Seek the Narrow Door

Text: Luke 13:22-30

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          On our trip to Florida this past Spring we stopped at the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. If you haven’t ever been I highly recommend it. We were gone for 10 days and had a bunch of stops that we wanted to make. Some we got to and others we didn’t. One that was on my list was the Dwarf House just outside of Atlanta Georgia and our day of driving from the Ark Encounter to Florida was going to take us right by it. At least that’s what I thought. Our plan was to get up that morning and get there in time to stop and have lunch before completing the rest of our drive. If you don’t know what the Dwarf House is, it’s the first restaurant opened by Truett Cathy, the founder of Chik-Fil-A.

For some reason they built into the restaurant a tiny door. Only about 4 feet high and a couple feet wide, you can still enter the restaurant through this door, although they have a regular human sized door as well. I thought that in addition to eating at what is essentially the birthplace of Chik-Fil-A, it would be cool to enter through this short and narrow door. When I put the address into my map program on my phone I realized that it was about 15 minutes out of our way, which meant a full half hour to get off the highway and to the restaurant and then back to the highway again. Being the kind of person that wants to get where I’m going in the least amount of time possible I decided that a half-hour detour just wasn’t worth it, even to enter through that narrow door. Which is a lot like our journey through life. So often taking the quickest, widest, easiest path for the sake of convenience. But that path doesn’t always get you to your desired destination.

We’re all on a journey through this life. It’s a difficult and rough journey, requiring a ton of patience and endurance. Every single person on this earth is on a journey, whether we be infant or aged, rich or poor, male or female. It’s a journey that extends from here to eternity. But where are we going? What’s our destination? That’s a question that should have one single answer and yet, depending on a person’s understanding of faith and relationship with God, could be answered in numerous different ways.

Some look inward for what that destination might be, digging deep into their innermost being, to discover the answer inside themselves. Some conclude there is no destination and that only the journey matters. Others believe in humanity’s journey of societal-evolution. And still others think that all of us are being shaped by the Divine (whatever it may be) to be taken to heaven. While this last one is particularly nice to imagine, Jesus says in Luke 13 that it’s wrong.

There are two paths and only two paths. Either one or the other—the wide way to hell or the narrow door to heaven. To think of our earthly journey as a destination in itself puts us on that  wide road to hell. To think of it as a group effort, to where all of humanity is going, is also taking that wide road. To forget about hell and to believe that all go to heaven no matter what is walking along the oh-so-wide path to hell.

“Strive to enter through the narrow door,” Jesus says. Right now, the narrow door stands open, and many will try to enter it through their own means, on their own terms, but they’ll be unable to do so. They’ll think they’ve lived a good enough life, given enough to others, believed enough. Your life is never good enough for God. You can never give enough to please God. Your belief—when it’s not in Jesus Christ—can never be enough.

The narrow door is standing open, but the time is coming when it will be closed forever. When Jesus returns, descending on the clouds and ushering in the Last Day, the door will be closed. That time will come when there will be no opportunity to enter through that narrow door, no matter how much you may want to.

The time of God’s grace will end on the Last Day. That will be the day when the door that has stood open all this time is finally closed. The owner of the house will turn away from Him those who have nothing in common with Him. And all those who did not enter through the narrow door will stand there shocked, desperate, anguished, enraged.

“Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ” “We came to church, we gave to the poor, we did many mighty works in your name.” These are the words that will come out of the mouths of those who didn’t understand what it took to enter through that narrow door, as if what they did could save them. As if just being in church on Sunday morning will save your soul. Rather than “You taught in our streets,” you might say, “You taught in our church.” The important question is, “Has Jesus taught you?” And, “Did you understand His teaching?”

If you didn’t “He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ ” This is his final reply. At that point you can’t plead with Him. The narrow door will be closed—your fate sealed. All your supposedly good works will be counted against you and be considered as evil, dead, filthy, and unrighteous before the eyes of the Almighty. And as you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, as all who have not had faith in the work of Christ will be thrown out and barred from the heavenly feast. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are true believers, while many of Jesus’ hearers are not.

Don’t be one of those who hears Jesus, but doesn’t believe. As enticing as it is, don’t follow the wide path to hell. Instead,

SEEK THE NARROW DOOR.

Strive to enter through it. Not because it’s a cool tourist attraction like the narrow door at the Dwarf House that I wanted to enter through. But because the narrow door is Jesus, who tells us that people will come from east and west, north and south, taking their places at the royal feast in heaven.

Jesus, the narrow door, is standing there, drawing all people unto Himself. He has come into this church, teaching among us, preaching his saving Word, and calling out to you. And He doesn’t want to slam the door in anyone’s face but wants each one to enter into the feast He has prepared. This is the call of the Gospel, the universal call to all people for all time. It’s God’s call to you.

“And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”  Jesus, the only-begotten Son of the Father, who was first, has become last. And you who are sinners, who were last, have become first. This is the point of Christ’s journey on earth. It’s why Jesus of Nazareth was traveling toward Jerusalem, to his death on the cross, to his glory.

And what’s so incredible is that God doesn’t leave you alone on this earth to find the way. He is the way. He doesn’t force you to labor on your journey or to labor when you reach your destination. Rather he grants rest—bestowing on you an honored place at the heavenly feast. On your path, God directs you to the narrow door. This is a sign of  the life we live under grace.

God is gracious to you. He speaks his sacred Word of Absolution: “I forgive you all your sins.” As you partake of the Lord’s Supper, you have a foretaste of that eternal feast of heaven, the forgiveness of your sins, the very body and blood of the sacrificial Lamb of God. God uses these Means of Grace to keep you on the path to the narrow door. He uses these Means to guarantee your salvation.

We tend to think that we know where we’re going, and how to get there. And we tend to want to take the easiest and quickest path to get to our destination. Like me when I’m on a trip. And that might work alright when you’re on vacation, but the easiest and quickest way in life is generally not the one that leads us to the place that God wants us to be. It usually leads us away from Him. Because as He says, “the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.” Many will follow that path. Don’t be led astray. The easy way is not generally the best way. And not generally God’s way. He wants us to think about our destination, and more importantly to think about Him as the Way that leads us to the narrow door. The door that leads to everlasting life.

While you don’t always know where you’re going, Jesus knew where He was going. He knew His destination, His destiny. He set His face resolutely toward Jerusalem, to the cross of Calvary. And as Jesus spread wide His arms on that tree of death, the narrow door to heaven was thrown open.

You don’t need to look inward to find out where you’re going. You don’t need to be deceived by your own flesh, the world, or the devil. Instead, you can look where Jesus looked. Because your destination is the same as his; it’s the cross. Not to suffer like He did, but to be reminded that the narrow door was opened to you at the cross. It’s the only reason that “people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.” That narrow door that Christ has opened may seem hard to pass through, but Jesus has flung it wide open for all who believe in Him and the salvation He has won for us. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.