How Many?
“Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” On the surface it seems like a reasonable question. But Jesus rarely stayed on the surface of things. You don’t have to go very far to see the problem with this question. In fact, it looks far less attractive after just one word. “Why?”
If the answer is, “No, everybody is going to be saved,” then we have the green light to destroy ourselves and make life miserable for a good many others with wrong living. If the answer is, “Yes, only a few,” then we can go one of two bad ways with it but have gained nothing beneficial. We can think, “If only a few are to be saved I don’t stand a chance.” We can also think, “I knew it! I am one of the few. Too bad that most everyone else I meet is unworthy.”
Therefore, Jesus doesn’t really answer this question. Actually, He does answer it, but instead of giving a meaningless direct answer to a very shallow question He brings meaningful enlightenment to the essential question concerning who gets in the kingdom. He essentially says three things:
It is irrelevant to you how many are getting in. You need to be concerned with you getting in. The fact that the door is narrow doesn’t mean only a few will make it. It is quite wide enough for one and you need to make every effort to enter.
People are going to be quite surprised at who makes it and who doesn’t. I don’t think we really believe this. We tend to think the Jews are going to be surprised. I’m pretty sure Jesus meant that many are going to be surprised.
As surprised as we may be concerning who makes it, that will be mild compared to the surprise of how folks rank.
This is going to be good.
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