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The Scriptorium

The Narrow Gate

It's the right gate. Luke 13.22-33

Luke 13 (5)

Pray Psalm 123.1, 2.
Unto You I lift up my eyes,
O You who dwell in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the LORD our God,
Until He has mercy on us.

Sing Psalm 123.1, 2.
(Darwall: Rejoice, the Lord is King)
To You we lift our eyes, O God enthroned above!
With longing gaze and heaving sighs we plead Your love!
Refrain v. 2
We look to You! Have mercy, Lord,
upon us by Your sovereign Word.

Read Luke 13.1-33; meditate on verses 22-33.


Preparation

1. For what did Jesus urge us to strive?

2. Why will some people be turned away from Jesus?

Meditation
Jesus was asked a question that He chose not to answer (v. 23). It was a frivolous question, and Jesus doesn’t deal in frivolities.

But Jesus used the question to springboard into a more important subject, that of not how many will be saved but who will be saved. The key is to “enter through the narrow gate” (v. 24). That’s not an easy task, however, as Jesus warns that we must “strive” – the Greek is Ἀγωνίζεσθε, agonizesthe, “agonize” – if we are to succeed. Those who will not strive, struggle, and agonize to enter will find the door to the Master’s house shut in their faces (v. 25). Then, though they appeal to past loose associations with Jesus – “We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets” – entrance will not be granted.

Why? Because they failed to strive to enter through the narrow gate – the gate of the knowledge of Jesus Himself (v. 27). Knowing Jesus is the narrow gate, and those who truly know Him do not cease to struggle, strive, and agonize to know Him better. Having tasted of Him, they hunger and thirst for more of Him. They “press on”, to use Paul’s language, to know Him better, love Him more, and serve Him more consistently with every aspect of their being.

Those who simply seek the blessings of Jesus – the loaves and fishes of their daily needs – or who may have read a little about Him, went to church, heard some sermons, or even participated in a Bible study group, and who think they can appeal to such tangential matters as true saving credentials, are in for a serious shock. While they’re pleading these secondary matters as their right to enter the Kingdom, from every quarter and sector of the world, humble, “least of these” people, whose only claim on the Kingdom is that they strove to increase in the knowledge of Jesus, will be zipping past them into their rightful place in His Presence (vv. 28-30).

Knowing Jesus is the narrow gate. Herod knew just enough of Jesus to want to kill Him (v. 31). But if demons could not resist His power (v. 32), puny Herod didn’t stand a chance. Jesus was managing His destiny (v. 33), not His foes, and not those who sought Him only for what He could do for them.

Are you agonizing to know Jesus more? Or is it just too much trouble?

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
There were, in Paul’s day, itinerant exorcists trying to utilize the power of Jesus to cast out demons. Among the most active of these were the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest. There came about a comedic interlude when the evil spirit of the moment said to them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” (Acts 19.13-15)

Indeed, even the demons know Who Jesus is, but they certainly don’t live for Him. They live against Him. Merely knowing of Him or about Him is not the narrow gate. Truly knowing Him enough to live and die for Him is what knowing Him is all about.

And this Jesus, Whom we know, was so intent on saving us from our sins that He set His face (Lk. 9.53), journeying toward Jerusalem (Lk. 13.22), toward certain torture and death. Then life.

He wants us to be as determined. “Strive to enter through the narrow gate” (Lk. 13.24), He said, because there are plenty of runners blasting through the wide gate. Don’t go there, He warned. “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on” (Prov. 4.14, 15). It’s crowded, don’t go there.

He desires us to travel the narrow path so that He doesn’t have to be the bearer of bad news. Worse news, it is, than an imminent atomic blast, or an impending financial collapse, or bad health news like you have heart disease or cancer. It is the worst possible news. Hear Him. “I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity” (Lk. 13.27). The worst.

The good news is that we can know Him and live for Him. Every day, all the time, from henceforth and forever (Ps. 119.112).

“No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31.34). Know Him and be forgiven. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (Jn. 10.27). Know Him and follow. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (Jn. 17.3). Know Him and receive salvation.

Traveling through the narrow gate with and in Jesus is not always easy. In fact, it may be extremely difficult in the here and now, as we live and anticipate the there and then. But for now, we stand firm in what and Whom we know. “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Tim. 1.12). Know Him and trust, serve, and obey.

Know The Narrow Gate to eternal joy.

For reflection

1. How would you explain to a lost friend what it means to know Jesus?

2. Why is Jesus the “narrow gate”, the only way to the salvation of God?

3. How will you expect to strive and agonize today to stay on the path that leads through the narrow gate?

why does Christ not answer this question? Because knowing whether there will be many or few who will be saved is a thing that does not profit us very much, but setting out the difficulty of entering into that life, and how few shall enter, satisfies the question indirectly and edifies the hearer by encouraging him to take the right path. John Mayer (1583-1664), A Commentary on the New Testament, Luke 13.23.1

Pray Psalm 123.2-4.
Where will the narrow path take you today? Whom will you serve? How will you stay close to Jesus throughout this day, to know His Presence and draw on His power? Pray your thoughts about these questions to the Lord.

Sing Psalm 123.2-4.
(Darwall: Rejoice, the Lord is King)
As servants strain to see their earthly lord’s command,
so we would in Your Presence be and firmly stand!
Refrain v. 2
We look to You! Have mercy, Lord,
upon us by Your sovereign Word.


Have mercy, Lord, we pray; our souls are weary, worn.
The wicked world condemns our way and heaps up scorn.
Refrain

Our souls are sore oppressed by this world’s ease and pride.
In You we would be healed and blessed, and in You hide.
Refrain

T. M. and Susie Moore

You can download all the studies in our Luke series by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by
clicking here.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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