Daily Bible Reading 14th October 2026 // Luke 13:22-35
22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying towards Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us’, then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
The reason why Jesus spoke as He did is seen in 24bff. So far from being a matter of theoretical discussion, salvation has eternal issues at stake. And it will not be all the same in the end whether or not we come to terms with the gospel. There will be an eternal difference between the man who follows Christ and owns His Lordship and the man who does not. There will be a great divide, and a final one - between those who are in, and those who finally are not in, the kingdom. The way is left open for long, but not for ever. There is a limit to opportunity. The door will one day be shut - in the final, eternal sense, when the end comes, and time shall be no more (here represented by the coming of the master of the house to shut the door); and also in the sense that the limit of opportunity can be reached before the end time, when men pass the point of 'no return'. This was already true of Herod, it would seem, for his day of grace had passed, by his wilfully having refused grace and resisted the Spirit. Furthermore (26), entrance into the kingdom will not be through familiarity with Him, 'eating and drinking in His presence' and His 'having taught in our streets'. What does this say to us? Here are people who clearly have an association with Christ, in the sense that they knew about Him, had 'a nodding acquaintance' with Him, something akin to a 'kirk-going association' with Him - an association without any real commitment to Him. Entrance will not be, either, by privilege of birth (28, 29). It is not because a man is the son of godly parents, or brought up in a religious tradition. The Jews assumed, as a matter of course, that they would enter the kingdom because of their tradition as Jews. How frequently and solemnly Jesus disabused them of this tragically mistaken attitude (cf Matthew 8:11, 12; John 8:33-44)!