A Multitude No One Could Count

A Multitude No One Could Count

August 26, 2007: 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Isaiah 66:18-21 Hebrews 15:5-7; 11-13 Luke 13:22-30

To the church in the diaspora[1]
& to the church of the unchurched[2]

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “The door to heaven is narrow, so work hard to get in. Many, I tell you will try to get in but will not succeed. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know who you are and where you come from. And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know who you are and where you come from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ You will wail and grind your teeth as you stand outside and see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets within the kingdom of God. Yes, and people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south to take their seats in the kingdom of God. And note this: some who are despised now will be greatly honored then; and some who are highly thought of now will be least important then.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Introduction
An old question

As Jesus was headed towards Jerusalem someone along the way asked him, “Will only a few be saved on the last day” (Lk 13:22)? Down through the centuries that question has often been asked and variously answered. In the 1st century shortly after Jesus had ascended into heaven, a dispute arose in the early church, which occasioned a council in Jerusalem. Some Jewish converts to Christianity were insisting that Gentile converts could not be saved unless they were circumcised and followed the Law of Moses (Acts 15:1-35). If that’s true, then only a few are saved on the last day, for there is a whole sea of people out there who don’t follow the Law of Moses.

In the 3rd century, Origen (an early church father) uttered what became a famous dictum through the centuries: Extra ecclesiam nulla salus -- Outside the church there is no salvation.[3] If you can’t be saved unless you belong to the church, then only a few, indeed, are saved on the last day, for there are one billion Chinese out there who don’t belong to the church.

In the 4th century St. Augustine claimed that all have sinned in Adam, and that humanity has become a “massa damnata” -- a mass of deservedly damned people who have turned away from God. What’s more, Augustine claimed that by means of an utterly unmerited grace God has chosen only a few to be saved. The smallness of the number is God’s way of making it clear what all, in fact, deserve (De Civitate Dei XXI.12) . Gloomy, indeed!

Equally gloomy in the 16th century was the Protestant reformer, John Calvin with whom Predestination is associated. He claimed that God predestined some to be saved and others to be damned, apart from any good or bad they do. It‘s a scary thought. In his autobiography, John Murray, an Englishman who migrated to the New World in 1770, recounts a conversation he had one day with a staunch Calvinistic preacher.

He told me that he traveled nine miles on foot every Saturday to preach. I asked him, “How many people are in your congregation?” “About a hundred,” he replied. “How many of them do you suppose are predestined to everlasting life? “I cannot tell,” he replied. “Do you believe fifty are predestined?” “Oh no, not even twenty.” “Ten perhaps?” “Yes, maybe ten.” “Do you think the non-elect [the ones damned apart from any evil they do] can do anything to get themselves out of this terrible situation that heaven has decreed for them?” “Oh no,” he replied, they might as well try to pull the stars out of the heavens.” “And do you think your preaching can assist them?” “Certainly not. Every one of my sermons will simply sink them deeper and deeper into hell.” So, then, you walk nine miles every Saturday to sink ninety persons out of a hundred deeper and deeper into never-ending misery!

Murray was flabbergasted by the thought that the compassionate Jesus was overshadowed and overwhelmed in some people’s mind by an image of a God determined to prove his absolute power by exercising it arbitrarily. So he went to the opposite end of the spectrum. In the place of an extremely arbitrary God he chose an extremely merciful One. To the question will only a few be saved, he answered, “Everyone will be saved!” That’s called Universalism. Nobody is damned; everybody is saved!

In the late 1870s Charles Taze Russell founded a movement known as The Jehovah's Witnesses. It believes that the number saved is limited to 144,000 human beings – neither more nor less! That number comes from the Book of Revelation which speaks of a 144,000 “who had the seal of God on their forehead” and “who washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:1-14). Only 144,000 people saved, neither more nor less, is but a drop of water in the whole sea of humanity.

A silly question

“Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Luke has Jesus giving a chilling answer. “The door to heaven is narrow, so work hard to get in. Many, I tell you, will try to get in but will not succeed.” Here the Jerome Biblical Commentary takes pain to assure us that, “Jesus is not declaring that many are doomed from the very start, despite their persistent effort.” That isn’t much consolation. Jesus’ answer still seems to say that yes only a few are saved.

Fr Andrew Greeley (the famous outspoken priest of Chicago) writes that this is a chilling Gospel. Jesus, he says, sounds like he’s tired and in a bad mood and probably fed up with people asking him such a silly question like will only a few be saved on the last day. Greeley writes that if the people had heeded all that Jesus had told them about his Father in heaven, they would have known that God is nothing but forgiveness and love, and they wouldn’t have been asking whether only a few are saved.

