Repent and Enter at the Narrow Gate, or Perish

Continuing a Bible study of the Gospels:

(Luke 13:1) There were present at that season some who told Him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

In the last chapter Jesus had been speaking to His disciples and a multitude of people, teaching them to be reconciled to their Lord and ready for His second coming.  At this time some of the present company told Jesus about a certain incident.  According to Biblical scholars, this was most likely about the Galileans who were followers of Judas of Galilee (Acts 5:37) who refused to acknowledge the Roman government.  There was an occasion recorded by the historian Josephus when Pilate surrounded and killed Galileans while they were sacrificing in the temple, thus mingling their blood with their sacrifices.

(2) And Jesus answering, said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things?"

Jesus perceived that their reason for telling Him of this incident was to pass judgment on the character of Galileans who seemingly sinned above all and received their just punishment.  He point-blank asked them if that was their supposition.

(3) "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish."

Jesus answered that was not the case, but unless they repented, they, too, would in like manner perish.  Indeed, they would.  The fate of those Galileans, killed while sacrificing at the temple, was an illustration of what was to happen to the Jews who would be slain in Jerusalem by Roman soldiers.  The broader point was that unless they repented of their sins, they would perish in hell for eternity.

(4) "Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were sinners above all men who dwell in Jerusalem?"

In this question of Jesus, He showed them that not only Galileans, whom they may have had contempt for, but also inhabitants of Jerusalem had died violent deaths.  Apparently, this was a recent occurrence that a tower which had been built at the Pool of Siloam fell and killed eighteen men likely as they were purifying themselves in the pool, which made this case much like the one they had described with the Galileans.  Did they also presume that those eighteen Jews were more sinful than the other Jews in Jerusalem?

(5) "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish."

Again Jesus told them that was not the case, and that unless they repented, they would all perish in the same way.  Once again, it was a picture of what was to come.  As the tower fell and buried the eighteen in the pool, so would Jerusalem fall and they would all be buried in the ruins of the city.  This may have been exactly what Jesus meant, warning them to repent before all of Jerusalem fell, but I can't help but think about it in a broader sense.  That's because, if there was someone in Jerusalem who repented and followed Jesus, Jerusalem would have still fallen and could have killed that innocent person.  Jesus said it rains on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45) indiscriminately, but the just will have eternal life whereas the unjust will be permanently destroyed.

(6) He spoke also this parable, "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit on it and found none."

Jesus then began a parable to illustrate His point.  He spoke of a man who had a fig tree planted in his vineyard.  He went to it to gather fruit from it, but there was none.

(7) Then he said to the vinedresser, "Behold these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none; cut it down, why let it cumber the ground?"

The owner of the vineyard spoke to the keeper of his vineyard, telling him he had been coming to that particular fig tree for three years looking for fruit and had found none.  He told the vinedresser to cut it down as it was taking up ground that a fruitful tree could use.  This was a symbol of God looking for good fruits from His creation, and finding none, wishing to destroy it and allow the more fruitful of His creation to take its place.

(8) And he answering, said to him, "Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig around it and fertilize it."

The vinedresser answered his master, asking that he allow the tree one more year.  He would work it, nurture and fertilize it.  The vinedresser is a symbol of Christ, the intercessor for us sinners, asking for patience while He was on earth to nurture and teach the sinners.  

(9) "And if it bears fruit, well; and if not, after that you shall cut it down."

Like the vinedresser for the barren tree, Christ the intercessor for sinners, asked for one more chance to allow sinners to bear the fruit of repentance, and if by then they did not, then they could be destroyed.  Interestingly, Christ's ministry was also three years like the time that the owner of the vineyard had been looking for fruit from the fig tree.  Still the Jews had not come to repentance, but Jesus in His love and mercy and patience, asked for more time for them.  Even at His crucifixion Jesus would ask forgiveness for the ones who crucified Him because they didn't know what they were doing (Luke 23:24).  However, after that, if they still did not bear the fruit of repentance, then they were to be destroyed.

(10) And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

Sometime later Jesus was teaching at one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day.

(11) And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bent over and could in no way lift up.

There was a woman in the synagogue who had a condition that kept her bent over and unable to lift herself up.  She had had the condition for eighteen years, but it did not keep her from attending the synagogue on the Sabbath.  I can't help think about what feeble excuses we might use not to attend church, but this woman went in her condition and received an incredible blessing as we will see in the next verses.  What blessings might we be missing when we miss church?

