WHAT DOES "MAKE EVERY EFFORT" MEAN? It doesn’t mean that it’s nearly impossible but that you should focus your attention.
- Luke 13:22-24a.
- Jesus is asked an important question: “[A]re only a few people going to be saved?” (v. 23).
- That's a great question. What is the nature of salvation? Is it like taking the ACT with hopes of getting into Harvard? That is, anything less than a perfect score puts you at risk. How defeating and depressing would that be? We would almost all just give up from despair. Or is it like you would believe if you read the obituary section of the local newspaper that almost everyone is getting in? We’re all God’s children and heaven is a giant reunion and no one is getting left out (except the really bad people, whatever that means). Or somewhere in between.
- It’s not just a great question - it’s an important question. The fate of our souls is one of the most important things to think about. After all, eternity is a lot longer than 70 years.
- Let’s start with the biggest misreading of “make every effort.”
- I think the tendency in reading it is to see it as an Ironman Triathlon or the spiritual equivalent. It must be nearly impossible!
- This would presumably lead us to answer “yes” to the posed question. It looks like almost no one is going to qualify!
- One helpful thing we have in answering this question is reading Scripture with Scripture. In the very next chapter we have a story from Jesus that gives us significant insight: Luke 14:15-24. This is the parable of the great banquet.
- A man is having a great feast and sends a servant to invite people. But the servant encounters excuse after excuse. When the servant reports this back to the master, he doesn’t say, “That’s good because I wanted this feast to be as small as possible.” No, he sends the servant back out with instructions to “bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” (v. 21). After the servant has completed that task, there is still room. He sends the servant out again, this time with the instruction “make them come in” (v. 23) because he wants his house “full” (v. 23).
- Does this sound like someone trying to make it nearly impossible to get in? Not at all.
- So this tells us that reading “make every effort” as an indication that God is trying to make it nearly impossible is a misreading of the text.
- What does it mean, then?
- It doesn’t mean that it’s nearly impossible but that you should focus your attention.
- God isn’t trying to make salvation incredibly difficult. In fact, He wants people to be saved. Jesus has come to open the door to us.
- We need to focus our attention on this important matter and seek what God has revealed.
- These are important questions:
a. What is God doing in the world?
b. How do I connect with God?
c. Is there a way to know God?
d. What happens after we die?
- All of these are “big deal” questions. They are all worth our attention and focus.
- Someone once said (and I think there is a lot of truth to it) that most people put more planning into their summer vacation than they do into their eternity. Ouch, but true.
- And this isn’t just about eternity - it’s also about living a God-filled and God-blessed life during our time on earth.
Many give such crucial matters little more than “I’ll hope for the best” or “Hopefully I’ll be ok” or wish projection. They don’t seek the Kingdom.
- What do I mean by “seek the Kingdom”?
- More broadly, I simply mean that we think about ultimate things and try to discover what’s true and what is worth living our lives pursuing.
- More specifically, I mean considering whether what Jesus said is true and worth following. Is He truly a messenger of God?
- At both levels, it’s a matter of pursuing ultimate things.
- This is what I think Jesus means when He says “make every effort.” This is important. This is worth your focus. This is worth considering. This is worth pursuing.
- In light of all that, it’s worth pausing for a moment here, before I move on to the next thing Jesus says here. We should pause and ask ourselves a simple question: am I making every effort?
- Allow me to address two groups.
- First, if you’re here tonight and you’re not a Christian, are you making every effort to find the truth about God? Is it a priority? Do you grasp the importance of having a good answer on that?
- Now, I obviously think that Jesus is the Way, but I’m not even going to that point in what I’m asking. I’m simply asking if you are treating this issue with the importance it deserves.
- I do think that a pursuit of the truth leads to Jesus, but for this moment I just want to strongly encourage you to prioritize your spiritual beliefs and seek the truth.
- Second, if you’re here tonight and you are a Christian, are you making every effort to know as much about Jesus as you can? Is it a priority? Do you grasp the importance of going as deep as you can on that?
- It’s easy for us to get complacent and coast in our faith. “I’m going to church pretty regularly, so I’m good.” No, we should prioritize growing in our faith and going as deep as we can in knowing Jesus.
- Are you making every effort?
