Luke 13:
23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God.
- This parable can be mistaken as a call to works by Jesus. But, when we take a closer look at it, we find that Jesus is referring to Himself when He mentions the ‘narrow gate’
- (see: John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me)
- (See John 10:77 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep).
- From this we can gather that Jesus is calling us to strive towards relationship with Him. Make no mistake, however, that does take effort on our part, just as any relationship takes time and effort to flourish. We can’t just say we are married to our spouses and then hardly spend any time with them and call it a real marriage. We can’t just sire children, and not take time to instruct them and be present in their lives, and call ourselves fathers. They will likely look elsewhere for this desired relationship, that we failed to provide and nurture. Then, having found replacements, they will eventually close the door on us and tell us they never knew us.
- So, you might ask, what does Jesus mean by ‘workers of iniquity’? Doesn’t that imply “evil works”? Isn’t Jesus indicating that we are supposed to strive to do good works in order to enter into Heaven? The simple answer is no. The works will come as a result of our relationship with Him. Our spouses and our children will “look” like, in character, at least, the person who is fulfilling the role of spouse or father in relationship with them. We will look like Jesus when we are in relationship with Him. As a result, our works will be good.