Lent Day Thirty One
“Luke 13:22-27 ”
Luke 13:22-27 The Passion Translation
22 Jesus ministered in one town and village after another, teaching the people as he made his way toward Jerusalem.
23 A bystander asked him, “Lord, will only a few have eternal life?” Jesus said to the crowd,
24 “There is a great cost for anyone to enter through the narrow doorway to the kingdom of God. I tell you, there will be many who will want to enter but won’t be able to.
25 For once the head of the house has shut and locked the door, it will be too late. Even if you stand outside knocking, begging to enter, and saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us,’ he will say to you, ‘I don’t know who you are. You are not a part of my family.’
26 “Then you will reply, ‘But Lord, we dined with you and walked with you as you taught us.’
27 And he will reply, ‘Don’t you understand? I don’t know who you are, for you are not a part of my family. You cannot enter in. Now, go away from me! For you are all disloyal to me and do evil.’” As I write this, it is anything but silent. Another of the seemingly endless winter storms is battering the world outside, and I can hear the wind howling through nearby trees and the rain lashing down and bouncing off the glass of the windows.
Sometimes when we have had a disappointment in life, such as when we did not get a job we wanted, people rush in to comfort us with the saying ‘when one door closes another one opens.’ Perhaps at some point it has been said to you. The phrase is attributed (although he did not use it first) to the inventor Alexander Graham Bell, because he saw the failure of an invention to be a gateway to a better one.
This is the opposite of what Jesus is saying in this passage, which can be a disturbing one to read. It is important to remember the context. There were always crowds around Jesus, drawn by the buzz of excitement and the miracles they saw him perform. Crowds in their thousands sat one day to enjoy the food miraculously provided from mere loaves and fishes. Yet in time those same crowds faded away, happy to receive some aspects of his ministry but pulling back when challenged to change. They were not prepared for cost or sacrifice. Later Luke writes about how one young man, rich in so many ways yet sensing his need for Jesus, came to Jesus asking what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus gently confronted him about his attachment to money, which proved too much for the man, who sadly walked away.
In our passage today there is a similar challenge. We do not have forever to decide to follow Jesus, and just being around him – in our context perhaps being around church, or Christians - is not enough. To follow Jesus is costly. What might Jesus be challenging us about as we make the Lenten journey towards Easter? Sometimes we choose to give up something, or to engage in acts of kindness. Yet there is a bigger question to ask ourselves. Are we delaying responding to something Jesus is calling us to? Or are there areas of our life that we are saying to Jesus ‘Not that part. I will follow you but only so far?’
This season gives us the opportunity to ask him whether there is something which – because he loves us so very deeply – he wants us to let him change.
A prayer: Jesus, your words can be tough to read. Help me not to be a bystander but to follow you with my whole heart. Help me to let you work in every area of my life. Amen
Jeannie Kendall
Jeannie Kendall grew up in Cornwall giving her an abiding love of nature. She worked as a teacher in 2 inner London secondary schools before working in 2 churches in various roles including running a counselling service and latterly as a Baptist minister. She is married with 2 adult children and 2 grandchildren. She currently is freelance, giving time to writing.