Twenty-first Sunday In Ordinary Time
LUKE 13:22-30
Luke reminds us that this section of his gospel is presented within a framework called “The Journey to Jerusalem.” The journey began in 9:52, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face for Jerusalem.” For this Sunday’s liturgy Luke writes, “Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.” Since a gospel is a book of catechetical instruction, the word “teaching” is important. The teaching of a given passage may not always be evident to us who are used to a different form of catechism. The form which catechetical instruction takes in Luke’s time is often that of a story. Today however it is a question and answer form, although Luke begins as one would begin a story.
“Someone asks Jesus, ‘Lord, will only a few people be saved?’” That question may be as troubling today as it was in the time of Luke. Many encounter this question in our time, perhaps in the form, “Have you been saved?” The concept of being saved was a hot issue during the Reformation (Revolution) of the 16th century. Reformers had various teachings about “being saved,” the most dreadful being the idea that God created some to be saved and others to be damned. Even Thomas Jefferson, a religious skeptic if anything, detested such a teaching as the worst idea that religion ever bred. From Luther and Calvin (and others) came the concept that the internal conviction of being saved meant that one has been saved. Though any idea presented by Christian denominations is “proved” from the Bible, the concept of such an absolute conviction that one is saved presents a problem for statements like Philippians 2:12, “Work out your salvation in fear and trembling,” and 1 Corinthians 9:26-27. The latter is cast in the terminology of sports.
Jesus does not give a direct answer to the questioner. He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” A parable follows as an explanation of the saying Luke attributed to Jesus. After the master of the house locks the door, “you will stand outside knocking and saying, “Lord, open the door for us.” The master of the house will refuse to recognize the petitioners. They remind him, “We ate and drank in your company, and you taught in our streets. This approach is also rejected, “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!”
Very harsh! What does it mean? Is salvation really that limited? Matthew 7:13-14 has similar words. When Luke and Matthew have the same material, they are usually drawing the material from the same source. This now lost source is called “Gospel Q” and its theology is often that of a “fire and brimstone preacher.” Such an outlook is a better fit to the personality of Matthew than that of Luke. Perhaps this is why Luke adds a parable — a banquet with Abraham, etc. — that implies a more universal salvation than is implied in the locked door and the narrow gate. In this parable Luke speaks directly to Jewish leadership that opposed the Christian movement as a heresy to be obliterated. Unless they change, they will not be part of the banquet with Abraham.
“There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out.” Here comes the universal part that is so dear to Luke, the gospel of the Gentiles. “People will come from east and west, north and south, and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” As St. Paul had done before him, so Luke also claims the ancestors of the Jews as the ancestors of the Gentiles. The parable of the master of the house excluding petitioners from entrance teaches that those who are excluded will be excluded through their own fault. Nor does Luke want his readers to think that the whole Jewish leadership is excluded from the banquet in the kingdom of God. This is why he next adds a story about Pharisees befriending Jesus with a warning about a Herodian plot to kill him.
ISAIAH 66:18-21
This reading echoes not the narrow gate and locked door of Luke’s gospel, but rather the universal salvation illustrated by Luke in the heavenly banquet to which people will come from all directions. This third part of Isaiah is especially known for teaching that all nations, “who have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory,” will be “brothers and sisters from all nations.” To such an extent will the nations (the Gentiles) be welcomed in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, that “I will take some of them as priests and Levites.”
HEBREWS 12:5-7. 11-13
This reading is a continuation of last Sunday’s exhortation to persevere in faith even under persecution. They had not yet resisted “to the point of shedding blood.” Today the author of Hebrews reminds those readers that the sufferings they endure are “a discipline of the Lord, for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. He scourges every son he acknowledges.” It is therefore no surprise that one of the Saints, told by Jesus that when she suffered most, he was closest to her, she replied, “No wonder you have so few friends.” The same could be said of the disciplining and scourging God of today’s second reading.
