Jerusalem. That is where Jesus Christ was going. Luke mentioned Jesus going “on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem” (Lk. 13:22) [1] The Lord had an assignment in Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be the place where the central event of God’s unfolding plan of redemption takes place, and Jesus goes there to fulfill His messianic vocation. His mission there involved fulfilling what the Scriptures had spoken about concerning the Christ’s betrayal, death, resurrection, and ascension.[2] What better topic then to discuss on the way to Jerusalem than the saved who would enter God’s kingdom. If one supposes only a few will be saved, careful consideration is to be given on whether one is among the saved.
“Lord, will those who are saved be few?” (Lk. 13:23) Jesus’ first century Jewish audience generally believed themselves to be part of the few saved. For example, the Jewish apocryphal text of 2 Esdras states, “The Most High made this world for the sake of many, but the world to come for the sake of only a few…Many have been created, but only a few shall be saved” (2 Esdras 8:1, 3, NRSV).[3] The questioner likely presumed to be among the few saved in God’s elect nation of Israel.
Even today there are those who theologize about the identity of the saved and damned. One might point to a genocidal racist dictator heretic like Adolf Hitler, and say, “Well that bad seed has got to be among the damned.” Theological discussions are endless on who ought to be among the condemned sinners, and who ought to be placed among the blessed saints. Yet, Jesus challenges all to take a pause, and reorient our focus from considering who we suppose are the saved and the damned, to whether we know the way into God’s kingdom.
“Strive to enter through the narrow door,” says the Lord, “for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Lk. 13:23b-24). This metaphor of the narrow door represents the way of Christ. This narrow way would be inaccessible to those trying to make their own way into God’s kingdom.[4]
The Lord’s point is further underscored with this illustration: “When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from’” (Lk. 13:25-27a). What an embarrassing predicament. Not only would they be locked out of the Master’s house, but the Master denies even knowing them!
“Depart from me, all you workers of evil!” (Lk. 13:27b). Jesus’ words echo the Psalms wherein the righteous sufferer denounces wicked persecutors (cf. Psa. 6:8; 119:115; 139:19). Those excluded from God’s kingdom are designated “workers of evil.” Despite all external appearances, they were resistant to embrace the to the Lord’s call to follow Him. They grabbed for themselves food from the Master’s table, but they did not love the Master. The Master taught but they did not listen. Jesus cried out many woes about their murderous religious hypocrisy (Lk. 11:37-52 cf. Matt. 23:1-36). The ousted never knew the Master, i.e., they were relationally severed from Him.
Jesus then describes the perilous end to the wicked: “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out” (Lk. 13:28). Despite any connection to the great patriarchs and prophets of the Hebrew nation, pedigree and heritage never guaranteed those in Jesus’ audience a place in God’s kingdom.
Everything goes from bad to worse when the ousted are told: “And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God” (Lk. 13:29). The four directions symbolize the pagan people groups scattered around the world. Thus, they would witness Gentiles entering and feasting in God’s kingdom come. Such would have utterly shattered the expectations the first century Jewish audience who wrongly assumed their heritage and pedigree guaranteed them a place in God’s kingdom. Darrell Bock points out “the surprise in Jesus’ reply is not that access may be limited but who gains entry.”[5]
The place of weeping and gnashing of teeth points forward to the eternal conscious punishment of Hell. Despite all the resistance, Jesus still warned the religious leaders of the judgment that would befall upon them if they continued in their rejection of Him as the long-awaited messiah foretold by the Old Testament prophets.
“And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Lk 13:30.). This is the unparalleled surprising great reversal on who ends up being first and last in God’s kingdom. It is the unexpected twist in the likes of Aesop’s fable on how tortoise beats hare in the race. Those who are considered least significant or unlikely to inherit salvation may ultimately find themselves at the forefront, while those who presume their entitlement may end up the last in line. “When we come to heaven, we shall meet a great many there whom we little thought to have met there, and miss a great many thence whom we verily expected to have found there” says Matthew Henry.[6] This reversal challenges notions of merit and status being the entrance requirements for God’s kingdom, and underscores the importance of genuine faith in the Lord. It is the humble who are exalted (Lk. 14:11; 18:14; Jas. 4:11; 1 Pet. 5:6).
We are never really tasked with climbing our way up some treacherous path to find our way into Heaven so that we can finally meet God. Luke wants us to know that God has come down from Heaven to meet with us. God came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He calls us to follow Him. It is in our following Him that we find our way through that narrow door through into everlasting life in God’s kingdom. But this narrow door is inaccessible upon our own merits. Instead, this narrow door is found as we walk alongside Jesus. The Gospel of John tells us: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:12-13).
The message of the narrow door remains relevant today. In a world filled with competing ideologies and distractions, we are faced with constant choices about which path to follow. Will we prioritize our own desires and convenience, or will we embrace the challenging yet rewarding journey of discipleship? Will we follow our own fleshly dictates, or submit to Christ the Lord?
The Gospel of Luke calls us to examine our hearts and attitudes, ensuring that we enter the narrow door. We are invited to come along side Jesus, walk with Him, and experience the way of true fulfillment and eternal life. Any other way ends in peril. C.S. Lewis gets the point: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.”[7] May we always remember that in God’s kingdom, the last shall indeed be first, and the first shall be last.
— WGN
Notes:
[1] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016),
[2] Jesus already taught the disciples, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Lk. 9:22). Eight days later, Peter, James and John witnessed the Transfiguration, wherein Moses and Elijah appeared and “spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Lk. 9:31). The Lord would reiterate the same idea on a subsequent occasion, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” (18:31-33). After rising from the dead, Jesus reminds the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: “It is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Lk. 24:46-47.)”
[3] Recall also the words of Moses: “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut. 7:7-8).
[4] In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contrasts the narrow and wide gates: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matt. 5:13-14).
[5] Darrell L. Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, vol. 3, ed. Grant R. Osborne (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 245
[6] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 1873.
[7] C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York: Harper Collins, 1946), 75.
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