The Savior for All: The Narrow Door

Luke 13 is the chapter of urgent warnings and surprising mercies.

Jesus is asked about disasters — were the victims worse sinners than others? He answers: no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. He tells the parable of the fig tree that has not borne fruit and is given one more year. He heals a woman bent over for eighteen years on the Sabbath. He pictures the Kingdom as a mustard seed and a small amount of leaven. He warns about the narrow door and weeps over Jerusalem.

The Savior for All is patient — but the patience has a limit. The door is open — but it is narrow. The Kingdom is coming — but it must be entered today.

Unless you repent

There are some present at that very time who tell Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

He answers them:

"Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

He brings up another disaster — the tower in Siloam that fell and killed eighteen people. Were they worse offenders than all the others?

"No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

The Savior for All refuses to let us use other people's tragedies as a way to feel safe. The right question after a disaster is not what did they do? It is what about me?

Every death is a warning. Every funeral is a sermon. The only escape is repentance, while the door is still open.

The barren fig tree

He tells a parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came seeking fruit on it and found none. He said to the vinedresser:

"Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?"

The vinedresser answered:

"Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down."

This is mercy with a deadline. The tree gets one more year. The patience of God is real — but it is not infinite. The Savior for All keeps the door open, but He does not keep it open forever.

A daughter of Abraham bent over

He is teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. A woman is there who has had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She is bent over and cannot fully straighten herself.

When Jesus sees her, He calls her over:

"Woman, you are freed from your disability."

He lays His hands on her. Immediately she is made straight, and she glorifies God.

The ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, says to the people:

"There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day."

The Lord answers:

"You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?"

All His adversaries are put to shame. All the people rejoice at all the glorious things that are done by Him.

The Savior for All calls a bent-over woman daughter of Abraham — and unties her on the Sabbath, the day made for setting people free. Religion would have made her wait. Christ would not.

Mustard seed and leaven

He says: "What is the Kingdom of God like? To what shall I compare it?"

"It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches."

"It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened."

The Kingdom begins small and hidden. It looks insignificant. But it grows into a tree. It works through the whole loaf. Do not despise the small beginnings of the Savior's Kingdom.

"Are those who are saved few?"

He goes on His way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. Someone says to Him:

"Lord, will those who are saved be few?"

He answers:

"Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able."

The owner of the house will shut the door. Those left outside will knock and say: Lord, open to us. He will say: I do not know where you come from. They will protest: We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets. He will say: I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in that place, when they see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God — but they themselves cast out.

"People will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God."

The Savior for All warns that mere proximity is not entrance. Being in the same town as Jesus is not the same as being in His Kingdom. The door is open — but it is narrow. The way in is repentance and faith.

Behold, some are last who will be first

The chapter has been a parable of reversal:

"Behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."

Those who assumed they were safe will be shut out. Those who came from the ends of the earth will recline at the table.

Herod and the lament over Jerusalem

At that very hour some Pharisees come and say:

"Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you."

Jesus answers:

"Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.'"

He has set His face toward Jerusalem. He will not be diverted. He will die where prophets die.

And then the lament:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"

This is one of the most tender pictures in the Bible. The Savior for All as a hen, longing to gather her chicks under her wings, while the chicks refuse.

"Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

The Savior weeps over the city that refuses Him. The door is open. The wings are spread. The only obstacle is the unwilling heart.

Closing prayer

Father, save us from looking at other people's tragedies and feeling safe. Make us bear fruit while there is still time. Free us, like the daughter of Abraham, from whatever bond has kept us bent for years. Pull us through the narrow door. Gather us, like a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and let us never be among the unwilling. In Jesus' name, amen.