We have read many times already that Christ's Kingdom is not like all our human "kingdoms." It is like salt in food, like yeast in dough, like a seed in the ground that has not yet sprouted. It is real, but not visible to the "naked eye." It cannot be defined by our concepts, but its presence irreversibly changes this world.

That is exactly why it is so hard to limit "membership" in this Kingdom, however much "chosen ones" of every kind try to do so. The question asked of Jesus about the number of those being saved, that is, the participants in God's Kingdom, in essence means a demand to mark the boundaries of salvation: "who is inside, and who is outside?"

This question remains unanswered: instead of a limited sect, there is a call for everyone. Yes, entering by the "narrow gate" is hard, and the chance of being left out is quite real. But the gate is not closed; it is merely narrow. And everyone for whom this is truly important and necessary can find himself at Christ's feast with those who have also passed along this path.

The Lord Jesus Christ spoke these words in answer to an unknown person's puzzled question 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 as follows. The Lord says more than once that salvation depends on a person's thoughts and deeds, on the state of his heart, on his relation to God. He calls people to repentance and to the correction of life; in the absence of all this, salvation is obviously impossible. Many Jews of that time, though not all, believed that with the coming of the Messiah, salvation would automatically be given to all "full" participants in the Old Covenant. In part this view was determined by an overly primitive understanding of the prophets' words, and 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 not be given to everyone and not automatically caused bewilderment in many, and even strong protest. It is in this context that the question put to Christ apparently sounds: "Will those who are saved be few?".

"If there really are few who are saved, if not all Jews automatically fall into their number, then I may not be among them!" This is the emotional subtext of the question. It must be said that "assigning" whole categories of people to the saved regardless of their personal spiritual condition is a very common thing, characteristic not only of Jewish thinking, but of human thinking in general. In answering this, the Lord Jesus Christ shifts the conversation to an entirely different plane. He does not offer new criteria for selecting 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 concrete person. The path of salvation must be sought, and the entrance into the Kingdom is the narrow gate, through which one can pass only by applying effort. "Strive," says the Greek text of the Gospel; "labor in spiritual struggle," the Synodal text brilliantly translates this verb. The matter, then, is not how narrow the gate is, but what the will and effort of the person himself are like.

Speaking of the Kingdom, the Savior undoubtedly has in mind the Kingdom that He Himself brought into the world, not the one usually imagined by the people listening to Him. His listeners, as a rule, imagined a strong earthly state, living according to the laws of the Torah and therefore enjoying God's protection, headed by a righteous King to Whom God had given special authority over the world and over people. Such a kingdom, of course, could also be open not only to Jews, but everyone else would in any case have to become Yahwists and accept Judaism in order to make use of what the Messiah would bring into the world.

But Jesus, meanwhile, is speaking of something else: of the Kingdom as a spiritual reality that exists independently of any earthly structures and institutions, whether governmental or social. This Kingdom enters the world through Him, and the way into it is opened by relationship with Him and with His heavenly Father. The true Kingdom of Christ is a space of relationships, above all the relationships that bind Christ with the Father. And anyone can enter the space of Their relationships, regardless of language, nationality, cultural tradition, or religious tradition. Christianity is not a religion and not even a spiritual practice, but life in the Kingdom, and therefore in the space of relationship between the Father and the Son. Here the question of who is first and who is last is not so simple. In essence, it has no meaning at all: in the Kingdom everyone receives the fullness of life that he can contain. But who will be joined to this fullness earlier is indeed an open question.

It would seem that in Judea in Gospel times there were many people whose main goal and meaning in life was precisely the expectation of the Messiah and the Kingdom. But their expectation became for them a kind of religion, or more precisely, part of their religious life, at the foundation of which naturally lay Judaism. And religion tends to become something valuable in itself and self-sufficient, often obscuring the goal for which it arose and exists.

On the other hand, there were many people in the world seeking, often without realizing it, precisely the Kingdom and its life, often not knowing where or with Whom to seek it. And if it was often very difficult for religious messianists to humble themselves before the Messiah as He is, then for seekers of the Kingdom, unburdened by any religion, it was much simpler and more natural to come to Him. And no wonder: Jesus Himself says that it is hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom. And here it no longer matters whether we are speaking of material, cultural, or religious wealth.