The inspiration for the name of this blog is a common refrain from the Old Testament, but also imagery that can be found in parables like the one in Luke 13. It’s the image of the “straight and narrow” path of following God’s commands. The warning is that, to turn either to the right or left of that path leads into error, because there is a specific path God has laid out for us to follow.
Here’s the text in Luke 13 that reminds us of the narrowness of that way:
“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’
Luke 13:24-25
The panic of this scene is sobering. People who have wandered to one side or the other along their own ways suddenly find they didn’t end up at the door, and now the master has shut them out. This isn’t someone who stumbled along the path to the door (all of us stumble). These are people who thought their own way would lead there just as well and even now are demanding the door be opened to them, rather than come to the door humbly.
The Context
The context adds another serious message as well. This was Jesus’s response to the question:
And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”
Luke 13:23a
Those who wander off, believing they have their own path to the master’s home, will be many. His warning isn’t just that some people are in danger of finding a hidden way that leads to destruction against the well trafficked path to the Kingdom. He’s warning that the road less traveled will be the one that leads to salvation.
This offers a wicked appeal to turning aside from Christ (who is the way). Most people (even many who profess to believe) are walking the road of their own way. The traffic is following the cultural norms of our time as they swerve far off the path. Individuals are following their own understanding rather than trusting that God’s ways are enough, but even their own understanding is shaped by the collective ideas shared with fellow travelers of the wandering paths that do not lead to the Kingdom of God. There’s comradery on the path to destruction.
Not Entitled
But what about those who live like the world most of the time, but still attend church services?
Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place 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 but you yourselves cast out.
Luke 13:26-28
The Kingdom of God is not gained by osmosis. Neither feasting with or listening to the body of Christ is sufficient to get an “in” with the master of this house. There’s no “close enough” that earns us a path, because it’s not about what we’ve done. We either trust completely in Jesus, who not only died for us to not be punished for our former service to sin but has provided us with guidance in this life to live free from that service.
What Kind of Person?
After spending so much time describing how narrow the path is, Jesus knew his listeners may very well be picturing that only a very specific type of person could possibly make it. Maybe it’s only those from a certain culture or perhaps only the “pillar of the community” types from every culture. To put this to rest he concludes with:
And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
Luke 13:29-30
Where you come from or how successful you have been in this fallen world will not be the factor that includes or excludes you. The types of people you hang out with won’t either. It’s who you follow that matters, and there is only one right way. That narrow door into the Kingdom of God is Jesus, who died on our behalf for the sins that beset us from the moment we are born so that we could live a life free from bondage to that sin.
That narrow path is to walk humbly in the way he has provided for us rather than seek our own way, imagining ourselves to have come up with a superior solution to the one our creator gave us. Many are fine with a Buddy Christ figure who can help you out of a tough spot from time to time. Very few are those who seek the actual Jesus, who is Lord of their life.
Seek to enter the Kingdom by following the King!
