Bible Study series: Luke 13:22-30. “Struggle to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to go in and will be unable.” No easy believism, no sloppy grace. You hung out with Jesus? So what! Did you follow him?
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 13:22-30
22 And so he was going through towns and villages, teaching and journeying to Jerusalem.
23 Someone said to him, “Lord, are there a few who are being saved?” And he said to them, 24 “Struggle to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to go in and will be unable. 25 From the time the master of the household gets up and locks the door and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, “Lord, open up to us,’ indeed in reply he will tell you, ‘I don’t know where you’re from!’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 And he will answer, saying to you, ‘I don’t know where you’re from! Go away, all you workers of unrighteousness!’ [Ps. 6:9] 28 In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you are thrown outside. 29 And people will come from the east and west and north and south and take their places at the feast. 30 Watch! Some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22-30)
Comments:
This pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-coh-pea) or section of Scripture is about national Israel rejecting their Messiah and Gentiles later accepting him. But we can apply it to our own attitudes and refusal to repent.
22:
In Luke 9:51 Jesus became firmly resolved to go to Jerusalem, where he was destined to die. Here Luke gives us our bearings. Jesus is taking the long ministry route before he gets there.
Some translations have “town after town and village after village” or “city after city and village after village.” That translation is more thorough.
23:
The question this man asked is from a Jewish perspective before Jesus’s full story of redemption was revealed. “In Sanhedrin 10:1 it is stated that ‘all Israelites have a share in the world to come.’ Jesus’ audience sensed that his teaching was quite different” (Stein, comment on v. 23).
Salvation included a variety of elements: historically and culturally it is rescuing the Chosen People from the Romans. As to the soul it is God redeeming it and aligning it in a right relationship with him. In Judaism of the day, people believed that national Israel would be saved, with a few exceptions, like denying the resurrection or denying that the law came to heaven or occultic practices. So the man wants to know, after hearing Jesus’s warnings in the previous chapters, whether only a few in Israel be saved. Salvation is not automatic or broad, by virtue of being an Israelite.
Luke often introduces a teaching by a question (1:18, 34; 4:22; 10:29; 11:45; 12:13, 41, 13:1).
The verb for save is sōzō: Since the theology of salvation (soteriology) is so critical for our lives, let’s look more closely at the noun salvation, which is sōtēria (pronounced soh-tay-ree-ah and used 46 times) and at the verb sōzō (pronounced soh-zoh and used 106 times)
Greek is the language of the NT. BDAG defines the noun sōtēria as follows, depending on the context: (1) “deliverance, preservation” … (2) “salvation.”
The verb sōzō means “save, rescue, heal” in a variety of contexts, but mostly it is used of saving the soul. BDAG says that the verb means, depending on the context: (1) “to preserve or rescue from natural dangers and afflictions, save, keep from harm, preserve,” and the sub-definitions under no. 1 are as follows: save from death; bring out safely; save from disease; keep, preserve in good condition; thrive, prosper, get on well; (2) “to save or preserve from transcendent danger or destruction, save or preserve from ‘eternal’ death … “bring Messianic salvation, bring to salvation,” and in the passive it means “be saved, attain salvation”; (3) some passages in the NT say we fit under the first and second definition at the same time (Mark 8:5; Luke 9:24; Rom. 9:27; 1 Cor. 3:15).
As noted throughout this commentary on Luke-Acts, the noun salvation and the verb save go a lot farther than just preparing the soul to go on to heaven. Together, they have additional benefits: keeping and preserving and rescuing from harm and dangers; saving or freeing from diseases and demonic oppression; and saving or rescuing from sin dominating us; ushering into heaven and rescuing us from final judgment. What is our response to the gift of salvation? You are grateful and then you are moved to act. When you help or rescue one man from homelessness or an orphan from his oppression, you have moved one giant step towards salvation of his soul. Sometimes feeding a hungry man and giving clothes to the naked or taking him to a medical clinic come before saving his soul.
All of it is a package called salvation and being saved.
What Is the Work of Salvation?
24:
“struggle”: It means: “engage in an (athletic) contest … fight, struggle … strain every nerve.” I could add “strain every muscle.” So what does this verb mean to the original context and to us later on? Does it mean that we have to work our way into salvation, into the kingdom? Is it a physical struggle by religious activity and law keeping, or a mental struggle in the heart? What happens to grace in the struggle?