(12) And when Jesus saw her, He called and said to her, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity."

When Jesus saw the bent over woman, He called out to her and told her that she was released from her infirmity.

(13) And He laid hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God.

Jesus laid His hands on the woman, and she immediately straightened up and praised God.

(14) And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said to the people, "There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore, come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day."

The ruler of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath.  He seemed to be indignant at the people as well as he quoted to them the fourth of the ten commandments that men were to do their work in six days and not on the seventh.  He suggested people should come to be healed on one of the six work days and not on the Sabbath.  You would think that prayer and laying on of hands would be exactly what was expected on the Sabbath.  What Jesus had done could not really be considered work, but the laws had become so strict and cumbersome, they had lost all sense of their original purpose.

(15) The Lord then answered him and said, "Hypocrite, does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to watering?"

Jesus called the ruler a hypocrite and asked if he or any of them loosed their oxen and donkeys on the Sabbath and lead them to water.  That was considered work in their strict interpretation of the law, yet they, including the ruler himself who was being so hypocritical at that moment, would certainly do that.  If they would do good to water their animals, how much more good and proper was it to heal people from their infirmities when the occasion arose?

(16) "And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?"

Indeed, Jesus went on to say that as they would all loose their animals in order to water them, shouldn't that woman, who was a daughter of Abraham, one of God's own chosen people, who had been bound by Satan for eighteen years, be loosed from her bond on the Sabbath day?  After all, was she not worth more than the animals, as Jesus said in Luke 12:7, "You are of more value than many sparrows."

(17) And when He had said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.

When Jesus had spoken what He did, the ruler of the synagogue as well as other adversaries like the scribes and Pharisees who were surely also in the synagogue hoping to catch Jesus in the wrong, were all put to shame.  Whether or not they personally felt ashamed or not, they were surely disgraced and silenced as all the people rejoiced in what Jesus had done and said.

(18) Then He said, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?"

I don't believe this question of Jesus was made at the same time as when He was in the synagogue, but rather later or at another time, "Then He said...."  Jesus asked a question He would answer Himself, what was the kingdom of God like and to what should He compare it for His listeners' understanding.

(19) "It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and cast into his garden, and it grew and became a great tree and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it."

Jesus used this comparison to show that the kingdom of God was not a sudden perfection on earth that they might have believed it would be.  The people expected an earthly king Messiah who would set up His kingdom immediately.  However, He explained it was not like that.  It would start very small like the mustard seed but would grow to be enormous in the world and would shelter many who would take refuge in it.

(20) And again He said, "To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?"

Jesus asked the question again in order to give another example.

(21) "It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened."

Jesus said the kingdom of God on earth was like leaven, though small and perhaps seemingly begun in secret with a small few, would swell and spread till God's people throughout the whole world were leavened with the Gospel.

(22) And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.

Jesus went through cities and villages as He journeyed toward Jerusalem, and He took the time to teach people about the kingdom of God as He went along the way.

(23) Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them, (24) "Strive to enter in at the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able."

Someone among the people Jesus taught asked Him if there were only a few who were saved.  He told the people to strive, or be diligent about their salvation, striving to be Christ-like in communion with Him in prayer, in study of the scriptures, contending with Satan and the world that opposed salvation.  Jesus called this a narrow gate that many would seek to enter but would be unable.  The use of the word "seek" here bothered me a little because Jesus had said, "Seek, and you shall find."  However, God said in Deuteronomy 4:29, that one would find Him if he sought Him with all his heart and with all his soul.  I believe that is what makes it the narrow gate.  It's not enough to just say we wish to enter the kingdom of God and call ourselves Christian because we say we believe in Jesus and Father God.  We must truly strive to make Him the Lord of our lives proving we desire Him with all our hearts and souls.  Just saying we believe and continuing to live a worldly life is trying to enter by a broad gate that is not of Christ and His narrow gate.

(25) "When once the Master of the house has risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us,' and He shall answer and say to you, 'I do not know you where you are.'"

