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.”
Apparently there were folks in Jesus day who, just like folks in our own, are very concerned with getting into heaven. And so one of them asks, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”
It’s hard not to hear that question and wonder whether another lurked behind it: “Lord, will I be saved?” Or perhaps the one asking felt certain of his own salvation but wondered about his neighbor. Or his family. Or those he liked. Or those he disliked. Perhaps, in other words, the question was both more general and bigger: “Lord, how does salvation work?”
However we imagine the intent of the question, Jesus’ answer is disquieting. The way to salvation – and we should keep in mind that the word we translate as “saved” also means “to be made whole” and “to be healed” – is narrow, challenging, not a given. Beyond that, oddly, Jesus doesn’t say a lot. Strive to enter by the narrow way. That’s about it.
Well, not quite. It won’t matter, apparently, if you ate and drank and hung out with Jesus. In short, claiming that Jesus was your BFF isn’t striving to enter by the narrow way.
What, then, is the narrow way? I suppose that if, at this point in Luke’s gospel, we still need to ask, we probably aren’t on it. Because from beginning to end Jesus is on the side of the down and out, the dispossessed, the poor, the sick, those in need. And as we go forward in Luke’s gospel, this theme that has permeated Jesus’ teaching and preaching from the beginning will only get more pronounced.
So does this mean that only the poor will experience salvation/healing/wholeness? Or only the poor and those who side with them?
It’s an uncomfortable question, especially for those who are middle and upper-middle class persons of privilege like myself.
I suppose I (and perhaps we?) can take some comfort in recognizing that this is just a sliver of the larger gospel and, indeed, the whole Bible. For this reason, we probably shouldn’t construct an entire theology of salvation from one remark Jesus makes.
I suppose we can do that. But I also think it might be worthwhile hearing that, to Jesus, the narrow way – the way God invites us to walk given all the other options that are available to us – is to care for those around us, to be generous with what we have, to recognize that blessing is always given to be shared, and to look out especially for those in need.
So perhaps the best way to address the question of salvation is to resist the urge to see it as a place or goal or prize but instead to reclaim the larger meaning of the word and hear it as both command and invitation to seize salvation, healing, and wholeness right now by joining ourselves to those around us and living into the kingdom and community of God that Jesus proclaims.
Perhaps the best way to deal with the question of salvation, that is, is to stop worrying about it and instead simply live as those people who are already saved by the grace of God and therefore free to share all that we have and are with those around us.
Prayer: Dear God, free us from worry about ourselves in order that we may give ourselves to those around us and especially those in need that we might experience your salvation, healing, and wholeness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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