23-25 A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?”
He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on my guest list.’
26-27 “You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with his abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.’
28-30 “That’s when you’ll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You’ll watch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets march into God’s kingdom. You’ll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north, and south and sit down at the table of God’s kingdom. And all the time you’ll be outside looking in—and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.”
31 Just then some Pharisees came up and said, “Run for your life! Herod’s on the hunt. He’s out to kill you!”
32-35 Jesus said, “Tell that fox that I’ve no time for him right now. Today and tomorrow I’m busy clearing out the demons and healing the sick; the third day I’m wrapping things up. Besides, it’s not proper for a prophet to come to a bad end outside Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets,
abuser of the messengers of God!
How often I’ve longed to gather your children,
gather your children like a hen,
Her brood safe under her wings—
but you refused and turned away!
And now it’s too late: You won’t see me again
until the day you say,
‘Blessed is he
who comes in
the name of God.’”
abuser of the messengers of God!
How often I’ve longed to gather your children,
gather your children like a hen,
Her brood safe under her wings—
but you refused and turned away!
And now it’s too late: You won’t see me again
until the day you say,
‘Blessed is he
who comes in
the name of God.’”
Jesus proclaims that there is a Great Reversal at the end of God's Day. The first will be the last and the last will be the first. Gentiles are streaming into God's kingdom from all the earth while those claim themselves to be righteous are excluded from God's kingdom. Jesus wept for the destruction of Jerusalem, which symbolizes people who or all kinds of religions that turn away from the grace of God while relying on own self-righteousness. Grace is alienated to them as they never taste any of it.
My Lord Jesus, please also keep me from falling into any kind of self-righteous trap, boasting on all kinds of self-righteousness - no matter they are in terms of deeds, knowledge of faith, or ministry success over the others. Keep me in a pure faith and heartfelt gratitude toward God who saves me and shapes me by His own love and grace. Who can be saved? Only those who really experience that they are from inside to outside sinners, being saved and delivered by God daily.
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