Faith's Narrow Door and a Full House - Luke 13:22-30

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[Luke 13:22-30] He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Faith’s Narrow Door and a Full House

I.

As Jesus was going from town to town, on His way to Jerusalem, and was teaching along the way, a man came up to Jesus and finally asked the question that was gnawing at him: “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”

In passages leading up to this reading, Jesus had given severe warnings to the teachers and experts in God’s Law about their own eternal destination [Luke 11:39-46]. Jesus warned those who trusted in money about the cost to their soul [Luke 12:13-21]. 

Jesus condemned the hypocrites who kept up good appearances on the outside but inside were full of wrongs [Luke 12:1-2]. And when some saw in the news a tragedy that had befallen others, Jesus said, “Do you think they were worse sinners than all the others? Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” [Luke 13:1-5].

Jesus said that those who acknowledged Him would be acknowledged in heaven, but those who denied Him would be denied by heaven [Luke 12:8-9]. Yet so many of the teachers and the people were indeed denying Him. Jesus warned about division over His name even in families, which we read about last week [Luke 12:52-53], and which perhaps this man was seeing.

There were what seemed to be so many “No’s”, and where were the “Yes’s”? “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” “And,” perhaps the man was thinking, “what about myself?”

II.

Jesus answers, “Strive to enter through the narrow door.” “For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” What does Jesus mean?

Well, first of all, Jesus’ message of the narrow door does not mean, “Make yourself better and better, and if you’re finally good enough you’ll fit through the door. So be really good, because it’s really narrow.”

Nothing detestable, nothing false, no hidden wrong, no darkness, no uncleanness – nothing that isn’t completely pure, nothing less than completely holy can be in heaven. Efforts at your own moral improvement don’t get you through that door.

The narrow door to heaven is as narrow as One Man – the only man who could enter. For you, the door to heaven is the cross of Jesus. He alone is perfect. He alone is holy. He alone is your doorway.

Jesus, who is perfect and holy, carried your unholiness and sin for you to the cross – your sin was put away forever in Him in His death. He Himself became your sin-offering, a sacrifice which atoned for your sins of body and soul. By the sacrifice Jesus made, you are now holy to God. That is your entrance in the door.

“None is righteousness, no, not one… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified – deemed righteous, holy to God – by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation (a sacrifice that takes away God’s anger) by His blood, to be received by faith.” [Romans 3:11,23-25]

III.

That last part, “received by faith”, is part of the narrowness of that door, not by God’s restriction but because of man’s resistance. The free righteousness by faith in Jesus is narrow to human pride. Human pride won’t admit, “I need a Savior” – or that my way of thinking or living could be wrong. Pride objects to the idea that I’m not enough and need to be saved by faith alone.

Faith is a narrow door to the one who says, “I can do it myself!” Faith in Christ was a narrow door to the Pharisees who “Trusted in themselves that they were righteous and therefore treated others with contempt” [Luke 18:9]. Those who don’t want others to have such free entry.

And Jesus isn’t telling us this so we can point our finger at others about how much they reject the narrow door. Jesus is telling us this because our our own sinful nature still has these dangerous tendencies clinging in us.

Those, in today’s Gospel, who Jesus said would knock but not enter appealed to their mere acquaintance with Jesus as fellow Israelites as their basis for entry – “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets” – as if they were members of the same club, entitled to all its rights and privileges. That way of thinking can certainty infect the Church too.

In every case, those “who seek to enter and will not be able” are those who seek entrance, not by faith, but as their due [Romans 4:3-5] – “They did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone…” [Romans 9:32]

— Yet others “who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith” [Romans 9:30]. “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” [Romans 3:22] – by which you are counted righteous right now – and through which you will finally be righteous in heaven, as a gift.

IV.

The door is narrow – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” [John 14:6].

So, back to the man’s question: Does this narrow door mean that those who are saved will be few? Not at all. Instead, “God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts!” [Isaiah 55:8-9]. God shows His power in that this narrowest way is the way that fills heaven abundantly:

“A great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes” [Revelation 7:9] – Many coming “from east and west, and from north and south” who will “recline at table in the kingdom of God.” [Luke 13:29; Matthew 8:11]

Elsewhere, Jesus calls it a sixtyfold and hundredfold harvest [Matthew 13:8] – and like a small mustard seed which grows into an entire tree [Luke 13:18-19].

The door to heaven is as narrow as One Savior – and that Savior’s love for the world, and His ability to save, are not small: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” [John 1:29] – “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” [1 John 2:2].

What we see around us in the world, or in ourselves, might cause us, sometimes, to ask that man’s question, “Will few be saved?” But faith in Jesus’ words, and faith in Jesus’ cross, give us confidence in a big salvation and a large heaven – more than we can number – from every place. Thanks be to God. Amen.