Proximity and Participation Are Not the Same
Listening to Jesus' descriptions of the Kingdom.
These are the kinds of passages, as I read the gospels over and over, that give definition to Jesus that is too often missing from popular Christianity. I don’t mean to sound exclusive here, or that I know some secret others do not. I have not discovered some new theology. What I am getting at below is readily available in the gospels.
Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God as something small. A mustard seed. Or, yeast worked into dough. It’s not overwhelming or obvious. It’s also not usually immediate. It begins in ways that are easy to overlook and unfolds over time in ways that are difficult to control. But they are possible with the right humble and attentive intentionality.
This alone challenges a lot of what we might expect. We tend to look for clarity, scale, and visible results. We want to point to something and say, “There it is.” And we want to easily replicate it in formulaic and marketable ways. But Jesus keeps describing something that works quietly, almost imperceptibly, and yet thoroughly.
And then comes the question about who will be saved. It feels like the kind of question people want a clear answer to in a number, a category, or a way to measure where we stand.
Jesus does not answer it that way.
He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door.”
The focus is not on how many, but on how. In saying, “Many will try and will not…”, it’s not necessarily that Jesus is saying those who will “get in” will not be many. It’s both possible that many will enter and many will not. But this is the thing: the number isn’t what is important. The gate is what is important. The means, the way, the manner of entrance. Jesus’ point here is that we could be surprised by it all.
What he describes is not casual. There is urgency to it. There are those who assume they belong, who recognize him, who have been nearby, and yet find themselves on the outside. Not because they lacked information, but because proximity is not the same as participation.
Slapping Jesus’ name on everything is not the way into the Kingdom. You can’t put the label “Christian” on something - or someone - and make it true. It must look like Jesus. And there are plenty of things that do not fit into the character of Jesus that are otherwise assumed to be within his Kingdom.
That may be the harder word here. It is possible to be around the things of God. To be familiar. To hear the teachings. To be part of the environment. And still not enter into the life Jesus is describing.
The Kingdom, as he has just said, is like something that works its way through the whole of life. It changes things from within. It is not something we observe from a distance. It is something we enter, something that reshapes us.
So the question is not really about how many, but whether we are willing to enter at all and let the Kingdom work within us and through us.
Luke 13:18-30
Jesus asked, “What is God’s kingdom like? To what can I compare it? It’s like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in a garden. It grew and developed into a tree and the birds in the sky nested in its branches.”
Again he said, “To what can I compare God’s kingdom? It’s like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through the whole.”
Jesus traveled through cities and villages, teaching and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”
Jesus said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow gate. Many, I tell you, will try to enter and won’t be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ He will respond, ‘I don’t know you or where you are from. Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ There will be weeping and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s kingdom, but you yourselves will be thrown out. People will come from east and west, north and south, and sit down to eat in God’s kingdom. Look! Those who are last will be first and those who are first will be last.”
Prayer
God,
It is easy for me to be near the things of you. To hear your words. To recognize what sounds right. To assume I am on the inside. But you keep pressing deeper. So show me where I am only close, but not actually following. Where I have settled for familiarity instead of transformation. Where I have used your name without taking on your way.
Give me the courage to enter. Not just to observe, not just to agree, but to step into the life you have for us. Form in me something real. Something that reflects your Kingdom from the inside out.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.