The Narrow Door
22 He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem. 23 One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside. 29 They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom. 30 Behold, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.”
Asked whether few are saved, he changes the question from a headcount to an instruction.
One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them,
The question is speculative and is asked while he is traveling on to Jerusalem Luke 13:22. It wants a number, and the man asking plainly expects to be inside whatever the number is.
“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.
The answer refuses the survey and hands back a command in the singular. Whatever the total is, it is not the asker's business; the door is.
And the two verbs are not the same. Strive is the word for an athlete's exertion; seek is what the many do and it is not enough. The difference is not sincerity but effort applied in time — which the next verse makes explicit.
When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
The narrowness turns out not to be the main difficulty. The door is also temporary, and the account of those left outside is the account of people who arrived after closing.
Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’
Their claim is proximity, and every word of it is true. They shared meals with him and he taught in their town. It is the strongest case that mere association can make, and the reply is I don't know where you come from — twice.
There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside.
The grief named is grief at a sight, and what makes it bitter is who is inside: their own fathers, in the kingdom, and the people who claimed them as ancestors outside.
They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.
This is the real answer to the question about numbers, and it runs the opposite way from what the asker expected. He wanted to know whether few would be saved; he is told that people are coming from all four directions to a table he assumed was reserved.
"There are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last" Luke 13:30. Not all — some. The saying is a warning about the reordering rather than a rule that reverses every position.
settled What this mark means