Main news for 22 August 2005

The Lord Jesus Christ spoke these words in answer to the puzzled question of a person unknown to us about the number of those being saved. As far as one can judge, the logic of the conversation, from which the evangelist Luke recorded only Christ's words, is this. The Lord says more than once that salvation depends on a person's thoughts and deeds, on the state of his heart, on his attitude toward God. He calls to repentance and correction of life, and it is obvious that without all this salvation is impossible. Many, though not all, Jews of that time believed that with the coming of the Messiah salvation would automatically be given to all "full-fledged" participants of the Old Covenant. In part such a view was determined by too primitive an understanding of the prophets' words; in part it was a legacy of the formal religiosity of the post-exilic era. In one way or another, the thought that salvation from sin and death would be given not to all and not automatically caused bewilderment in many, and even vehement protest. It is apparently in this context that the question addressed to Christ sounds: "Are there really few who are being saved?"

"For if those being saved are indeed few, if not all Jews automatically fall into their number, then I may not get in!" This is, apparently, the emotional subtext of the question. It must be said that "enrollment" among the saved by whole categories regardless of one's personal spiritual appearance is a very widespread thing, characteristic not only of Jewish thinking, but of human thinking in general. Responding to this, the Lord Jesus Christ shifts the conversation to a completely different plane. He does not offer new selection criteria for those who will or will not be saved. The Lord addresses the questioner personally, saying that salvation depends on the will and efforts of each specific person. The way of salvation must be sought, and the entrance into the Kingdom is a narrow gate that can be passed through only by making effort. "Struggle," says the Greek text of the Gospel; "labor in ascetic effort," the Synodal text brilliantly translates this verb. Thus the point is not how narrow the gate is, but what the person's own will and efforts are.