Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel of Luke, the 13th chapter:
He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
I have to confess something. I, your pastor, Lewis Polzin, love Japanese game shows. Now, normally, loving a game show wouldn’t be a problem. And really, this isn’t. But it is weird. Imagine taking something like Wheel of Fortune, mixing it with Capture the Flag, standing on your head while wearing a wetsuit, throw in monkey, and act like everything is comepletely normal. And that’s a very mild Japanese game show.
Now, it’s not just the game show I love, but really a game in it that is just fantastic. You might have seen it on the Ellen show, if you watch that. Or you might have caught clips on YouTube. It’s called Human Tetris. In Human Tetris, a person standing at the end of a long runway, must contort his body in order to pass through a wall that is hurtling at him. The catch is that, cut out of the wall, is a shape that could be anything. I’ve seen numbers, letters, a person doing the splits in the air, a tiny hole, everything and anything you possibly could or could not imagine. If a person doesn’t mold his or her body to that exact shape, the wall bears down on them, smacks into their miscontorted body, and throws them into a pool of water where everyone laughs at and mocks them. They have a very small margin for error. Most people miss it, and it’s hilarious. I promise.
In today’s Gospel lesson, we have, for the second week in a row, a very hard saying. Last week, you recall, we read in Luke 12 that Jesus does not come to bring peace, but division, and from now on there will families divided, two against three. It will be a life of pain and agony. And to that reading, we confessed that THIS is the Gospel of the Lord. And you thanked God for it. The same, today. We have this hard saying of Jesus, something that doesn’t sound like Good News at all. Themes that pop out today are that few will be saved, the door is narrow, many are excluded, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It sounds, yet again, like another ghastly reading. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't.
Let’s look at this narrow door. What could Jesus possibly mean? I don’t think He means that it’s physically hard to get through. I don’t think He means that fat men can’t walk it. I don’t think He means that we can’t go through two at a time. He means here that the door is different than all other doors. Jesus could have said, strive to enter through the blue door, the wide door, the low door, the door shaped like the Green Bay Packers “G.” It doesn’t matter. The physicality of the door doesn’t matter.
What matters is that Jesus is the door. Jesus is the door and He is the way into the presence of the Master, God the Father. What matters is that to get through the door, you have to look like Jesus. In fact, you have to BE Jesus to get through the door. The door is so ridiculously narrow, the door is so ridiculously blue, the door is so ridiculously low, that they only way to get through is to be Jesus. He’s got the key, He’s the right shape, He’s put together the right way, and only He can get through. Just like in the game show, your body has to be contorted just the right way, and you can’t do it. You can’t contort your body the right at all. You’ll miss it every time and end up in the water of judgment, the water that leads to the pit of hell. The door is shaped like Jesus, not you, and only Jesus can get through.
What matters is that the Master will turn some away. What matters is that there are those who the Master refuses to admit. And why is that? Because they don’t know the Master. They aren’t Jesus. Only Jesus knows the Master. They’re the Others and they’re trying to sneak in. For years, they’ve been sitting idly by. They may have eaten around the Master, they may have snuck a sip out of the cup of the Master, they may have heard the Master’s teaching in the streets. But they don’t know the Master, they don’t love the Master. They cast out the Master’s servants, they rejected what the Master had to say, the rejected those the Master sent. They’re not Jesus. They went their own way. And they can go their own way, they can have everything turned around, but it becomes just another lonely day, because the Master sends them out into the weeping and gnashing of teeth. It ain’t good.
Is this us? Do we reject the words of the Master? Do we eat and drink at the Lord’s Table, eating and drinking, as Paul says, to our own damnation? Are we eating and drinking unworthily? I think we are. I know I do. And it’s because my sinful self doesn’t look like Jesus. I am not Jesus. I, Lewis Polzin, your pastor, am a sinner, and I am not Jesus. Nor are you. We are not perfect as He is perfect. We are not righteous as He is righteous. We try to make Jesus in our image, in the culture’s image, what people expect out of Him, but we can’t. Jesus isn't like that.
Jesus isn’t all unicorns and rainbows. In fact, Jesus is kinda judgy in this passage. He seems rather judgy, in fact, in a lot of the Scriptures. Jesus isn’t really anything like how He’s portrayed in most of the culture.
