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There’s one more verse after the end of the Old Testament reading. It’s the last verse of the last chapter of the book of Isaiah. It’s fitting. Here, at the end of the book, Isaiah is talking about the last things. He’s talking about heaven. Life eternal. 

“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.

Your offspring and your name shall remain. You will not be cut off. You shall remain. All flesh shall worship the One True God. Incredible. Indescribable. The infinite majesty of heaven will be beautiful. All flesh, worshiping God.

But there’s one more verse. This picture that Isaiah has painted is a hopeful one. It’s beautiful. God will gather the faithful onto His holy mountain in His holy city, Jerusalem. There, all flesh will worship The LORD. 

But there’s one more verse. We read again: 

“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.

And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

This is the word of the LORD. The last verse of the last chapter of the book of Isaiah on the last things. All flesh will worship God. All flesh will see the stinking, rotting, festering corpses of those who have transgressed Him. For the truth is, there are two groups on the Last Day. Saved and damned. In and out. Those in God’s Holy City of Jerusalem, and those outside, eaten by undying worms and burned by unquenchable fire. 

The worm that does not die is sin. It worms its way into your flesh. It bites and devours and resists every effort to kill it. No matter how hard you try, the infestation persists. Most choose to ignore the pain. Some choose to make the worms part of who they are, holding up their sins and ravaged flesh as part of their identity. Others struggle to remove the worms by pain and effort, but always there is one more. No matter, all have transgressed against The LORD. All have rebelled against Him and all deserve the unquenchable fires of hell. 

This is the reality that Jesus has in mind in our Gospel today. He is traveling to cities and towns, on His way to 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.

The door is narrow. It is mounted in the impregnable fortress of God’s law. Many have tried to enter it. Many have tried and all have failed. They scrabble at the wall, they claw at the narrow door. One by one they fall. They become corpses, eaten by the unkillable worm. Burned by unquenchable fire. 

Jesus continues

When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’

The master of the house is Jesus, returning on the Last Day. The marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom is in full swing. The door is shut. The city gates are locked. The walls tower ever higher. And yet, these latecomers knock. They call Jesus Lord. They know Him, or at least they think they do. But Jesus answers them “I don’t know where you come from. You are not from the holy city of Jerusalem. Your offspring and name have died off. I don’t know your homeland, I don’t know your names. You are from outside. You are from the desolate wasteland, You are corpses, full of worms and fire.”

Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’

The latecomers say “We heard your teaching, we ate and drank with you, you taught in our streets, we went to church every Sunday. We called ourselves Christians. Isn’t that enough?” 

But Jesus calls these latecomers evil. He doesn’t say “What you did was good, but it wasn’t enough.” Rather, He says “Your works, though you thought them good, were evil. You thought them righteous, but they are unrighteous. You thought to earn your salvation, but you earned only damnation.” 

For by these works they tried to force their way into the narrow door. By these works they pressed themselves against the wall of the law. They scrabbled, they clawed, they climbed, and they fell. These latecomers are dead men. They have been dead a long time, but now, with the light of God’s truth clear to see, now that all things are revealed at the end of the age, they look down and see their flesh, pale, and clammy, and dead. Eaten by worms and burned by hellfire. This is what’s become of the works they trusted. The master of the house casts them out into the wasteland. Back to the land of corpses, worms and fire. 

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

The latecomers will weep, for they are corpses, eaten by undying worms and burned by unquenchable fire. 

Many will strive to enter and will not be able. Many will strive. Many - all - will strive to enter and will fail. All will throw themselves at the foot of God’s law, crushing themselves against it. All will try and fit through the narrow door and will not attain salvation. All will fall among the corpses. All will be eaten by their sin-filled worms. All will be burned. All. All but one. 

All but one will fail to enter the narrow door. All but one will crush themselves against the wall of God’s law. All but one will try and fit through the narrow door and will not attain salvation. All but one. And that one, that one perfect man, that one man who could have vaulted the wall, entered through the narrow door. All but one. All but that One Man kept every last iota of the Law. All but One. The God-Man Jesus Christ. And what did He earn for His perfection? What crown was put upon His head? A crown of thorns. What majestic clothing did He earn? Stripes on his back. What wondrous salvation did He attain? Worms and fire. For Jesus Christ is the Crucified One. Our God became a corpse on the cross. He hung there, dead as the nails that held Him to the tree. There, beaten, bloody and dead, He became an abhorrence to all flesh.

He became sin, though He knew it not. He became dead, though He was the God of life. He became a corpse, worm-eaten and burned. He did the work. He alone entered through the Narrow Door. With arms outstretched on the cross, heaving His last breath, giving up His Spirit, He flung the gates wide open. All who strive to enter by the Narrow Door will fail, but many will be in the city of Jerusalem. For Jesus becomes the new door. The door that demands no scrabbling or clawing. The door that demands no works of your own. This door swings open. This door proclaims a message of salvation, not judgment. The penalty is paid! The worms have died! The fire is quenched! Come, dear children, enter into the Holy City, brothers and sisters not corpses. 

For from the side of the Crucified One, blood and water flow. Water, to quench the unquenchable fires of hell by holy baptism. Blood, to offer Himself as the once for all sacrifice to God. God’s wrath against all who have transgressed against Him was poured out on the One Man who entered the Narrow door. In His death, He took all the unkillable worms of the world and dragged them to death. 

Jesus killed the unkillable worm, quenched the unquenchable fire, took the wrath of God. And He did it all for you. For you, though you were worm-eaten corpses. For you, you though you were an abhorrence to all flesh. For you, though you once were a dead worker of evil. You are dead no more! 

For Christ did not stay dead, He didn’t lie with the worms of sin and rot away, He rose again to eternity! Baptized into His death and with faith in His holy work, you too shall rise. Your once-dead flesh is made alive! You feel no heat of hell, you do not beat yourself against the wall of God’s law for Christ has passed through the Narrow Door and become the door to salvation. 

He called you. Called you out of death and into life. He called you by name, for He knows it, but He gave you a new name in Baptism, a name that shall remain. The Master of the House knows where you come from, for He is your elder brother. You are no latecomer. 

When the Narrow Door shuts, at the end of the age, you will be inside those walls. You will call Jesus Lord, and He will answer. All of this not because of your feeble fleshly works, not because of your striving, clawing, scrabbling effort, but only because of Christ. Christ, who is the Door. Christ, who washed you with water and word. Christ, who gives you His body and blood to eat and to drink. Christ, who pronounces to you every Sunday morning by the lips of Pastor Jud that your sins are forgiven. 

Your offspring and your name shall remain. You shall not be cut off! You shall remain. It’s beautiful. Indescribable. Incredible. The infinite majesty of heaven is yours through Jesus’ glorious death on the cross. 

Just as the prophet Isaiah said, 

For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.

This is the word of the LORD and thanks be to God. Amen.