Last week I left you with a challenge.  If you were here last Sunday morning I hope you remembered your homework.  I challenged you to repent.  Repentance is more than being sorry or even regretting your actions.  It is making a U-turn and going in a new direction.  The demonstration of your U-turn was to perform a small act of kindness to someone who is not a member of our congregation.  This was to demonstrate your repentance and make the point that the nature of the kingdom is kindness as opposed to brute force.  We bear fruit by spreading the good news of Jesus.  It is in little acts of consideration that the fertilizer is placed on our trees so that we begin to bear fruit.  Anyway, who was able to do something for another?  Raise your hands.  This is not a time to be modest.  It is a time to encourage the rest of us with your stories. 

When Jesus made this point to his disciples as recorded in Luke 13 about them bearing fruit and the nature of the kingdom being like a mustard seed and leaven, they became curious about how well this might work.  They understood swords and spears and armies and brute force that was the way of their world, as it is with ours.  But, was this idea of spreading a kingdom through kindness really going to work?  And they asked a question that perhaps you would like to ask Jesus, as well.

Luke 13:22-23 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.  Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"

That is a pretty good question.  I would like to know the answer to this one. Are there going to be a lot of people make it or is this going to be hard?  If we knew the job was going to be easy, then that’s one thing.  If I knew that most everyone I talked to about Jesus was going to buy it that would be encouraging.  If this Jesus kingdom thing was really going to work and people were going to flood into the kingdom then I’m your guy; sign me up.  Let’s get to it. But, if we know it is going to be hard, then that is something different. If most everyone is not going to make it anyway and everyone is likely to fail, then it is going to be harder to do these acts of kindness. Knowing most everyone you meet is most likely doomed is discouraging.  It will be harder for me to stay enthusiastic when the fruit is hard to pick.

From my experience over the last 20 years here in Los Alamos the latter is the case.  It seems so many of the people we attempt to reach don’t make it, at least from my perspective.  You meet people and try to be nice to them and encourage them and you never see them again.  Or you work with people and they hang around a while and then they go back to who they were before.  It sure seems that the Jesus way is the hard way. 
How many are going to be saved is a significant question.  Jesus answers this question with several metaphors, as he often does, but before we listen to the Jesus’ metaphors, let’s speculate about some metaphors that we might use to answer our question; how many are going to be saved?

Suppose being saved is like a Piñata.  Picture I nice big donkey Piñata.  It is colorful and fun and you know that it is full of candy.  It doesn’t really matter who breaks the Piñata everyone gets the candy.  What if that is the answer to how many are going to be saved?  It is all just a kid’s game.  God is after all going to let everyone into heaven; everyone wins.

How does this affect our view of salvation?  Well, if everyone is really going to make it to heaven in the end, then “It’s party time.”  Don’t worry be happy.  God is this great big teddy bear who loves everyone and every one will make it.  So, we really don’t have to repent and be kind to others and bear fruit because it doesn’t really matter.  This makes Christianity pretty cheap. 

Suppose being saved is like taking a test on the curve. Did you like teachers who graded on the curve?  You don’t have to know the material all you have to know is more than most everyone else.  It is like the old bear joke.  If we are being chased by a bear, I don’t have to be faster than the bear… I just have to out run you.  Maybe God is going to grade on the curve.  I think a lot of people think like this.  “I live better than most people.  I don’t cheat on my wife or on my income tax.  I love my family and take them on vacation every year.  I’m not a criminal. I’m a good guy. Surely, God, if there is one, will let me into heaven.”  Maybe God will grade on the curve. 

This approach doesn’t motivate me much either.  Let’s just encourage everyone to do the best you can.  All this religious stuff is just fluff for those who want to do that kind of thing. 

Maybe being saved is kind of like taking the SAT. Everyone who scores over 800 is going to be saved.  That changes the way we think.  To be saved then we need to achieve a certain level of proficiency as a Christian.   You need to be baptized and then know some Bible. Go to a certain number of church services and help some poor people.  That gets you to a certain level and then you get in.  I’m sure there are extra bonus points for getting on the roof and running the grinder for a couple hours.  If you don’t have enough points then you may want to join us on the roof this weekend.   So, my job would be to make sure I have enough points and help you earn points as well. 

Here is a scary thought; what if getting to heaven is like the Lottery?  Some Calvinist believe this very thing.  God through some sort of mysterious process picks some people to be saved and others to be lost.  From our perspective it looks like a lottery.  If you can do doing to be saved and nothing to be lost, then my job seems a bit pointless.  Do what you want it has not affect anyway.  

