Someone asks a question about salvation. This is religious talk for health and wellbeing. Jesus tells them that there is a door, in the age to come, where God is hosting a banquet. Everyone is trying to get in and the owner solves the log jam problem by rising from the dead and shutting the door!
The people outside beg to be allowed in. But the Lord answers that He does not know them. It seems that relying on vague contact with Jesus is not enough. Jesus does not join in the man’s quest for numbers but invites him to put all of himself behind the quest. So many are trying to be saved the wrong way. They think that ‘who you know’ rather than ‘who you are’ is what matters. But notice that the door does not open to the well connected.
Jesus only recognises His own. He knows us if we are like Him. Jesus speaks from a heart set on God alone and works with the Spirit to transfigure His heart into one which loves all people. This is not easy. It is a lifetime’s work.
There will always be people who want Salvation on their own terms. They want to stride into the feast adorned in titles and lists of who they know. And then there are those who struggle for community and for the mighty love. These will learn the great lesson of Grace – that all who strive to love must die, and surrender all to the One who has the power to save them. They are considered by the first group to be the last because they do not compete in the world of ego. But in the Kingdom, they are first because they have found in their heart what Jesus knew in His Heart – the divine love that makes us one. When we know this, the narrow door widens to become the widest of doors.
Someone once asked Fritz Perls if he was saved. He answered,’ I’m trying to figure out how to be spent!’