WHAT DOES "TRY . . . AND NOT BE ABLE" MEAN? It doesn’t mean there is an arbitrary cut line but rather that many will not be ready.
- Luke 13:24b-27.
- Matthew 22:1-14; Revelation 7:9, 13, 14; Revelation 22:14.
- There is a second phrase that's challenging in that same verse. In the second half of v. 24 Jesus says that “many . . . will try to enter and will not be able to.”
- Like “make every effort,” this is something that can be easily interpreted in troubling ways by people reading this passage. What does that questionable interpretation look like?
- It kind of sounds like what many people think of when they think of Calvinism: some are in and some are out and there’s nothing you can do about it. (My Calvinist friends might disagree with that characterization of Calvinism, but it lives in the popular understanding and is useful here as a point of reference.) That notion of Calvinism is simple and seems deeply unfair. God picks some to save, He rejects others to save, it’s all of His choosing, and there’s nothing you can do to switch your status. That ends up with the practical consequence of those excluded from the Kingdom without ever having had an honest chance at making it in.
- It is easy to read “try . . . and not be able” along those lines. Could it mean that there were those who genuinely pursued God and that He rejected? Were there those who tried to get saved and God would not allow it to happen?
- It is especially tempting to think in this direction when you combine it with “make every effort” understood incorrectly. Taken in the wrong way in combination, it comes across like this: many will try to enter and not be able because God has made it difficult to get in so you better make every effort on the off-chance that you might get past Him. It’s not a promising picture. It feels a little like heading out on Black Friday for the most in-demand toy of the year, knowing that it’s going to take a miracle of being in the right place at the right time to score one of them and that a lot of whether it happens is just the luck of being in the right place at the right time. You go out and get there early and hope for the best, but you know it’s still a long shot. It’s not an encouraging picture.
Is that what we are to take from that? It is not.
- One passage that I think will help us get a clearer understanding is a similar story to the the parable of the great banquet that we just looked at a moment ago. Luke’s version tells the story of the servant going out to find guests to come and fill the banquet hall. In Matthew 22:1-14 we get that story, but there are some varying details and it’s especially worth noting that in this version it’s a wedding. At the end we get a final point about what you wear to the wedding. Let’s look at vv. 11-14.
- This almost reads as an add-on because v. 10 could have been a concluding moment. It’s not, though. It’s something that gives us more insight into what is going on here.
- Earlier in the parable we again (like in Luke) see the point about those who were invited not wanting to come and the master sending the servant back out to make a wider invitation. This speaks to the Jews rejecting Jesus and the door that will open to salvation for the Gentiles. The invitation is more widely given, but verse 10 is important. Just because the invitation is given to everyone doesn’t mean that everyone is prepared to attend. Note the comment about “good and bad.”
- As we get to the verses at the end, the king finds someone not wearing wedding clothing. The invitation was widely shared but that doesn’t mean that you can show up wearing whatever. The “clothing” clearly brings to mind the references elsewhere in the New Testament to the “robes” that have been washed clean by the blood of Christ (Revelation 7:9, 13, 14; Revelation 22:14). This points us to the cleansing and purity that comes to us by the sacrifice that Christ made for us on the cross. The point being made here is essentially this: the invitation is now open to a wider group (the whole world, in fact) but you have to come through the blood of Christ. He is the One who has made provision for our salvation.
- Verse 13 has undeniable hell imagery. This makes the point all the clearer: everyone is invited, you need the blood of Christ to be “clothed” right, and those without Christ are cast out.
- A final note. Verse 14 is interesting in light of what comes before it, especially the comment about being chosen. Most times when we think of Bible references to “chosen,” we think along Calvinistic lines, with a sense of inevitability and lack of agency on our part. It’s odd to find it at the end of this story. The story has been about a wide invitation and presumably everyone invited was given wedding clothes to wear. (How do we know that wedding clothes were offered? Remember that the analogy here is the salvation of Christ, which is not by our own effort or resources but by receiving what Christ has offered us.) He chose not to wear the wedding clothes that were offered to him. His unwillingness to receive what was offered him is what leaves him “unchosen.” This is not at all a situation where only a select number were given the opportunity to respond. Verse 9 literally says “invite . . . anyone you find.” Further, all are given wedding clothes to wear, so it’s not a function of some wanting to come to the wedding but not having the resources to get in. All are invited, but some choose to come; all who come are given wedding clothes, but some choose to wear them. This is not at all a situation where “chosen” means many are just out of luck because they didn’t get the opportunity or because they wanted the opportunity and were arbitrarily rejected. No, they are “chosen” because they responded and wore the wedding clothes. This is not what we normally think of as what “chosen” means. This parable strongly points in the opposite direction of Calvinism’s arbitrary dividing lines.