Jesus is about to tell him about the door, which is Jesus himself. He is called the gate in John 10:1-10, which equals the same thing. He is the access to the kingdom of God, as the rest of this pericope is about to tell us.
So why the struggle? Six explanations can be offered.
First, the door is opened from the inside, and it is narrow. God opened it. However, no one can stroll in and depend on national heritage. Jesus is countering the view that belonging to Israel means automatic access to the kingdom.
Second, striving parallels the struggle of listening, as Proverbs exhorts us to incline the ear to acquire wisdom (e.g. Prov. 2:1-5). One must be diligent to listen; one must struggle to listen and obey his teaching (Luke 6:46-49). Then God will gladly open the door to them who are not arrogant about heritage.
Third, repentance can take work for some people. Many people refuse to repent because it is difficult to give up sins. Capernaum and other cities did not repent, and Jesus denounced them for their refusal (Luke 10:13-16). Evidently, arrogance blocked their way in. They refused to struggle to give up their arrogance in rejecting their Messiah. In contrast, the sinful woman humbly repented, and Jesus said that her faith saved her (Luke 7:36-50). She entered the narrow door, while the unrepentant cities did not. Her struggle to give up bad things was still existed, but it was easier for her. She exercised her faith to repent and surrender. She did not have to do a lot of activity. Her mind was made up, and she expressed her repentance by moistening his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. But her sorrow and repentance came first.
Fourth, the struggle involves rushing to come into the kingdom. The door is about to shut. One must not sit at ease in pride and lollygag. Running to get into the narrow door is like an athletic contest, but the struggle is in the soul, not in a physical 100m sprint. Some people just struggle in their souls, while others give in easily. Will they make it on time?
Fifth, Jesus said that he was called to bring division in a Jewish family (Luke 12:49-53). Jews who converted their Messiah—and they should do this—would undergo persecution from within their own family. They might be tempted not to walk through the narrow door in the first place. This mental wavering and overcoming it also speaks of struggling to enter the kingdom. They struggle to overcome their family’s opinion and probable rejection of them.
Sixth, Jesus said that individual people must pick up their cross and die daily—surrender their entire lives to him (Luke 9:23-27). This dying daily to self or losing one’s self and changing involves a struggle not only to enter through the narrow door, but to stay in the kingdom.
In sum, the struggle is not caused by God, but by each individual who has to exercise his or her mind to change. Repentance means “change of mind.”
Bock:
Jesus exhorts his audience to labor hard to enter through the narrow door … The idea is not to work one’s way to God, but to labor hard at listening and responding to his message. The concept is very much like passages in the Proverbs that exhort one to incline the ear to wisdom and pursue it like riches (e.g. Prov. 2:1-5) … The narrow door imagery suggests that fewer may enter than expected. There is no automatic entry. The narrow (… elsewhere in the NT only at Matt. 7:13, 14) door, like the narrow way, pictures the way of righteousness or entry into God’s presence and blessing … Getting through the door presupposes favorable response to Jesus’ message (Luke 13:3, 5) … A door is often an image of entry into the banquet of eschatological blessing at God’s palace or is related to the image of the great wedding (Matt. 7:7-8, 13; 22:12; 25:10, 21; Luke 24:23) … The Lucan stress is not only that the door is narrow so that people come in the right way, but also that it is only open for a short time (13:25) (p. 1234-35).
It is an internal struggle, and only grace and the Spirit can lead and sustain people to overcome their refusal based on pride and sin. God wants everyone to enter, but he can see that everyone will not. He does not cause their refusal, which would make God to be the author of sin expressed in arrogance or refusal to come to him. Rather, everyone has access to the door, if he or she wants it. Sadly, however, not everyone does want it, out of their own free will. Refusal and acceptance implies choice built into those words. Therefore, the struggle centers on the will, not on law keeping within the old Sinai covenant. Will people drop all their mental baggage so they can enter the narrow door, or will they hold on to their mental baggage and be unable to enter through it? Grace is needed through the whole struggle. So in this pericope grace is not pushed aside, but is implied behind the scenes, as the rest of the post-Pentecost epistles, inspired by Jesus through the Spirit, teaches us.
“unable”: Jesus said that many will seek or try to enter, but they won’t be strong enough to enter? Why not? Self-effort does not work. So this verb teaches against working to enter into the kingdom by one’s own strength and will power. It is as if people are trying to scale a wall that cannot be scaled, when all they have to do is walk through the narrow door—through Jesus.
