Today in our gospel lesson[1] Luke tells us someone once asked Jesus, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” In reply Jesus described the door into heaven as narrow and he encouraged us to “make every effort to enter through the narrow door” saying, “indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” When I read Jesus’ description of a group of people trying to get through a narrow door the first image that came to mind was a boarding gate at an airport.

Many of you travel a lot for work and have spent your fair share of time at an airport boarding gate so I know you can picture the scene I am imagining. There is a metal door locked shut with a keypad. To the side of the door is a desk that is about chest high and wide enough for two or three people to stand behind it. Up above the desk is a digital display that identifies the gate number and has the latest flight information. Below the sign and behind the desk stands a gate agent who is feverishly trying to help a line of nervous looking people who are trying to book last minute passage on the flight. The area around the gate is lined with rows and rows of seats. The seats with outlets were the first to be filled but soon all the seats are occupied and some of the less hygienically conscious passengers choose to sit on the floor. Eventually so many passengers arrive at the gate that they begin to spill out into the terminal walkway. The gate agent announce they will begin boarding soon and passengers start to jockey for position around the door. The mob of passengers threatens to become uncivil so the gate agent reminds them that they will be boarding the plane in zones. The agent instructs the passengers to check their boarding passes to identify their zones to see when they will board the plane. The passengers with zone 1 on their boarding pass begin to push themselves to the front of the line, smirking at all the lowly zone 2 and 3 passengers as they do. But then the zone 1 passengers notice there is another line reserved for diamond medallion passengers. These passengers have been with the airline a long time so it makes sense they would stand at the front of the line. But, as those of you who travel know, it is not the diamond medallion members who are the first to board.

Today I want you to imagine you are a passenger standing at a gate ready to board a plane. The digital display above the desk at the gate tells us “AW flight 77 bound for the New Jerusalem is on time and ready for departure”. The gate agent standing behind the desk, who is going to help us board the plane, is none other than the prophet Isaiah.

It is not surprising to see the prophet Isaiah moonlighting as the gate agent for this particular flight. Isaiah has a reputation for pointing passengers to this gate. He writes some of the most beautiful gospel passages in the entire Old Testament. Through the prophet Isaiah the LORD said, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”[2] It was through the prophet Isaiah that the LORD foretold, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel”[3] And it was through the prophet Isaiah that the LORD told us the virgin’s child “was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”[4]

With beautiful gospel passages like these and many others, the prophet Isaiah has been pointing people to this gate for thousands of years. That’s why it is not surprising to see Isaiah serving as the gate agent for this particular flight. It is, however, surprising to hear the last announcement that the prophet Isaiah makes. In verse 24 (the last verse in the book of Isaiah) Isaiah tells us there will be people who’s, “worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.” In horrifically graphic language involving flesh eating worms and unquenchable fires our gate agent announces that there are some people standing at the gate who are not going to get on the plane.

Now, if you fly often enough you have seen this scenario unfold before. What happens when the gate agent announces that the flight is full and not everyone is going to get on the plane? It causes a bit of a kerfuffle, doesn’t it. If that happens for a flight bound for Anytown USA, can you imagine the kerfuffle caused when Isaiah announces not everyone is going to get on the flight bound for the New Jerusalem? I imagine passengers rushing the gate in an attempt to be first in line. Thankfully, before all civility is lost, Isaiah announces that we will begin boarding with those who have priority status.

As you might expect, the people standing in the diamond medallion line seem relieved by this announcement. These are the chosen people of Israel who were the first to be called, gathered, and enlightened. They were the first to serve as prophets, priests, and kings before the LORD. They were the original royal priesthood. It makes sense they should have priority boarding. But as Isaiah begins the boarding process it is not the people in the diamond medallion line that he calls. Thinking there must be some kind of mistake they remind the gate agent about their long history with the airline. They say things like “we ate and drank with Him, and He taught in our streets.”[5] They remind Isaiah that they participated in the Lord’s suppers such as the one that has been prepared for us here today. They remind Isaiah that they have heard the Lord’s lesson proclaimed from pulpits just like this one and taught in classrooms just like ours. They remind Isaiah of their diamond medallion status and demand to board the plane.

But Isaiah seems unphased by their protests. We can’t quite make out everything Isaiah says to them because the words he speaks to them are from the verses that precede our text, but we gather that Isaiah rebukes them for a false faith of lip service, insincerity, and pretense. He says, when the LORD called them, “no one answer”, when the LORD spoke to them “no one listened”. Isaiah says they “did evil” in the Lord’s sight and “chose what displeases” Him.[6] Isaiah tells them they may have everyone else at the gate fooled into believing they should be the first to board the plane, but the LORD sees the hypocrisy hidden in their hearts and there is no room on the plane bound for the New Jerusalem for hypocrites.

As you might imagine, an uneasy murmur spreads among the rest of the people waiting to board the plane. If the diamond medallion people are not permitted to board, then what hope is there for the rest of us? We have spent as much time as anyone following the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of air. We have gratified the cravings of our sinful natures, followed our desires, and lived as objects of God’s wrath as long as anyone else. If the diamond medallion people can’t get on the plan, how can we?

But Isaiah, like a good gate agent, eases our anxiety by reminding us that the gospel promises he wrote about scarlet sins becoming white as snow because a virgin gave birth to a child who was pierced to pay for sin and crushed to take away iniquity were not restricted to the nation of Israel. Rather the Lord sent men like saint Paul to share those gospel promises with the gentile nations. He sent them “19… to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands”, eventually He sent of them to lands not yet discovered like the Americas so that they, so that we too could hear of the Lord’s fame, see the Lord’s glory, and worship on the Lord’s holy mountain. And to further ease our anxiety Isaiah tells us though we are the last and the least to be called, gathered, and enlightened the Lord even “21… selects some of them (us) to be priests and Levites”

As we stand at the gate ready to board AW flight 77 bound for the New Jerusalem our gate agent reminds us it is not our diamond medallion status that gets us on the plane, it is God’s grace. It is because of God’s grace we the members of the Gentile nations are able to board the plane in the first place. And it is because of God’s grace that we do exactly that, we board the plane in the first place. Because of God’s grace we are among the first to board the plane. This makes no sense to us at first but then we remember in a regular airport it is not the diamond medallion passengers who are the first to board the plane. It is the weak little old lady in the wheelchair, the frail gentleman pushing a walker, the gimpy lady with crutches, and the helpless child in the stroller. When we remember it is the weak and frail, the gimpy and the helpless that truly have priority boarding, it makes perfect sense that we should be among the first to board.

The next time you find yourself at an airport getting ready to board a plan I want you to think of what Jesus says about the narrow door. And as the gate agent gives priority boarding to the weak and pale, gimpy and helpless, I want you to give thanks to your God of grace who through the virgin’s Son has given priority boarding to people like you and me. Amen

[1] Luke 13:22-30

[2] Isaiah 1:18

[3] Isaiah 7:14

[4] Isaiah 53:5

[5] Luke 13:26

[6] Isaiah 66:4