Sermon - Pentecost 11 - Luke 13:22-30

 

Luke 13:22-30

“Lord, will those who are saved be few?”

One out of 10?  2 out of 5?  One in a million?  What’s the percentage number, Jesus?  How many will believe, and how many won’t?  Is heaven going to be packed like sardines – or is it going to be kind of lonely?

Maybe they just wanted to know.  Maybe it was simple, straightforward curiosity driving the person’s question.  I was always raised to ask questions – there’s no such thing as a stupid question – and so forth. 

But the commentaries are pretty harsh with the person who asks this question of Jesus.  They say:

Jesus never manifests sympathy for people coming with such purely speculative problems.

He who is serious about his salvation does not ask such a question.

This was an idle question. Jesus had not come into the world to gratify men's curiosity, but to save their souls.

The question is dangerous when put abstractly or academically.

Wow!  Speculative, unserious, idle, abstract and academic! 

And so it seems that not every question is a good question.  And some questions can even be dangerous. 

For his part, Jesus doesn’t really answer – which shouldn’t surprise us.  Jesus many times chooses not to answer people’s questions directly.  Quite often, though, he addresses the issue behind the question.  The spiritual state of the questioner.  The spiritual danger of such a question. 

Consider – if the answer to, “will few be saved” was, “no, not just a few, but many!  In fact, almost everyone will be saved.  Only the really, really, wicked will be condemned” Then how would we sinners react?  Would we not be tempted to rest on our spiritual laurels, confident that our chances of being in the winners’ circle are pretty good, after all?  Might we grow complacent about repentance and faith?  Surely many are more evil than I am.  Surely the odds are in my favor.

Or else, if he answered, “No.  Only a very few will be saved.  In fact it’s quite rare.  You have only a one in a million chance on a good day.”  Then might we be tempted to either despair – or redouble and triple our efforts to earn salvation?  Might we begin to compare ourselves with others, in a vain attempt to prove ourselves worthy?  Might we whine that God isn’t fair if only a few are saved?  Or question his motives or methods in this way or that?

Rather, Jesus speaks to the crowds and offers a hard warning.  He uses a mini-parable about a narrow door and a banquet.  And then he reframes our thinking with an enigmatic saying to conclude the section.  And through it all, our Lord Jesus teaches us repentance and faith. 

“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” 

Indeed, that the door to the kingdom is narrow seems to suggest few can enter.  Or at least, that it is not easy.  It takes striving.  But what does that mean?  Is Jesus here teaching good works?  That only the cream of the crop, the best of the best, the ones with the godliest resume’ are fit for the kingdom?  Is the kind of striving he speaks of a works-based program to punch your ticket to paradise?  Surely not.

In fact, as he extends his parable to describe a banquet and the door being shut – those outside are surprised, shocked, even, to find themselves unworthy.  Having a little knowledge about Jesus, a loose association with Christ, or perhaps his church, even eating and drinking with him, doesn’t cut the mustard.  They are locked out.  He goes on to show that even having the right lineage – being descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does not impress him in the end.  Those fellas, along with all the prophets, will be in the kingdom – but you who fancy yourselves their heirs – will be cast out.  You’ll be weeping and gnashing your teeth.

These words of Jesus stand as a stern warning for us, too.  Salvation is not something to be taken lightly, or taken for granted.  It is not something owed to us as a sort of entitlement.  We don’t deserve it.  Rather what we deserve is to be locked out, cast away, and condemned for all our rebellion and perversion. 

So if the “striving” here isn’t some human program of works, or a keeping of the law (as if we could), or some other outward credentials or qualifications, then what?  What is the striving he would have us do to be saved?

I’m reminded of Jacob who wrestled all night with the angel of the Lord by the Jabbock River.  All night long, back and forth they went, a stalemate, neither getting the advantage.  And then finally the angel touched Jacob’s hip – like a kung fu master – and popped it out of joint.  As if to say, “hey, I could have had you all along. This is no mere man you’re wrestling with”  But Jacob still wouldn’t let go.  He insisted on a blessing.  And so God blessed.  “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”  Israel means, by the way, “he struggles with God”.

