One of the most important questions people ask, even if left unexpressed, is “Will I be saved?” This is the same as asking, “Will I go to heaven when I die?” Or, more fundamentally, “Is there life beyond this earthly life?” This is because, deep in their hearts, human beings feel that they are not made for extension.

Even in modern times, there still abound self-proclaimed prophets who offer salvation to those who follow them, and cult leaders who convince people to sell their properties and live in a commune ruled by them, a kind of paradise. Then they end up victimizing the young. If one deserts the group, he or she is surely damned in hell.

Jesus does not answer if indeed only a few will be saved. He instead tells his hearers, “Strive to enter through the narrow door” (v 24). This means to “do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God”— as the prophet Micah says (Mi 6:8).

Jesus warns his audience that to have him in their midst, to have the privilege to listen to this teachings, and even to have the patriarchs as ancestors, is no guarantee that they will be saved. Only by repentance and by doing good are they assured of salvation.

Indeed, Jesus is sent first to the towns and villages in Israel, and only in some cases does he attend to the Gentiles. But in their humility and in their openness to his teachings, the Gentiles might outrun the Jews in entering the Kingdom of God.

Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.

After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’

Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out.

And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”