Stein is right: “The analogy should not be pressed into the idea that the difficulty is due to one’s inability to earn / acquire this right. The reason some are not able to enter does not have to do with being good enough but with the willingness to repent (cf. 13:3, 5), which they refuse to do. The main point of the verse centers on the need to make sure one is part of the ‘few’ who have through repentance and faith experienced God’s mercy and grace” (comment on v. 24)
25:
The time is getting short. Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem and die and be resurrected. Then the call of the gospel will go forth in Jerusalem and Judea and beyond. After Pentecost came, with the outpouring of the Spirit, many priests converted to the Lordship of Jesus (Acts 6:7) and so did thousands of Jews of Judea and Jerusalem (Acts 2:47; 4:4; 21:20). So many Jews will enter into the kingdom, but it will not be based on their Israelite heritage, but they will have to go through the narrow door by surrendering to their Messiah. And Gentiles will have to enter through the same door, too.
When the head or master of household (Jesus) says that he does not know where the crowds are from or have come from and refuses them entry, he is saying that they were not truly with him. He seems to say, “You seem foreign to me; I won’t allow you to take shortcuts. I never knew you to begin with, even though we share the same Israelite heritage! The door is shut and you cannot come in!”
This echoes Noah’s ark and the closed door (Gen. 7:16; 1 Pet. 3:20-21). It was too late for those outside it, and Christ is our ark today.
“The door into the banquet will be forever shut” (Bock, p. 1236).
26:
Then the crowds will begin to say, “Hey, wait a second! You don’t know where we are from? We ate and drank with you. You taught in our streets, as you went through our towns and villages. We’re not foreigners or Gentiles! We’re Jews!” Eating and drinking and listening implies fellowship as the crowds are doing right now. After all, Jesus is speaking to them, but are they repenting and obeying his teaching? The next verse answers the questions.
“It is significant that Jesus’ identity as the householder is made clear by their appeal.
Matt: 7:21-23:
21 Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one doing the will of my Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name? And in your name expel demons? And in your name do many miracles?” 23 And then I’ll declare to them, “I never knew you! Depart from me, you practitioners of lawlessness!”
The same idea is repeated here in Luke 13:22-30.
27:
Jesus will reply to their objections and pleas: “You may have listened to my teaching, and I showed up at your feasts, like at Simon the Pharisee’s house [Luke 7:36-50], but you did not repent and truly follow me or obey my teaching! Sinners and tax collectors did, however!” Then Jesus will add: “Depart from me, you workers of unrighteousness!” This clearly teaches that they did not repent.
“unrighteousness”: The negated noun means “injustice, wrong, wickedness, wrongdoing, unrighteousness.”
8 Righteousness of the Kingdom
The crowds of people who were tagging along and enjoying the newcomer—”what was his name again? ‘Jesus,’ was it?”—and getting miraculously fed bread and being miraculously healed, simply put, did not repent from their unrighteousness and come to a saving knowledge of their Messiah.
As noted, Matt. 7:22-23 says that some will claim that they have worked miracles and prophesied and expelled demons in Jesus’s name, but he will say that he never knew them, adding that they must depart from him, calling them “workers of lawlessness.” They too were tagalongs who did not know him intimately. Proof? They worked lawlessness, while doing those mighty works. So it looks like Jews were working miracles and such like, as was the man who was expelling demons in Jesus’s name (Luke 9:49-50), but they did not know. Jesus said the man should be allowed to keep up his demon expulsion, but Jesus gave no indication that the man knew Jesus personally. He was a distant follower of sorts. However, the man was at risk of being told to depart, if he did not come to follow Jesus fully and closely. The seven sons of Sceva cast out demons in Jesus’s name, but they were frauds, so demons attacked them (Acts 19:11-16), so they were not even claiming to be close followers of Jesus. But their episode still speaks of the danger of not following and knowing Jesus fully.
In any case, this passage speaks of Jesus’s authority to judge and exclude people. God will judge also, but apparently he will also deploy his Son to do this. Later on, Matthew’s Gospel will say that the twelve apostles will judge the twelve tribes of Israel (19:28), so they too are involved in part of the judgment.
