Luke 13:23-27

“ Then one said unto Him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said unto them, 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 25. When once the Master of the house is risen up, and shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26. Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. 27. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. ”

The question of Luke 13:23 was to a certain extent a matter of curiosity. In such cases Jesus immediately gives a practical turn to His answer. Comp. Luke 12:41; John 3:3; and hence Luke says (Luke 13:23): “He said to them. ” Jesus gives no direct answer to the man; He addresses a warning to the people on the occasion of his question.

The Messianic kingdom is represented under the figure of a palace, into which men do not enter, as might appear natural, by a magnificent portal, but by a narrow gate, low, and scarcely visible, a mere postern. Those invited refuse to pass in thereby; then it is closed, and they in vain supplicate the master of the house to re-open it; it remains closed, and they are, and continue, excluded. The application is blended, to a certain extent, as in Luke 12:58-59, with the figure. ᾿Αγωνίζεσθαι, to strive, refers in the parable to the difficulty of passing through the narrow opening; in the application, to the humiliations of penitence, the struggles of conversion. The strait gate represents attachment to the lowly Messiah; the magnificent gateway by which the Jews would have wished to enter, would represent, if it were mentioned, the appearance of the glorious Messiah whom they expected. I declare unto you, says Jesus: They will think it incredible that so great a number of Jews, with the ardent desire to have part in that kingdom, should not succeed in entering it. The word πολλοί, many, proves the connection between this discourse and the question of Luke 13:23. Only Jesus does not say whether there will be few or many saved; He confines Himself to saying that there will be many lost. This is the one important matter for practical and individual application. It is perfectly consistent with this truth that there should be many saved. The meaning of the expression, will seek to enter in, Luke 13:24, is explained at Luke 13:25 by the cries which are uttered, and the knockings at the gate; and the meaning of the words, but shall not be able, Luke 13:24, is explained by Luke 13:26-27, which describe the futility of those efforts.

It is not possible to connect the ἀφ᾿ οὗ, when once, with the preceding phrase; the period would drag intolerably. The principal proposition on which this conjunction depends must therefore be sought in what follows. This might be καὶ ἄρξεσθε (not ἄρξησθε), Luke 13:25 b: “When once the Master has risen...ye shall begin, on your side (καί),...;” or καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ἐρεῖ at the end of the same Luke 13:25: “He, on His side (καί), shall answer and say...;” or, finally, and most naturally of all, the apodosis may be placed, as we have put it in our translation, at Luke 13:26, in the words: τότε ἄρξεσθε : then ye shall begin. The word then favours this construction. The decisive act of the Master in rising from His seat to shut the door symbolizes the fact that conversion and pardon are no longer possible (ἀφ᾿ οὗ, when once). What moment is this? Is it that of the rejection and dispersion of Israel? No; for the Jews did not then begin to cry and to knock according to the description of Luke 13:25. Is it the time of the Parousia, when the great Messianic festival shall open? No; for the Jews then living shall be converted and received into the palace. The words, when ye shall see (Luke 13:28), strikingly recall a similar feature in the parable of the wicked rich man, that in which this unhappy one is represented in Hades contemplating from afar the happiness of Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. We are thereby led to apply what follows (“when ye shall see Abraham...,” Luke 13:23) to the judgment which Jesus pronounces at present on the unbelieving Jews, excluding them in the life to come from all participation in the blessings of salvation. Gess: “The house where Jesus waits can be no other than heaven; it is the souls of the dead who remind Him, Luke 13:26, of the relations which He had with them on the earth.”

This Luke 13:26 indicates the tendency to rest salvation on certain external religious advantages: “Thou wast one of ourselves; we cannot perish.” Is there in the words, I know not whence ye are (Luke 13:27), an allusion to the false confidence which the Jews put in their natural descent from Abraham?