The culture wants Jesus to be only loving and inviting, but Jesus says that He comes to bring division The culture wants Jesus to let anyone into heaven, but Jesus says that He is the only way to the Father. The culture wants Jesus to be universally forgiving, but Jesus casts the goats into the fires of hell prepared for the devil and his angels. The culture wants Jesus to be seen in ways that aren’t really like Jesus at all. In fact, I’ll say it, the Jesus that our culture, even that many churches, maybe even churches here in our town, talk about, is not the Jesus of Scripture. He is the not-Jesus.
You see, the not-Jesus that the culture preaches, this not-Jesus makes you like himself. He makes you childish and impudent. The not-Jesus makes you damned. The not-Jesus keeps you from the Church. The not-Jesus keeps you from the Word. The not-Jesus keeps you from the Sacraments. The not-Jesus makes it so that you can barely see the door, much less walk through it. The not-Jesus laughs at your feeble attempts at salvation. The not-Jesus wants you with him in hell. The not-Jesus is the devil. The not-Jesus wants you to burn.
But, the Jesus of the Scriptures looks very different than the not-Jesus many describe. Jesus isn’t here to increase your wealth. Jesus isn’t here to make your life easy. Jesus isn’t here to make your family happy. Jesus isn’t here to be happy-clappy. That’s not what the Jesus of the Scriptures looks like.
The Jesus of the Scriptures looks like one who holds stars in his hand. Jesus looks like one who was dead and came back to life. Jesus looks like He has a sword coming out of His mouth. Jesus looks like He has eyes of fire, feet like brass, like a lamb that was slain, like a shoot from the stump of Jesse, the faithful witness, the ruler over all kings, Jesus looks like one who loves us. And this Jesus, this Jesus of the Scriptures, DOES love us.
Jesus loves us so much, that He wants to make you like Him. Jesus knows that He is the only one who can pass through the narrow door. So, Jesus makes you exactly like Him. “But, Pastor,” you say, “I’m a sinner. Jesus did not sin. So, how can I look like Jesus?” Simple, I tell you. You look like Jesus because Jesus takes your sin and puts it on Himself. Jesus became human for you. Jesus became a sinner for you. Jesus became cursed for you. Jesus hung on a tree for you. Jesus became everything you are, so that you could become everything He is. Jesus becomes the sinner, and He makes you the righteous one. Jesus becomes faithless, and He makes you faithful. Jesus steals a drink from the Master, and He makes you imbibe deeply. Jesus runs from God, and He makes you know God intimately. Jesus does this for you. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you and makes you look like Him so that you can pass easily through the narrow door.
Thank God that we have such a real Jesus that He draws us, we who are from the East and the West and the North and the South, into Him and into His presence. Thank God that the real Jesus makes us like him. Thank God that when we come to the font, when we come to the altar, when come to hear God’s Word, we allow it to penetrate us, making us like Jesus. We run from sin, not because we want to, but because Jesus makes us.
And when we can’t outrun sin, when we give in to temptation, when we rely on ourselves rather than God, Jesus makes us repent, literally, He repents us, He makes us turn, He makes us confess, He makes us sorry for all that we’ve done to offend Him. And then, Jesus forgives you. Jesus forgives you. Jesus forgives you because He has taken your sin in the washing of regeneration that He gives to you. Jesus forgives you because He has taken the punishment meant for you. Jesus forgives you because He loves you.
The One who holds the stars, the One who was dead but is now come back to life, the One with the sword coming out of His mouth, the One with eyes of fire, feet like brass, the One who is as a Lamb who was slain, the One who is the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the One who is the faithful witness, the One who rules over all kings, this very One makes you to be like Him.
Rely no longer on your contortions, trying to make your own way through the narrow door. You do not have to play the Human Tetris game with salvation. You’ll always lose. To win, rather, let Jesus make you like Him, so that you can pass through freely, easily, with no worries about being too fat, too tall, ultimately, too sinful to get through. And you don’t have to fear the water. Jesus took that judgment, too. Water no longer hurts you, but washes you clean so that, again, you look like Jesus. It’s no longer a water of judgment and failure, but a washing of regeneration, a washing of your conscience, a baptism. Jesus has done this to you, Jesus will continue to do this to you, Jesus knows you, so that you may know God and love Him forever as He does to you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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