Thoughts for the Day

Someone asked Jesus, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ He said to them, 'Strive to enter through the narrow door; for any, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us”, then in reply he will say to you, “I do not know where you come from.” Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” But he will say, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” 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 you yourselves thrown out. Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

My 'grandfather' chair is very narrow, and unless you are fairly small there is no way you can sit in it. Because it's quite tall it looks bigger than it is, and many have tried to sit in it, only to find it impossible. Yet I can remember my grandfather Collier in the early 50''s sitting in the chair in a corner of the kitchen in London. He did a lot of hard manual labour and was thus presumably able to sit in the chair quite comfortably.

Jesus uses the thought of a narrow doorway in this parable to think about who would be welcome in the Kingdom of God. The questioner, we must presume, expected Jesus to say "Jews" since they were God's 'Chosen People', and must have got a great shock at the answer. There is no automatic entry for anyone, then or now, instead we must keep on striving. This word comes from the root of the same word as agony.

In other words having faith in Jesus and going to church is not enough. We must daily struggle - we must give our absolute all - we must be 'as fit as a fiddle' spiritually if we have any hope of being welcomed into God's Kingdom. Otherwise we shall never get through the narrow door, or like those who try and fit in my old chair we may be ejected!

Lord Jesus Christ,
You taught Your listeners
that entrance to God's Kingdom
was not automatic,
and that we might be turned away.
Help us to see that we must struggle daily
to be worthy of Your love,
and that entrance to the Kingdom of God
is only achieved through a life-long fight of soul and spirit.
Amen.