Luke 13: 22 – 33
And Who Are You?
22 And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 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 yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.” 31 On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, “Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.” 32 And He said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ 33 Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.
We tend to talk a lot about heaven, especially when we are doing a funeral or memorial service. Yet, we all should stop and think for a moment about how we resist of wanting to get to our final destination. We cling to earth. Not so with our Precious Holy Master, He came here to earth to do a job of giving His life for ours and nothing was going to hold Him back from accomplishing that objective. He set His face for His goal and that was Jerusalem.
22 And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.
For it was what He would accomplish at Jerusalem that would cause the triumph - His precious sacrifice on the cross.
23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
The Lord refuses to answer their technical question (it was a popular question among some of the learned). Rather than thinking speculatively, they should be thinking personally. The question is, Are they themselves being saved? He therefore tells them to strive (agonise) to enter in by the narrow door, the door into the Kingdom of God.
The idea has been compared with what Matthew wrote in chapter 7 verses 13-14 which says, “13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” However, while the emphasis is similar, it still is not the same. Matthew is talking about passing through a gate with the purpose of walking in a way, and the emphasis is on the way. Here the emphasis is on the need for a decision to pass through a door. It is clearly a difficult decision, and the door is ‘narrow’ (stenos). Only few can enter at a time, and others are pressing in to get through it. The word ‘stenos’ is associated with the ideas of affliction and sorrow. It is a door that is demanding, and yet it must be entered before it is too late, and it takes effort. They must not be satisfied until they have passed through the door. This door signifies commencing the hard way of discipleship. It signifies thrusting all else aside. Nothing must be allowed to stop them entering it.
I am sometimes bothered by the ‘cool Californian Christians.’ I have come across them on various occasions where evangelism is like a game to them. The come to your city and after a day on the streets they gather and explain their trophies on how many people they ‘got saved’. Our Lord Jesus instructed us to go and be His witness. To ‘witness’ you have to be ‘with’ people. Not be a used car salesman. You need to love people into the kingdom. You need to tell them that everything is not going to be all rosy when they commit their lives and eternity to our Lord Jesus Christ. That there is an enemy that is going to attempt to have them reject the Holy One Who bought us with a costly price. Then if perhaps someone does want to commit their life to Adoni Yeshua, you have to take the time to raise them up [disciple]. You do not lead a person to Christ Jesus our Lord and walk away. It is kind of leaving a new born baby to fend for themselves. They will not survive.
We can compare here our Holy King Jesus’ declaration, ‘I am the door, by Me if any man enter in he will be saved’ listed in the Gospel of John chapter 10 verse 9. The idea is the same. Response to the Shepherd King assures salvation. They will, of course, then enjoy the presence of the master of the house, but that is not described here. The concentration is on the decision to enter, and the determined effort that they should put into it.
Please take note that then as now salvation was a gift. But our Holy Lord Jesus was making them aware of the final cost of the gift. It would initially cost them nothing, all they had to do was press through the door, but it would then demand everything. It is equally true today. Salvation is yours if you but receive Christ. The striving was because of the thought of what they would have to leave behind. There was no room through that narrow door for their baggage.
We should also note that there is only one door, and that a narrow one. In the book of Acts chapter 4 verse 12 it says, ‘There is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved’. There is only one.
Many non-believers give you the argument that they do not like the fact that there is only one way. My answer to them is this, ‘suppose you came down with cancer, and you found out that someone discovered the cure. Would you maintain the same reasoning. After all this one company is the only one that has the cure. No, you would run to get the cure, wouldn’t you?’
Now here our Lord next mentions something prophetic about the future. There will come a day when the invitation to come and receive the free gift of our Lord’s Salvation will be shut.
25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’
There will come a day when even that door can no longer be passed through. The implication is that it will have been closed. Hope will have gone. And men will seek to enter in and will not be able.
The thought of the failure to enter through the doorway into life now issues in a parable. But there is a change in thought here to a crisis point in the future. The master of the house has risen up and closed the door. And meanwhile there are those who want to enter the house, probably because it will provide shelter from danger. This parallels the inability to read the signs of the times.
People put off or delay the coming to the Lord. I am sure that you have run into people like this. They have not come to be made straight and delivered from Satan. And now it is too late. When they want His protection it is not available.
But what kind of situation would fit in with such a picture as our Lord gives us here in this Parable? The answer in fact lies in Isaiah 26.20-21 which says, “Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past. 21 For behold, the LORD comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain.”
Here we have exactly this situation. It is set in the context of the last days and of the Lord coming in judgment, and the command is to ‘enter your chambers and shut your doors behind you’ because of the tribulation that is coming on the world. This would exactly explain why the master rises and shuts the door, and does not leave it to servants. It is because danger threatens.