Four-part series on how one should not practice lawlessness, particularly church leaders:
Warning to Evolving, Progressive Churches: Danger Signs
Warning to Evolving, Progressive Churches: Authority of Scripture
Warning to Evolving, Progressive Churches: Marriage and Sex
Warning to Evolving, Progressive Churches: Judgment Is Coming
28:
Jesus is speaking to a Jewish audience, so of course he will use the three patriarchs and the prophets as leaders up in paradise or some place of bliss, in Abraham’s bosom. But where is “there” for those who have not repented? It is outside the door. Matthew says that these rejected people—rejected only because they rejected the Messiah first—will be cast in outer darkness (8:11-12). This verse in Luke also speaks of people being thrown outside, as if Jesus and his angels were “bouncers” at a feast, and people who did not belong were trying to get in. The bouncers told them the door is shut. Yes, Jesus will exclude people who do not surrender to him and struggle to walk through the narrow door. But the good news is that anyone can walk through the door, because it is opened from the inside, and it always remains open, until final judgment.
“in that place”: The Greek says ekei (pronounced eh-kay), which means “there” or “that place.” Here it is more awkwardly but accurate: “The weeping and the gnashing will be there.” The standard translation (“there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth)” makes “there” into the wrong kind of adverb, or at least it is not clear in English. The clearer translation is as I have it.
Weeping and gnashing or grinding of teeth speaks of anguish and remorse and a traumatic reaction (Bock). It describes mourning, rage and despair. (See these verses for gnashing: Acts 7:54; Job 16:9; Pss. 34:16; 36:12; 112:10; Lam. 2:16). Gnashing or grinding teeth may refer to the enraged baring their teeth or despairing gnashing of teeth of the damned (Lane). Weeping expresses despairing remorse, while gnashing teeth means rage (Marshall). Matthew uses it often (8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). Since weeping indicates remorse, the idea that hell is locked on the inside because people want to be there is not quite accurate.
29:
This verse tells us that the whole world, broadly speaking, will come into the kingdom. Gentiles will be allowed in because they have no nothing to lose. They don’t have an Israelite heritage to lose. All they have to do is give up their paganism and sin and degradation—so the new life is better than their old one. They will surrender in greater numbers than the Jews, even on a percentage basis, in the Greco-Roman provinces in the first century and eventually around the globe
The main thrust of God’s plan today is about the Gentiles. Now they are destined to take the gospel to the whole world, including Israel. Messianic Jews (those who have converted to the Messiah) are included in God’s global project of taking the gospel to the world, as well. And the resurrected Jesus guides everything from heaven and by his Spirit in his church, both redeemed or saved Gentiles and redeemed or saved Jews.
Remember: Jesus had said that he was called to bring division in the family (Luke 12:49-53). So Messianic Jews will have to struggle to overcome persecution within their own family and community.
“As Acts 10-11 makes clear, God’s active work is required to actualize the universal implications in the passage. A pattern in God’s salvific [saving] activity is alluded to here; but the patterns has a surprising feature, a feature that would shock Jesus’ Jewish audience. The gathering of people from every nation and race for the banquet has not been anticipated” (Bock, p. 1239).
Life in the kingdom is often depicted as a great banquet feast (e.g. Luke 14:7-11; 12-24; 15:32), which speaks of fulfillment and satisfaction and victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. It usually denotes the new eschatological age, but the feast can start now, for those who are intimate with Jesus.
30:
Here is the culmination or payoff verse. In Luke 1:51-53, Mary sang that the poor and humble will be exalted, while the rich and powerful will be demoted. In Luke 2:34, Simeon said that Jesus was appointed for the falling and rising of many. This is called the Great Reversal. And here we have it expressed in another form. Some who are last (the Gentiles) will be first through the narrow door and enter the kingdom, while some who are first (Israelites) will be last. In fact, the entire pericope taught us that they will be thrown outside.
“The absence of definite articles on the grammatical subjects of the verse shows that not all the last are elevated nor are all the first demoted, only some of them. Those who appear to be close may in fact end up far off. Some Gentiles who are distant will end up near, while many Jews will miss the promised kingdom” (Bock. p. 1240).
“watch”: it is usually translated as “behold!” See v. 11 for more comments.
GrowApp for Luke 13:22-30
1. This pericope speaks of going through the narrow door, Jesus. How did you enter? How much baggage did you have to give up to fit through the narrow door?
2. “Struggle” here can mean, among other things, difficulty and hesitating in repenting. Did your repentance and surrender take a short or long time? How did it happen?
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3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
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1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 