Lk 13:22-30
22[Jesus] passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 23Someone 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. 25After 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.’ 26And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’
27Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ 28And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. 29And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
Discipleship Demands Discipline: In the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, the prophet relates three very important prophecies. First, fugitives from pagan nations will converge towards the holy city Jerusalem. Second, the pagans who come to Jerusalem will be sent to the whole world to preach the message of salvation. Lastly, God will take some of the pagans and make them priests and Levites.
Any right-thinking Jew in Isaiah’s time must have cringed in disbelief and considered this grand finale downright absurd. The Jews always believed that God’s predilection for them was something exclusive. The Jews believed that as God’s chosen people, they alone deserved God’s blessing.
Isaiah nixes the narrow-mindedness of the Jews by proclaiming that God’s salvation is meant for everyone. Jesus in today’s Gospel communicates the same message of universality. In the kingdom of God, Jesus says, we will find not only Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets. There will also be people from the east and the west, and from the north and the south.
Someone asks Jesus: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus replies: “Many… will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” He dismisses mere theological curiosity and addresses the more important issue of how one can actually be saved: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”
Jesus minces no words. He says that to enter the kingdom of God, a person has to struggle. One does not simply chance upon God’s kingdom. One cannot saunter into it casually, nor will it fall magically on one’s lap. Discipleship requires “discipline.” This word is mentioned five times in today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. Discipline describes the kind of struggle one must make for the sake of the kingdom. Hebrews reminds us: “Do not disdain the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart. Endure your trials as discipline” (Heb 12:6-7).
To be Jesus’ disciple entails listening intently to his message and striving to put his teachings into action. Our focus, however, must not be on our enormous efforts or on our success or failure to follow Jesus, but on the grace given by God as he shapes us into a new creation. Entering the kingdom of God is not the survival of the fittest, reserved only to the best and the brightest. God disciplines all people out of his great love for us, and his only aim is for our own well-being.
Discipline also happens when one learns how to handle trials in life. We do not rant and rave against them, but accept trials as a realistic part of our existence on earth. As the saying goes, “To one’s life, some rain must fall.” The discipline of Christ challenges us not simply to “make it through the rain,” but to see the rainbow after the rain and emerge as emboldened disciples.