We are all on a pilgrimage, a journey through this life. It is a difficult and rough pilgrimage, requiring patience and endurance. Every person on this earth is on a pilgrimage, whether we be infant or aged, rich or poor. This pilgrimage extends from here to eternity. But to where are we going? What is our destination?
Some look inward, digging deep into their innermost being, to discover the answer inside themselves. Some conclude there is no destination, only the journey matters. Others believe in humanity’s journey of societal evolution. And still others think of all of us being shaped by the Divine- but not knowing exactly what this means.
Jesus says in Luke chapter 13 that even the view that we are being shaped by God and brought to heaven, whether we realize it or not- is a wrong view.
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 pilgrimage as the chief destination itself is a path along the wide way to hell.
To think of it as a group effort, to where all humanity is going, is also along the wide way to hell. To forget hell and to believe that all go to heaven no matter what- this 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 will be unable to do so. They will 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 is not in Jesus Christ, is never enough.
We chanted the first half of Psalm 50. This Psalm provides an illustration of what it looks like when people try to go through the gate on their own terms instead of through Jesus.
“I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
God is clearly spelling out to Israel that simply offering sacrifices because it is the right thing to do and it hedges your bets to be forgiven by God, that is not true worship. God is saying, do you think I need all of these sacrifices to be fed? The Lord is telling us that such actions translate to “I’m going to earn the way of salvation on my own.”
The true worship of our living God is to offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving, to live in a relationship of love and trust with God that we are willing to call upon God in a time of trouble- instead of seeking to rely on ourselves and save ourselves. This is the narrow door of salvation, to have faith in the deliverance God has promised to His people.
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. It is hard to believe that something that is always open could one day be closed.
If someone offers you a job and gives you an offer letter you know you have made it through the application process. When you receive a letter that you have been accepted into a college, you know you are in. Once you are in, you can even wait a few months before sending in any confirmation or payment- maybe see if you get in somewhere else. After all you know a spot is being held for you.
But what if the weeks and weeks go by, and then months and you make no reply. The school year starts and you are still just content that you have the job offer or the admission to the degree program. It would be foolish to think you could just start a job two or three years later after you receive an offer letter. It would be the height of pride and folly to let year by year go by and tell yourself, the door is open, I got in. I will go through some day, when I am not so busy with these other life priorities.
The time of grace will end on the Last Day- the time of grace will end 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 if you chose to live your life in a way where you tried to enter through the door of faith on your own terms, instead of through the narrow door, you would on that day stand there shocked, desperate, anguished, and enraged.
Then you would 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 your mouths, as if what you did can save you.
As if just being in church on Sunday morning will save your soul, or as if just living in a sort of American Christian nation and thinking of yourself as a God fearing patriotic person who really means it when you sing God bless America- as if that will save you.
Jesus continues in our gospel lesson the reply to these protests: “But 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. There will be no more pleading, the narrow door will be closed. All those supposed good works are counted as filthy and unrighteous before the eyes of God almighty.
Do not be one who hears Jesus, but does not believe. Follow not the wide path to hell, rather strive to enter through the narrow door.
Jesus tells us that people will come from east and west, north and south, taking their places at the royal feast in heaven. The door is not narrow in the sense of only being for certain people in certain places, people from all tribes and languages and places in life will come. But they will all fit into the one narrow criteria of faith in Jesus.
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. He does not wish 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. And this is 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 Jesus’ pilgrimage on earth This is why Jesus of Nazareth was traveling onward to Jerusalem, to his death on the cross, to his glory.
But 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 pilgrimage or to labor upon reaching 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 life under His 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 already a foretaste of the eternal feast of heaven, the forgiveness of your sins, the very body and blood of Jesus your sacrificial lamb. God uses these means of grace to keep you on the path to the narrow door. God uses these means to guarantee your salvation.
While we don’t always know where we are 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 Jesus spread wide his arms on that tree of death, the narrow door to heaven was thrown open.
You need not look inward to find where you are going. You need not be deceived by your own flesh, the world, or the devil. Rather look where Jesus looked. Your destination is the same as his, the cross.
Your pilgrimage ends on that sacred mount- on that altar in which Christ offered himself as a sacrifice to God the Father. Your pilgrimage ends there. He calls out to you, enter the narrow door, Recline at His table, your journey ends here.