- Having unpacked all that, let’s circle back to the statement in Luke 14 we began with under this point: “try . . . and not be able to.”
- Does this have an arbitrary Calvinist meaning here? No, I think it’s something similar to Matthew 22.
- Those getting rejected were not those who had never heard about the owner of the house. This points us toward the thought of those who have never heard of the gospel.
- Those getting rejected were not people who the owner of the house had immediately driven away the first time he met them. No, they lived in proximity to him. (This is a point we will examine in more detail in a moment.)
- Why does he reject them then? There is one word in the passage that gives us insight. It’s easy to overlook but we need to consider its implications. It’s in v. 27: “evildoers.” We might see this at our first reading of the passage as a generic insult but I think it actually gives us insight into why these people are being rejected. They were “evildoers.” They were not behaving in a way that was conducive with being invited in. They were not arbitrarily rejected. It was their behavior that led to that.
- In light of all we’ve just talked about, this makes “try . . . and not be able to” much clearer.
- Were they arbitrarily rejected? No.
- Were they denied any contact with the owner of the house? No.
- Rather, they chose to continue to do evil and then want to be invited in anyway.
- Does this connect with the plan of salvation? Clearly. God offers salvation to all; God provides the means of salvation. But people must reject evil and avail themselves of what He offers. And that salvation will result in a change of behavior and life, rejecting evil.
- In light of all that, “try . . . and not be able to” speaks to those who have rejected salvation and then after death want to be let in anyway but are rejected. Not everyone gets in. Indeed, no one gets in without Christ.
- I’ll close with this. Not everyone who says they want in gets in.
- As in this passage, wanting in has nothing to do with liking or loving the owner of the house. Rather, it simply arises from facing the stark reality that you find yourself outside the door. This has more to do with facing the stark consequences of the situation you’ve created for yourself rather than a sudden change of heart or a miraculous surge of love for the owner of the house.
- This is a rejection of universalism. This is a rejection of “everyone goes to heaven.” This is a rejection of "everyone is a child of God.” This is rejection of “everyone gets in no matter what.”
- Salvation is available to all but you have to receive it.
- This is “try . . . and not be able to.” It’s not the owner being vindictive or arbitrary. It’s about people not living in a way where they were ready to enter in. The onus is on them, not the owner of the house.
A SUMMARY THOUGHT: You don’t meander into the Kingdom.
- Having spent all that time unpacking those two difficult phrases, I think it’s worth pausing to make a summary statement that encapsulates the point that Jesus is trying to make here.
- That point can be put a number of ways. I’m going to say it this way: you don’t meander into the Kingdom.
- What do I mean by that?
- When it comes to connecting with God, there are a lot of myths out there.
- One is that you’re perfect just the way you are. God doesn’t want to change you - you’re absolutely terrific just the way you are. That's not true. Sure, you are loved by God even in the state you are now in, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have significant moral failings.
- Another is that God just takes us all. Heaven is just a big reunion for everyone. There is no character change needed.
- A third is that there is no way to know what God is up so we just hope for the best. It’s all a mystery as what God thinks or wants so just toss a coin in the fountain and hope it all works out.
- All of these, of course, are false.
- First, we are sinners. Second, God desires to change us into the character of Christ. Third, He has made His will abundantly clear and accessible.
- What all of those options - and numerous other approaches to God - have in common is that you just kind of meander into the Kingdom. There is not a lot of attention or thought given. There isn’t a seeking. There isn’t a prioritization of knowing more about God.
- Many people put more thought into their summer vacation than they do to what is true about God. That's a stunning statement but it is absolutely true. They presume God is unknowable or that they won’t like what He has to say. Hopefully He’s love and things will work out ok.
- No! This is important and deserves our attention.
