The Narrow Door

Once a man asked Jesus, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"  Jesus said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'  "But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' 

One of the things that struck me as I read this passage was the concept of the narrow door.  This is often where the focus goes when people look at this passage.  Whenever I’ve heard this talked about, it’s usually along the lines of it being difficult to find or enter through. And the focus is on what efforts we need to make to “earn” our way through that door.  But I think that this totally misses the mark. 

We are talking about entry to the kingdom here.  If we are going to have the image of a door, we have to think of a house.  Being the Kingdom, this house should probably be seen as a palace.  Palaces, which are grand houses, have several entrances. There’s the wide door, which is for honored guests, friends and relatives. And there’s the narrow door, which is the servants’ entrance. And this is what I think Jesus was talking about (and what would have been the obvious interpretation for his listeners). If we are to enter the Kingdom, we must not seek to enter through the wide door of honor, but through the narrow door of servitude.

Many will try to enter the house, Jesus says, but will not be able to. That is, I think, they will not be able to enter the wide door.  Why not?  Because those who would enter through the front door would enter the palace as those deserving the honor.  

Think about the end of the parable where Jesus responds to those who are offended by their inability to enter.  Why are they confused?  Because they saw themselves as being in the inner circle.  They saw themselves as the elect.  They saw themselves as those who somehow deserved special status.  “We ate and drank with you.  We walked with you and you taught us.  We are special”

But the concept of the narrow door suggests that the door into the kingdom isn’t for the privileged.  It isn’t for those who think they have special privilege, a special place.  It isn’t for those who think - because of what they know, what they have done, what they believe how they have behaved – that they they have the inside track to the kingdom.  Christ is reminding his listeners that no human being is worthy to enter God’s Kingdom as a right. 

In other words, no one gets into the kingdom through the front door. Instead people get into the kingdom through the side door.  Through the door of grace.  It is those who are not proud, not self-satisfied, not sure of their own deservedness (as compared to everyone else), who find that the door to the Kingdom is open.

In an odd paradox the people of privilege, it is those who see themselves as righteous, as those who are on God’s side (hey, God and I are “like this”) who find it hard to get in.  I have this picture of the TV evangelist, the super Christian, the person who is out there blowing his or her own spiritual horn, the one who is saying “I am on God’s side” standing at the front door, pounding, yelling… hey, open up, let me in! Demanding entrance and finding God not nearly as impressed with them as they anticipated.  And I see the sinners, the losers, the people who know they don’t deserve the kingdom, as quietly walking through the servants’ door into the kingdom, into God’s “space.”  Finding intimacy with the sacred through humility.

It is something to think about in this age when many are self-righteous, and attempt to use that so called righteousness as a club.