Jesus told them that once the Master of the house, meaning God in heaven, had shut His door, and people stood outside the door asking to be let in, He would answer and say He did not know them as His own who lived among His flock, as they came from the world.  Not only would people be unable to enter the narrow gate because they did not wholeheartedly seek the Lord with all their hearts and souls, but they came too late.  God said in Isaiah 45:23, and it was reflected upon in Romans 14:11, that in the end every knee would bow to Him and every tongue would acknowledge Him; every person would eventually acknowledge God, but it would be too late then.

(26) "Then you will begin to say, 'We have eaten and drunk in your presence, and you have taught in our streets.'"

Jesus said those people would plead their cases saying that they had been in His presence, if not with Him personally, in His church, and His word was taught in their streets.  They would say that they "knew" Him.

(27) "But He shall say, 'I tell you, I do not know you where you are; depart from Me, all workers of iniquity!'"

However, the Lord would reiterate that He did not know them where they were in the world.  He would call them workers of iniquity and would demand they depart from Him.  Most all the translations other than the King James Version translated Jesus's words as something to the effect of, "I don't know you or where you came from" or "I don't know where you come from."  The fact that it was said twice the very same way, "I do not know you where you are," or exactly in the KJV, "I know you not whence you are," I believe that is exactly what was meant.  The Lord Jesus knows everyone and He knows where they came from.  I believe the sense is that He did not recognize them as one of His own because of where they were in the world, living as the world and not as one of His flock.

(28) "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you thrust out."

Those Jesus told to depart from Him would find themselves wailing in anguish when they saw their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets who had foretold Jesus to them, there in the kingdom of God, and they were thrust out.

(29) "And they shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God."

Souls would come from all corners of the earth to sit in the kingdom of God.  This meant Gentiles would come from all nations to sit in the kingdom of God, but they, God's chosen people, would not be able to enter because they never really knew Jesus and He did not know them as His own.

(30) "And behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last."

By this statement, Jesus was telling them that the last, the Gentiles, the farthest removed from God, and the last to receive the Gospel after it was rejected by the Jews, would be first in the kingdom of God.  God's first chosen and the first to hear the Gospel would become last because they had rejected it.

(31) The same day there came certain of the Pharisees saying to Him, "Get out and depart from here, for Herod will kill You."

That same day some Pharisees came to Jesus and warned Him to depart from there because Herod would kill Him.  From verse 22 we know that Jesus was journeying toward Jerusalem, so He was not there yet.  Therefore this may have been Herod the Tetrarch of Galilee whose jurisdiction went no further than Galilee.  Perhaps it was of good will that some Pharisees warned Jesus to get out of Herod's jurisdiction, but more likely they just wanted Him to leave and that was designed to make Him leave, whether or not it was Herod who sent them.  

(32) And He said to them, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.'"

However, Jesus fittingly called Herod a fox as he was known as a crafty and incestuous prince.  He told those messengers to go tell Herod that He intended to stay and do the works He was sent to do for the short time He had left to do them, and on the third day He would depart for Jerusalem where He would be perfected when He died there.  Whether He would be just three days there before He was perfected, or rather what He said was to be symbolic of the three days He would be in the tomb before He rose again, the meaning was the same.  He had a short time to do His work and then He would be gone.

(33) "Nevertheless, I must walk today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem."

However, Jesus said that He would be walking toward Jerusalem those three days, though He intended to keep working His miracles as He journeyed.  He said that was because a prophet could not perish out of Jerusalem.  Obviously, it wasn't true that no prophet could ever perish outside of Jerusalem, but as that was where the Sanhedrin was which was said to be the only one to try and judge a prophet, that was where Jesus determined to go.  He did not fear death by Herod where He was and would not immediately depart, but He knew where He must go to die so He would be journeying that way.

(34) "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you; how often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!"

Jesus then lamented over Jerusalem calling it a place that killed the prophets and stoned to death those who were sent to it in order to save it.  How often Jesus had desired to gather the people of Jerusalem together to protect them as a hen gathered her chicks under her wings, as He had made three different trips to Jerusalem in order to do just that.  However, Jerusalem rejected Him.

(35) "Behold, your house is left to you desolate, and verily I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you shall say, 'Blessed He who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

Because Jerusalem rejected Jesus, it was then consigned to destruction, and would not see Him again until the time when its people would acknowledge Him as Messiah and Savior coming the second time in the name and authority of the Lord.  However, that would be to the posterity of Jerusalem's present people, when the time came that they might be converted in the latter days.