- That is why Jesus encourages us to “make every effort.” Focus on this. Think about it. Seek it. God is drawing you - allow yourself to be drawn.
- That is why Jesus warns us that many will “try to enter and not be able to.” It is a narrow door and there are many ways that don’t get it.
- Consider the high grocery prices we’re dealing with right now. If I told you about a new store in Hurricane where everything is running about 40% cheaper because they don't advertise and they have an integrated supply chain, you’d almost certainly say, “Where is it? I’ve got to check that out!”
- We should have that kind of curiosity and drive concerning the Kingdom of Jesus. Do we want to know all we can?
- I’m not bothered by people asking hard questions about Jesus and His Kingdom. Both can easily withstand scrutiny. The bigger problem is not thinking or pondering enough.
- I simply do not have conversations like this: “I’ve been coming to church for two years. I’ve taken notes on the sermons and dug into the small group studies. In the end, I’m walking away because there is nothing there.”
No, the much more common problem is people who are too busy with their worldly lives or people who want a generic God but don’t want to obey Jesus.
- Having handled the main challenges and the main point of the passage, I want to close out noting a couple interesting points in this passage.
A SCARY DETAIL: Those pleading were not complete unknowns but had some familiarity with the “owner of the house.”
- Luke 13:25-27.
- The details of vv. 25-27 bring out some interesting points, some of which we’ve already noted. There is one additional point that I think is important enough to mention while we are in this passage: those pleading to be let in were not complete unknowns to the owner of the house but had some familiarity with him.
- Those verses have a back-and-forth. Verse 26 is important: those begging to be let in felt they had a connection with the owner of the house. The owner disagrees (vv. 25, 27). How do we square the divergent views? The connection those begging are claiming was either one that they presumed or they are trying to make more of a very tenuous connection because they are trying to maximize their chance of getting in.
- I wonder if this is something like where there is a famous person we are in proximity to and so we notice every time we are near them but we are just one of a crowd to them, so we notice them far more than they notice us.
- The point that is worth discussing here is simply that those begging had some awareness of the owner of the house. They were not completely unfamiliar with him and yet they were not connected to him in a meaningful way.
- This so clearly parallels the lives of so many people, where they presume a casual connection with God is sufficient.
- What are some examples?
a. Someone who got saved as a teen but hasn’t been to church in years.
b. Someone who goes to church once a month.
c. Someone who goes to church at Easter and Christmas.
d. Someone who has parents who are Christians.
e. Someone who has a spouse who is a Christian.
f. Someone who thinks of themselves as a God-fearing person.
- I could go on and on but the point is that none of these people are actively living as disciples of Jesus.
- This is particularly concerning in a country like America where Christianity is still in a meaningful way the majority religion. Too many people believe it’s something you’re born into, like your citizenship. They think about “Are you a Christian?” as the same type of question as “Are you an American citizen?”
- This thought is in many ways a greater tragedy than the person who has only rudimentary knowledge about Jesus. That salvation situation is an interesting discussion, but to think of living your whole life surrounded by knowledge of Christ and to never commit to it is tragic. To know the stories and not write your name into them is sad.
- Seeing the familiarity of those who were rejected with the owner of the house should lead all of us to make sure we have a genuine discipleship relationship.
- One simple question to ask to discern that in your life: am I a follower of Christ?
- Note I didn’t say “church member” or “Christian” or other term. Are you actively following the teaching of Jesus?
THE CONCLUSION TO THIS PASSAGE: Just doing what everyone else is doing can lead to torment.
- Luke 13:28-30.
- A connected point is made in the concluding three verses of the passage. Verse 28’s opening clearly points us toward the idea of hell.
- When we think of the idea of the parable overall, we have said that you don’t just meander into the Kingdom. You need to seek it.
- The answer to the original question in v. 23 is in part that there is a “narrow door” (v. 24). The majority aren’t doing the right thing to enter in. The result is torment (v. 28).
- Just looking around and doing what everyone else is doing is not a good plan. It doesn’t lead where you want to go.
- Looking at those who seem to be thriving in this world is also not a good way to discern the best path. Verse 30 reminds us of the great reversal that Christ spoke of in several places. Jesus doesn’t align with the world.
- So don’t just look around and think, “Well, I guess I’m in good shape. Everyone is doing the same thing.” That's a terrible idea.
