‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’

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This indeed is a haunting thought, and a worry to many.

We wonder, ‘Will God send to hell someone who all the days of their life faithfully went to Church and prayed and did all that was right, but in their final years, after perhaps a great tragedy or loss doubted the goodness, or even the existence of God? Will God have no compassion on such a broken soul, despite his years of pious devotion, just because at the last minute he had his doubts? Is God so petty as to weigh a final instance of doubt against a lifetime of faith?

We ask, ‘Will God put to shame a man who in every way tried to live an ethical life of integrity, who treated everyone around them well, who committed no great scandal, but lived peaceably with his neighbors, his family, his children, all because he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe in the miracles of the Bible, which are, after all, incredible, that is to say, unbelievable?’ If God wants so deeply to be believed in, He could just show Himself. Is He so demanding, and yet so withholding, that He first hides, then casts down to the inferno for not being found?

We demand, ‘Will God condemn a good man who never had the chance to hear the Gospel? The pygmy in Darkest Africa? The tribesman in Papua New Guinea? The North Korean who believes all the world outside his tyrannical mother country to be a blasted wasteland.’  Would He really accurse one whose lack of divine knowledge is not their fault? Just because they have not checked the right boxes on the divine salvific checklist? Would God be so unjust as to cast down one who He Himself never sent a preacher to?

What about the pious Jew or Muslim, those who follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but through a different path?

What about the saintly Hindu or Buddhist, those who seek after God, though by a different path, and perhaps in vain?

What about the suicide, driven to cast away hope before hopelessness?

What about the infant death, the aborted child, one who never had even the chance to have faith?

Will all these be damned to the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?

‘Will those who are saved be few?’

We ask these questions, for we believe that we are more just than God, more forgiving than the Lord, more merciful than Mercy, more compassionate than the Crucified. If we have such goodness in our hearts to accept such people, why can’t God, who alone is good?

Some modern theologians seek to answer the one in our Gospel readings inquiry by imagining a kinder, more accepting, more righteous God; one that is at least as kind, accepting, and merciful as ourselves. They say things like, ‘Perhaps there is a hell, but it is empty.’ ‘Perhaps there is a hell, but it is only temporary.’ ‘Perhaps there is no hell at all.’

But dear Christian, there is a hell, prepared for the devil and all his angels, and it will not be empty, for many will seek to enter and will not be able. And it shall not be filled with righteous people, who yet only lack faith, for the imagination of the heart of man is only evil constantly, and to such as these, the Lord will speak, ‘Depart from me, all you workers of evil.’

‘Does this offend you?’

‘Blessed are those who are not offended in me.’ Saith the Lord.

We are not more just than God, for what we call justice is merely to grant absolution to the unrepentant, hoping that we might be included in their lot, that the wronged may go unavenged. We think we are more forgiving, but we forgive none of those who wrong us ourselves, our former friends and old loves and ex-spouses and embittered parents. We may think we are merciful, but never to the one who takes our money and cannot pay back, or an accountant who fumbles your taxes, or the insurance company that refuses to pay based on a footnote of a contract. If we think we are compassionate, then let us suffer with those who suffer; and yet we do not, we only say ‘there, there’ from a distance, for if we get too close, we might be disgusted by the ugliness of true anguish.

This is all to say that we are all the best of people when it concerns hypothetical others, but we are the devil in the flesh, sin incarnate, and idolatry’s own child when it concerns any of the actual people in our life, those who are, or were, close to us. Yet you seek to judge Him who is closer to you than you are to yourself.

The Lord does not say what His critics would want Him to say; but then again, I have not said what He has said. The Lord does not justify His wrath against those who will perish, nor does He multiply their evils before their face. Rather, Christ our God speaks something very different:

‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’

‘Strive to enter through the narrow door.’

Jesus has no desire to speculate about the hypothetical people we are apparently so fond of and so kind to. In fact, He seems to have little want to even speak to the very people around Him as He travels to Jerusalem. He does not answer this person’s question about those others who may or may not be saved. He only speaks, only cares about the one person, the real person, that fleshly person that is immediately before Him; the only one in that moment who is absolute.

In this moment, all others are only an example; but this one who stands before the Lord stands as Adam before the creation of Eve, walking alone with God in the garden, and to Him alone will the Christ speak.

‘Strive to enter to enter through the narrow door.’

He tells this man to strive, to not worry about the fate of others, of their faith or virtue for ‘state of grace.’ It is in the strongest sense not his business. It is God’s place to know how He will save this or that one over there. It is this man’s labor only to be concerned about His own soul, to work out his faith with fear and trembling.

And so it is with you. Why do you worry about others, whether they will be gathered as grain into Christ’s barn, or be adorned with the heavenly robes of dominion? Such is the concern of men. But do you not remember? Be as the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, who have no concern but to receive their daily bread, what God daily and always rains upon them, and to have it as their own.

This day, God calls us to not worry about others. Previously he has told us to not worry about ourselves. The man asking the question asks the most anxious of questions: ‘Will few be saved? And if so, will I be among them in the Resurrection of the Body? Will I be clothed in white with the saints, and dine at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom?’ But to this the Lord says, ‘Be not anxious about tomorrow, what you will eat or drink, or about the body, about what you will put on.’

‘Are you not of more value than the birds of the air?’

‘Will he not much more clothe you?’

Will He not cast off His scarlet garment, and become naked upon the tree, and be cast out into the darkness where the moon and sun are hidden, that you may put on the wedding garment, and enter into the kingdom of heaven? From His side will not flow forth the wine of His blood for you? Will not His body be broken, that you may be fed, even better than the angels?

All this He gives, and has already given, that you may be his own. What is left to you, dear one, but to open your hand, even timidly, that you may have what you once did not, and eat in the land of promise?

The Lord says, ‘strive,’ and we first think that we must do much to inherit eternal life. But an inheritance is not earned, but is received by the child upon the death of the decedent. Have you not been made a child of God by the rebirth of your Holy Mother, Christ’s Bride and true love, the Church? Now He is forever dead, even as He is forever alive, that you may receive the eternity that was once His alone.

Perhaps He does not say ‘strive’ that we may anguish anxiously to prove ourselves worthy of salvation. Perhaps He says ‘strive to enter’ for He so much desires us to be there with Him. He says little more, perhaps, than ‘please try to make it,’ like a friend who desires you so much to attend the party, the wedding, the dinner.

It will be a fine dinner, you see, and the company will be invigorating, for many will come from east and west, from north and south. Indeed, all your brothers from all nations shall be there. A great cloud of witnesses, an innumerable throng, of every tongue and tribe and nation.

And there too shall be the God of your soul, and even as He spoke to the one man asking the question, so shall He speak to you, and you alone, as Adam alone in the garden.

‘This day you are with me in paradise.’

So shall He command His angels concerning you: ‘Bring the best robe’ that he may not worry about what He will put on. ‘And kill the fatted calf,’ that he may not be anxious about what He will drink. ‘Let us feast, and be merry.’

And you, what will you do?

‘Do not refuse him who is speaking.’

‘But let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.’

‘Fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him will lack nothing.’

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Preached by Pastor Fields

Sermon Texts: Isaiah 66:18-23; Hebrews 12:4-24; Luke 13:22-20.