That Narrow Door.

Luke 13: 22-30

Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ He said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us”, then in reply he will say to you, “I do not know where you come from.” Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” But he will say, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” 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, and you yourselves thrown out. Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’

“Lord, will only a few be saved?”  This question intrigued me because the Jews actually don’t focus on the afterlife and personal salvation but, instead, consider salvation a national or corporate concern. The salvation of the individual Jew is connected to the salvation of the entire people and Messianic salvation is the liberation of the nation of Israel from bondage plus a number of other benefits that come with the freedom of a nation. Neither do the Jews believe in the concept of original sin. Every individual is expected to act according to the precepts of the Torah and it is accepted that everyone sins (misses the mark). The remedy for missing the mark is atonement through repentance, prayer, good deeds and sacrifice. Individual goodness is desirable because it benefits the nation as a whole and the good of the community is considered more important than the good of the individual.

So, perhaps the questioner was confused since Christ was teaching that salvation was a personal matter. Or he could have been thinking about the Jewish belief that the Messiah would come to save the remnant of Israel, a precept taught by Old Testament prophets who believed that God would separate the evildoers from the good people of Israel. Those left in God’s care would be the remnant and perhaps there were some who were thinking that if Christ really was the Messiah, then the good would be separated from the evildoers. If this were so, Christ would only save the few – the Remnant.   

“The process by which this remnant is separated is likened to the gathering of grapes or the shaking of an olive-tree, the result being that some of the fruit is left. But though those who survive will be few in number, they shall be called holy… Many, even the greater part, of Israel will fall or be carried away. The remnant will be saved and will return. (Jewish Encyclopedia)

Whatever the questioner was thinking, Jesus’ answer indicates that he understood that the question pertained more to the Jewish national religious mindset rather than to the personal need of redemption. In the story Jesus tells, notice that the owner of the house is responding to a group of people. When he says, “I do not know where you come from,” the reply is “We ate and drank with you.” This is not the reply of a single individual knocking on heaven’s door; it is a company of people saying, “Let us in.”.

So, what was Jesus saying? He was saying that simply belonging to a nation or a particular religious group was not enough anymore. The point wasn’t that the owner of the house was so mean that he wouldn’t open the door to latecomers; it was that all those who were truly in sync with the house owner were already in the house and they were there not because of a corporate identity or even because they were pretty good people. They were there because they had a close relationship with the Master of the house. They knew him and he knew them. They had intimate knowledge of each other.

In other words, they hadn’t simply come to the house early enough - they actually lived there. The master’s house was their home. They not only identified themselves outwardly with the master, they were personally involved with him. They loved him, spoke with him, laughed with him, struggled with him, asked questions, listened to the answers and then acted upon what they heard.

The prophets and prophetesses of Israel were men and women who went beyond simply knowing the Torah and following its precepts. They had had ‘face to face’ encounters with the Lord. They weren’t always terribly pure of heart. They considered themselves poor material to become prophets. But they talked to God and listened to him; they heard his still small voice and allowed his immense passion to inflame their own hearts.

Jesus’ mission was to bring all people into intimate relationship with God, not just a few prophets and the occasional high priest.  All of us are invited to become priests, prophets and kings in the Kingdom of God. All are invited to the banquet table. All are invited to come home to the Father. Just because we are called Jew or Christian or Muslim etc. and have hung out wherever God is supposed to be found, it doesn’t necessarily mean we have accepted the invitation to enter into close relationship or to come home and live intimately with the master of the house.

In another scripture, Jesus said to the Chief Priests, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.’ (Matt. 21:31) Those who consider themselves members of  ‘The Chosen’ group or ‘The Most Acceptable To God’ crowd, whether it’s a whole faith community or positions of authority within that faith community, may be ‘the first who will be last’ and many whom we would not consider acceptable on any level because they are of a different faith or seem morally weak could very well be the ‘last who will be first’ in the house of the Lord. We can presume upon nothing except being deeply in love with a God who is full of grace and is in love with us.

Paul quotes Jeremiah in Hebrews 8: 8-12

“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord”, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.’ 

Do you hear the yearning in God’s voice?  Talk to him. Listen for him. Talk to him more than you talk to your spouse, your children and your friends. Depending on works, faith identity or proximity will not bring you home. Only relationship brings you home and a true relationship cannot be developed if you are rarely consciously present to the one who yearns for you.

Relationship is everything.