The Choice is Ours

Jesus used many stories to try to describe the kingdom of God or heaven to his disciples. The kingdom of God/heaven is like… a mustard seed… yeast working through the dough… scattered seed… treasure hidden in a field… pearls of great worth… net let down to catch fish… a king settling accounts… a landowner hiring help for the day… a king preparing a wedding banquet for his son… ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom…

When I look at all of these ideas Jesus put forth, I begin to get a picture of heaven starting with something small and growing, spreading, catching others, of great worth, where there is justice, where there is celebration, and where there is expectation. The really cool thing is that we don’t have to wait for eternity to experience these aspects of the kingdom of God. They are all possible here and now for everyone.

As Jesus was walking along teaching, he was asked, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” Luke 13: 23 Interestingly, that question is still being asked over and over today. In our society which is proud of the tolerance for all beliefs (well most anyway), people want to believe there are many ways to God and many names for God. If there is an eternity and a heaven, a loving God would allow everyone to be there. If there is a hell (and many don’t believe there is), it is likely for Satan and his demons and no people will go there. A loving God would not send anyone there.

This has become a dividing line for many who call themselves Christians. So I want to look very carefully at Jesus’ response to this man’s question. We struggle with aligning our God who loves everyone with the idea of a judgment that will send some to heaven and some to hell.

This is Jesus’ answer as recorded by Luke. “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from the east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.’” Luke 13:24-30

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

I wonder what it is that keeps people out. And I wonder how it is that some find the narrow gate and go through it. According to Jesus’ statement here, it takes effort on our part and it is imperative that we get there sooner rather than later. There will be a time when the gate is shut. Also, an acquaintance with Christ is not enough. “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” Luke 13:26 Jesus taught, but they did not receive or follow his teaching. Yet there are those from all over who will take their place at the feast in the kingdom of God. It is possible to get there.

John assures us through Jesus’ words, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 There is a way. It is in accepting Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. All are invited. It is not his will that anyone would perish. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

There are many who hover around the gate wondering how a loving God could be so cruel as to make the gate so narrow and refusing to go through it. What they are missing is that there once was a wall and because God loves us so much, he made a way through the wall so that we can pass through to be in his presence. That wall is made of all the sin in our lives, every hateful, selfish thought and action (and even the good among us are full of those thoughts and actions) and Jesus Christ is the open gate in that wall, inviting and hoping that all will choose to follow him. How difficult it must be for God to allow us to have that choice.