NOTES for Luk 13:24
Jesus Christ pronounces these words in answer to the perplexed question of this unknown concerning the number of those who will be saved. As we can judge it, it is the logic of the dialogue, that evangelist Luke wrote only the words of Jesus. The Lord says several times that salvation does not depend of man's thoughts and acts, neither on the state of his heart, on his relation to God. He invites to repentance and to change of behavior, it is evident that salvation is impossible without all this. Several Jews of this period believed that with the coming of the Messiah, salvation would automatically be given to all the "deserved" participants of the Old Testament. Such an approach was partially defined by the very primitive understanding of prophets’ words, and partially it was the heritage of the formal religion after the period of captivity. Somehow or other, the idea according to which salvation from sin and death will not be automatically given, and nor to all provoked a bewilderment to many, and even sometimes a vehement protest. It is surely in this context that this question was given to Jesus: " Lord, are there few that be saved?"
"Because if the few that be saved, and if all the Jews don't enter automatically in this number, then I might not be there!" - that is maybe the emotional subtext of this question. It would be necessary to say that the "adding" to those to be saved , independently from the personal spiritual aspect of any categories is something very widespread, inherent not only to the Jews, but to all human mentality. Answering this question, Jesus Christ transfers completely the conversation in another plan; He doesn't propose criteria of selection of those that will be saved or not. The Lord addresses personally the questioner, saying that salvation depends on the will and efforts of every concrete person. It is necessary to look for the road of salvation and for the entrance into the Kingdom - the strait gate, where we can pass only with many efforts. "Fight" said the Greek text of the Gospel; "strive" - King James’ text translates goldenly this verb. It is not thus a matter of knowing how much the door is narrow, but to know what are the will and the efforts of the very man.