with me to Luke 13.22-30, the lesson John read for us this morning.
Verses 22-23. Luke has set this question in the context of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. In is this middle section of Luke’s gospel, Luke has Jesus answering a series of questions posed by differing people and groups of people. On this occasion the question is posed by one of his travelling companions. Luke does not tell us if it is a disciple or just one of his many followers who are travelling with him to Jerusalem. Turn to verse 23 and listen to the question asked: “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” It seems an innocent enough question to ask and yet it is a profoundly deep question. It is a question tied up in national identity, religious identity and it is of eternal significance – not only to the one who asked the question and to the others walking with Christ on the road to Jerusalem but also for us this morning.
At the time of Christ there was a debate going on amongst many of the religious factions of the day about who would and who would not be in heaven. All Jews believed that the nation of Israel would be saved, with a few exceptions for real sinners – but they disagreed vehemently whether or not Gentiles would be saved. The question is addressing this issue – numerically how many will be saved?
Verses 24-25 – I want you to note that Jesus does not directly answer the question. The questioner had asked ‘how many will be saved?’ but in his answer Jesus addresses ‘how to be saved.’ The questioner had asked a vague question about and unknown number but Jesus addresses his answer to him personally – look at verse 24 “I tell you…” Jesus turns a vague theological question into a personal challenge. He tells his questioner, and those listening in, that “every effort” is to be made “to enter through the narrow door.” The verb which Jesus uses for “make every effort” is the verb from which we get ‘to agonise.” In older translations it is translated as ‘ to strive.’ The idea conveyed is one of not giving up of straining every muscle and sinew to complete a task. It denotes one who overcomes whatever obstacles are placed in the way to complete the task. Originally it was used of an athlete in the games ‘striving’ to win the victors crown. Everyone could see the strain on their bodies as they raced for the finishing line. It is this analogy that Jesus uses in answering the question concerning salvation.
But note the other part of the sentence: “many will try to enter and be unable to.” When I read that it stopped me dead in my tracks. I read it over several times to make sure I had had read it correctly and understood it correctly. Jesus is saying that many people, the unknown number that the questioner had asked about, will seek to enter through the narrow door but will be unable to do so. This raises a couple of questions for me, for you also I hope;
What is the narrow door by which you have to enter in order to be saved?
Why would you be unable to enter it?
In answer to the first question let me read to you the words of Christ in John 10.9 and also John 14.6. In these two verses Jesus leaves us in no doubt that He, alone, is the door by which you enter into salvation. How do you enter through Christ? Answer: By repentance and faith. You see what is made clear here is that no one enters through this door by accident. You cannot accidentally stumble into salvation, into Christ. It is a conscious decision that you make to enter through the narrow door and to enter into salvation. The very words chosen by Christ to describe salvation show that it is not entered by accident – it is a door and it is narrow. Doors must be opened in order to go through – and the door was opened by the death of Christ on the cross, by the shedding of His blood for your sin and my sin, for the sins of the world. It is narrow – you do not enter as a group but as individuals because the entry point is narrow – there is a focus, one way in, not many ways in – just one – as Jesus made clear in John 10.9 and 14.6. So you cannot fall by accident into salvation – you have to focus, strive to enter it – not that it is by works but that it must be obvious that you have done so. No one can slip through this door.
Listen now to the answer to the second question: Why would you be unable to enter it? Read verse 25 – do you understand what Christ has said here? The door will not be open forever. One day the door will be shut and it will be too late. There is urgency in these words of Christ. Just as you cannot enter through this door by accident one day you will not be able enter through it at all because it will be closed for eternity to you. The house owner, God, will close the door. At present the door is open – the way of salvation is open to all who would come and enter in through it but there is a day coming, and it is 2000 years closer than when Christ spoke these words for the first time, when God the Father will close the door. Listen again to what Christ says will happen then – read verse 25.