The point is that while it was day, and all is going well, people are in no hurry to turn their lives to Christ. They did not want entry. However, now danger looms, they desperately want entry because they recognized that His house would provide their only place of safety. Judgment is coming on the world and they have suddenly awoken to the fact that they have nowhere else where they can find shelter. All they have trusted in is now in vain, and the only one who can possibly help them is this particular householder. But it is too late, the master has shut the door until the danger is past. There is no place of escape. If only they had striven to enter while they were able.
Thus, those outside panic. Awful danger is threatening and they have no place of salvation. They knock desperately at the door and cry, ‘Lord, open to us.’ All too late they recognize the master’s status. But He replies that He does not recognize or acknowledge them. They have never been His, and He has no responsibility for them. They are as good as strangers.
Their desperate reply will be to try to call to His mind past times. They had eaten and drunk with Him, He had taught in their streets. They went to church twice a year on Christmas and Easter surely that should count for something. These act are not enough to impress our Holy Creator.. We must enter through the door of full commitment and yielding submission of ourselves to Him. We must believe in Him. We must open our lives to Him calling on Him that we might be saved and asking Him to do it. But we must ask Him before it is too late. Then He will work faith in our hearts and transformation in our lives.
His reply is simply, that He does not know from where they are. They are strangers to Him, for they are workers of iniquity. They have dwelt in places where He would not venture. They have done things that He could not condone. And by their behavior they have revealed themselves as strangers to Him, as having no part in Him. They are known by their fruits.
Now, the parable having been completed, the actual facts are now described. Having been refused entry through the door of salvation those who have refused to come to God by His ways will suffer the deepest possible regret.
28 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 yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
Those who have found the door closed against them will see all those whom they had previously honored entering as faithful servants, while they themselves are cast out and put with the unfaithful . They will be in such anguish at it that they will ‘weep and gnash their teeth’ This here is not a picture of Hell, but of deep and unbearable disappointment. It is also possible that the gnashing of their teeth in anger is at the One Who had done this to them. They turn their pleading to hatred and anger against of Most Holy and Blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
Apart from The Lord Jesus and possibly John the Baptist people had honored the memory of all these great men. But while they honored the faithful servants, they did not honor the lord of the house. It is their rejection of Jesus The Messiah which has sealed their fate. It is no good looking back to figures of the past if we ignore the One Who towers above them all and Who is present with us to save. Their chagrin would be increased by the fact that they had always considered themselves to be sons of Abraham and therefore heirs of his promises, and now they were to be excluded from them.
The statement ‘Yourselves cast forth outside’ is interesting. The fact that they are ‘expelled’ demonstrates that this is not talking about the door that they refused to go through, or the door that was shut against them. As they had not passed through those they could not be ‘thrust forth’ from them. So these words are not to be seen as a continuation of the parable, but rather as an explanation of the consequences. They will be thrust out from any hope when they face judgment on their future.
Besides seeing the famous saints of old it will be even worse for them as they see people enter while they are left out. It would seem as though the entire world was included, except them!
For at that final day everything will be turned upside down. The humble and rejected will be exalted. Those at the back of the picture will be brought to the front. Those who were God’s ‘nothings’ will become great. Those at the back of the queue will be brought to the front. While those who saw themselves as hugely important will find themselves ignored and left out. Those who sought the first place will be given the last.
31 On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, “Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.” 32 And He said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ 33 Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.
We do not know how genuine this warning was. Perhaps these were Pharisees who admired Him. But it may simply be that they hoped by this means to frighten Him off and prevent Him from carrying on with His work.
Our Lord Jesus replies without fear. As in His reply to John the Baptist He points to His signs and wonders. His reply is probably acknowledging that He knows that He will not have long to live. He has only ‘today and tomorrow’, that is a comparatively short while. Nevertheless He knows that it is within God’s plan, for its ending on ‘the third day’ indicates completeness.
We read in the book of Hosea chapter 6, “Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. 2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.
This would suggest that His perfecting at least includes the resurrection. Meanwhile He will continue His ministry, casting out evil spirits and healing the sick as He has always done. He will not be put off that by Herod’s threats. Let the fox bark as he will. And then in God’s perfect timing His career will achieve all that it has set out to do. He will be ‘perfected’, not at Herod’s choice but at God’s. To his listeners ‘perfected’ signified that He would consider His work complete, to Him it indicated that having risen from the dead as the perfect sacrifice for sin He would be enthroned as Messiah and Lord and share once more the glory of His Father.
