11th Sunday after Pentecost (Yr C)                                 August 24, 2025
Luke 13:22-30                                                                Pastor Ryan Wolfe

“A Wound that Heals: The Door is Narrow”

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours, from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Ponder that for a moment. Grace, mercy, and peace are yours. Why? Because Jesus loves you. And that changes your life. That gives you purpose, a calling.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that the readings we’ve been hearing this summer from the Gospel of Luke were spoken by Jesus to his disciples as they were traveling to Jerusalem. Our first verse, in fact, reminds us of that. “Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.” As he gets closer to the city where he will accomplish salvation for us, his teaching seems to become more urgent. And the lessons get both more personal and more difficult.

The question that prompts this teaching from Jesus is one that the Jewish rabbis often discussed. “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” Some of the teachers at the time of Jesus taught that every Israelite was going to be saved. Today, one of the prevailing thoughts in American Christianity is called universalism. The idea that all religions are valid, and as long as you are sincere in what you believe and worship in the way you decide, you’ll be fine. In other words, “all steeples point to heaven.” It’s a nice thought, but it’s not at all what Jesus says.

Weeks after this discussion on the road, Jesus would tell his disciples on the night he was betrayed that he is the Way and the Truth and the Life. And that there is no other way to the Father except through him. How could there be any other way. Our sins separate us from a holy God. No matter how much he loves us, we fall short of the perfection we would need to stand before a perfect and holy God. It’s why Isaiah cried out in fear at seeing God. Why everyone from Joshua to Moses to Mary fell down in fear at the sight of just God’s holy messenger angels.

Of course, Jesus changes that, doesn’t he? Our perfect Savior earned heaven by his perfect life. And then he exchanged that with us for the punishment of our sins on the cross. Without Jesus, there is no forgiveness. No reconciliation. No, all steeples DON’T point to heaven. And sadly, tragically, the questioner in this account was right to ask, “Are only a few people going to be saved?”

This question about salvation always comes up in every Bible Basics study. It’s natural. When we realize that the one and only way to heaven is through Jesus, we’re concerned about our neighbors and friends, and people halfway across the world. And that’s good! But look how Jesus answers the question here. He tells them first to worry about themselves. He says, “Don’t worry about them for a minute. What about you? Are you getting it? Are you finding the True Door?” Jesus makes the issue personal.

“You who ask about all the others, you make every effort to enter through the narrow door because there are many who think they are in but will find themselves outside.”

Looking at Jesus’ answer here, there must have been many who didn’t understand what it meant to be saved. And sadly, there are many today who take the name Christian but don’t get it either. Our Scripture readings this morning all look ahead to Judgment Day. Jesus says on that day there will be people locked out, saying, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers.”

That’s a frightening comment isn’t it? Jesus describes the consequences for those who don’t get in. Hell is a real place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. One Isaiah described this morning as having worms that don’t die and fire that won’t be quenched. But who are those who think they’re in, but in reality aren’t? Maybe it’s helpful to see them in one of two groups. On the one side, you have people who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” They say that they have inner spirituality and don’t need to spend time in God’s Word or worship. They claim to “feel” God but they don’t care to get to know him. But without the one who is the Way and the Truth and the Life, they’re going to miss the Narrow Door.

There are also those people that are “religious but not spiritual.” These are the ones going through the motions, doing what appears to be good, and following all the rules—even sometimes going above and beyond—but doing it with their lips and not their hearts. They don’t understand what it is to be “saved” either, because just like the other group their focus is on themselves not on Christ. This is the group that churchgoing people like us can so easily fall into.

Thank God that Jesus slaps us in the face today with these words that hurt. With this wound that heals. “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door”, he says. Because that same Pharisaical problem can overtake us if we get caught up in building projects, bylaws, and budgets instead of the narrow door efforts. Our faith, our church, is about realizing that apart from Christ, we are lost sinners drowning in an ocean of our own sin. Christ is the Coast Guard boat that comes up next to us and pulls us out. He is not just a piece of jewelry around our neck or art on our wall. He is not just a part of our lives, he is the only reason we have lives at all. And far too many Christians, even among our own churches, have fallen into the world’s great confusion. They see Christ and faith as one of many things instead of knowing him as everything.

We need to hear these words that hurt because the way to heaven is narrow. And Satan’s tricks to turn us aside are many. Friends in Christ, did you hear Jesus say “Make EVERY effort”? Living for the narrow door takes focus. Forget about the world and instead listen to God’s Word and command. Don’t be puffed up by the good works you’re doing. Think less of yourself and more of your Savior. Keep the narrow door of Christ at the center of how you live and how you worship. Pride is the enemy of those who strive for the Narrow Door.

Lord willing, next January my wife and I are going to leave the continent for the first time and visit Israel on a study trip. One of the places we’ll see is the massive Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. When it was built in the 300s by Constantine it was designed with a giant arch for a front door, making a grand entrance. Then, during the Ottoman period, the wide arch was filled in with stone, leaving a door so short and narrow that every adult coming to worship there must bow. It’s now called “The Door of Humility,” and visitors can’t help but think of the humble character of the Savior who was born in that place. There God became man. The Son of God, born into the world of sin to pay for our sins’ guilt. Satisfying the wrath of God with his death on the cross. That is the Narrow Door that forces our hearts to bow and fall down in worship for. We are saved not by our efforts, our sacrifices, our works. But only by this Jesus who is the Way and the Truth and the Life.

That Narrow Door is wide open for those who set themselves last and him first. Jesus invites us through the narrow door through the means of grace: the Word of God in our Bibles, in baptism and in holy communion. There he teaches us, reminds us again and again. He saved us.

Now that we’ve remembered what the Narrow Door is, let’s go back to the question. “Are only a few going to be saved, Lord?” Did you notice Jesus never does answer the question with a number. But look at verse 29. “People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Whatever the number is, they will come from all over—from every background and every nation, and we’re the ones to tell them. To show others this narrow door that we’ve been blessed to know ourselves.

The stakes are high. So many people we know, and people we don’t, haven’t found this Narrow Door of Christ and Christ alone. So many outside AND inside the church are confused about what the Church is or what God expects. Share your faith! But remember that the doors we want people to find most aren’t the ones at the entrance of our building, it’s the Door that hangs on this front wall. The cross where Jesus opened the one way to heaven for every sinner. We invite others to worship with us not to add people for our pews but to add seats at the feast in heaven.

Friends in Christ, may God bless you as you fight all the distractions of life and as you strive to enter heaven through Christ alone. And when you go out from these church doors today, share your trust in the Narrow Door of Jesus that others might enter in too. He is the Way and the Truth and the Life. And no one comes to Father except through him. To Christ be all glory. Amen.