To Stand Without

Although I have written on this topic before, I have some thoughts to express here on Luke 13:22-30.

While Jesus was going from town to town in his advance upon Jerusalem, someone asked him, 'are there many saved?' Jesus responded that we should strive to enter the strait gate. This is not where he compares the narrow way that leads to life with the broad way that leads to destruction. That is found in Matthew 7:14.

Here, Jesus explained that the gate would be open just a short while, and his advice was that they should seize the opportunity. Indeed, there was a limited window of availability. Once the gate closed, there would be no further possibility of entry.

This is actually a warning to 'whosoever will.' If you want in, don't let the door close on you. It is also a statement that defines the type of people who will be forever 'locked out of' the kingdom of God. While it appears, from the text, that Jesus is speaking directly to the Jews, it is more a model of the type that believes he or she has a golden ticket to heaven – an irrevocable surety.

Jesus cites the Jewish mindset inasmuch as the Jewish mindset rested in the cultural and blood connection to the patriarchs. The model, then, is a person whose rests in something of this world rather a spiritual reality. By this I mean such solid connections as lineage, religious order, Synagogue/church/Mosque and the limited laws, practices, or traditions of such.

The Jew believes his fast track into the kingdom is found in Abraham, the law of Moses, the Synagogue. The Christian holds his to be Sunday worship and tithes. The Muslim thinks Mohamed's teachings will bring him to paradise. There is all sorts of hand waving involved – or sword waving as the case may be. But Jesus says there is a very narrow window of opportunity that will not always be open.

Jesus described himself as 'the way.' That is to say, he is the way into the kingdom of God. That is an avenue not all are inclined to travel. I like to say that the way is only open to those who are open to the way. A major downfall of the three faiths listed above is the underdog. Every one of those three religions has an underdog. Sometimes, they are called gentiles. Sometimes, they are called infidels. They are the Samaritans, the dogs, the other guy. They are always that poor red-headed stepchild that just doesn't meet the standard.

However, according to the son of God, the major religions, who assume they have a sure in, will find the door locked. They will knock in alarm and make such claims as their connections allow. You taught in our streets, we are the children of Abraham, we obeyed the laws of Moses, we went to church, we killed the infidel. They will see the kingdom of God filling, but not with them. Others will come from the east and west, from every nation and people – and it will always be the red-headed stepchild.

If the way is open to all ages and times from the slain lamb to the coming king, how can it be also closed? The answer, of course, is that it is only closed to those who are closed to the way. The way is Jesus. I'll say it again – the way is Jesus. Yet, I even must warn the Christian. To the Christian I say, the way, the only way, is Jesus. That does not mean that repeatedly saying his name is a golden ticket. The only way into the kingdom is to follow the path that Jesus took. You have to be a Jesus.

And you can't do that with the mind of the world.