The Christian life is a life of striving, not to do good works, but of repentance and faith.  Striving for God’s blessing, which we in no wise deserve.  Hating our sinful nature, and struggling to drown that Old Adam in daily in the waves that flow from the font.  Wrestling with our conscience, and disciplining our flesh.  But also grappling with God’s holy word and steeping ourselves in his promises.  It means clinging for dear life to Jesus, even all through the night of sin and sorrow, and begging for the blessing that he alone can give.

And in yet another non-answer to the original question, Jesus makes the enigmatic concluding statement, “Some who are first will be last and some who are last will be first”.  That is to say, some of the last people that you would expect to enter his kingdom – will be the first to do so.  And some of the first people that you expect, will be last.  Your expectations will be blasted to smithereens by the other-worldly grace he gives.  Gentiles, yes even Gentiles will join the banquet.  So long despised and considered unworthy by many of the Jews.  Gentiles will enter the kingdom.  People from east and west.  Foreigners and aliens.  And you, who think yourselves most worthy, will be on the outside looking in.  Isaiah saw it coming in his prophecy – we heard that in our reading today, too.  So it shouldn’t have surprised them.  But it did.

Are so are those who will be saved few?  Doesn’t sound like it if nations upon nations are gathered to the kingdom.  It sounds like multitudes and many.  Such is the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God we are not saved by the quality of our theological questions, by the extensiveness of our study or the letters after our name.  It’s not the good works that we do or the sins we avoid.  It’s not the way we compare to our neighbor, or to some man-made standard.  It’s not our heritage or lineage or any other credential or certification or qualification or self-justification.  The narrow door through which we must enter the kingdom is Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  And Jesus Christ alone.

And so what of this enigmatic statement of Jesus:  “Behold: some ho are last who will be first, and some who are first who will be last.”

It is a reminder that God thinks differently than the world.  His ways are strange and alien to us.  Who we think should be or will be saved – might not.  And who we think must be condemned and locked out – might be found at the banquet in the kingdom.  Rest not on your worldly thinking, your earthly logic.  But instead submit to God’s way – the way of grace – the foolishness of the Gospel, the scandal of the cross. 

And know that not all questions are bad.  Take this one.  When Paul and Silas were in the Phillipian prison, and got out of jail free by means of a holy earthquake… the jailer, a gentile, came to them with a question:

Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

They didn’t prescribe him a program, or demand circumcision.  They didn’t tell him to do unto others and fulfill the commandments.  But they answered him directly, simply, and beautifully:

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:30-31)

So, too, for you and me.  Strive to enter through the narrow door, that is to say, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

In his holy name.  Amen.

Sermon - Pentecost 9 - Luke 12:22-34

 

"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Jesus ties together his whole sermon with this little aphorism.  It follows immediately upon last week’s reading about the rich fool who built the big barns.  His treasure was on earth, not in heaven.  But with this short saying, Jesus invites us to ponder deeply our own life, our hearts, and our relationship with the treasures we enjoy. 

But he starts with “Do not be anxious”.  And in today’s world of high-anxieties, that may be a hard pill to swallow.

It’s worth mentioning from the outset that the Christian church doesn’t summarily reject the insights of modern science in helping discover what makes us tick –  and makes us not tick so well.  We recognize that all truth is God’s truth, and discoveries about creation and our own human biology and psychology are discoveries about God’s creation.  And secular wisdom can contribute to our understanding of this world – and of things like anxiety.  Pastors are not trained psychologists, but I have learned this: Much like depression, anxiety can have emotional, biophysical and spiritual components.

And while some do suffer from a clinical form of anxiety, it seems every one of us can be anxious about this or that, here or there.  We don’t profess, in the church, to be experts on mental illness or neurosis and psychosis.  But Jesus Christ always knows what he’s talking about.  And so we certainly want to lend an ear to Jesus when he speaks to a topic.  And we want to apply God’s word of both law and gospel to the matter, as Jesus himself does here.

So take first this command, “do not be anxious”.  It’s a bit convicting.  For which of us has not been anxious about something?  In Jesus’ day, when most people lived hand-to-mouth, you could see how they worried about their food and clothing.  Fat-and-sassy modern Americans worry less about whether we will eat or be clothed.  Rather, our worries of food and clothing run the way of - what we want for dinner and what’s the best way to express my personal style now that the new school year is starting.  So we may find it hard to relate.

