Through the Narrow Gate

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke:

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,
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.
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 where you are 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 where you are from.
Depart from me, all you evildoers!’
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
For behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last.”

Jesus didn’t answer their question.

The people asked him, “will only a few people be saved?” and he didn’t say “yes” or “no.” He just told them to strive to enter through the narrow gate, and that many will try to enter but will not be strong enough.

What is the gate? Jesus answers that in another place in the Gospels. “I am the gate for the sheep.” The name of the gate is Jesus Christ. Christ’s other names are Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace; He is also called Emmanuel, God-With-Us. Of His kingdom there will be no end. Righteousness and justice are His throne; love and faithfulness go before it. Those are some of the names of the gate, and you have to strive to enter through that gate, because there is no other way inside.

“Many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”

How many is “many?” who isn’t strong enough to enter and be saved?

That’s easy. Nobody is strong enough. Multitudes upon multitudes will try to enter, and they will fail. Some will climb the fence and fail. Some will tunnel under and fail. Some will try to walk around the fence and go somewhere else and fail, because there isn’t anywhere else. Still others, many others, will walk up to the gate and try to push it open of their own power, and they will fail. No created thing is strong enough to to enter. That’s not the way it works. You only get in because the Master of the House opens the gate for you, because He wants you to come in, because He loves you.

I think of the gatekeepers standing around that gate. You’ve known gatekeepers and so have I. These are the people who are certain they know the way in–the people who think they are on their way in and couldn’t possibly be left out, because they are the right kind of people. They are the people who inform you that you are out and you’re going to stay out. You’re going to stay out until you do exactly what they say, and then you’re going to stay out anyway because on second thought your obedience didn’t appease them. You’re going to stay out because you are not like them. You’re going to stay out because you’re a different race than they are, or a different social class; because you sin differently or are tempted to sin differently. You’re going to stay out because you’re too loud, or too quiet, or too broken in a thousand different ways. You’re going to stay out because you are inconvenient or strange and they don’t like to look at you. And all the time they y, too, are standing outside the Gate.

After they’ve cleared the rabble away, thinking they’ve pleased the Master by their actions, they will turn to go into the Gate, but they won’t be able to move it because nobody is strong enough. So they will knock.

I do not know where you are from, says the Master, because they are gatekeepers and He is not.

Now they are confused. We ate and drank in your company and taught in your streets. Because of their teaching, all the dirty people have been cleared away from the gate. Isn’t that what he wanted? Why can’t they come in?

But that’s not what the Master wants. The Master desires Righteousness and Justice, Love and Faithfulness. The Master is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, God-with-Us.

I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!

And off they go into the darkness.

And then the great miracle. What do we see inside the gate? There are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There are all the prophets who were stoned and driven away and thrown down wells for speaking truth to power. There are the rabble, the dirty people, the people the gatekeepers chased away, people from the East and West and North and South, seated at the Table of God. The last are first and the first are last.

We don’t know how many of those people there are.

Best to treat everyone as if the Master welcomed them in, just in case.

Whoever has ears, let him hear.

image via Pixabay