Luke 13:22-30 - The Narrative of the Narrow Door - August 21, 2022

According to the internet, the first recorded use of the phrase, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news,” was in a book written by a man called Herman Koerner in 1898. It’s first recorded use as the set-up for a joke was in 1966. [1] It’s usually framed as a choice: “do you want the good news or the bad first?” Today, I have good news and bad news, but I’m not giving you a choice.

First, the good news. According to Jesus, there is a feast going on in the kingdom of God. Well, Jesus doesn’t literally call it a feast, he calls it [reclining] at the table in the kingdom of God. In the first century, people didn’t normally recline when they were eating a typical meal; they sat upright like us. When one has the time and security and provisions to “recline” for a meal, you’re not just eating, you’re feasting. What’s the point? You can stop thinking about heaven as something completely alien from life here on earth. You can stop imagining what it will be like to float around on a cloud playing a harp all day. You can stop thinking about it as one endless church service. From the descriptions of heaven we have in Scripture, it would be more accurate to picture heaven as a giant wedding reception, a feast with good food and fellowship (Isaiah 25:6-9; Luke 14:15-24; Revelation 19:6-10).

That’s good news. But there’s more. It’s good news that those who have been invited and are in attendance aren’t only the heroes of faith. Sadly, sometimes we think that way, don’t we? “Sure, the famous, outstanding heroes of faith – those who contribute lots of time and effort and money, those who teach Sunday school and play the organ and preach the sermons – will be there; but what about me – who doesn’t know the Bible as well as I could or should, who hasn’t led a squeaky-clean life, who struggles with sin and faith and doubt?

There are two reasons you should be comforted today. First, Jesus says that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets [will be] in the kingdom of God. They may sound like super-heroes of faith; but 1) if you know your Bible history, you know that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were hardly paragons of virtue – they were cheating, lying, dishonest sinners just like us; and 2) Jesus emphasizes that people will come from east and west, from north and south. This is one of the major themes of the book of Revelation. People of every nation, tribe, people and language will be in heaven – both the extraordinary and the absolutely ordinary (Revelation 7:9).

There’s one final piece of good news: not only is there a feast going on in heaven and not only will people from all walks of life be there, but there’s an open door to this feast – a door that is not an “it,” but a “he.” Jesus is the door into the kingdom of God. He says so himself: I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me (John 14:6; John 10:9). Now, many hear that verse and think, “Well, that’s pretty narrow, pretty exclusive, pretty intolerant of other philosophies and faiths.” Yes, it is. But it’s just as inclusive as it is exclusive. No one can enter heaven except through Jesus – but anyone and everyone can gain entrance through faith in him.

That’s the good news. Ready for the bad news? It boils down to one blunt reality: a lot of people aren’t getting into heaven’s banquet. But before we get there, let’s step back for a second. Someone asked Jesus a question that has intrigued people for centuries – especially people who want to appear very spiritual and theologically wise: Lord, are only a few going to be saved? It’s a question that could only come from a proud and presumptuous heart, right? From someone who presumes they are “in” and so has the spare time to speculate about everyone else. Notice that Jesus doesn’t answer the question that was asked, instead, he answers the question that should have been asked: “Will I be saved?” He does this by answering in a very direct, very personal fashion: He said to them, “[You (plural)] strive to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able…And he will say, “I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

People elbow and hip-check others to be first in line to eat, to board a plane, to get into a Brewers game or a Black Friday sale. But is there the same urgency in people striving (literally: “agonizing”) to get into the feast in God’s kingdom? And I’m not talking about the people you saw walking their dogs or towing their boats to the lake or sipping their coffee on their porch as you drove in this morning. I’m talking about you; to you. Do you agonize, do you suffer and sacrifice and prioritize entering this narrow door by daily confessing your sins and pleading for forgiveness? Do you organize your life around getting through this narrow door – not just your Sunday morning, but all your mornings and evenings, your career decisions and where you choose to send your child to school? Striving to enter through this narrow door to heaven is agonizing because it means defying and denying the desires of our sinful flesh. It means prioritizing God and his Word above everything else in life – and it’s not easy.

The devil will make it seem like this striving isn’t all that important – at least not now – that there will always be time later to prioritize Word and Sacrament, but consider this: Jesus does here what the Holy Spirit chose not to do in Genesis. Genesis 7 does not describe what must have been a horrifying scene outside of Noah’s ark as thousands of people pound on the door until their knuckles bled as the flood waters rise around their necks. We don’t hear their anguished screams, the desperate pleas for a second chance. We don’t see the torrential rain sweeping them away to certain death. As horrific as that must have been, the scene on Judgment Day will be even worse. Not only will they face an eternity of torture, they will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown outside. In other words, on Judgment Day, many will see people they knew streaming into heaven while they are locked out. The despair they will experience in that moment is unimaginable.

Martin Luther said that this text is enough “to frighten the greatest saints.” [2] Are you frightened? Not in the haunted house sort of way where fear is fun, but in the way where your heart is racing, your throat tightens up, your stomach clenches. Well, if you’re not frightened yet, then the finer details of this account might send you over the edge. First, the door is narrow. If you think that you’re guaranteed entry because you come to church faithfully, because you’ve been confirmed, give your offerings, try to do good and love others, or are Lutheran – you won’t fit. No one who tries to pack all that stuff on their backs will be able to squeeze through this door. That’s what Jesus meant when he said some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last. Many who appear to be “in” because of their good lives will be left out and many who appear to be “out” because of their sinful lives will be welcomed in. Second, you never know when this door will shut. Sure, the Lord may give us 70 or 80 years on this earth (Psalm 90:10) – but he may not. One or more of these chairs might be empty next Sunday. We might not wake up tomorrow morning. And anyone who hasn’t entered through the narrow door through faith before death will find it closed and locked forever. If that thought doesn’t frighten you, then nothing will.

Do you still remember the good news? Probably not. It’s not because the bad news negated the good news but because I made the mistake many preachers make: I talked about the Gospel but I didn’t proclaim the Gospel. What’s the difference? The difference is that the Gospel is only truly good news, news that will create and sustain saving faith, when it applies to you. For example, for years now politicians have been tossing around the idea of forgiving student loans. Is that good news? Well, clearly yes if you’re still paying of your student loans. But if you didn’t go to college or if you managed to either pay your way or pay off your loans – that’s not really good news, is it? In fact, it might sound like bad news; it make you resentful of the fact that your tax dollars are going to pay off someone else’s loans. Good news is only really good news if it applies to you.

Thank God then that I have really good news that applies to all of us. Jesus is the door to the kingdom of God; to the feast in heaven – and that door isn’t closed to anyone, not even to you, not even to me. No matter where you’ve been; not matter what you’ve done; no matter how many times you’ve put other things before this open door – as long as your heart beats, this door is still wide open to you. But I thought the door was narrow? It is. The door to heaven demands perfect obedience to the Law; it’s impossibly small – but Jesus came from heaven to keep the Law and squeeze through that door on your behalf. When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law (Galatians 4:4-5). Whenever the devil, your conscience or someone else tries to remind you of all the good you should have done but did not do – remember that Jesus has done it all for you, in your place, for your salvation.

What about the death and hell we deserve for all the commandments we’ve broken, all the people we’ve hurt or let down, all the times we’ve imagined that we’ve earned or deserved heaven? The good news for you is that Jesus paid that price in full, too. He willingly carried all your sins through the wide gate to hell where he paid for them and then, having left them there, he came back through a door so narrow that only one person could fit; only a perfect person; only a man who is also God. Jesus, and Jesus alone, earned the right to pass through the door from death to life. This fact – the fact of the resurrection – is the door stop that props heaven’s feast wide open. Make no mistake: this door is narrow. It’s as narrow as one person: the God-man Jesus Christ. But it’s never been too narrow for anyone who confesses their sins and trusts in Jesus’ blood and righteousness to get through – not even you, not even me!

But I saved the best news for last. You may have noticed in Jesus’ story that it didn’t matter if those pounding on the door claimed to know the master as much as it does whether the master knew them. The master, of course, is Jesus. Does he know you? Yes! I don’t think it’s possible to overstate how comforting this is. The infants and little children we hold in our arms can’t confess their faith – but Jesus welcomes them into his arms and blesses them – he washed them in baptism, he knows them (Mark 10:16; 16:16). There are times in all of our lives when we forget all about Jesus, we stray from the narrow path, and we can start to think that he could never forgive us for what we’ve done, we can begin to think that we are beyond saving – but when Jesus through his called servant forgives your sins, they are forgiven (John 20:23)! We might think that, covered in the tattered robes of sin as we are, we are unfit to recline at heaven’s banquet. In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus tells us, “here, take my robe of righteousness” (Revelation 22:14). The day may come when we don’t know our spouse, our children, or even what day it is. Even then, Jesus says I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep…I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand (John 10:14, 28). Does Jesus – the door into heaven’s feast – know you? Through these means of grace – through baptism, absolution and communion – he assures you that he does!

The narrative of the narrow door contains both good news and bad news. As those who are simultaneously sinners and saints, we need to hear both. But most importantly, I pray that you cling to the best news – that even though the door to heaven may be narrow, through faith in Jesus, you’re in! Amen.   

[1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/258235/origin-first-known-use-of-the-phrase-ive-got-some-good-news-and-some-bad-news

[2] Lenski, Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel (Columbus, Ohio: The Wartburg Press. 1946) 755