Strive to Enter by the Narrow Gate: A Meditation on Luke 13

And he went through the cities and villages,

teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.

Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?

And he said unto them,

Strive to enter in at the strait gate:

for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

When once the master of the house is risen up,

And hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without,

and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us;

and he shall answer and say unto you,

I know you not whence ye are:

Then shall ye begin to say,

We have eaten and drunk in thy presence,

and thou hast taught in our streets.

But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are;

depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,

when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets,

in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

And they shall come from the east, and from the west,

and from the north, and from the south,

and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.

And, behold, there are last which shall be first,

and there are first which shall be last.

Judgment is a difficult theme in the Scriptures for anyone to grapple with, but it is the subject which Jesus teaches on explicitly in this week’s Gospel text.  It forces the reader to wrestle with ideas of salvation and damnation, of time and eternity, and of one’s own place betwixt them.  In order to weigh such dire things, one must also begin to define the terms; what can “salvation” mean, and from what would a person be saved?  What is the peril which lies so close, that people would need to be saved from it?  How many means or preparation might be employed to accomplish this salvation, if it is actually worth accomplishing in the first place?  What kind of a return on investment is there, or is this salvation worth achieving if the alternative isn’t so bad?

There are many potential answers to these questions from a human point of view, but Jesus and His Scriptures have a very particular set of answers.  The human predicament is well documented from the beginning of the OT to the end of the NT:  mankind was made in the image of God, good and pure and holy, and in perfect fellowship with Him, sharing in His eternal life; by our own choice, mankind left that perfect fellowship of eternal life with our Creator, corrupting ourselves, and in our sin and evil have nothing left to inherit but death and eternal torment in hell.  As such, the gravity of our human situation could not be greater.  No matter how long or well we think our lives persist in this world, we stand on the precipice of eternity rightly condemned for the evil which courses through our veins, and corrupts our every thought, word, and deed.  Left unresolved, every man, woman, and child of every race and tribe from every corner of the globe shares only one eternal and unimaginable fate of being separated from the only true God and Author of all life.  This is the situation we find ourselves in, as our God has revealed it to us through His Prophets and Apostles recorded in Holy Scripture.

Having given us the knowledge of our situation and the dire criticality of our eternal fate, God also reveals to us the one and only way back into His fellowship of eternal life:  that to preserve His justice and truth, our sin and evil must be paid for; that no mere sinful man could satisfy the Law’s eternal justice for anyone other than himself; that only God could take upon Himself the penalty of eternal condemnation due to every human being who would ever exist, and having satisfied in Himself divine Justice, extend to mankind His divine Mercy.  This path to restoring our fellowship of eternal life with God was accomplished through Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, in the community of the Holy Spirit—Eternally One God in Three Persons, undivided and unconfused.  What the Son accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection (His Vicarious Atonement for the sins of the world, worked through the Cross He bore on our behalf) is nothing less than the salvation of all mankind.  He satisfied the Law’s curse of judgment for every person, and extends to every person the grace of forgiveness which is our restored life and salvation through faith in Him.  The Holy Spirit continues to bear witness to this Good News of grace and salvation through faith in Jesus’ work through His Cross, drawing people to Jesus through His Word.

In this context, we can begin to wrestle with what Jesus is teaching the people around Him about how many will in fact be saved.  Jesus knows our condition better than we know ourselves, and He knows that some people will simply refuse Him and His saving Word.  There will be people who appreciate His miracles, His wisdom, His model for life, His gentleness, and so forth, but who will not turn from their own evil and embrace His life changing—really, life giving—Word.  The faith which receives Jesus’ gift of grace and salvation is not merely an intellectual exercise or general appreciation of Jesus.  Rather, saving faith is a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit which brings about conversion in a hopelessly condemned sinner, raising such a one up by His power to turn from the ways of death and embrace the ways of life.  Saving faith believes, hopes, trusts, and relies upon the Word of Jesus as Savior and Lord, and such faith never exists apart from a life oriented toward Jesus’ Word in works of love and mercy.  The faith which receives salvation in Jesus is a miraculous resurrection of the individual into a new life which is marked by ever greater conformance of the sinner to the image of his Savior.

As in Jesus’ day when He taught the people around Him in Palestine, so too in our own day, there will be many who refuse Jesus’ grace because they really don’t believe His Word.  These may be people who are openly scandalous and evil, or superficially benevolent.  Regardless of the way such a person presents himself to the broader world, every sinner who refuses the salvation offered to him through Jesus chooses to plummet into the eternal fires of hell, because he chooses to stand in judgment before his holy God on basis of his own miserable life, rather than on the basis of Jesus’ satisfaction of the Law on his behalf.  To refuse Jesus is to refuse grace, and to refuse grace is to refuse life.

Once God has closed the window of opportunity for any sinner to repent, believe, and live by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ, there is no longer any appeal of the eternal sentence they have chosen.  Whether that time is closed by the moment of personal death, or by the imminent return of Jesus to judge both the living and the dead, no amount of self justification will avail before God.  Those who have rejected Jesus and His Word might want to be justified by the fact that Jesus walked and taught among them in their day, which is analogous to the way Jesus continues to walk and teach within the world today through His Holy Church.  The fact that we have been in the presence of Jesus and His Word, witnessed His miracles and lived among His saints does not save us from the just penalty of sin and death we all carry in ourselves—only His grace applied to us individually, received in individual living faith, can do that.  So to those who pound upon the locked door of His Kingdom still bound in their rebellious unbelief, God responds with the chilling affirmation of the verdict they have chosen for themselves:  depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.  I never knew you.

As frightening as the final judgment is, either for ourselves or the whole of humanity, we must remember that God never desires anyone to be lost.  He is the One who created us in His fellowship, and the One who came to restore that fellowship in Jesus.  He is the One who sends and preserves His Word by the power of His Holy Spirit, seeking to raise every wicked and evil sinner dead in their trespasses to a new and eternal life, forgiven and free.  He is the Father who loves the whole world so much, that He would send His only begotten Son, that whoever repents and believes in Him should never perish nor enter into judgment, but receive the full and free gift of eternal life.

Are there few who will be saved?  Jesus never gives us the number.  Rather, Jesus gives to every person exactly what they need to hear, that all people might strive and struggle to enter eternal life by the narrow and straight gate of Jesus Christ alone, who alone is the God of our creation, salvation, and preservation forever.  How will you receive His Word which calls you to faith and repentance, away from the fiery, gaping maw of eternal condemnation, and into the bliss of His eternal fellowship of life, joy, and peace?  Oh you, who stand on the precipice of eternity this day, hear the Word of God’s love and grace call to you this day in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that you might receive His gift of life by grace through faith in Him. Amen.His