THE RISK OF BEING SHUT OUT – OCTOBER 27TH – WEDNESDAY (Lk 13: 22-30)

1. The Only gate to heaven is narrow. Many will try and fail. They think they know the secret entryway, but they do not. Their way of religious righteousness does not work. They must know Jesus, who is the only way to heaven. They must seek to hear, understand, and practice his word. This is the way of entry. Jesus’ emphasis was on those who fail rather than those who succeed and how they succeed.

2. The safe and secure religious traditionalist of Judaism thought they were guaranteed a place in God’s final kingdom. They thought everyone must submit to their religious rules and regulations to enter the kingdom. This automatically excluded all Gentiles who did not become Jewish proselyte. Now Jesus is opening the gates to them.

3. It is easy to think that, once we have made a commitment of ourselves to Jesus Christ, we have reached the end of the road and can, as it were, sit back as if we had achieved our goal. There is no such finality in the Christian life. We must always be going forward or necessarily we go backwards.

4. There are those who think that they will be saved just because they are the members of a society based on Christian principles. They might be enjoying the benefits of the society without personally contributing anything. We cannot live on borrowed goodness.

5. Gnashing (brugmos): grinding; biting in hostility and bitterness and indignation; spitefully snapping the teeth; rage, fury and despair because nothing can be done. A person’s state is permanently determined.

In our day today life we encounter two kinds of people, there are those who are self-sacrificing and generous and there are those who are very utilitarian in nature. People with utilitarian attitude, make use of people, things, circumstance for their own good. They usually target the first category of people who willingly give their time, energy and resource. But once the job is done, the utilitarian just ignore the persons who offered them help. They behave as if they have not seen their donors before. The only time they will recognize their donors is when they want the favour next time. Many people just made use of Jesus for their own benefits. They ate his food, got healed from their sickness, and obtained favours of every kind. Once their job was done they ignored Him and His values. Jesus warns these people that in God’ Kingdom their tricks cannot work anymore. Here the donors will reject these self-centred people.

Courtesy
Holman’s New Testament Commentary
The Preacher’s Outline and Sermon Bible
William Barclay the New Daily Study Bible