August 24 – Sermon
O God, You declare Your power chiefly in showing mercy: please grant us the fullness of Your grace, that we, may run to You, entering through the narrow door, to obtain Your promise of salvation, and become partakers of Your heavenly banquet; through Jesus Christ our LORD, Amen.
A businessman waiting for the light to change, saw a man with a banana in his ear – a banana! “Gosh,” the businessman thought, ” should I mention it to him? No, it’s none of my business.” But it bothered him –so he asked the man, “Excuse me, why do you have a banana in your ear?” The man said, “What do you say?” The businessman repeated, “You’ve got a banana in your ear.” “Pardon me?” “You’ve got a banana in your ear!” the guy shouted. “Talk louder,” the fellow said, “I’ve got a banana in my ear!”
It’s a silly story about a serious condition. Countless people walk around never giving a thought to eternity. In Luke’s Gospel, the people of God were walking a dangerous road but they were not paying any attention. Jesus stood before them and told them the truth about themselves. But they didn’t listen.
God has reached out to humanity again and again, but only a few pay attention. We excel at living distracted lives at warp speed: we call it multi-tasking. We eat and watch TV. We drive and talk on the phone. We go to class and send text messages. We go to church to write a grocery list.
But if you really think about it, multi-tasking makes for shallow living. We can do a lot, but none of it goes very deep and “our souls suffer because we live superficially.”
Moments of grace and the wisdom of God are lost because our minds are somewhere else. Jesus Christ, THE savior of your life, can stand right in front of us and we don’t even notice. It’s like the puzzles where you try to find hidden items in a picture. They’re all there, we look right at them, and yet we do not see.
In our text for today, Jesus is offering His disciples–and us–advice that ultimately puts us in the receiving position for a true relationship with Him.
Someone asked Jesus, “Lord, will those who are saved be few” ?
But interestingly enough, Jesus didn’t really answer the question. Jesus said, “Many… will seek to enter and will not be able” but, on the other hand, it sounds like there will be many saved, because they include “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets” plus people “from east and west, and from north and south”. But again, Jesus redirected the conversation.
Jesus asked the questioner to stand among those who were outside the house, begging the master to let them in. Jesus placed the questioner in that position, to be able to hear the master’s rejection, “I do not know where you come from”.
Then, Jesus explained further. Imagine being a person who listened to Jesus teach in the streets. Many are those who think because they have heard about Jesus, it should be enough to get into the Kingdom. But the person was told, “Depart from me, all you workers of evil!”
Finally, Jesus had the questioner imagine his last day when God offered a vision of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all of the prophets at the banquet table of God and then recognized that “You were cast out”.
Jesus has implicitly asked the questioner: Can you see yourself as one who is damned? Can you see yourself as a worker of wickedness? Do you admit you are unworthy of salvation, unable to do anything to earn eternity in Heaven?
If so, you are in the receiving position for God’s love. God promises to save all repentant sinners. The mission of Jesus is to seek and to save the lost. He has come to bring salvation to the damned, forgiveness to the sinful, a work of grace to the workers of evil.
Anyone who does not admit being a sinner in need of a savior, otherwise you will be cast out. If you think that merely being in the presence of Jesus, is a ticket into Heaven, you will not be saved.
So “How many people will be saved?” Jesus didn’t answer the question. Instead he posed a different question “How will many people be saved?” People will be saved by the gracious work of Jesus, opening the door to those who are sinful and unable to save themselves.
This text dispels any idea that there is universal salvation. There is not. Jesus didn’t engage in speculative conversations about the Kingdom of Heaven and about how many people will be there. Instead, Jesus came and lived among sinners, as we all do. Sinners are everywhere! At work, in school, our neighborhoods, – even in our homes! And the mercy and love and forgiveness for sinners Jesus has given to people like us. Which means we are to show the same love and forgiveness to all the sinners with whom we come in contact. Not because they deserve it, because they don’t. Just as we don’t. That’s what makes it a gift–from Jesus to you and from you to others.
So the question about how many will be saved–I’m going to leave that up to Jesus! He knows better than we and always does better than we do.
So what about the striving to enter through the narrow door?
The striving is against our sin and sinful urges. Striving to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading; striving to give up the idea that I know better than God; striving to live life in Jesus. So when that last day comes, whether for you personally or for the entire world, every eye will open and will see Jesus and all those in the kingdom of God forever. That’s why Jesus came and that’s what He came to do.
