Read Luke 13:22-35
“Lord, will those who are saved be few?” While the question sounds abstract, what we often really want to know is much more personal: “Lord, will I be included?” Jesus’ answer does not offer statistics or reassurance in the way we might expect. Instead, He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
So we ask again: Will I be included? How does one enter through this narrow door? What is the “struggle” that makes it so difficult?
Throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus repeatedly confronts those who appear the most religiously successful—those who meticulously keep the law and therefore see little need to be rescued from sin. He rebukes leaders who know the Scriptures in detail but cannot recognize Him as the Messiah to whom those Scriptures point. Their confidence is not in God’s mercy, but in their own righteousness.
In the passages leading up to today’s reading, Jesus exposes clean exteriors that attempt to hide hearts corrupted by sin. He denounces lawyers who use the law to weigh down others’ consciences, yet refuse to let that same law reveal their own desperate need for forgiveness. This is where the struggle lies.
The narrow door is not difficult because God makes salvation hard to attain, but because our sinful pride resists it. The struggle is to live in repentance—to surrender self-justification, to abandon confidence in our own goodness, and to depend entirely on God’s grace. To enter through the narrow door is to confess Christ fully as Lord and as Savior: Lord, who rules over every part of our lives, and Savior, who alone rescues us from sin and death.
Prayer: Lord, help me in my foolish sin and pride. Draw me away from trusting myself. Lead me to lean fully on Your grace, to live in true repentance, and cling by faith to Your word and promises. Amen.