Open the Door of Your Heart
Luke 13:22-30 

Note: This sermon begins with a clip from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode No Weenies Allowed in which SpongeBob attempts to get into the Salty Spitoon, a rough bar that only allows tough men and women in their doors. He is sent to the Super Weenie Hut Junior where a robot bartender scans him and proclaims SpongeBob a weenie saying, “You just can’t hide what’s inside.” 

You just can’t hide what’s inside. SpongeBob is a weenie and no amount of trying to act tough is going to change that. SpongeBob can’t talk his way into the Salty Spitoon any better than the crowd outside the narrow door could talk their way into the Kingdom of Heaven in our Gospel reading for this morning. In both cases, you just can’t hide what’s inside. 

Jesus said, “Strive to enter through the narrow door.” Then he went on to warn that there will come a time when people will want to enter and will be told, “I do not know where you come from.” Apparently, Jesus words, “Knock and the door shall be opened” are limited time offer. 

There will come a time when the people outside will not be able to get in the door then they will begin to say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” The words translated here as “they will begin to say” show an ongoing action. They will begin to say and as far as we know they will go on saying it through all eternity. But what is it this crowd is exclaiming so emphatically as they stand on the wrong side of the only door that now matters? The crowd says the very words that condemn them.  

The people outside the door say “Jesus, we know you.” They say they ate with Jesus, they drank with Jesus and that they heard Jesus teaching in their streets. Yet, this crowd’s very presence outside the door shows that this group knew of Jesus without bothering to get to know Jesus.  

A casual interest will not suffice.[1] You will either be in or out. It’s a frightening Noah’s-Ark-like scene with a group realizing too late that they have missed their last opportunity for salvation. 

The Christian writer C.S. Lewis had this to say,  

Some will not be redeemed. There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of Our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason. If a game is played, it must be possible to lose it. If the happiness of a creature lies in self-surrender, no one can make that surrender but himself (though many can help him to make it) and he may refuse.[2] 

If there is a doorway, some will choose not to enter. Yet, the scene Jesus presents is of a doorway that one may now enter, but not forever. The narrow door stands open and those who do not enter now will found themselves on the outside when it comes to the Kingdom of Heaven.   

One of the questions I ask myself when reading scripture is “What is this passage doing?” If these words are intended to generate a response, what would that response look like? To better understand what the text is doing, we have to look at the question which precedes Jesus’ teaching.  

Jesus is asked, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” All of Jesus’ response is in answer to this question. What Jesus is doing with this teaching is to move someone to understand not how many will be saved, but how that salvation will come about. 

You can’t have it both ways as casual interest is not enough. Not only will it not be sufficient to say, “But Lord, I attended church,” those words in and of themselves will be condemning if attending church did not bring about a faithful response. Attending church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to school makes you a teacher or going to the hospital makes you a doctor.  

But I don’t want to dwell on the negative because I don’t think Jesus did. The emphasis in Jesus’ teaching is on the fact that the offer is open. Jesus’ words are intended to get you to notice that the door is still open. Once they have done that, then this teaching has done what it can. 

I think you can see this in another doorway scene. Jesus would go on to say, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Revelation 3:20). In this verse, it is we who are the door and Jesus who is on the outside wanting in. This is the deeper reality of Jesus teaching about the narrow door. Yes we could one day find ourselves standing outside a door to heaven wanting in. But right now Jesus stands at the door of your heart and wants in. If you have never taken that step, there is no time like the present to pray for Jesus to become the Lord of your life. You just have to open the way for God to flood in to your heart. 

If you have taken that step, if you do consider yourself a Christian, you are not finished yet. Each of us needs to make more room for God in our lives. Each of us has ways in which we shut God off from parts of our hearts.

• Have you let Jesus come in to heal past hurts, or would you rather nurse them along, not ready to forgive someone who caused you pain?
   
• Have you let Jesus take control of your finances? This does not mean handing over all your income to the church, but understanding that finances are part of the realm of faith. Do you lock Jesus out of that part of your heart?
   
• Have you let Jesus into your career choices, or in your work place? Do you do your job any differently because you are a Christian?

God is not finished with any of us yet. No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, there is progress yet to be made if you will open your heart to take that next step. 

Think back to the video clip that started this sermon. SpongeBob could have sailed right in to the Salty Spitoon if the tough fish by the door had wanted him in. It does not matter how narrow the door is if you know the doorman. In the same way, the pathway into heaven may be narrow, but we have Jesus to show us the way. Jesus told of the narrow door so that no one would have to find his or her self on the outside of God’s Kingdom later. 

Jesus wants you in and he wants it so badly that it is Jesus who now stands at the door looking for you to open the way. You can’t hide what’s inside from the Maker of Heaven and Earth, but that’s OK because he wants to come in to bring healing, and wholeness. Open the narrow door to your heart to let Jesus come in. 

Amen.