Jesus · c. AD 29–30
Chapter 41
The Narrow Door
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!Behold, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
For parents
This chapter tells of some Galileans who had been killed: Pilate had mixed their blood with their sacrifices. Jesus speaks of eighteen people killed when a tower in Siloam fell on them (Luke 13:1–5). Jesus is warned that Herod wants to kill him, and he speaks to Jerusalem, which kills the prophets and stones those sent to her (13:31–35). It also gives Jesus’ words in 14:26 as the text has them, without explanation: anyone who comes to him and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, and his own life too, can’t be his disciple.
Some of the people who were there at that time told about some who had been killed. had mixed their blood with their .
Jesus answered them, “Because these Galileans suffered like this, do you think they were worse sinners than all the other Galileans? I tell you, no. But unless you , you will all perish the same way.
“Or take those eighteen: the tower in fell on them and killed them. Do you think they had done more wrong than everyone else who lives in ? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish the same way.”
Then he told them a . “There was a man who had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came to see whether it had fruit, and found none.
“He said to the man who tended his vines, ‘Look, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree three years in a row, and found none. Cut it down! Why is it wasting the soil?’
“‘Sir,’ the man answered, ‘leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit, fine. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’”
On a day Jesus was in one of the , teaching. A woman there had had a spirit of weakness for eighteen years. She was bent over, unable to straighten herself up at all.
When Jesus saw her, he called her to him. “Woman,” he said to her, “you are freed from your weakness.” He laid his hands on her, and right away she stood up straight and praised God.
But the leader of the synagogue was angry because Jesus had healed someone on the Sabbath. He said to the crowd, “There are six days when people ought to work. So come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!”
But the Lord answered him, “You ! Doesn’t each one of you turn his ox or his donkey loose from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead it off to water? And this woman is a daughter of , whom had tied up for eighteen long years. Shouldn’t she be freed from that on the Sabbath day?”
As he said these things, all his opponents were disappointed, and everyone in the crowd was glad at all the glorious things he was doing.
Then he said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? What could I compare it with? It is like a grain of mustard seed. A man took it and put it in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”
Again he said, “What could I compare God’s Kingdom to? It is like yeast. A woman took some and hid it in three measures of flour, until it had all risen.” Three measures of flour came to a little more than a bushel.
Jesus went on through cities and villages, teaching, on his way to Jerusalem.
Someone said to him, “Lord, is it only a few who are saved?”
He said to them, “Struggle to get in through the narrow door. I tell you, many will look for a way in and won’t be able to.
“After the master of the house has gotten up and shut the door, you will stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, let us in!’ Then he will tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
“Then you will start saying, ‘We ate and drank right in front of you, and you taught in our streets.’ He will answer, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. All of you who do wrong, go away from me!’
“There will be weeping and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, , and all the in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves thrown outside. People will come from the east, west, north and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom. Look, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.”
That same day some came to Jesus. “Get out of here and go away,” they told him, “because wants to kill you.”
He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Look, today and tomorrow I cast out and heal the sick, and the third day I complete my mission. Even so, I must keep on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, because it can’t be that a prophet would die outside of Jerusalem.’
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her own chicks under her wings, and you refused! Look, your house is left to you, deserted. I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
On a Sabbath, Jesus went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees for a meal, and they were watching him.
In front of him was a man who had dropsy, a swelling of the body from fluid.
Jesus spoke up and asked the and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
But they said nothing. Jesus took hold of the man, healed him, and let him go.
Then he said to them, “If your son or your ox fell into a well, which of you wouldn’t pull him out right away on the Sabbath day?” They couldn’t give him any answer to that.
He saw how the invited guests were picking out the best seats, and he told them a parable.
“If you get an invitation to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the best seat. Someone more honored than you might be invited too, and the one who invited you both would come and tell you, ‘Make room for this person.’ Then you would move down to the lowest place, ashamed.
“But when you are invited, sit down in the lowest place. Then the one who invited you may come and tell you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ And all the others at the table with you will see you honored. Everyone who lifts himself up will be brought low, and whoever humbles himself will be lifted up.”
He also said to the one who had invited him, “When you have people over for lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives or rich neighbors. Otherwise they might return the favor and pay you back. But when you have a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind. Then you will be blessed, because they have no way to pay you back. You will be repaid when the righteous rise from the dead.”
When one of those eating with Jesus heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is he who will feast in God’s Kingdom!”
But Jesus said to him, “A man was holding a great supper, and he invited many people. At supper time he sent his servant out to tell the invited guests, ‘Come, everything is ready now.’
“Every one of them began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I’ve bought a field, and I have to go and see it. I hope you’ll excuse me.’ The next said, ‘I’ve bought five pairs of oxen, and I have to go and try them out. I hope you’ll excuse me.’ And another said, ‘I’ve gotten married, and that’s why I can’t come.’
“The servant came back and told his master what they had said. Then the master of the house was angry, and he said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, the maimed, the blind and the lame.’
“Then the servant said, ‘Sir, I’ve done what you ordered, and there is still room.’
“The master told the servant, ‘Go out on the roads and along the hedges, and make people come in. I want my house full. I tell you, not one of the men I invited will taste my supper. Many are called, but few are chosen.’”
Now great crowds were going with Jesus. He turned to them and said, “If anyone comes to me and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life too, he can’t be my . Whoever doesn’t carry his own and come after me can’t be my disciple.
“If you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and count the cost, to see if you had enough to finish it? Otherwise you might lay a foundation and not be able to finish, and everyone who saw it would start making fun of you: ‘This man began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or what king goes out to war against another king without first sitting down to think it over? Can he, with ten thousand, stand up to the king who is coming against him with twenty thousand? If he can’t, then long before that king comes near, he sends a messenger to ask what it would take to make peace.
“So then, any of you who doesn’t give up all that he has can’t be my disciple.
“Salt is good, but if the salt goes flat and has no taste, what will you season it with? It’s no use for the soil, and no use for the manure pile. It gets thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”