22 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 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.’
26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
Read Luke 13:22-30 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Like most passages in these journal entries, there are numerous ideas that stand out to me. Today’s entry is no exception. In this journal entry, we’ll focus on one of these ideas and what it means for each of us.
Probably the most unsettling verse in this passage is verse 25: “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.’”
This verse is very unsettling because it clearly shares that there will be a point in time where it will be too late to accept Christ. There will be people who thought they could wait, but then end up missing out.
What makes verse 25 even more disturbing is how the people respond in verse 26: “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’”
The people who are left out are very familiar with Jesus. They know who He is and they seem to have spent time with Him, but something is missing, and that something is revealed in verse 27: “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’”
This dialog leads us to the really big idea for this journal entry: It doesn’t matter whether we know Jesus; what matters is that Jesus knows us!
This challenges the idea of “once-saved-always-saved” that many Christians believe, or the idea that a simple prayer is all it takes. Having eaten and drank with someone says that they knew each other at one point, but some point in the past doesn’t mean that there is an on-going relationship in the present.
This is a challenging thought for me, because it pushes me to be a lot more intentional about my time with Jesus. Quiet time is a start, but for it to be effective, it must be “quiet time with Jesus”. Busy time is inevitable, but instead, why not make it “busy time with Jesus”. Sure the busyness might be jumping between work “emergencies”, but what would happen if you thought of it as time you are spending with Jesus, where the two of you are tackling the tasks together?
This is a novel, mind-stretching thought. However with that said, remember our big idea: It doesn’t matter whether you know Jesus; what matters is that Jesus knows you!
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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