Pentecost 14 C, September 5, 2004
Luke 13:22-30 The Last Will Be First I believe all of us have enjoyed watching at least part of the 2004 Olympics in Athens this past month. To watch the best athletes each
country can offer compete with each other is truly a pleasure. Sometimes the thought enters my mind – if only I could be there, competing in a track or rowing event, one of the sports I used to compete in high school. There are many who want to compete at the Olympics, but only a very select few who make it. The words Jesus expressed in our Gospel reading could just as well be addressed to an athlete aspiring to compete in the Olympics: “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” (13:24). To
become an Olympian requires much rigorous mental and physical training. But what does it take to be saved, to enter into Heaven? We heard someone ask Jesus: “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” Jesus affirms that, as with the Olympics, we must make “every effort to enter through the narrow door” (13:24). But what kind of effort does it take?
To become an Olympian, you must strive constantly to be the best, to be first. However, when it comes to Heaven, it seems the opposite is true: “Those who are last … will be first, and [the] first … will be last” (30). Jesus confronts us with a paradox that goes against all conventional reasoning. Jesus warns that if you think you are going to make it into heaven, you will not make it; but if you don’t think you will make it, you will make it. Before we tackle this paradox, this apparent contradiction, I would like to share with you an experience I had in my first year of high school. Back in 1981 I was competing in the 1500-meter event at the Ontario
Track and Field championships held in Thunder Bay. When the final race
began, I decided to sprint to the front of the pack and for the first lap I was in first place. But fatigue got the better of me and I let one person pass me, then another and another. After a while I began to wonder why no one was passing me anymore. When I glanced back, to my astonishment, I realized that there was no one else behind me. I had fallen to last place! With one lap to go I tried as hard as I could to catch up to the second-last person, but it was too late. The first shall be last! As I reflect back on this experience I find it quite humourous. However, when it comes to entering through the narrow door that leads to eternal life, ending up locked out is no laughing matter. Then no amount of knocking and pleading will get us inside. The only words we will hear are: “I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!” (27). It will be a frightful experience to see people from all nations taking their places at the feast in God’s kingdom and ourselves being thrown out (28-29). There are a couple of important lessons here: 1. Not everyone who wants to get to Heaven will make it. Jesus has a very painful message four our politically correct sensitivities: There are no other ways that lead to heaven. Just one door: One very narrow door. There are many who presume to know the way to heaven. They think they know all about God and what His will is. A few may even be so convinced that they are willing to blow themselves up to prove it. Then there are the rest of us who are content to simply judge those who differ from us in their beliefs about God. But again, presuming to have the correct knowledge of God is not what gets us to Heaven. 2. What gets us to Heaven is not what we know about God, but that God knows us. It will not be enough to tell Jesus, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets” (26). Just because you come to church, hear God’s word and take part in Jesus’ Holy Supper, does not guarantee that you will be admitted into Heaven. So what does it take for God to know me? That is the crucial test we must all pass: That we will hear God say: “You I know. You are mine!” There is a difference between working for someone and being that person’s child. Many people think that what it takes to get to Heaven is to do something extraordinary for God. But that is not what God wants. He does not just want doers. He wants us to belong: To belong to His family, to be His true children, to know Him as our Heavenly Father. Ask yourself: “Am I merely a doer or am I a son?” Let us see what the Scriptures have to say about sonship: The Apostle John writes: “To all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Jesus
declared to Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless He is born again of water and the Spirit.” (John 3:5).
Jesus describes those who are born again: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (John 10:27, 28). Jesus Himself is that narrow door
through which we must enter to be saved. He said, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (John 10:9). The final question we must now answer is: “What does it mean to believe in Jesus, to obey His teaching, to follow Him, to be truly born again?” For there will be many who will claim to have known Jesus, who have come to church faithfully and paid their respects, but who sadly will not be recognized by God. Jesus gives us a clue as to what His true brothers and sisters are like in the final words of our Gospel reading: “There are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last” (30). This means that when it comes to my relationship with God and with other people, I do not trust in my own goodness or achievements. It means to despair of my own accomplishments, of anything that I might be proud of and to know that my only hope is in God’s great mercy. It means to acknowledge that I am truly last and can only trust God’s promise to make me His own and get me where I want to be. While I was on vacation I learned something about the implications this teaching of Jesus has on those who follow Him. Let me share with you six practical implications of what it means for me to become last: It means… 1. I admit the reality of sin in my life and that I am not whole. On the surface, I can make it appear that I have my life all together. But in reality sin is a part of who I am as a child of Adam and it affects everything I do. I must stop pretending that everything is OK and begin to develop an awareness of how I am feeling, how I function and to understand why I do what I do. I must allow God’s Word to shine into the dark and hidden areas of my life. 2. I take responsibility for breaking the power of the past that has negatively affected my life and my relationships. I must stop blaming and start trusting God to change me and to cooperate with His Spirit working in me. 3. I live in brokenness and vulnerability. Admitting and recognizing my weaknesses forces me to be dependant on God. All of us have a God-given handicap. Accepting it helps me to be teachable, correctable and to grow into becoming more like my heavenly Father, because I learn to depend on Him. 4. I accept the limitations God has placed in my life. This is very difficult for me, because I often feel that there is nothing I cannot do or fix. I must determine what gifts, talents and responsibilities God has given me and carry those out while saying “no” to those things that distract me from being who God called me to be. 5. I embrace grieving and loss. There are many things I aspire to in my life but end in failure or disappointment. Grieving those losses helps me to stay connected to my feelings and in touch with reality. It teaches me compassion. And grieving also allows me to let go of the old and allow God to give birth to something new in my life. 6. Finally, I learn to recognize God’s voice in every person I meet. It means to allow myself to truly enter into another person’s world while remaining true to who I am in Christ. In this way God is able to enter another persons life through me and my life through that person so both of us end up being blessed. As you can see, these six implications I have learned about what it means to become last are not so much about doing but being; it is about knowing who I am in Christ–God’s beloved child. Within that reality God can begin to transform my relationships others. Each of these lessons are painful because they force me to deny myself and my natural instincts to protect and promote myself, to love myself. But as I turn to Jesus and walk through the narrow door, I experience a greater love: The adoption into the family of our heavenly Father. That love gives me the security I need to allow myself to become wounded in order to be healed. Knowing that Jesus Himself was wounded for me helps me to truly trust Him to get me to where I want to be. He indeed is our wounded healer. In Him, we who are last, miraculously become first. And now may the grace God our Father and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit keep your hearts and minds united in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.