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Pentecost 11 2025, Proper 16
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
August 24, 2025
Isaiah 66:18-23, Hebrews 12:4-24, Luke 13:22-30
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A number of years ago Jeannette looked around our living room and said, “It looks like we furnished this from a yard sale… nothing matches.” Well there was a good reason it looked like that, most of it did come from a yard sale. So it was a big step for us to go to Furniture Fair and pick out a sofa and chair and choose the fabric we wanted. You don’t get to do that at the yard sale.
In our recent move the plan was for that sofa and chair to be moved to the basement for a downstairs gathering place. But it did not work. The door to the basement is only 30 inches wide and no matter what the movers did they could not get the sofa through the narrow door. So now the sofa needs to find a new home.
In our Gospel reading today Jesus is… Luke 13:22 (ESV) 22 … on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.” In this section of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is on His way to the cross and He teaches as He goes. A couple of weeks ago we read about how along the way a man demands that Jesus intervene to make his brother share an inheritance and Jesus warns about covetousness. After that Jesus warns the people to stay ready; like a servant waiting for his master to return. In last week’s Gospel reading Jesus teaches that He has not come to bring peace, but division. After that teaching… Luke 13:1-3 (ESV) 1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.” 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Repent or perish.
Jesus then teaches about the patience of God who will cultivate and fertilize a barren tree to encourage it to bear good fruit, but if it does not… it will be cut down.
A little while later, in today’s reading from Luke, someone asks, Luke 13:23 (ESV) 23 … “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”…” Jesus does not answer the question. Jesus instead instructs and warns everyone -- including the questioner… Luke 13:24 (ESV) 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
This is a harsh warning. Many will seek to enter and will not be able. Not entering means eternity in hell. Luke 13:25 (ESV) 25 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.’”
As Jesus draws near to Jerusalem and the cross His warnings grow more pointed. Repent or perish. Bear fruit or be cut down. Many will seek to enter and will not be able. This is frightening… this is convicting… you wonder, “will I be able to enter through the narrow door, or will I be left outside?” As you examine yourself in the light of God’s law you know that you do not deserve to enter the narrow door to the heavenly banquet -- and that is alarming. Eternal life is at stake and you do not deserve eternal life. To be left outside is terrifying. It is horrifying to think Jesus would to say to you, Luke 13:27 (ESV) 27 … Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’”.
There is going to be a judgment and some will enter through the narrow door to recline at table in the kingdom of God and others will go to the place where, Luke 13:28 (ESV) 28 “…there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.” This is a troubling teaching. So what does this mean to strive to enter through the narrow door?
It is a narrow door… and it is open… so why doesn’t everyone go through? It is an open door, but it is humbling. To enter you need to admit the truth about yourself. The door is Jesus…just Jesus. To enter through the narrow door is know that you need Jesus. To know that you need Jesus is to know that you really are a sinner. You need Jesus because you are a sinner and you cannot free yourself from bondage to sin. To know you need Jesus is to know that you deserve death and hell. To enter through the narrow door is to know that you do not belong there. You do not deserve to enter. It is utterly humbling to know you cannot do it. You are a poor, miserable sinner. You are…by nature… sinful and unclean.
Many will try to enter but they try to enter on their own terms. They want to enter because they deserve it, because they have earned it, because they have done what needs to be done. They cannot enter. You cannot enter on your own terms. It is not about what you have done. So, let go of all your, “because I” reasons for salvation. Folks want to say, I know I am saved…because I am good enough. Because I follow the rules. Because I asked Jesus into my heart. Because I do good works. Because I go to this certain church. Because I pray. Because I read the Bible. Because I am successful. Because I am not as bad as those other people. Because I…will not get you through the narrow door. It is not about what you have done.
Many will try to enter but they are holding on to sin. They live in sin and will not let go of it. Sin has become a habit, a lifestyle, a part of their identity. They make excuses for their sin. They rationalize their sin. They explain their sin. They become comfortable with their sin. They embrace their sin. They celebrate their sin. They are proud of their sin. But sin cannot enter through the narrow door.
You are a natural born sinner and sin comes quite naturally to you, but you cannot hold on to sin. Let go of your sin. Confess your sin. Repent of your sin.
Many churches teach that since Jesus instructs us to love one another, therefore we should not warn about sin and that it is evil and hateful to do so. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing trying to drag you to hell. We learn from our reading from Hebrews. Hebrews 12:5–7 (ESV) 5 … have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”
God takes sin seriously. In Matthew, Jesus uses hyperbole to emphasize the seriousness of sin. Matthew 5:29–30 (ESV) 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” It is difficult and painful to give up habitual sins but better to give up the sin than to be separated from God for eternity. Give up making money your idol. Let go of sexual sins. Let go of intimacy outside of marriage and online immorality. Repent of anger and withholding forgiveness. Confess your pride your coveting and your rebelliousness.
Confess your sin. Repent of your sin. Let go of your sin. I wish this was a one-time process; that repentance was one time and done, but as a baptized child of God it is an ongoing struggle. Christians struggle with sin. This is what you do as a baptized child of God. Luther writes about this in the Small Catechism, “What does such baptizing with water indicate? It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” In baptism you have put on Christ. Your baptized life is a life of contrition -- sadness over your sin, and repentance -- turning away from sin and back to God. Let go of your sin because sin does not belong in the kingdom of God.
Christian life is not good for your self-esteem. Christian life is knowing that you are not good enough. Christian life is knowing that you cannot save yourself. It is knowing that the price of your sin is the perfect Lord Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God, suffering and bleeding and dying on the cross. Your sin put Jesus on the cross. The Christian life is lifelong struggling and striving against sin and temptation.
The Christian life is not easy, but the great Good News is that the struggle is not to get through the narrow door. You have already passed through the narrow door of Christ in the waters of baptism. Jesus died on the cross and then rose from the dead to show, for certain, that He had conquered sin, death and the devil. Colossians 1:13 (ESV) 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
You are through the narrow door of Christ and you are in the kingdom of God. You are invited to the table of the Lord for a foretaste of the feast to come. You gather together here each week with your fellow sinners who need Jesus -- and Jesus gives you His forgiveness. You humbly enter into His presence on your knees pleading guilty of your sin and asking for mercy and grace, and Jesus gives you His mercy and grace. He forgives you your sins. He gives you His body and blood. At the table of the Lord you gather with those who have gone before and are now with the Lord waiting for that last great day when Jesus will return. You gather with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets. You gather with the fellow baptized from the east and west, and from north and south and look forward to the day when you no longer look through the glass dimly but will be able to see the uncountable multitude of the company of heaven in white robes waving palm branches. Then there will be no more struggles, no more striving, no more sin, no more temptation, no more sadness or sickness or death.
We look forward to that day, but for now the struggle continues. For now it is a life knowing that you do not deserve to be saved. You cannot do it. You are not good enough. You need a savior -- and you have a savior -- and your savior has marked you as His beloved. You need Jesus and Jesus gives you what you need. Jesus has brought you through the narrow door into the kingdom of God. Amen.