Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Someone asks Jesus, “Lord, will
those who are saved be few?” Don’t you wish you had a little more information?
Luke was a physician; I wish he was a reporter, then maybe we would have gotten
some details. Who was this person? What was his job, his vocation? Where did he
come from? How did this scene happen – was he following after Jesus, or did
Jesus run into him? Most of all, I want to know why was he asking the question.
Was he asking out of true concern as he looked around the crowds, wondering how
many of those standing there would be in the final resurrection? Was he asking
for himself – did he stand a chance of entry into the eternal Kingdom? Was he a
religious leader, looking to verbally spar and debate fine points of salvation
theology and Jewish heritage? Or, perhaps he was just a curious on-looker,
trying to gain a moment of attention with what he perceived to be a challenging
question.
Luke doesn’t answer our questions,
but He does give us Jesus’ answer – or, rather, Jesus’ non-answer. It’s not
what we expect. Jesus doesn’t answer “Will those who are saved be few” with a
yes or no or even a “none of your business; follow me.” He doesn’t answer
directly. That gives us a clue, it tells us that the very question itself if
wrong, it is invalid. Therefore, he doesn’t answer the question directly.
Instead, He brings the man forward, calling him and speaking to him.
But not just to this unknown
misguided and misinformed questioner. Jesus speaks to all those who were
standing there who were journeying along with Jesus towards Jerusalem. You
would miss that unless you pay attention to the little detail that Luke did
include: “And [Jesus] said to them,” – not him. And all of the following
verbs are plural: y’all strive, y’all seek, y’all enter, y’all will not be
able.”
The question isn’t a good one.
There is something with the heart of the man, unseen to all but known to Jesus.
So, His answer, His words stand as a warning for spiritual vigilance, the goal
of the Last Day of judgement. The man may have been curious, or an
intellectual, or even a theologian, but he was not keeping first things first.
Keeping first things first. That is
still the temptation that we face: to lose sight of the first things. Yes, even
here at Zion. It is easy to assume that everything is well and good. But I hear
it and I feel it and, chances are, many of you do as well. The lament that
somehow this place with its struggles and the people with their life-struggles
can have a withering effect on others spiritual lives. You can see it and feel
it. Look around…do you see who you do not see? There is a reason some no longer
worship here. Debate and discussion turns into disgust, disrespect, and disdain
for the opinions of brothers and sisters in Christ. Honest and simple
disagreement gives rise to insult and slander and gossip about our sisters and
brothers, themselves. Character is mocked and names are assassinated. And we
dismiss and disguise our own behaviors, sometimes even with full knowledge of
the Word of God in our heads, excusing it with a “I know, but…”, even as we
fail to discern the word addressing the wickedness that is in our hearts.
Here, more than anywhere else on
earth, here we must keep the first things first. We must see ourselves as
pilgrims on the journey, journeying with Jesus toward the goal of the Last Day
and the narrow door through which we must pass to enter into eternity. And
there is no greater message today, on our Sunday School rally day, a day where
we think about our children, than to remember this first thing first: that
there is nothing greater than to be a Christian. To call us to follow Him. To
call each of us and all of us to strive to enter the narrow door.
Why would our Lord say, “strive”?
It’s because we walk through the valley of the shadow and satan lurks in the
shadows, striving himself, striving and seeking and chasing after God’s Baptized
children, refusing to let us alone to simply follow behind Jesus. Make no
mistake: the enemy – and to be clear, I do not mean Democrats or Republicans,
Red or Blue, pro-this or pro-that, those with whom we disagree - I mean THE
enemy, satan himself, he will be here, around us and, sometimes even among us,
distracting us, tripping us up, striving to lead us astray.
We are on a journey as the people
of God that only ends on the day when the great banquet begins, when Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob sit at Table to enjoy the banquet of the Kingdom of God in its
fullness with Jesus. Which, Jesus says, we strive toward. And, until then, the
danger is very real. Yet, the journey continues.
Strive how? And for what? The
answer is opposite what we usually expect. Strive to be less. Strive to be the
least. Strive to be nothing. Jesus said there are last ones who will be first,
and there will be first who will be last. To strive to enter, to strive at all,
is God’s way of working, His way of saving, because God’s journey for us is the
reverse of what we normally would do. So, He will have to teach us how.
To be last, to know that of myself
I will be nothing and can do nothing and there is nothing about which to brag
or an achievement to boast about. To be last is to confess that I have nothing
other than what God first gave to me. So if there is wisdom or learning or
insight or talents or success, it says so little about me because I am last. These
say nothing about me. It says everything about my Savior. Strive to be last.
And let God make you first.
How Jesus delights to speak this
way. Luke’s Gospel is full with this proclamation: Mary rejoices that through
the birth of Her Savior-Son, God pulls down the mighty from their thrones and
raises up those of low estate. Simeon prophesies that Jesus is appointed for
the rising and falling of many in Israel. Jesus reveals that whoever exalts
Himself before God will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself, God will
exalt. Strive to do nothing because God seeks to do it all, and He has done it
all. Our journey as Christians, our work and life in this world, our common
service as people of God at Zion from the children to the adults, it all comes
about because of what God has done for us and what God continues to do for us
even this very day and this very moment.
The unnamed questioner was
journeying with Jesus. And Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem. To get to the
narrow door, you first pass through the city gates of Jerusalem. Jesus enters
there, as the true Son of God, the King of Israel. To sit at table with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is to first marvel and believe as Jesus sits at table
with the disciples in the upper room, a meal that is the fruit of His suffering
and death that continues to forgive sins and strengthen us in this life. To
enter the door of life on the last day means that, first, we gaze in wonder at
Christ who does not enter the door. He was shut out for us. He was numbered
among the transgressors, treated as a sinner. In truth, God the Father treated
Him like sin itself. He bore our sins and stripped them from us. He died for
you.
And then God the Father raised Him
from the dead, and from Jesus who journeyed to Jerusalem for us, we have the
good news of sins forgiven, the peace of God that keeps us on the journey to
the narrow door. Strive to enter means that God’s Word each day leads us to
repentance over our sins. It means the Good News of that great reversal,
brought about by Christ’s humility into flesh, so wonderfully present will lift
us up and stand us on our feet, as those whom God loves, whom Christ died for
to forgive, as those who walk in the way that leads to eternal life.
You have heard me say this before,
but it bears repeating. What is it that makes a good Christian? What makes a
Christian a good Christian? Just this: to know we are sinners and to repent of
our sins, all the while rejoicing in the Savior who died for you, carrying you
from the least to the greatest. And, then follow. Just follow. That’s what
Christians do.
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