What if it is like the TV show Survivor? I realize not everyone is a Survivor Island fan.  By the way Survivor China starts September 20th.  But what if being saved is like Survivor where only one person makes it out of every season?  What if we are competing to be the one?  What if only the best person from each church is going to make it?  Instead of helping each other we need to start voting each other out.  You might want to go to a lousy church, that way you would have a better chance at winning.  If it were a competition, that would change everything.

One more.  What if being saved is like becoming a Navy Seal? What if this life is like Seal training camp? You have to accomplish all the terrible things that are before you and endure the brutal nature of life and only the few and the proud make it.  That would change the nature of how we live.  This life is supposed to be hard because only the tough survive.  “Come on recruits quit your whining and give me 20 pushups.”  That would certainly be different.

So, what do we do with the question, “Are only a few people going to be saved?”  It would be nice to have a good answer.  Let see what Jesus says in the rest of Luke 13.  Jesus uses three metaphors to answer the how many question.  Let me warn you up front, they all need to be taken together to get the full picture. 

The first is a sports metaphor.  “Come on Tim.  Jesus didn’t use any sports metaphors.”  Listen Jesus is talking about a fight.

Luke 13:23-24  He said to them,  "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.”

That sounds a whole lot like the Navy Seal metaphor; that it is going to be hard.  The Greek word for “make every effort” is used by Paul in a couple of passages.  He has a sports emphasis.  Listen as you get a feel for the word.

NIV 1 Corinthians 9:25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

NIV 1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

NIV 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Jesus, as well as Paul, indicates we are going to have fight to be saved.  It is going to require every effort; we are going to have to fight for it, to compete for it.  And look at what we are competing to do; enter a narrow door.  The picture that comes to my mind is a bunch of freshman in a hallway of a dorm fighting to see who is going to be the first one through a small door at the end of the hall.   It is tooth and nail, step on someone’s face, and wrestle your way into heaven. 

This first metaphor tells us that the answer to how many is… few only those willing to fight to get into a narrow door.  Wow. I would not have guessed that.  Jesus tells us to fight to get into the narrow door because there are many who will try and a bunch won’t make it.  That changes my perspective.  I would have thought that all who try to be saved, God would let in.  What does he mean many won’t make it?  This is not the answer we were expecting.  But let’s not stop here but keep going.  Jesus uses his 2nd metaphor of having reservations at a restaurant. 

Luke 13:25-28   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.

The many, who are shut out, were too late and didn’t know Jesus.  Being too late was the point of last week; you have to be ready when he comes.  There will be no getting in if your reservations are not made before he comes. But also note they didn’t know Jesus.  They did not know the way of the kingdom; which is generosity to the needy.  They did not know the love of Jesus, the grace of Jesus, the mercy of Jesus.  I suspect these whom Jesus did not know attempted to get into the kingdom apart from the way Jesus. They wanted in by their own rules?  This is beginning to make sense.  You have to fight to have your reservations by living the Jesus way. 

Staying with the same metaphor Jesus tweaks it into a banquet where many are invited. 

Luke 13:29-30   People will come from 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."

All kinds of people, it sounds like hosts, will take their place at the feast.  How? Because the arrogant do-it-my-way, play-by-my-way I-am-first people are not going to get in.  But the last who do it Jesus way, who fight for the narrow door of Jesus way, who repent with kindness are the first ones in.  I’m seeing an answer – fighting for the feast. 

One more metaphor makes it clear. 

Luke 13:31-34   At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you."  He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.'  In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day-- for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!  "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Another amazing metaphor; a hen gathering her chicks.  The fox is in the chicken house attempting to eat the baby chicks.  But the mother hen spreads her wings over the chicks and saves them from destruction.  But the chicks have to be willing to be gathered under her wings. Jerusalem would not.  But all who have humbled themselves to accept the wonderful grace of Jesus, who did die for us all, will be saved!  They must give up their do-it-my-way attitudes and surrender to the one who loves us.    Wow.  We are like chicks under the hen.   Let’s wrap this up. 

How many are going to be saved?  The Piñata, Curve, SAT, Survivor, and Navy Seals metaphors are all not accurate.  Jesus answers the questions by saying, “Not many.” Not many are willing to fight for the kingdom with kindness.  Not many will make reservations. Not many will know Jesus or his ways. Not many are willing to be gathered like chicks under the hen. 

But the few, who fight for the narrow door of the Jesus way; the few, who call ahead and make reservations; the few, who sit at the feast of his grace; the few, who humble themselves under his wings, will be saved. 

And that is why we must repent and perform these acts of kindness which show the way to the kingdom.