Parables about the saved

What, in fact, did Jesus tell the people (and us) about his Father in heaven. He told them a parable which likens God to a father who had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Give me my share of the inheritance. I am going off on my own!” He took his share, and off he went into a foreign land where he squandered his money on loose living. He was finally forced to hire himself out to a farmer who sent him out to slop the pigs! While the pigs ate, he was hungry! That brought him to senses. He said to himself, “I will return to the house of my father, and I will say, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. Receive me back not as a son but merely as a hired hand.’” When one day the father spied his son on the horizon returning home, he ran out to embrace and kiss him. Thereupon he sent his servants to fetch a rich robe to cover his son’s naked body, a ring to adorn his boney fingers, and sandals to comfort his calloused feet. Then he ordered the fatted calf to be killed for a banquet to celebrate a son who had been lost but now has been found (Lk 15:11-32). That’s what Jesus told the people. They should have known that many more than just a few are saved.

He also told the people (and us) a parable about two men who went up to the temple to pray one day. One was a Pharisee (a stickler on minute religious observances). The other a tax collector (always mentioned in the same breath with sinners (Lk 5:30; 7:34; 15:1; Mt 21:31-32). The Pharisee got up to pray. He thanked God that he wasn’t like the rest of men, greedy, dishonest and immoral. The tax collector got down to pray (close to the ground where humility gets its humus). There he struck his breast and asked God to be merciful to him, a greedy, dishonest and immoral sinner. When the sun set that day, Jesus says the tax collector (the sinner), not the Pharisee (the religious guy) went home that night justified (set right, saved) in the eyes of the Father in heaven. (Lk 18:9-14). That’s what Jesus told the people. They should have known that many more than just a few are saved.

Jesus also told the chief priests and the elders of the people (and us) a parable of about a father who had two sons. He asked the older one to go work in the vineyard. The kid shouted at his father, “No sir! I’m not going!” But later he calmed down, repented and went to work in the vineyard. Then the father went to the other son and asked the same of him. Pacifying his father the kid responded, “Yes sir! I’m going!” But he never went! Jesus delivers the punch of the parable, saying, “When John the Baptist told you chief priests and elders to repent and turn to God, you wouldn’t. When he told tax collectors and prostitutes to repent, they did. I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes well get into heaven before you do” (Lk 21:28-32). That’s what Jesus told the people. They should have known that many more than just a few are saved.

Jesus told the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were scandalized that Jesus welcomed and even ate with tax collectors and sinners a parable. “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and one of them strays and gets lost -- what do you do? You leave the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost until you find it. When you find it, you are so happy that you put it on your shoulder and carry it back home. Then you call your friends and neighbors together and say to them, `I’m so happy I’ve found my lost sheep. Let’s celebrate!’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who have no need of repentance”(Lk 15:1-7). That’s what Jesus told the people. They should have known that many more than just a few are saved.

A multitude no one could count

November 1st is the Feast of All Saints. Its first reading from the Book of Revelation liturgically answers the question will only a few be saved on the last day? “I, John, heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal of the living God—one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel….After this I looked and there before me stood a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe and language… (Rev 7:4, 9). The gospel for the feast also answers the question will only a few be saved on the last day? Its litany of beatitudes declares as blessed and saved the poor and the hungry of this world. It declares as blessed and saved all those who mourn and all those who make peace. That, indeed, is a multitude which no one can count (Mt 5:1-12).

Conclusion
A multitude no one could count

Will only a few be saved on the last day? Who is right? The Calvinist preacher who claimed that only ten out of his hundred parishioners were saved? Or is John Murray right? Flabbergasted by the thought that the compassionate Jesus was overshadowed by an image of God who proves his absolute power by exercising it arbitrarily he moved to the other side of the spectrum. He declared that all are saved. Murray seems more right than the Calvinist preacher. He’s much more in symphony with the spirit of the New Testament which reflects a compassionate Jesus who tells us parables about a prodigal son who returns to the house of his father, and about a humble tax collector who bows low to the ground and ask for mercy, and about repentant prostitutes who turn their lives around, and about stray sheep which shepherds lovingly seek and save.

In our moments of self-doubt or guilt or fear of our sins and mistakes, don’t feed on the gloom of a doom’s day preacher. Instead, quicken yourself with the optimism of a John Murray. He is more in symphony with the compassionate Jesus. He is more in symphony with the gospel which is good news. The preacher’s ten only saved out of a hundred isn’t good news, but Murray’s hundred saved out of a hundred is, indeed, good news. Murray is more in symphony with Revelation’s “multitude which no one could count.”

[1] Diaspora is a Greek word meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile. It’s now come to mean the migration or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland or parish!

[2] By “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[3] Origen must have uttered that off the top of his head, for down through the ages it caused a lot of misunderstanding. Always embarrassed by it, we always kept trying to make it say something it does not say. At the end of the day, we should have simply ditched the dictum.