Those who are locked outside will knock on the door and will plead, beg, cry out for the door to be opened to them. Listen to the answer they will hear “I don’t know you or where you come from.” To the Jewish followers of Christ that is a dreadful, almost blasphemous, thing to say of them. After all they are the chosen people – their forefathers were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was to their forefather Moses that the Law was given. They are signed and sealed as God’s people by circumcision. Yet Jesus says to them the day will dawn when the door of salvation will be closed to you and you will cry out for it to be opened only to hear God tell you He doesn’t know you or where you came from. How dreadful those words must have sounded in their ears. How could this be? How could God not recognise or know His own people?
Verse 26 – look at their response to these words – read verse 26. They claim close proximity to God. They claim that where He was present they were eating and drinking. Where His Word was taught they were listening. They claim physical proximity to God and yet they are locked out. You know the shocking thing is – this is true of them and of many here this morning. They can, and you can, claim a physical proximity to God. You have ate and drank at His holy table in communion. You have heard His word preached and taught but, and here is the reality this morning, you cannot claim to have entered in through the narrow door. You cannot claim a repentance of your sins and a turning in faith to Christ. You can claim proximity but you cannot claim a relationship. You are like these people walking with Christ, physically present but superficially present to Him. They claim, and you can claim, to have met Him and heard Him but the truth for them, and for you, is that you have never availed of the opportunity to enter through the narrow door and enter into salvation wrought for you at Calvary by Christ.
Verse 27 – listen to the response of God to their pleading, to your pleading on that day – read verse 27. He repeats that He does not know them or their origins but He goes further – He describes them as evil doers and orders them from His very doorstep. ‘Evildoers’ – that is a harsh description of people who could claim to have been in the presence of God and had listened to His Word – and yet the truth is that it is the truth – it is the truth about them and it is the truth about us. We are evildoers. We are sinners before God. Let me say to you this morning, as gently as I can, you are more sinful and wicked than you realise. This morning as you stand before God you are an evildoer in His sight – but praise God, if you have entered through the narrow door, in Christ you are forgiven this morning.
Verses 28-30 Jesus goes on to speak of what they will see on that day when the door is closed and salvation is denied to them. He speaks of the great patriarchs of their faith and of the great banquet that will celebrate the coming of the Messiah on the last day. They will look and see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but then they will see what they never dreamt would be present on that day – Gentiles from all four corners of the earth. They considered themselves religious people. They considered themselves to be the elect, the people of God. They certainly considered themselves to be further up the ladder than Gentiles and yet Christ says that it is these very Gentiles who will be at this banquet whilst those who thought they would be there are locked outside.
Brennan Manning in the Ragamuffin Gospel tells how we too will be surprised when we see prostitutes, drug addicts etc in heaven. Your immediate reaction is ‘how can that be?’ Was Mary Magdala not a prostitute? Was Rachel not a prostitute? Was Zaccheus not a tax collector? Was Paul not a murderer of Christians before Damascus? There will be many surprises in the final membership of the kingdom of God. Not least, I believe, the surprise that a sinful man like me will be there.
How awful to be left locked out whilst those you thought should be locked out gain entry because they availed of the narrow door and entered through it into salvation. No wonder Christ describes it as weeping (in sorrow and grief) and gnashing (in anger and frustration) of teeth at what they witness. What a contrast between the experiences of those who were inside the kingdom and those locked outside the door. There is a total reversal of expectations and places – the first will be last and the last will be first – in verse 30.
There is the double agony for these people – the agony of being locked out and the agony of seeing those whom they thought would be excluded now included, sitting at the table with the Messiah.
In answering the question ‘How many…?’ Jesus tells his hearers, and us, it is not the numbers that are limited but the time. Did you hear that this morning? It is not the numbers who will be saved that will be limited but the time which is limited. This is reinforced in Luke’s gospel by the fact that he immediately follows this teaching of Christ with the warning to Christ by some Pharisees that Herod plans to kill Christ.
May I finish this morning with a challenge to us all? Time is limited. The door of salvation lies open before you this morning but a time is coming when it will closed shut for all eternity. When it is closed – which side will you find yourself on? This morning it lies open before you with Christ inviting you to come through him and to enter into eternal salvation – wont you come? One day the door will close and how awful it would be to be locked out and to plead proximity and hear ‘away from me, I don’t know you or where you come from.’ Which side of the door will you be standing when God closes it shut for eternity?
Amen.
