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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
What is your picture of heaven? Fluffy clouds, harps, and halos? That picture is not the Bible’s picture of heaven. A cubic city with twelve gates of pearl and a street of pure gold like transparent glass? That picture is certainly one the Bible uses (Revelation 21:9-27), though the Bible uses many pictures of heaven, none of which alone or even together convey the fullness of heaven’s true bliss and glory. Another picture of heaven is found in today’s Third Reading, that of feasting in the Kingdom of God. And this morning we realize that being “At Table in the Kingdom of God” is more than a picture of heaven, being “At Table in the Kingdom of God” is also a part of entering into heaven.
In last Sunday’s Gospel Reading, Jesus talked about coming to bring division while He was teaching in Judea, but, in today’s Third Reading, Jesus is going through towns and villages of Perea, teaching and making His journey to Jerusalem. In the intervening verses, Jesus had taught parables likening the Kingdom of God both to a small mustard seed that grew into a large tree and to a small amount of yeast that leavened three measures of flour (Luke 13:18-21). Someone, presumably from one of the towns and villages (we do not know whether he was a Jew or a Gentile), asks Jesus whether those who are saved are few, and Jesus answers both by commanding all to “strive to enter through the narrow door” and then by speaking of the time when the door will be shut and those outside divided from those inside, “At Table in the Kingdom of God”.
St. Luke, the divinely‑inspired author of today’s Third Reading, does not tell us why the man asked the question about those who are saved being few, though apparently the answer was debated among the Jews. Maybe the man observed the many people in the crowds listening to Jesus but the few loyal followers. Or, maybe the man thought that there was a fixed low number and so gave himself an excuse for not following Jesus more closely. As St. Luke tells it, Jesus does not answer the man directly, but implicitly in today’s Third Reading, as explicitly in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount recorded by St. Matthew (7:13-14), Jesus contrasts the many who seek to enter salvation in the Kingdom of God with the few who do enter successfully. In St. Luke’s account as we had it in today’s Third Reading, the many who seek to enter apparently do so too late, as opposed to the few who strive to enter in time. Or, maybe the many sought Jesus in some superficial way, such as simply hearing Him teach in their streets, though they also are said to claim that they ate and drank in His presence. Regardless, in the end, the many do not seem to have a real relationship with Jesus, for He says that He does not know where they come from (which is to say that He does not know them, that He has no ties to them), and so He says to the many, “Depart from Me, all you workers of evil.”
Are you and I among the many or are we among the few? Are we looking for an excuse not to follow Jesus more closely than just hearing His teaching? Are we seeking to enter salvation through the narrow door to the Kingdom of God in time? How much do we desire to eat and drink in His presence? And, even if we do so eat and drink in His presence, do we have a real relationship with Jesus? Some claim to know Jesus but by their actions deny Him (Titus 1:16). Because we are by nature sinful, all of us are workers of evil, and even those of us who believe continue to sin, too often even in unspeakable ways. Like the workers of evil in today’s Third Reading, we on account of our sin deserve to be cast out to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, kept out from feasting “At Table in the Kingdom of God”.
The Third Reading’s picture of hell that we deserve on account of our sin is just as real as its picture of heaven. To avoid being cast out into hell, we all need to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better. Now is the time to repent: before the end of God’s patience, before the end of our individual lives, before our Lord comes again to judge the living and the dead. (Today’s Psalm [Psalm 50] pictured the Lord summoning all people for that judgment.) The man in the Third Reading asked in general about those who are being saved, and there is a proper concern for others (that is why our congregation yesterday participated in the LeTourneau Church Fair), but, as with Jesus’s answers to questions about others earlier in Luke chapter 13 (vv.1-9), Jesus’s answer in the Third Reading directed the man and all of us to be chiefly concerned about our own repentance. When we repent, then God forgives our sin. God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be. He forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake.
As we heard some eight Sundays ago (Luke 9:51), Jesus firmly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and along the way He explains to His followers that He goes to Jerusalem to fulfill all the prophecy about Him: to be betrayed and to be condemned to death. Indeed, Jesus, true God and true man, on the cross died for your sins and for mine. On the cross He suffered the pains of hell so that we do not have to. And, He did not stay dead, but on the third day rose up, like the master of the house in today’s Third Reading. He has opened the narrow door to salvation in the Kingdom of God and graciously calls us to strive to enter. Apart from faith in Him, we are dead in our trespasses and sins, unable by our own reason or strength to believe in or come to Him. As the man in the Third Reading knew, those who are being saved are being saved passively. With His death and resurrection, Jesus has done it all, lived the perfect life we were supposed to live and suffered the consequences for our failing to live that life. By grace through faith in Him, we receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And, we receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation in specific ways, namely, through His means of grace, His Word and His Sacraments.
For many of us, our baptisms at fonts like this one are the time and place we know for sure that we first received the forgiveness of sins, were delivered from death and the devil, and were given eternal salvation. So baptized, we come to this table of the Kingdom of God. At this rail we receive from this altar bread that, as Jesus says, is His body and wine that, as Jesus says, is His blood, given and shed for you and for me for the forgiveness of our sins. Feasting at this table of the Kingdom of God is not only a picture and foretaste of the heavenly feast, but it is also a means to that end. Those mindful both of the Lord’s command and promise and of their own sin, desire to and do feast here as “often” as possible. In keeping with Scripture and our Lutheran Confessions, we open our rail to those who make the same confession of faith, observing a division that points to but does not necessarily exactly reflect that division the closed door made in the Third Reading. (In other words, those excluded here and now are not necessarily excluded there and then, just as those included here and now are not necessarily included there and then—there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.) At this table, those who truly believe are incorporated into the Body of Christ in the sacrament, and so we are also incorporated into the Body of Christ in the Church. Through preaching, baptism, individual absolution, and communion, the Lord adds to our number those who are being saved (for example, Acts 2:47). Here we are united with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all believers who come from east, west, north, and south—a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. Here we already now join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven in the eternal worship of heaven, which today’s First Reading describes as continuing in eternity under new heavens on a new earth (Isaiah 66:18-23).
Being baptized and feasting at this table of the Kingdom of God here and now are vital parts of being “At Table in the Kingdom of God” for eternity (John 3:5; 6:53). Jesus’s body and blood are necessary nutrition for our bodies and souls as we strive to enter through the narrow door of salvation in the Kingdom of God. We might think of athletes who eat appropriately balanced meals and drink fluids like Gatorade to compete in their events. As Jesus in the Third Reading commands us to “strive to enter” through that narrow door, He uses a Greek word with roots that referred to places where athletic contests were held. Those who strive to enter through the narrow door are enabled by Jesus to strive or struggle under their own crosses. Today’s Second Reading speaks of the Lord’s discipline in relationship to our struggle against sin (Hebrews 12:4-24). As the divinely‑inspired author of Hebrews says, “for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” So, we submit to the Lord’s discipline and live every day with repentance and faith. Such striving continues throughout our earthly lives, as does our feasting.
With next Sunday’s Gospel Reading we will hear more about feasting, but this day we have realized that being “At Table in the Kingdom of God” is not only a picture of heaven, but being “At Table in the Kingdom of God” is also a part of entering into heaven. By grace through faith in Jesus Christ Who died and rose for us, we, who are among the few who are being saved, have eternal joy and peace already now. May God for Jesus’s sake ever keep us not among the many cast out but among the many who enter and feast for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +