Narrow Door

Today’s reading: Luke 13:22-35, 14:1-6

Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
‭‭Luke‬ ‭13:24

This is Jesus’ answer to the question about the amount of people who will be saved.

Everything about this oozes with being intentional. Yet proximity doesn’t seem to ensure our entrance into heaven. Driving by churches or being friends with those who follow Jesus doesn’t secure our salvation. Neither does attending (or now watching) church services.

The word for know here is a common word, oida. It is used of mere acquaintances. Yet it doesn’t matter so much about how we perceive how we “know” Jesus, it is more about how he perceives it.

So how to we get to know Jesus, or to be known by him?

We pray, we communicate with him.
We read, study, memorize, meditate upon, and live the Bible.
We care for the marginalized and forgotten (the least of these).

We realize that this can’t be second-hand. It is to be a first-hand encounter, a knowing of Jesus.