In today's (2007) Gospel reading, an anonymous first century man asks a
question that many twenty-first century people ask: is eternity exclusive?
Will all go to heaven? Am I good enough for God.
Strive to Enter the Narrow Door.
Wishful thinkers then and now want to believe that heaven is a wide-open
door that almost everyone will enter. People want to believe that if there is
a heaven and IF you try hard enough, it's yours for the asking.
Christ says otherwise.
Catechism students learn there are 3 ways to know there is a god. One is
thru creation. If you see a house by the side of the road, you don't assume a
random wind or tornado gathered the materials and put them in order. "Every
house has a builder" (Hebrews 3); and the universe has order and arrangement
that could only come by an Intelligent Designer. The universe around us is
evidence there must be a god.
Conscience also tells us there is a god: a right & wrong; a good and
evil. Tho people ignore evidence of creation and conscience and live contrary
to both, the evidence does not go away.
Based on the evidence, people begin to make a model of what God they might
like, and then worship accordingly. If you go around the world, or even in
_________ (!), you can see variations on the theme.
Creation says god is hidden, so a mystical god is fashioned, perhaps in
the form of ancestors or spirits. Creation says god is powerful, so power and
majesty are worshipped - usually a form of nature. Conscience tells us that
god is moral, so many fashion some code that we must live up to. Conscience
tells us god must be holy and just; but we can never be sure we have god's
favor.
All belief systems of the world are based on creation and conscience.
Whether Islam, Buddhism, animism, Shinto, Communism, or something else, our
multi-cultural society demands that these religions are all seen as equals, and
none is better than any other. And that is true. In reality: all are
worthless failures. All those wide doors lead to hell.
Religions based on man's ideas about God and man's laws "fall short of the
glory of God". (Romans 6) So wishful thinkers hope God is not TOO strict
about how people live or how they worship. That went for the man in Luke; and
goes for today's society, too.
God does indeed "desire for all people to be saved and come to the
knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4). The reality is many are NOT saved. All
religions are NOT the same. All beliefs do not lead to heaven.
Christ says: "make every effort to enter thru the Narrow Door."
Religions based on creation and conscience aren't good enough. Jesus says, "I
am the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me." (John 14)
Creation and conscience don't say this. Only God's Word does. "Salvation
is found no where else: there is no other name under heaven by which anyone
can be saved" (Acts 4:12). There are only two religions: works and faith; law
and Gospel; earning and grace; ALL others and Christianity.
This church proclaims: "we preach Christ, and Him crucified" (Romans
1:18) for all sins. We announce "a person is justified by faith." (Romans
3:28) "For it is by grace alone we have been saved, apart from the works of the
law." (Ephesians 2) There is no salvation outside the Christian Church, which
alone proclaims eternal salvation by solely through God's grace.
Unlike musings of men like the Koran or Book of Mormon, the Bible is God's
Word TO man not mans' words about God. The only reliable source to know about
God or the way to heaven is God's Word.
Jesus is the "Word made flesh that dwelt among us, full of grace and
truth". (John 1) So who better than He to answer "will those who are saved be
few? Christ says. "Make every effort to enter by the Narrow Door. many will
try to enter and won't be able to."
Jesus says something surprising to that 1st century man, and to 21st
century man. That man was a Jew, who believed that his racial makeup earned
him a spot in heaven. Many people today sit in churches, partake of Holy
Communion, and listen to sermons, feeling their actions or membership
guarantees them a spot in heaven. On Judgment Day they will hear Jesus say:
"I don't know you or where you come from. Away from Me you evil doers!"
Christ says many Jews will see non-Jewish people in heaven; and themselves
excluded. Many church-goers will be locked out of heaven, and be surprised at
who they see there.
The Door to heaven is narrow, VERY narrow. It is not narrow because God
expects us to live perfect lives. It is narrow because it depends on God's
grace alone.
The Old Sinful Man in you hears the "make every effort" part, and wants to
think of religious requirements: go to church, pay your dues, live a clean
life. But the "every effort" to be good enough for God on OUR part is exactly
what will keep people OUT of heaven (Isaiah 64:6).
You actions contribute NOTHING toward God's favor, love, or forgiveness.
Either you enter by the Narrow Door of God's grace; or you are excluded forever.
Who is the Narrow Door? Christ. Only by God's gift of faith in Him can
we enter.
Wishful thinkers say eternity is ALL heaven; or that evil doers vanish
like smoke; or that only VERY evil people go to hell. Christ says otherwise.
More than a few times, God's Word refers to those who are in eternal torment in
hell "where their worm does not die, neither is the fire quenched" (Isaiah 66).
Hell is a very real place.
"Make every effort to enter thro the Narrow Door!" When you confess your
sins and run to the cross, you're entering thru that Narrow Door of faith into
heaven. As the Spirit works thru the Word, you're given power to "make every
effort" to believe in Christ's cross. "God who works in us both to desire & do
His good pleasure." Phil 2:13.
Faith takes agonizing effort. The sin inside us strongly feels eternity
depends on our efforts. But your place in heaven is not determined by what
good you feel you've done or what bad you've avoided. It will be determined by
God's grace alone, thru faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone. "Making every
effort" is no less than you DAILY struggling to place absolutely ALL of your
hopes of heaven and total certainly of eternity outside of yourself - and
completely on the cross of Christ Jesus. That is humbling. It means admitting
your total inability to enter heaven and relying on His work alone.
Imagine if you will a terrorist strike forces you to escape all you own and
quickly drive to another town. As you drive, you recall you actually received
free tickets to a BBQ / rodeo in that town that very night! You run out of gas
in the grassy parking lot, but still smile: You smell the BBQ. You and your
family walk up to the gate to go in. Your wife and one son go in, but you are
stopped. Where is your ticket? At home, & I can't go back. No admittance.
What? It's free! I gave lots money to this outfit! I helped build the
grandstand! I told others about the BBQ! THAT guy- he didn't give a dime -
why did HE get in? He had a ticket. I won't recognize you or let you in. So,
you get to stay outside: smell BBQ all night and watch people have fun. You
can't go anywhere; no one else will talk to you.
May the Spirit work by Word and Sacraments in each of us to change us to
make every effort to live NOT trusting feelings/effort but God's grace thru
faith: in the Name of Christ crucified.
Pastor Michael Harman,
St. Peter LCMS - Newell, IA
vacancies at ...
Immanuel, Pomeroy
First Evangelical, Fonda
