Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
In our Gospel reading today our Lord Jesus puts forward a set of warnings regarding what it takes to be saved. While the person asking Him the question “are those who will be saved few?” does not receive a direct answer to their question, Jesus puts forward an important message: “strive to enter in through the narrow door.” This word “strive” could be translated a number of ways: to fight, to wrestle, but the clearest sense might be “to struggle.”
As a Lutheran, you may find yourself sitting here, thinking “Hey! Pastor! What’s all this? Aren’t we saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone? What’s Jesus talking about ‘struggle to enter in through the narrow door?”
The struggle that Jesus refers to here isn’t the kind of struggle you’d normally think of. This isn’t some herculean feat, some sort of conquering of your trials and tribulations through effort, blood, sweat, and tears. We cannot enter through this narrow door out of our own sheer force of will. This struggle is a struggle against our sinful selves.
We are all sinful from the moment we are born. We cannot help in our lives that we are drawn to sin constantly. It does not matter if there’s one particular sin that draws us in, or if it is the simple constant of human nature to have selfish desires, we will always be afflicted and tempted by our sinful condition. No force of will has the ability to change this. Martin Luther in his questions for examination at the end of the Small Catechism says that if we touch our bodies and feel that we have flesh and blood, we can know that we are still sinners in need of a savior and the gifts that the Lord provides. As long as we are sinners, our Old Adam, that sinful self that will always seek out sin, will continue to rear its ugly head.
So, then, we are given this command by Jesus to struggle against our sin. But when we struggle on our own, we do it in vain. We cannot overcome the power of sin through our own human will. It is only through repentance that we are able to struggle against sin. In repentance, our sinful Old Adam is defeated, drowned in the waters of baptism. This struggle against our Old Adam, this generation of repentance, is not something that comes from our own heart naturally. We are not able to repent of our sins according to our human nature. Instead, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, coming from outside of ourselves, that comes into us and brings our hearts to repentance.
The door is Narrow. The only way to inherit paradise, to sit at that banquet table, is through Jesus. Faith in Jesus Christ is part of this ongoing struggle against the devil, the world, our sinful nature, and all things that bring us to sin. This, too, is something that comes from outside of us. According to the Small Catechism, we as Lutherans confess that we “cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him.” Yet, through the Holy Spirit we have been “called – by the Gospel, enlightened – with His gifts, sanctified and kept – in the true faith.” We are given these gifts by our Lord that we are unable to obtain for ourselves.
Truly, there is no other way inside besides Jesus. Though we cannot achieve salvation without Jesus, there are many who deny the Lord’s gifts, believing they can obtain their reward by simply living a good life or through some false god. Effectively, those who deny Jesus try to struggle through this narrow door on their own, something they simply cannot do. And there is coming a day where it will be too late for those who actively deny our Lord and live in unrepentance. That narrow door will shut and anyone on the outside of it will be locked out. These are harrowing words, but they are true. We should be all the more interested in sharing the Word and the Good News of Jesus with those who do not know Him, as we do truly want all people to be saved.
However, dear friends in Christ, we do not have to fear this narrow door, nor do we have to fear the struggle! Our Lord and Savior has provided us with our assurance of salvation. It is God Himself who brings you to repentance of your sin. It is God Himself who brought you to the waters of Baptism that daily drown your old, evil self and raise up a new creation. It is God Himself who sent His only beloved Son to die for you. We, of course, do not see this as a pass to sin freely, as to do so is rejecting the gifts of repentance and truth that the Holy Spirit brings to us. Yet, in our forgiveness, we do not have to fear being rejected by God. If you find yourself ever doubting your salvation, look to the cross. Our Lord Jesus, hung upon the cursed tree, bleeding and dying, has already won for you all that you need. Your Lord Jesus’s suffering and death on the cross is an ongoing reminder that while your sins put Him there, your sins are no longer yours. He has taken them to the cross and paid the price for them in full. Nothing you can accomplish could ever achieve what He has already done, but with the gift of faith, nothing you do can undo what Christ has done for your sake.
On that last day, beloved in the Lord, you will not be one of those outside among the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those outside of the door are those who have rejected God’s gifts of faith and forgiveness. Those outside the door are those who have denied knowing the LORD. Christ tells us that whoever denies Him, He will deny before the Father. Because of this, those outside the door are told by the master of the house “depart from me, I do not know you!” However, dear friends in Christ, You are known to the Lord. In your baptism, you have been marked with His name. You receive the forgiveness of sins each time you come to worship, from the pastor as from God Himself. On the Last Day, you who have been claimed by God and believe in Him will be welcomed to that eternal feast. Even now, you partake in that same feast this side of eternity when you come to the table and receive the Lord’s body and blood in faith.
We keep vigilant in our daily struggle against sin and the Old Adam, but truly, it is God who gives us the strength to resist. We will stumble and fall as we struggle, but in His mercy our Lord Jesus Christ died for the forgiveness of these failures. He bids us to come to Him in repentance, to receive in faith the restoration He offers to us. This, dear friends, is the gift of the Gospel. You have been claimed, marked, and redeemed by God. Your sins have been forgiven. You are known to the Master of the banquet hall and by the work of the Spirit will not be left outside. Beloved in the Lord, pray earnestly to God to bring your heart to repent whenever you sin, praise Him for His forgiveness that wipes it all away, and give thanks that the Lord has called you to be His own.
In the Holy Name of Jesus + Amen.