But we do have our anxieties.  We may worry about money, retirement, inflation, the stock market.  We may worry about our kids and the influences over them.  We worry about what people think of us, our reputation, our standing in whatever circles we care about.  We worry about the next election and the state of our government and the direction it’s going. And we worry about our health – sometimes to the detriment of our health.

But it’s all short-sighted for the Christian.  Worry consumes us.  Anxiety becomes a burden we were never meant to carry.  And so we are victimized by our own warped thinking.  Jesus is going to help us re-focus.

Life is more than food and the body more than clothing.  We might extend the point:  Wealth is more than what’s in your bank account.  Family is more than who lives in your house.  Health is more than the numbers on your bloodwork.  All of these things have a spiritual analog.  All of these earthly things are reflections of the true, the heavenly treasures.

The stuff of earth is not where our treasures ought to be.  Our treasure is in heaven.  So where is our heart?

Jesus’ command here not to worry doesn’t have the force of law that some of his declarations do.  This is not a “woe unto you if you worry” or “cursed is the man who is anxious”.  He’s not here to scare us into not being fearful.

But rather it’s a gentle corrective couched in some wonderful promises.  He shows that we not only shouldn’t worry, but he reminds us why we needn’t be anxious.  We have a loving Father.  So have no fear, little flock, oh you of little faith!

Seek first the kingdom.  Seek first righteousness.  Find the Father who knows what you need and put your faith and trust in him.  Who delights to give you the kingdom.  And all the rest of this will work out as he sees fit.

So if Jesus is your treasure, then your heart is where he is.  If Jesus is in heaven, and he is, then that’s where you belong, and where your heart belongs.  Your mind fixed on things above.  Your eyes set on him, Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame. 

Faith, in many ways, is the opposite of fear.  Faith trusts, where anxiety and worry do not.  Faith says, “God has hold of me.  Christ has died for me.  The Spirit lives within me.  What is there to fear?”  Faith holds to God’s promises.  Worry and anxiety point us to ourselves, our own efforts, our own plans, and ultimately our own failures.  Faith looks outside of oneself and puts all trust in God’s provision.

Take Abraham.  He worried about who would inherit his wealth.  As he was old and had no heir, it would have gone to a stranger – his servant – Eliezer of Damascus.  Abraham worried about his legacy.  But God had bigger plans than Abraham could imagine.  He would provide him an heir, oh, but much more.  Through the seed of Abraham all nations would be blessed.  Through Christ, the descendant of Abraham, all the faithful would receive an inheritance far greater.

Hebrews tells us more about faith today:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Here is the Bible’s own definition of the term.  The conviction of things not seen.  Funny.  Anxiety also has to do with things unseen – nasty and terrible things yet to come.  But faith is about assurance and hope, not fear for the worst.  Faith rests in the promises God has made, and knows he will not lie or fail.

The conviction of things unseen – that Christ has been raised from the dead!  That you and I will be raised on the last day, incorruptible.  That your sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake.  That here at his altar you receive not just bread and wine, but Christ’s body and blood.  That the waters of baptism have saved you, and that there you have been buried and raised with Christ.  That one day Christ will return in glory, and all his angels with him, that you his faithful sheep will enter into your rest.

You’ve gotta love Hebrews 11, the great “by faith” chapter.  I encourage you to read the whole thing sometime soon.  It’s a parade of the Old Testament faithful – Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Issac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses..

And then Hebrews winds up the chapter:

32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised,

Hebrews says:

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

A city unseen.  A homeland eternal.  A citizenship in heaven.  Turn your hearts toward this treasure, and away from the anxieties of this life.  Fix your eyes – the eyes of faith – on Jesus.  And tune your ears to his precious promises. Bring your anxieties to him, cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you.  And live in the comfort of his precious cross.

Jesus says, “have no fear, little flock”.  And faith says, “amen.”  And faith says its “amen” by its actions….

Jesus teaches generosity “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy”  It’s the “so what” of all his generosity.  For while emptying your earthly moneybag, you are receiving a heavenly moneybag – that won’t grow old, that will never be empty, no thief can steal and no moth can destroy.  Faith serves the neighbor because the faithful know what is not seen is even more sure than what is.  Therefore trust God, and love your neighbor.  Do not be anxious, but have a living and active faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.