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Luke 13:22-30 If you haven’t read the passage, check it out here:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2013%3A22-30&version=NLT
Although the kingdom will spread throughout the world and be felt in every corner of humanity, not everyone will enter. In fact, many won’t. Ugh. I’d like to skip this passage. Can we just have another story about someone being healed of leprosy?
Why would Luke include this discouraging message? Because Jesus said it, and if Jesus said it, we need to know about it. So let’s take a look at a couple of the ideas in here and see what it was he wanted us to know.
The kingdom of God/the kingdom of heaven: Jesus uses these two phrases interchangeably throughout the gospels. The kingdom, as I understand it, isn’t really a place. It’s a state of affairs that can occur anywhere in which God’s law, a reflection of his character, is the standard by which the citizens of the kingdom live. We need to be careful to distinguish between the Law that God gave Israel through his prophet Moses, and God’s law. The Law of Moses was a handbook which included all kinds of instructions about how to behave when laws were broken. God’s law, the kingdom standard, is a perfect reflection of his character. On earth it has only ever been perfectly observed in the life of Jesus. It is present in each person who has believed in Jesus and the sacrifice he made to give us membership in his kingdom. However, until a future time when Jesus returns and those who follow him are empowered to live perfectly like Jesus does, the kingdom will not be fully realized on earth. For now, the kingdom is realised in heaven, the place of God’s presence, and it is only dimly visible in the lives of those who follow Jesus as the Holy Spirit helps us live according to God’s standard.
The door: Simply, Jesus is the door. We are told elsewhere that there is exactly one name by which salvation is available. It is Jesus’ name. We can believe very sincerely in many things, but Jesus is the only means by which we enter the kingdom. This sounds very narrow and exclusive. It is. It is available to anyone who chooses it, but it is a narrow door. There is one way to salvation (entry into the kingdom of God) and it is Jesus. Why? This seems small minded and intolerant. Why would God make the door so narrow? Because without Jesus there is no door at all. The kingdom of heaven is a place of perfection. There is no sorrow, no pain, no malice, no selfishness. It is a place of peace, joy, and fulfillment. It’s a place we long for, but in which we cannot belong because we aren’t perfect and can’t be. Even the best of us can be hurtful and self-centred and ungrateful. We would ruin the kingdom just by being there. So the only way to enter the kingdom is Jesus. In the death Jesus suffered, which we will get to later in the story, he was punished for every evil thing that has been done by people. When that punishment is paid, and each future member of God’s kingdom accepts Jesus’ payment on their debt, we will be transformed into the likeness of Jesus. After our deaths, those of us who chose to believe in Jesus and acknowledge that he is Lord will be changed. Apparently just seeing him as he really is will completely purify us and we will be like him. We will be free from the compulsion to do anything that is not a reflection of the character of God. We won’t cause pain or sorrow or discouragement. We will be perfected and we will truly belong with God in his presence. It’s truly inconceivable. It’s impossible, and by trusting in Jesus and what he has done for us, it will happen. There is no other way.
God didn’t build a big wall around heaven to keep us out. THERE WAS NO WAY IN. Humans could not exist in heaven. Heaven was impossible to reach, but God wanted us with him. So he did the impossible. He made a door in an impenetrable wall. The cost was horrific. His son was falsely accused and executed as a criminal. His suffering was unimaginable because the excruciating physical experience was only a fraction of his suffering. God himself was torn, separated from himself. Don’t ask me how that works. Self-existence died. I can’t wrap my head around that either. I think the fact that I am unable to understand all that is further evidence that God is kind. I’m not sure my mind could grasp all that and remain intact.
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. Believing in him is the only door, and yes it’s narrow, but anyone can enter through it.
So when this random person in a crowd says, “Lord, will only a few people enter the kingdom?” Jesus’ response isn’t flippant or casual. He is urging his hearers. Enter through the narrow door. There is no other way. And Jesus knows many will try other ways. I think he is particularly heart broken over his own people in this passage. He knows that many who ate and drank with him and heard him teach in the streets of Israel will try to find other ways into God’s kingdom and will miss out. Once God’s offer is rejected and the door is closed, it doesn’t reopen. We enter when we are given the opportunity, using the door we are offered, or we don’t enter at all, ever.
Jesus knows that many will come from every nation and gain admittance to the kingdom. But many from his own nation will never come because they can’t accept the way God has offered. The kingdom was first made known to Israel. It was offered to them first. But many will never enter, and that breaks Jesus’ heart.
