This Sunday is the 21st Sunday of Year C with the gospel reading from Luke 13:22-30. This section continues Jesus’ formation of his disciples for their time to take up the mission of the proclamation of the kingdom of God. Jesus makes several references to the seriousness of the proclamation of God’s reign and to the need for a sober decision of discipleship to undertake the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus, a journey that will end in suffering and death (9:22–23). 

The question that initiates Jesus’ response is short, pointed, and seems to summarize the unnamed disciple’s impression of the verses that have come before this Sunday gospel passage. A short summary of the preceding messages might be: (a) courage under persecution, (b) warning about foolish acquisition about what matters not to God, (c) remaining vigilant because judgment is coming, (d) reading the “signs of the time,” and (e) a direct call for immediate repentance. Is it any wonder that… 

²³ Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, ²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. ²⁵ 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.’

It has been quipped that most young people are said to believe in a hell where nobody goes. Among the middle aged there are those who think hell is largely populated by enemies. And among the old are believers who nervously wonder if hell might be populated by the likes of themselves. They, like St. Paul at some moments, consider the question of their salvation “in fear and trembling.”

“On the one hand, Jesus’ answer may seem ambiguous; after all, his first image, the narrow door (v 24), gives way to the door slammed shut (v 25), and, in the end, he acts as though there are infinite doors allowing entry to just about anyone (v 29 – people coming from East and West)! His answer may seem ambiguous in another sense, too, insofar as it appears to avoid the question about how few people might be saved only to focus on the many who will be lost (v 24)” (Green, 528) This seems to have been a common question as evidenced by the non-biblical “The Most High made this world for the sake of many, but the world to come for the sake of only a few” (2 Esdras 8:1)

It should be noted that how one reads this gospel passage depends on one’s view of  Luke’s soteriology (theology dealing with salvation especially as effected by Jesus Christ), in which the weight of emphasis is placed on the present which is consistent as Luke stresses the communal dimensions of the experience of salvation, inaugurated by a decision to reorient oneself around the purpose of God (repentance) and to join with the community of God’s people being formed around Jesus. For Luke, life with God in the eschaton is directly related to identifying fully, personally, and in the present with the redemptive aim of God manifest in Jesus’ mission.

Jesus’ answer did not likely comfort the person who asked. Rather than responding to the question of how few will be saved, Jesus remarks instead on how many will not be saved: for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. Strong enough in what way? Strong enough to revisit your understanding of the meaning of Scripture and the Law? Strong enough to risk ridicule as you follow the itinerant preacher from Galilee? Strong enough to persevere even during persecutions? 

To this image is added an image of the narrow gate standing in contrast with the broad way (e.g. Mt 7:13-14). This was an ethical teaching image common in Jewish and Christian thought (Jer 21:8; Ps 1:6; 4 Ezra 7:1–9; Didache 1–6) often cast as a choice between life and death. 

What was presented as a question about the future, is suddenly turned into a response about what is happening at this very moment. ““Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” As many commentaries point out, the verb tense of “strive” is in the present tense using a common athletic metaphor. Both Greek and Hellenistic Judaism used the term with respect to the practice of virtue and obedience to the law of God. [Green, 530] The image of an athlete striving to win a race is also found in 1 Tim 4:10; 6:12; 2 Tim 4:7.

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