The Narrow Door, Luke 13:22-30

In Luke 13: 22-30 we hear a question posed from an anonymous person in the crowd that is following Jesus on his way to Jerusalem: “Lord, will only a few be saved?” Jesus, in his usual way, turns the question into a teaching moment for the speaker, the crowd, and, of course, all of us today. He responds to the question using the rhetorical device of a metaphor. He compares the entry into heaven to a “narrow door” saying, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able” (verse 24). The questioner may have asked that question from a perspective that might be familiar to us today, that is, “If God is all loving and all merciful, then will not everybody go to heaven?” This logic fails, though, because it is missing one very important premise; the fact that God gave us free will.

Can we doubt that God’s desire is that all of us would be saved? God’s attitude toward us is not the problem here. God, in His inscrutable wisdom, has entrusted us with the great gift of Free Will. The problem to be understood in this passage, then, is what are the attitudes that we choose to have toward God and his commandments. The narrow path that leads to the narrow door into eternal life has been shown to us in the Gospels and the life of Jesus. It is up to us to choose it, to take on its difficult duties, to pick up our daily crosses willingly, and to follow him.

This question, and Jesus’ response, concerns the very core and meaning of what it means to live the life of a follower of Christ. To live the life that we are called to by Jesus Christ is not a passive thing, not a thing of comfort. It is not easy. It is much more than reading our Bibles in private, or going to Church on the Sabbath and coming away from those things with feelings of great comfort and consolation. If reading and hearing the word of God results only in the comfort and the pleasure of personal feelings, where is the life in it? If faith is only feelings, or an intellectual statement, rather than a way of life, what is its effectiveness, what difference does it make in me, or in the world? How does that build the kingdom?

When I walked the ancient paths of the Camino de Santiago in Spain two years ago, I began to see the Camino path as a metaphor for the narrow path that leads to the narrow door that Jesus is talking about here. The ancient paths of the Camino sometimes run parallel to modern highways. Those highways are wide and they connect people to the cities and towns with all of their amenities, their banks, shops, and entertainment quickly and efficiently.

On the other hand, the narrow paths of the Camino that have been shaped by the countless pilgrims over the centuries, are more often than not rough, rugged, up-and-down trails through a variety of terrains and landscapes. At times, you have to pick your way over stoney ground, or exposed tree roots in the forests. Along the Way there are several steep climbs into the mountains followed by equally steep descents. It can be sunny and hot as you walk your average 15 miles each day, or you may get caught out in the open by storms with wind and sideways rain, yet you just keep trudging along carrying your backpack, mile after mile, toward your goal at the end of each day and, finally, after more than a month of walking, to the narrow entrance into the great cathedral of St. James in Santiago de Compostela at the walk’s end. That Camino path, then, is a good metaphor for the narrow path that leads to that equally “narrow door” that Jesus is talking about in this passage.

Such is the path we must walk as followers of Jesus in order to be able to enter through the narrow door into heaven. Whether the door remains open to us, or is shut on us, will not be due to the arbitrary choice of God. It will be directly related to the attitudes that we have chosen to take toward God. Will we choose humbly to submit to the wisdom of God, or will we, like so many today say, “I will follow my own will! Or, will we be among the many who take the easy way, the wide highway, reading and hearing the word of God, feeling good and comfortable in it, but never putting into practice what was read and heard, because it was difficult and too hard. Might it be they who will say, “But, Lord, we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets?” Might it be they who will find themselves standing outside the shut, narrow door to the house of God, hearing the terrible words from inside, ‘I do not know where you came from?”